Art Credit: Hyeong-seop Lim
Oath of Arcana
While their order is not as old as the elven Oath of the Ancients, members of Oath of Arcana, have been carrying out their sacred duties for centuries. Sometimes called Blue Knights or Wardens, paladins who swear themselves to this Oath often hunt and dealt with magical, monstrous threats to the natural order of the world, such as rogue fiends, rampaging monsters, and creatures created by reckless magical experiments. Many serve as guardians at temples dedicated to gods of magic, or at magical workshops or schools. Still, others dedicate themselves to seeking out evil spell casters who abuse their power.
Tenets of the Oath of Arcana
Adherents to this Oath swear to seek out and preserve arcane knowledge, to protect those who practice magic from the suspicious masses, as well as protecting innocent people from being abused by practitioners of dangerous magic. Each of these paladins respect the power of the arcane, and are aware that a certain balance must be maintained to preserve the existence of the world. Their core tenets reflect this dedication
Knowledge. Seek out arcane knowledge and artifacts and preserve them. Use this power to serve the greater good.
Duty. Not all who possess arcane power are worthy of it. Seek out those who willfully abuse or pervert the power of magic and punish them. Seek to undo any harm they may have caused.
Love magic for itself. Do not treat magic just as a weapon or tool to reshape the world to your will, use it as a way to better the lives of everyone around you.
Variant Option
Because paladins of this oath emphasize arcane power more than divine, the radiant damage of the paladin's Divine Smite feature might not seem entirely appropriate for the theme of this Oath. For interested players and DMs, the following optional feature can be included as part of this sacred oath option when it's taken as part of the paladin's progression:
Arcane Smite
Starting at 3rd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal extra Force damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell-level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an aberration, elemental or monstrosity.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin level listed.
Oath of Arcana Spells
| Paladin level | spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | chromatic orb, guiding bolt |
| 5th | misty step, shadow blade |
| 9th | glyph of warding, slow |
| 13th | elemental bane, fire shield |
| 17th | bigby's hand, hold monster |
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Turn the Occult. As an action, you present your holy symbol and speak a prayer censuring aberrations, elementals, and monstrosities. Each aberration, elemental, or monstrosity that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes damage.
A turned creature must spend its turns trying to move as far away from you as it can, and it can't willingly move to a space within 30 feet of you. It also can't take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there's nowhere to move, the creature can instead use the Dodge action.
Arcane Deflection. As a bonus action, you can utter a prayer of protection for yourself. For up to one minute you gain a bonus to your AC equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of+ 1). This effect ends if you are incapacitated or die.
Aura of Warding
Beginning at 7th level, you are so suffused with arcane power, that forms a protective aura around you. You and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you have resistance to damage from spells.
At 18th level the range of this aura expands to 30 feet.
Empowered Casting
Starting at 15th level, you can channel a limited amount of holy energy into your spells, empowering them beyond your normal abilities. When you expend a spell slot of 1st level or higher, only to cast a spell, you can cast the spell as if you were using a higher level spell slot by expending a number of points from your Lay on Hands feature. You must spend 10 points from your Lay on Hands pool per level of increase. Regardless of effective level, the empowered spell only expends the original spell's normal slot level. Using this feature, you cannot empower a spell beyond the highest level spell you are capable of casting. You may only affect one spell you cast using this ability on each of your turns.
Magical Champion
At 20th level, you can become a living embodiment of arcane magic, feeding upon its power as it courses through the world. For example your eyes might glow with unearthly power, or a crackling aura of raw power might surround you. Using your action, you undergo a transformation. For 1 minute you gain the following benefits:
- You gain a flying speed equal to your walking speed, and you immediately begin hovering 1 foot above the ground.
- You can cast your paladin spells without any verbal, somatic, or material components (provided they do not have a listed cost.). Additionally whenever you cast a paladin spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can cast it using a bonus action instead.
- You have advantage on Constitution saving throws, as do your allies within 30 ft of you. This effect ends early if you are incapacitated or die.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Art Credit: Hyeong-seop Lim