Sacred Oath: Oath of Love [Remaster]

The more I learn about homebrewing, the more I have cause to regret some of the earlier design choices I made.

This deep-seated pathos is what has made me start remastering some of my old projects, and no project have I wanted to go back and modify more than the Oath of Love paladin.

I became less and less satisfied with this oath's use of charm mechanics, the further along I got. It seemed disingenuous, somehow, to swear an oath about upholding True Love, only to, a second later, charm someone into loving you, and then be rewarded for stabbing them while they are forced to love you, though your Channel Divinity.

That's not to say charm mechanics are bad or that they shouldn't have a place in this option, but they certainly shouldn't be used to con and stab people when you're trying to preach the gospel of love.

I'm hoping this remaster fixes the thematic issues of my older work. If not, let me know. Nothing says I can't release an even newer version, should this option need one.

CHANGELOG:

• Modified the spell list to make it less charm-intensive, bringing back old favorites like color spray!
• Two new Channel Divinity options, one that bolsters your allies with temporary hit points, and the other locks down anything intelligent enough to truly want something. 
• Lover's Embrace is now Aura of Affection, and adds hit points to any healing done within the radius. 
• Passion's Kindness is now Radiant Empathy, because looking back Passion's Kindness was just kind of annoying in practice. 
• Endless Devotion has been completely reworked, and now primarily makes your enemies incapable of attacking, if they fail a save and start adjacent to you. 

CONCERNS:

• I changed a lot, which usually means there are little, fiddily errors out there. See if you can find any. 
• Channel Divinity: Heart's Desire intentionally uses inconclusive language, as the creature it targets could hypothetically desire anything. I'm not sure if that's a wise choice or not. 

WHAT I LEARNED:

• It feels pretty good to have gone back and finally taken a crack at fixing this one. Maybe I can update the Knavery paladin next. 

Sacred Oath: Oath of Love [Second Draft]

Positive response! Always love getting that, though a negative response often tells me just as much about how to fix something and make it work.

Much was said, and it gave me sufficient material to turn this around and make a second version of it relatively quickly. As always, thanks to all those that helped, and to all those who enjoy this class option!

What I Changed:

• The spell list nix'd color spray in favor of sanctuary. Less magical girl, more magical paladin - which is probably a positive change for the class option, but still makes me personally a little sad. =(

• Sense Ardor has split off of Conquering Passion. I'm getting the idea that I should let fluff powers stand free rather than lump them in with Channel Divinities, even though I've pulled that off with the Free Commerce and Common Man oaths.

• Passion's Kindness no longer refers to itself as a miasma, which I've come to learn means "bad air." Who knew.

• Endless Devotion now actually takes an action to use (hurr) and allows you to pop a Channel Divinity as part of the same action, leading to intended synergy with Conquering Passion and your paladin playing smite wack-a-mole with the enemies near him or her. 

Concerns:

• Still not 100% on the power level of Endless Devotion, seems like it could be stronger. Level 20's are hard to balance. 

• That's about it. Not much else in the way of balance concerns, this seems fairly in line with other oath options. 

Sacred Oath: Oath of Love [ROUGH DRAFT]

Paladins are pretty cool for a lot of reasons.

They're magical knights empowered by a concept - typically one with a god behind it - that go out into the world in an attempt to make more of their concept. This can be devotion to a holy cause, revenge against the evils of the world, violent revolution for the masses...

...or, simply enough, Love.

Paladins who take the Oath of Love believe that love is the underpinning of all good and beauty in the world, and seek to create and protect as much love as possible in all of its many forms.

Features:

• Charm-based mechanics. Tank well with solid crowd control, and bonus smites for breaking charm with a hit. 

• Limited control of creatures immune to charm. Heartless creatures can still be Held with your Channel Divinity, allowing you to not be entirely helpless when facing creatures with charm immunity. 

• Heavily defend your allies and yourself with features that make you harder to hit and that bring attacked allies into a safer, more defensible position. 

Concerns:

• Possibly too control-y. Charm is a delicate balance, but very important to the class. It costs spell slots that you'd otherwise like to use on smites, too, so it's an important trade. 

• Passion's Kindness is really quite powerful, but so are most other paladin level 15's. I'd like someone balance-minded to take a closer look at it.