Oath of Safeguarding

Paladins who choose the Oath of Safeguarding spend their lives in service to others, conserving the people and places they vow to protect. They take missions to guard against assassination attempts, safely transport a person or group through treacherous lands, and stand as bastions for locations under attack. These paladins are no mere mercenaries, however, as they view their missions as sacred vows.

Tenets of Safeguarding

Paladins undertaking the Oath of Safeguarding take their responsibilities seriously and are most likely to seek atonement should they fail in their duties. However, they have no qualms about terminating their protection when their charges prove nefarious.

In these cases, they won’t leave people stranded in a hostile environment or situation, but they also focus their efforts on their allies over unworthy, former charges. Even when these paladins serve no charge, they seek opportunities to shield others from harm.

In combat, they rush to aid their allies and stand alone to allow others to flee from battle.

Last Line of Defense. When your allies must retreat or regroup, you remain to ensure they have ample time to withdraw before withdrawing yourself. If your mission requires you to guard a building, you are the final obstacle the attackers face before breaching the building.

Protect the Charge. You pledge to preserve the lives of people you protect and the sanctity of all structures you guard, even if it means endangering yourself. When you must rest, you ensure your charge is as safe as possible, turning to trusted allies to aid you.

Shield All Innocents. In the absence of a sacred charge to protect, you endeavor to keep all those who can’t defend themselves safe from harm. In cases where your charge must take priority, you do what you can to defend the helpless.

Uphold the Vow. You acknowledge the person you protect may reveal themselves as unworthy, such as by committing nefarious acts or exploiting your protection and fidelity, or the location you guard may become a site of terrible acts. When you witness this, you are free to terminate your guardianship. However, you don’t leave your now-former charge in any present danger, if only for the possibility of future atonement.

Unwavering. Nothing shall distract you from your mission. If you are magically compelled to desert your post, you do your utmost to resume your duty. Failing that, you take out your vengeance on the party responsible for your dereliction.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed in the Oath of Safeguarding Spells table. See the Sacred Oath class feature for how oath spells work.

Oath of Safeguarding Spells
Paladin Level Spells
3rd Longstrider, shield of faith
5th Hold person, spike growth
9th Beacon of hope, spirit guardians
13th Dimension door, stoneskin
17th Greater restoration, wall of stone

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.

Insurmountable Passage. As an action, you can use your Channel Divinity and stamp one foot on the ground. The ground within 60 feet of you magically becomes difficult terrain for 1 minute. When you use this feature, you can designate up to 10 creatures that can ignore the difficult terrain.

Protect from Harm. As an action, you can use your Channel Divinity and speak reassuring words. For 1 minute, each friendly creature within 30 feet of you that can see or hear you has advantage on saving throws against spells and abilities that deal damage. In addition, each hostile creature within 30 feet of you that can hear you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on its attack rolls until the end of its next turn.

Aura of Preservation

Beginning at 7th level, you emit an aura of safety while you’re not incapacitated. The aura extends 10 feet from you in every direction. The first time you or a friendly creature within the aura would take damage from a weapon attack between the end of your previous turn and the start of your next turn, the target of the attack has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks. In addition, each friendly creature within the aura has advantage on death saving throws. When you reach 18th level in this class, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet, and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

Battlefield Controller

Starting at 15th level, you can’t be shoved. When a hostile creature within 10 feet of you moves more than 10 feet away from you, you can use your reaction to move up to 10 feet and make an attack against that creature.

Redoubtable Defender

At 20th level, as an action, you can touch your charge, typically a creature or structure, and create a magical link between you, which appears as a razor-thin, ghostly silver tether. For 1 hour, you gain the following benefits:

  • You know the general status and well-being of your charge, such as if your charge is wounded or experiencing a particularly strong emotion, or, in the case of an object or structure, if it is damaged.
  • As an action, you can teleport to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of your charge, if it is a person or object. If the charge is a structure, you can choose to teleport to any unoccupied space within the structure.
  • You are immune to spells and effects that cause you to be charmed or might otherwise influence you to harm your charge.
  • If your charge is a creature and within 5 feet of you, the charge is immune to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, and it has advantage on all saving throws.
  • You can use an action to erect a barrier for 1 minute, similar to a wall of force, to protect your charge. The wall can be a hemispherical dome or a sphere with a radius of up to 5 feet, or four contiguous 10-foot-by-10-foot panels. If your charge is a structure, the barrier can cut through portions of the structure without harming it.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

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