Sacred Oath: Oath of Gleaming Night
The Oath of Gleaming Night calls to paladins who seek justice in darkness. When self righteous clergies fail to see that not all who dwell in the dark are evil or when an individual is called called upon by righteous shadows, that is when a Gleaming Night paladin is born.
Tenents of the Gleaming Night
The tenents of the Oath of Gleaming Night Hold the paladin to a high standard as a keeper of balance who is both friend and foe to the creatures of dark and light.
Bridge Maker. The relationships between the creatures of darkness and the creatures of light are strained at best, it is your duty to build these bonds and find common ground
Vigilance. Neither light nor darkness are without faults, your eyes must be keen to spot these infectious individuals and cut them from the body before they spread.
Subtly. Your job is fraut with danger, not just to yourself but to those you seek to protect, great care must be placed upon your words and actions.
Recovery. Not all who incur your wrath deserve death, save who you can and kill those you cannot
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Gleaming Night Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.
Oath of Gleaming Night Spells
| Paladin Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | alarm, silent image |
| 5th | darkness, pass without trace |
| 9th | counter spell, major image |
| 13th | Shadow of moil, death ward |
| 17th | Danse Macabre*, Negative Energy Flood |
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how Channel Divinity works.
Eyes of Moon Light. You can use your Channel Divinity to pierce through all darkness for 1 hour. As an action you imbue yourself with truth seeking magic and can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
Darken Form. You can use your Channel Divinity to envelope yourself and a number of friendly creatures equal to your charisma modifier in a cloak of shadows for 10 minutes. While enveloped you and the creatures of your choice are invisible and do not suffer disadvantage on stealth check while wearing heavy armor. The invisibility ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
Aura of Vigilance
Starting at 7th level, you become a beacon of clarity in dark times. When a creature within 10ft of you makes a saving throw against a spell or magical effect, they have advantage on the roll
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
Whispered Spells
Starting at 15th level, your Oath spells no longer require verbal or somatic components to cast and casting your oath spells does not dispel any invisibility cast upon you if the invisibility would normally be dispelled by casting spells.
Angel of the Night
At 20th level, you gain the ability to fade into the darkness you have sworn yourself to. You gain the following benefits.
- You can cast the invisiblity spell on yourself at will. This does not consume spell slots.
- You cannot be subject to divination magic if you do not want to be.
- Whenever you use divine smite, you can deals psychic damage instead of the normal radiant damage.
Settings
In order to ease this subclasses inclusion in a variety of campaign settings the examples provided below can help provide ideas and ways to include this subclass in your campaign.
Ebberon
The Oath of Gleaming Night might be taken up by Shifters who seek to maintain the balance between civilization and the good aligned Lycanthropes of the world. After the extensive genocide's both Lycanthropes and Shifter's have been subject to in the past some may seek to take a more steadied hand when culling evil being's.
Forgotten Realms
The Forgotten Realms are a melting pot of various mythologies and fantasy tropes, because of this there are a variety of ways to include this Subclass.
Fey. Sworn to serve the Unseelie Court and the Queen of Night and Magic, elven or other paladins may enact the courts chaotic justice upon vile creatures of corruption while sheltering Fey and other forest dwelling creatures the pledge loyalty to the Night Queen.
Death Gods. Bane, Bhaal, Selune, or Kelemvor are all valid options to place a clergy with Paladins of Gleaming Night in their midst. Due to the archetypes association with death and necromancy it is not impossible nor improbable for one of these paladins to be evil aligned.
Homebrew Setting
The most important questions to ask when deciding how or if to include Gleaming Night paladins in a homebrew campaign are as follows
- Do friendly creatures of night time and darkness exist in the setting? As being an ally of these creatures is an important part of the subclasses identity and should not be overlooked.
- How is necromancy viewed in the setting? The base assumption for this subclass is that necromancy is mistrusted, leading to the duality theme of the class. How Necromancy is viewed in the setting may alter how one would play this Oath.
- Regarding arcane magic. Gleaming Night paladins get access to definitively none divine spells like Counterspell and Danse Macabre. Traditionally in D&D arcane magic is not entirely separate from divine magic, its just accessing the weave in a different way. However if the lore behind arcane and divine magic are different in your setting it may be worth redefining how this subclass has access to its spells. Dispel Magic can replace counterspell and Raise Dead can replace Danse Macabre
Art Credits.
Subclass designed by me, MainlyMortal.
Dark Angel is drawn by and belongs to MistXG
Heroes of the storm Maiev Shadowsong art belongs to Blizzard entertainment