September 1, 2015

Oath of Eternal Night

Sacred Oath
Comments from the Finger: Rogue-paladin multiclass? Sure, let's go with that.

Oath of Eternal Night

The oath of Eternal Night is closely tied to assassination, subterfuge, and intimidation. Those who follow this oath often believe that it is better to eliminate those who can do evil before they have the chance to commit it. They also have a strong tendency to eliminate rulers who abuse their power or their citizens, such as mad kings and tyrants. Since divine magic itself does not lend itself well to stealth, those who follow this path learn to mimic arcane spells through their divine might.

Tenets of Eternal Night 
Paladins who swear the Oath of Eternal Night normally share a strong sense of law and tend to believe in the following core tenets:
     None are Exempt. Even the kings and magistrates who the write laws must be held accountable to them.
     Good of the Many. The needs of the many always outweigh the needs of the few.
     Knight of Night. When justice is not made publicly and in the light of day, you should restore it under cover of darkness.

Oath of Eternal Night Spells:
3rd: disguise self, unseen servant
5th: invisibility, darkness
9th: clairvoyance, feign death
13th: greater invisibility, Mordenkainen’s faithful hound
17th: mislead, scrying

Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Shrouded Armor. As an action, you can transmute the armor you are wearing with special properties. The metal in your armor becomes jet black with swirling smoke patterns on its surface that magically shift and move. This jet black material is silent and removes the armor's disadvantage on Stealth checks, if any. While wearing this armor, you gain proficiency on Stealth checks and may use either your Intelligence or Dexterity modifier for Stealth checks. Your armor loses all effects from this ability when it is removed or when you finish a long rest. 
Spread the Night. As a bonus action, you create a sphere of darkness around yourself for 1 minute which appears to be a dense fog and does not block vision. This darkness travels with you and makes spaces adjacent to you difficult terrain for any creature moving through it. A creature entering this area must make a Strength saving throw. On a failed save, you have advantage on attack rolls against this creature until the beginning of its next turn.
Blade of Darkness
Starting at 7th level you learn to do additional damage to unsuspecting or unaware opponents. You gain the Rogues Sneak Attack feature dealing 1d6 damage. At 12th level this increases to 2d6 and at 17th level it increases to 3d6.
     You also gain the ability to see normally in magical and nonmagical darkness out to a distance if 30 feet.

Cloak of Night
At 15th level while wearing your Shrouded Armor, as a reaction to a successful attack against you, your armor sheds small flakes of darkness which briefly whirl around you before disappearing. The next attack roll made against you before the beginning of your next turn has disadvantage.
     In addition your ability to see through darkness permanently improves. You may now see through darkness and magical darkness out to 120 feet.

Spectre of Stars
At 20th level, you can as an action become a spectre composed of shadowstuff for 1 minute. While in this form, the effects of the spell darkness are centered on you, and you have resistance on bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagic weapons that aren't adamantine.
     You can also move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. This movement is limited to 5 feet each turn and does not provoke opportunity attacks. You take 2d10 force damage and are shunted to the nearest available space if you end your turn inside a creature or object. After using this feature, you cannot use it again until completing a long rest.



Changelog: 9/1/15: Wording and grammar fixes on Shrouded Armor, Spread the Night, Blade of Darkness, and Cloak of Night. (No real mechanics changes here - just clarity, double word removal, etc.)(Thanks Khaz!)
Spectre of Stars: Clarified that it takes 1 action to use, "shunting" added, and damage on a shunt increases to 2d10 (edited to match The Spirit warlock)
12/22/15: Spread the Night: Cylinder changed to sphere.

15 comments:

  1. Does shrouded armour have a duration?

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    1. Shrouded armor lasts until you take a long rest or doff your armor.

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  2. There's a few words and spelling errors in the texts that could use touching up, I'll put them in a following format - {error} / "addition" for ease. I'll add some thoughts as well. Love the idea, a 'dark knight' style character :)

    Oath of Eternal Night: Since divine magic itself does not lend itself well to stealth, those who follow this path learn to mimic arcane spells through their divine might.
    - You could probably do away with this part, a spell is only arcane when cast from a arcane caster. Adding in the learning part implies something entirely different from a paladins casting.

    Shrouded Armor: While wearing this armor, you gain proficiency on Stealth checks and "you" may {add use} "use" either your Intelligence or Dexterity modifier for Stealth checks.

    Spread The Night: A creature entering this area "must" make a Strength saving throw.
    - Additionally, a duration is needed for how long you have advantage for, if this creature escapes you alive, does it last forever?

    Blade of Darkness: You gain the {Rogue} "Rogues" Sneak Attack feature dealing 1d6 damage.

    Cloak of Night: Until you are hit again or your turn begins, creatures which attack you have disadvantage. - Rephrase to: The next attack roll made against you before the beginning of your next turn has disadvantage.

    Spectre of Stars: - Would you not normally suffer the 'shunt' effect of things that let you move through things and end your space there? Or can you occupy the same square as another creature from this?
    Also, I assume it's intended you do not suffer the 1D10 force damage from ending ontop of a creature?

    On the whole, concept is interesting :) Seeing some good shadow themes coming here, loving it. Not long till a complete shadow class range I hope ;)

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    1. Oh, Spectre of Stars also needs it listed what kind of Action (Action, Bonus Action, Reaction, No Action) it takes to activate, if any.

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    2. Alright, I think I corrected for all the mistakes you caught. Thanks for your attention to detail!

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  3. One query - how big is the cylinder of darkness created by "Spread the Night"? I assume it's about a 10ft radius because it affects adjacent spaces, but I don't think it's specified. Also, I'm using this for a character that I couldn't decide whether to make a rogue or a paladin. :)

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    1. You know, I changed the cylinder to a sphere, because it occurred to me that I never provided a height, and a sphere makes more sense anyway. I would call the radius 5 feet (as 10 feet would effect creatures two squares away, if you play using a grid.)

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  4. I just had to come back to this and say that I love it!

    I'd been playing around with a build that would fit in damage/defense/healing/magic/stealth all in one, and this fits it perfectly. By RAW the only way to wear heavy armor and sneak without disadvantage is to get Supreme Sneak, and that's a lot of levels in Rogue to get through to just break even on stealth for heavy armor.

    I love the balance, and the flavor is great. There can never be too many film-noir-archetype, gritty-revolutionary, morally-conflicted characters, I say.

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  5. May I ask, why Intelligence and not Charisma for "Shrouded Armor." This is a Paladin, there is no reason for a Paladin to have a intelligence higher than its dexterity, and stealth already goes off of dexterity, making that choice moot.

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    1. I was thinking the same thing. if it used charisma thatd be cool but intel makes no sense.

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    2. Balance as what? It doesnt add anything, its kind of just a dead option. Take the aspect of being able to use your int modifier away and it doesnt change the effect at all.

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    3. A bit late of a response, but I figured Int was chosen as a nice bump up from Dex without getting too convenient with Cha. The feature is clearly designed for use with heavy armor, which makes Dex pretty much worthless except for init; and Cha is a bit too powerful, since it's already going to be high for paladins, and it synergizes well in multi-class builds.

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  7. I was looking at this for a rogue who is going to become a paladin of Bast (something of a trickster goddess in this setting) - how would Blade of Darkness interact with regular rogue Sneak Attack?

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