Oath of Darkness

The Oath of Darkness calls to paladins who are unconstrained by cumbersome notions of virtue, and readily exploit any advantage available. Sometimes called Blackguards or even Grim Blackguards should they prove particularly powerful, have found that the dark vice growing in their soul is a fighting boon. These paladins draw on this darkness, vowing to control it rather than be controlled by it, spreading it to your enemies when they are vulnerable. These paladins are a living embodiment of their chosen vice when they choose to be, this powerful devotion to vice can strengthen its hold on them, allowing to reach past the bounds one may might want to place upon it, more care is required if they wish to be able to control it, which these paladins devote their iron clad resolves to mastering.

Tenets of Darkness

he tenets of the Oath of Darkness vary by paladin, but all the tenets revolve around embracing their inner darkness in the name of the greater good, using that power to fight truly wicked and vile threats.

Fight the Greater Evil. Faced with a choice of fighting my sworn foes or combating a lesser evil, I choose the greater evil.

Embrace the Darkness. Embrace the darkness within my heart, using the essence of shadow to improve my prowess.

Control the Darkness. While embracing the darkness, do not give into it completely, control it, master it, and bend it to your will for the good of all.

 

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Darkness Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work. 

Oath of Darkness Spells

Channel Divinity

3rd-level Oath of Darkness feature

You gain the following Channel Divinity options. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how Channel Divinity works.

Shroud of Shadow. As an action, you cause a misty cloud like aura of gloom to swirls round you, confounding your enemies and fortifying your resolve, the aura lasts for 1 minute. The aura reduces any bright light in a 30-foot radius around the paladin to dim light and and gives you advantage on stealth checks, this effect otherwise functions as the same as the blur.

Shadow Strike. You can use your Channel Divinity to strike with supernatural accuracy. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +10 bonus to the roll as you briefly teleport to a nearby shadow in mid attack, potentially hitting your opponent where they were not expecting you to strike. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.

Dauntless Presence

7th-level Oath of Darkness feature

Few would accuse you of sentimentality toward your companions. yet you hate to see them harmed. When they flag, your cause is weakened. That cannot be allowed. When your allies pause to heal, your fanaticism to continue the fight is bolstered. When an ally dose not have all their hit points and regains hit points, you gain advantage on your next attack roll.

Shadow Leap

15th-level Oath of Darkness feature

When you are cloaked in shadow by your Shroud of Shadows, you can leap through the darkness between space and time, vanishing and reappearing elsewhere. As a bonus action, you can magically teleport up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness. 

Avatar of Shadows

20th-level Oath of Darkness feature

You manifest your inner darkness, assume the form of a shadowy figure. As a bonus action, you gain the following benefits for 1 minute:

• You emanate an aura of darkness in a 30-foot radius that reduces any bright light in it to dim light.
• When you would normally make an weapon attack roll, you can instead cause the shadows in your aura, or that you can see, to attack one creature. You makes a melee spell attack against the target. If the attack hits, the target takes necrotic damage equal to 2d10 + your Charisma modifier, this counts as a melee weapon attack.
• You gain darkvision out to 60 feet, which is not impeded by magical darkness.
• You have a flying speed (hover) of 60 feet.

Once you use this bonus action, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a 5th-level spell slot to use it again.

You are also resistant to both necrotic and cold damage.