Sacred Oath
At 3rd level, paladins take on a Sacred Oath,
and the Oath of Detachment is a new option
for that feature.
Oath of Detachment
The grand struggles of cosmic forces representing
good, evil, law, and chaos engulf many worlds in
the multiverse. Those who take on the Oath of
Detachment are paladins who choose to step back
from this conflict, believing alliance with any extreme
only blinds one to the truths of the universe. Instead,
these warriors pursue the objectivity of what they deem "ultimate truth," believing it to lie within a perfect
balance of all possible beliefs, factions, and practices.
Bearers of the oath are further distinguished by the way
they blend divine mysticism with arcane technique, as the Oath of Detachment reverences arcana as a neutral power with no regard for passion or belief. These paladins are most often called impartialists, knight-arcanists, or paramanders.
Being merely mortal, such warriors cannot do literal battle with the very forces of cosmic ethics. However, it is common for such to target monsters they see as the physical incarnations of extremity. Dragons and giants especially earn their ire for how their disproportionate strength and violent tendencies can unduly impact the surrounding world.
Tenets of Detachment
The Oath of Detachment may be sworn by servants of arcane gods, pantheons of knowledge, or secret worldly fellowships.
Uphold the Balance. Distance yourself from all extremes and the strife inherent to such division. The world is what it is, and each player has their part.
Moderate Your Passion. Intense emotion is the birthplace of the conflicts you seek to quell. As in all things, be sober and employ your mind over your heart.
Seek After Truth. Of all things that are, truth is the greatest of all. Treasure pure knowledge in all its forms.
Guide the Lost. Though you conquer imbalance, you sow only sectarianism if you forget to aid to those without your insight. Respect those who do not understand the virtues of balance. Your companionship will turn them to your cause.
Oath Spells
You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.
Oath of Detachment Spells
| Paladin Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | detect magic, identify |
| 5th | blur, calm emotions |
| 9th | clairvoyance, magic circle |
| 13th | banishment, elemental baneXGE |
| 17th | contact other plane, legend lore |
Credits
Created by Bunnygeon Master using GM Binder.
Knight of Obligation by Ryan Barger (©Wizards of the Coast).
Thanks to the Ashley, Caim, Novronian, and SgtBriar for feedback and design help.
Channel Divinity
When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
Consecrated Casting. You can use your Channel Divinity to tap into a well of arcane power. Choose a spell of 1st-level or higher from the wizard spell list. You cast the spell, expending an appropriate spell slot. The spell you choose must be of a level you are capable of casting, and it must be cast using an action or bonus action.
Turn the Extreme. As an action, you use your Channel Divinity to speak an ancient word of power rebuking cosmic imbalance. Each celestial, dragon, fiend, or giant within 30 feet of you that can hear you must make a Wisdom saving throw. A creature that fails the saving throw 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 use the Dodge action.
Aura of Temperance
By 7th level, you emanate moderation and balance. Critical hits inflicted against friendly creatures within 10 feet of you are resolved as normal hits while you are conscious.
At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.
Without Opinion
At 15th level, your mind becomes further removed from the world and its quarrels, and your ambivalence is inscrutable. You are immune to any effect that would sense your emotions or read your thoughts, and you can’t be targeted by divination magic that you don’t choose to be affected by. Wisdom (Insight) checks to ascertain your intentions or sincerity are made at disadvantage.
You also gain proficiency in Intelligence saving throws, and your alignment can’t be changed by magic unless you allow it.
Impose Compromise
At 20th level, you can use an action to enforce your will for dispassionate balance upon the rest of the world. For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits:
- Whenever a creature damages you, you can use a reaction to take half as much damage and cause the creature to lose the same number of hit points.
- When you miss with an attack, you still inflict half as much damage as you would’ve had you hit.
- If you would make an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw at disadvantage, you instead make the roll normally.
- If a creature would make an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw against you at advantage, it instead makes the roll normally.
- You gain the benefits of the true seeing spell.
You can use this feature once and regain its use after finishing a long rest.
Neutrality Versus Everything Else
Inspired by the Paramander class introduced in Dragon #106, the Oath of Detachment is sworn by paladins dedicated to supporting pure neutrality against everything else. Such paladins may thus prefer to be aloof from the clashes between evil, good, chaos, and law. This is reflected in the class’ original features, including detection of and bonus damage against creatures that weren’t neutral.
For players and DMs interested in similar and other mechanics to further the theme of this Sacred Oath, the following optional features can be included as part of the Oath of Detachment when it’s taken or as part of the paladin’s progression starting from 1st level:
Arcanist
You can use an arcane focus (see the Adventuring Gear section of the Player’s Handbook) as a spellcasting focus for your paladin spells.
Detect Imbalance
When you use your Divine Sense, you detect the presence of celestials, dragons, fiends, and giants instead of celestials, fiends, and undead.
Smite the Radical
The bite of your blows is focused not on the unholy, but on the extreme. When you use your Divine Smite, you inflict an extra 1d8 radiant damage against dragons and giants instead of fiends and undead.
Quirks of Detachment
As part of their aloof committment to cosmic balance, some paladins of Detachment practice distinctive habits as an outward means of reminding themselves of their oath. Others manifest traits—whether behavioral or physical—more reactively, their minds and bodies using such quirks to cope with the mental and emotional rigor of total detachment.
| Roll | Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | When faced with a moral quandary, you universally prefer dissembling over discussion. |
| 2 | Your most prized possession is a spellbook you swear was signed by Mordenkainen himself. |
| 3 | Your favorite meals are both sweet and sour. |
| 4 | Your eyes are each a different, opposing color, such as blue and orange or green and red. |
| 5 | You watch people argue with each other as a pastime. |
| 6 | You struggle to commit yourself to almost anything. |
| 7 | You’ve dyed your hair an unnatural shade, and you rotate its hue through the color wheel like clockwork. |
| 8 | You are perfectly ambidextrous. |
| 9 | Being either the tallest or the shortest person in the room makes you feel nervous. |
| 10 | Seeing arcane magic mesmerizes you so completely that it is somewhat embarrassing for you or others. |
Variant Oathbreaker: Paremandyrs
The distant manner of impartialists and paramanders can occasionally disquiet allies and acquaintances, as such total aloofness is at least somewhat unusual to many humanoid cultures. Still, in preferring moderation over extremity, these paladins usually find ways to get along with their peers well enough, even those that exceed them for emotion, passion, or zeal.
However, there are cases in which warriors of this oath experience a paradox of thought blending commitment to cosmic balance with drastic overzealousness. Having shifted from simply detached to completely unhinged, these rogue paladins—called Paremandyrs—try to "fix" the world by destroying anything and anyone that fails to totally conform to their conception of neutrality.
DMs can create a Paremandyr as a villainous or otherwise adversarial NPC using the Oath of Detachment, as Paremandyrs have the same features and abilities. As a simpler alternative, the Blackguard (Volo’s Guide to Monsters, p.211) can be used with the following changes: it can also cast blur, calm emotions, clairvoyance, and detect magic; it can be chaotic neutral instead of an evil alignment, and Dreadful Aspect is replaced with Consecrated Casting.