The Oath of Shadows (Paladin)
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“I am vengeance. I am the night. I… am… paladin!”
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Oath of Shadows, Blackout, Chilling Darkness
Sometimes you want to build a real dark knight, with emphasis on the dark, and the Oaths of Vengeance and Conquest just won't cut it. The Oath of Shadows wasn't initially designed as a Batman Paladin, just as a paladin subclass that focused on stealth, for gods of darkness or warriors wielding any kind of shadow magic. But as it was refined over time, it became something more. Now it doesn't have to be used to make a Batman Paladin -- it works wonderfully for neutral characters, for devotees of gods of Trickery and Deception, and for evil characters and campaigns, of course -- but if you're looking for a paladin that feels like The Dark Knight, look no further.
There's two homebrew spells attached to this subclass, since they appear in its oath spell list. Blackout is a way to create nonmagical darkness by suppressing nonmagical lights, and chilling darkness is a step-between darkness at 2nd-level and maddening darkness at 8th-level. Blackout has been seen before, but it has received one small change: its material component, which used to be a glass marble. As a paladin, blackout’s material component can be managed through a holy symbol, which can even be attached to a shield, requiring no extra hands for those shadow paladins who wield a shield.
The highlight of this subclass from a mechanical perspective is probably the synergy between Eyes in the Dark and the darkness spells on the oath spell list, but the highlight overall has to be the Nightfall ribbon at 7th-level. While it adds little actual power to the shadow paladin’s build, and even removing disadvantage won’t make most paladins good at stealth, but it does enable the Oath of Shadows paladin to descend and vanish just like the caped crusader.
PDF Link | D&D Beyond: Oath of Shadows, Blackout, Chilling Darkness
