Okay folks, so this is one of my favourite concepts of a Paladin, essentially mixing in a little Warlock flavour.
There is a little Spider-man/Venom inspiration, but ultimately I love this for the horror aesthetic.
Maybe this will go with the Defiler into a collected book of horrific subclasses, only 3 months, 3 weeks and 8 hours until Halloween (at the time of writing)
Some Paladins have faith in a higher power, some Paladins have belief in their own ability or their own quest, some? Some Paladins however, need to make a less savoury deal for their powers, making a pact with a parasite.
Their pursuits are not always the most noble, often they are found to be sell-swords, or mercenaries, there is however one rule a Pact-bound Paladin will adhere to, their word is their bond.
You gain a monstrous second skin, a gift of armour from your parasitic patron, that is as effect as chain mail (AC16), but offers no disadvantage to stealth rolls, instead conveying disadvantage to any non-Intimidation Charisma checks.
As an action you can summon/dismiss this armour, but you cannot do so whilst wearing other armour.
Oath Spells
Level Spell Level
3rd Burning Hands, Unseen Servant
5th Darkness, Spider Climb
9th Vampiric Touch, Fear
13th Blight, Sickening Radiance
17th Danse Macabre, Negative Energy Flood
Oath Tenets:
Agreements must never be broken.
Weakness is intolerable.
Death is no escape.
Channel Divinity:
When you take the Oath of the Pact at 3rd level, you get the two following Channel Divinities.
Perfect defence
After you have been hit during combat, before damage is rolled, you can invoke your Parasite and add +2 to either your AC or any saving throw for this turn.
Face of Rage
You use your channel divinity to augment your already fearsome presence, for the next 1 minute you get a bonus to all Intimidation checks equal to your Charisma Modifier.
Toughened Skin
When you reach level 7, your skin becomes tough like leather, offering resistance on bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from non-magic weapons that aren’t adamantine.
The Greatest Defence
From 15th level, when you are attacked by any creature within a 30ft radius of you, as a reaction you can cause tendrils to lash out at your attacker and cause 1d8 force damage.
Parasitic Armour
Once you hit level 20, as an action you can trigger the second skin upon your body to take on a life of its own, tendrils strike out at any creature within 5ft of you.
- Any distance within 10ft of you is considered difficult terrain.
- When you make a successful melee attack, your tendrils follow your strike, causing 1d10 + charisma modifier, force damage.
- Ranged attacks against you are made as if you are under half cover (AC+2).
Once used, you must complete a long rest to use this feature again.
