Paladin Sacred Oath: Oath of Secrecy
Some paladins eschew honour and glory to become guardians of knowledge. Some theocracies employ these Silent Knights as spies, while other knightly orders may train them as loremasters in their chapterhouses.
Most often however, a paladin will swear this oath to keep some deadly secret hidden from the world; their orders hide in plain sight, working to keep dreadful creatures or blasphemous texts imprisoned where they can do no harm, and diverting or slaying all trespassers who might uncover their sacred secrets. Rather than a heraldic coat of arms, Silent Knights may carry rings or hidden emblems depicting the iconography of a god of secrecy.
Tenets of Secrecy
- Safeguard the Knowledge. All knowledge is worth preserving, but some secrets would cause more harm in the world than good. Do not mistake silence for forgetfulness.
- Remain in the Shadows. Yours is not the path of glory, and anonymity is your armour. Do not attempt to fight honourably if it sacrifices the advantage of secrecy.
- Curb the Spread. Knowledge spreads like plague and wildfire. Work quickly to prevent forbidden knowledge from becoming commonplace.
Oath Spells
| Paladin Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Disguise Self, Illusory Script |
| 5th | Detect Thoughts, Pass without Trace |
| 9th | Glyph of Warding, Tongues |
| 13th | Greater Invisibility, Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum |
| 17th | Mislead, Modify Memory |
Channel Divinity
3rd-level Oath of Secrecy feature.
You gain the following two Channel Divinity options.
- Reach from the Shadows. As a bonus action, you focus the divine energy that empowers your strikes. For 1 minute, your Divine Smite feature can apply to your ranged weapon attacks as well as melee.
- Walk Unseen. As an action, you present your holy symbol and vanish from sight, teleporting to an unoccupied space within 30ft. At the same time, you turn invisible until the start of your next turn. This invisibility ends early if you make an attack or force a creature to make a saving throw.
Aura of Shadows
7th-level Oath of Secrecy feature.
You project an aura of silence and obfuscation in a 10-foot radius around you. Friendly creatures in the aura, including yourself, may take the Hide action as a bonus action on their turns. This aura extends to 30 feet at 18th level.
Guarded Thoughts
15th-level Oath of Secrecy feature.
You gain resistance to psychic damage, and advantage on saving throws against spells that would divine your location or read your thoughts. Additionally, when you succeed on a saving throw against such an effect, the caster takes psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1 damage).
Avatar of Secrecy
20th-level Oath of Secrecy feature.
You may use your action to cloak yourself in shadow magic to avoid detection. This change lasts for 10 minutes, and cannot be used again until you have completed a long rest. During this transformation, you gain the following benefits:
- You automatically become Hidden from a hostile creature when you end your turn out of its line of sight.
- You are invisible to creatures that would normally rely on blindsight, darkvision, or tremorsense in order to perceive you.