Sacred Oath
At 3rd level, a Paladin gains the Sacred Oath feature. The following option is available to a Paladin, in addition to those offered in the Player's Handbook.
Oath of Shadows
Have you ever thought why those so called "paladins" wear shiniest, brightest armor possible while riding whitest horse they could find? Because they don't do things they do just for the sake of it. They want to feel praised. Worshiped. Loved. Looked upon. I would say that taking an oath for that reason would be lying to a god they swore upon, but these entities are as deranged as their knights. They love those juicy prayers of gratitude, I can tell you that.
If you want to help people for the sake of actually making world a better place, do it from the shadows, away from the plain light. No worship. No thanks. Only knowledge that you actually made a change.
Tenets of a Shadow
A paladin who assumes the Oath of Shadows swears to protect the people humbly, without the need of their praise.
Be Humble. If you help people just to be loved, you do it for all the wrong reasons.
Stay in the Shadows. Those who walk in the plain light are not only an easy target for the forces of evil - they also can't see what is lurking within the shadows.
Do What Must Be Done. Do what you believe is necessary for the people, even if that makes you a monster in their eyes.
Oath of Shadows features
| Paladin level | Feature |
|---|---|
3rd |
Oath Spells, Night Sight, Channel Divinity |
7th |
Lights Out, Umbral Shroud |
15th |
Death in the Dark |
20th |
Living Shadow |
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Shadows Spells table.
| Paladin Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | arms of hadar, disguise self |
| 5th | darkness, shadow blade |
| 9th | hunger of hadar, summon shadowspawn |
| 13th | dimension door, shadow of moil |
| 17th | mislead, seeming |
Night Sight
At 3rd level, you gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If you already have darkvision from your race, its range increases by 30 feet.
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Shadow Weapon. As an action, you can imbue one weapon that you are holding with shadow energy, using your Channel Divinity. For 1 minute, you add your Charisma modifier to damage rolls made with that weapon (with a minimum bonus of +1) . The weapon also suppresses light around you, causing you to become lightly obscured to others. Bright light turns to dim light within 5 feet of you.
If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the duration.
Blessing of the Shadow Keep. As a bonus action, you can use your Channel Divinity to enhance your abilities. For the next 10 minutes, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) and checks made with Thieves' Tools; your darkvision also lets you see through both magical and nonmagical darkness.
Lights Out
From 7th level, you can use your control over shadows to partially cover a light source that you can see within 300 feet of you. As a bonus action, you can reduce the amount of light the source emits by half the usual value for 1 minute.
Umbral Shroud
Also from 7th level, you've learned to avoid the gaze of creatures that can see in the dark. Any creature that relies on darkvision have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks when they try to spot you or any creature of your choice within 10 feet of you in the dim light or darkness.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
Death in the Dark
At 15th level, once per turn, you can deal an extra 3d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll.
You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.
If you hit a target that is in dim light or darkness, this damage becomes psychic damage instead of its regular damage type.
Living Shadow
At 20th level, you can use an action to change your shadow into an illusory duplicate of yourself. This shadow is a magical, pitch black image of you that appears within 60 feet of you and lasts for the duration of 1 minute or until it is destroyed, until you dismiss it as a bonus action, or until you're incapacitated. It appears to be the same as you, with few differences:
- The first time the shadow moves after it is formed, it uses Blessing of the Shadow Keep on itself (no action required).
- It wears only an illusory copy of your armor and wields two 2nd-level Shadow Blades, one in each hand.
- It has half your hit point maximum.
- It can't use any form of magic and lacks your spell slots.
- It can use its bonus action only to cause one of the Shadow Blades to reappear in its hand.
Otherwise, the shadow uses all your statistics.
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In combat, the shadow shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after your. It obeys your mental commands (no action required by you) . If you don’t issue any, it takes the Attack action against the nearest enemy. If there is no enemy nearby, it uses its move to get closer to that enemy.
If the shadow is within 500 feet of you, you can use your bonus action on your turn to swap places with it at a cost of 15 feet of your movement.
Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest, unless you expend a 4th and a 5th-level spell slot to use it again.
