Sacred Oath

Oath of Terror

The Oath of Terror is taken by those devout souls that strive in everything to instill raw fear into the hearts of their foes. These paladins know that no matter the strength of an enemy's armor, weapon, or spell, such things are useless when that enemy lacks the will to use them.

Often called dread knights, knight terrors, or even relentless nightmares, such paladins usually serve gods of evil, death, and darkness. A few paladins take the Oath of Terror as a way to instill fear in evil foes, but such beings are exceedingly rare.

Tenets of Terror

The tenets of the Oath of Terror vary by paladin, but all the tenets revolve around frightening others to bend them to the paladin's will. Paladins who uphold these tenets often embrace the darkest parts of their own souls to terrify their foes, so the paladins are most often evil in alignment. The core principIes of the tenets are brutally simple.

Embrace the Darkness. My deepest, darkest thoughts become my armor and blade.

I am Master of My Fear. Fear is my slave. My fears cannot control me.

No Mercy for the Cowardly. Anyone unwilling to face their fears deserves no mercy.

Fear is Power. I use the fear that is within others to bend them to my will.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Oath of Terror Spells

Paladin Level Spells 3rd dissonant whispers, silent image 5th darkness, silence 9th fear, gaseous form 13th compulsion, phantasmal killer 17th dominate person, dream

Channel Divinity

When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Root in Terror. As an action, you present your holy symbol and threaten imminent doom to those around you, using your Channel Divinity. Choose one creature within 60 feet of you that you can see. That creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, unless it is immune to being frightened. Humanoids that understand the language you use to speak your threat have disadvantage on this saving throw.

On a failed save, the creature is frightened for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. While frightened, the creature's speed is 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.

On a successful save, the creature's speed is halved for 1 minute or until the creature takes any damage.

Strength from Fear. As a reaction when your are subject to any effect that would cause a normal creature to be frightened, such as a dragon's aura of fear or the fear spell, you can use your Channel Divinity to ignore the original effect and instead gain a bonus your to attack and damage rolls for 1 minute, equal to your proficiency bonus.

Aura of Terror

Beginning at 7th level, power radiates from you in an aura that scares your foes. Any creature within 10 feet of you that damages you must make a Wisdom saving throw or else become frightened of you until the start of its next turn.

A creature that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to your Aura of Terror for the next 24 hours.

At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Wield Fear Itself

Starting at 15th level, you imbue the darkest parts of your soul into your attacks. When you make melee attacks as part of your Attack action, you may change the damage type such attacks inflict into psychic damage. When you do so, you add your Charisma modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity to the damage roll.

Crown of Terror

At 20th level, you can assume the form of a terrifying demon or beast, or some sort of dark angel. Using your action, you undergo a transformation. For 1 hour, you gain the following benefits:

Wings sprout from your back and grant you a flying speed of 60 feet.

You emanate an aura of power in a 30-foot radius. The first time any enemy creature enters the aura or starts its turn there during a battle, the creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or beeome frightened of you for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. Attack rolls against the frightened creature have advantage.

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



