Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Sacred Oath: Oath of the Midnight Hour [Third Draft]



Should I have made this a new release, or just updated the version I released less than a day ago?

Not as if there are any rules to this thing I do.

I'm issuing this as a new release because of the extensive changes made to v0.2 which, while a step in the right direction, still wasn't quite right. A lot of the mechanics needed some TLC, but the end result here seems much more polished.

Did I say "end result?" That's never really right, and certainly not up for me to decide. Tell me what you think.

CHANGELOG:

  • CD: Death Whisper is now CD: Shadowblade, because encouraging players to spam their bonus action every single turn for nothing isn't necessarily great design. 
  • Ebon Smite has been removed, as it was a contentious feature people either loved or hated. I figured it was best to take it out and fold it over into CD: Shadowblade. 
  • Nightcloak is now a Channel Divinity, affecting only you and stifling any noise you make, including speech. 
  • Midnight Blessing has taken Nightcloak's place and now gives a few passive benefits and a helpful ribbon to your whole party. 
  • Umbral Jaunt has been reworked, again, and is now a sort of retributive attack, in keeping with the shadow-assassin-paladin theme of this Oath. 
  • Living Nightmare makes you less huge and more sneaky, hiding you to all those but the one you are attacking, and feeling similar to you being a living phantasmal force
CONCERNS:
  • Shadowblade might be a little confusing, but its usage is pretty straightforward after the first glance.
  • Lots of changes, means lots of potential for mistakes. As always. 
WHAT I LEARNED:
  • No limitation on how many drafts I can release how often, but I really should try and not make this sort of thing happen again. 

7 comments:

  1. Hello! First glance, the fluff for Umbral Jaunt should be changed since you're helping allies by retaliating their attackers now instead of getting them out of the way.

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    1. Heh, whooooooops.

      Fixed it. Thanks for letting me know.

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  2. Midnight Directive: Its perfect.

    Oath Spells: Its perfect.

    Shadowblade: I would never use this until at least level 8. For a channel divinity all you get is an extra 1d8 damage and a damage type change and it has a trigger condition. Vow of Enmity gives advantage on an singel enemy for 1 min, and is much better. Sacred Weapon gives you between 0-10 extra damage over the next minute, and that is if you only have 1 charisma. If you have 3 the damage is between 0-30 extra damage at level 3. This ability is far to week even do it does give you a tiny extra bust. Unless it is changed to be 2d8, and then scale at the same speed it will not be useful.

    Nightcloak:Its perfect.

    Midnight Blessing: Its perfect.

    Umbral Jaunt: Its perfect, but saying: At 15th level, you allow your allies to slide though darkness itself to escape danger. Makes no sense given the context of the ability, as you are the one moving in the shadows and not your allies.

    Living Nightmare: Its perfect.

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    1. The 2d8 for Shadowblade is a great point. I might drop the scaling down to 6/10/14/18 instead of 8/12/16/20, as well.

      Sacred Weapon actually adds +CHA to attack, not to damage. It's a balance assumption I had, too, for a while, until I looked back and realized.

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    2. Yeah, must have read that wrong myself. Looking at the oath now. I think it is just about as good as it is going to get. So great work.

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  3. would it be Op if the aura just gave people advantage on stealth instead of getting ride of disadvantage so it can be useful to everyone not just heavy armored folks

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    1. Yeah. That would unfortunately trivialize a lot of encounters, and let full parties sneak around rather effortlessly. It'd be like having Pass Without Trace up at all times without concentration of spell slots.

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