Paladin Oath of the Guardian

The Oath of the Guardian charges a paladin with tending to the safety of their companions. These paladins serve as bodyguards, protectors of the common folk, and sentinels against rampaging monsters. Orders that embrace this oath range from wandering, solitary paladins who defend towns on the borderlands, to elite groups of knights tasked with protecting the priests of a religious order.

Tenets of the Guardian

Like any paladin oath, the ethos embraced by a specific paladin or the order they belong to shapes their beliefs. Listed below are sample tenets for the various alignments. Create your specific tenets by picking up to four ideals that capture your views.

Tenets of Chaos

Affinity. You protect those that you feel meet your personal standards. You might take a liking to someone or seek to foil a specific foe. Your personal values and reaction to a situation determines your actions, not some stifling code of conduct or others’ expectations of you.

Beauty. Violence is an inherently nihilistic act, one that always leaves the world duller, sadder, and less joyful. By foiling those who would attack others, and dealing them the justice they so richly you deserve, you preserve the wonders of the natural world and allow those you protect to grow and develop as they wish.

Freedom. Violence is the tool of the tyrant and oppressor. By denying others the chance to spread misery, you break the strongest chains that oppressors can use to force others into obedience.

Tenets of Evil

Dominance. Let others think that you guard them. In time, they will grow so dependent on your protection that you will be the master and they your thralls.

Opportunism. You are a shield for others, but only so long as you profit by that arrangement. You will be the first to notice when those you guard grow weak, and thus the first to strike them.

Profit. There is money to be made in offering protection. Keep your paymaster alive as long as their riches flow to your pockets. When they grow weak, join the mob that would cast them down and loot their treasure vaults.

Tenets of Good

Courage. You remain unswerving in the face of danger, knowing that your cause is just and your methods valiant. No matter the odds, you stand your ground and refuse to back down.

Sacrifice. By setting aside your own safety and accepting pain meant for others, you ensure that the weak and innocent can thrive in a dangerous world. The needs of society and those you are sworn to protect outweigh your personal needs.

Service. Those with the strength and endurance to stand and protect the weak must do so to serve the greater good. You have been given gifts and must put them to use helping those who are not as fortunate.

Tenets of Law

Fidelity. You have given your word to protect civilized realms and those who dwell there. Your word is your personal bond, an oath that overrides all other considerations you might weigh when choosing your actions.

Protection. You protect others to preserve order and ensure that society can thrive. You weigh your actions based on their potential to maintain civilization and ensure that the rule of law, rather than the erratic opinions or emotions of unfettered individuals, rules the land.

Service. You act according to your code of behavior, refusing to allow others to come to harm. Your code might require you to protect certain people, oppose specific enemies, or quest in service to a royal lineage or religion.

Oath Features

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed:

Paladin Level

Spells

3rd

Alarm, shield

5th

Lesser restoration, warding bond

9th

Beacon of hope, spirit guardians

13th

Death ward, guardian of faith

17th

Greater restoration, raise dead

Channel Divinity

At 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Defensive Intervention. As a reaction when a creature you see within 30 feet of you is attacked, you teleport to an open space within 5 feet of that creature, within range of the triggering attack, and become the target of that attack.

Divine Mark. When you make a weapon attack against a creature, you can mark the target of the attack. The creature is marked by you. A marked creature has disadvantage on all attacks against creatures that have not marked it. The creature remains marked by you for the next minute, until you end your turn more than 10 feet away from it, or until you are no longer conscious.

Marking Smite

Starting at 3rd level when you use Divine Smite you may mark the target of your attack. A marked creature has disadvantage on all attacks against creatures that have not marked it. The creature remains marked by you for the next minute, until you end your turn more than 10 feet away from it, or until you are no longer conscious.

Aura of Shielding

Starting at 7th level you can protect allies that remain near you. At the start of your turn, you may select creatures that are within 5 feet of you. Until the end of your next turn, the chosen creatures use the higher of your or their AC while they are within 5 feet of you and you are conscious.

Punishing Rebuke

Starting at 15th level, when a creature marked by you attacks a creature other than you, you may use your reaction to make a melee attack against it.

Guardian Angel

At 20th level, you can become a living bastion of defense. As a bonus action, you can create an aura of protective energy. You gain the following benefits for 1 minute.

You may choose creatures for your Aura of Shielding that are within 100 feet of you, and the benefit applies while they remain within that distance.

At the start of your turn, if you have no remaining uses of Channel Divinity you regain a use of it.

When you make an attack using Punishing Rebuke, that attack is a critical hit if it hits.