D&D 5E (2014) Oath of Vengeance (Paladin)

[Valador]

The Oath of Vengeance is basically tailored for that sort of one-on-one. Even the oft-questioned Adjure Enemy is meant for lockdown of either a single foe or against other foes who would get in the way of a primary target (serious read over the actual oath description)...

Nothing in the oath description screams "I'm going to focus all of my being on fighting ONE foe." I see a lot of reference to FOES, wrong DOERS, when an entire PEOPLE. Sarcasm aside... The oath TO ME sounds like Judge Dredd against evil. ALL EVIL. EVERYTHING EVIL. Throwing away all concern for anything other than stomping out evil and righting wrongs. No where in the oath description do I see a justification for limiting the Paladins focus to one foe. I mean I guess it would be awesome if all your encounters are easy mode up until the "BBEG" at the end who for some reason will fight your whole party solo... Because that's not boring or convenient at all...

But if people want to be a one trick pony, that's their prerogative.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Not only one. Just one at a time. One person, one evil-doer, relentlessly, no escape, until he's down and staying down. Then on to the next.

The paladin of vengeance is the one who stands across the battlefield, locks eyes with you and says, "You have been judged wanting," before filling the last moments of your life with desperation and pants-pissing terror. He's the good (maybe) version of the horror movie icon who casually walks after a running victim, and catches them anyway. If the average fighter or paladin is a blunt object, he's a scalpel. Do one thing, do it right, move on.

 

[Valador]

My point is about half of his gimmick hinges on using his channel, which would then hinge on how generous the DM is with rests. I think having non channel dependent abilities and abilities that can be used on multiple enemies is superior to possibly shutting down one dude per rest.

 

[Mouseferatu]

*blinks*

*flips open PHB*

Well, how about that? I thought paladins got more uses per rest as they leveled up, like clerics do. But they don't.

Okay, that does make things a little weaker. But I think that's a problem with the channel divinity ability itself, not the Oath of Vengeance specifically.

 

[Ahrimon]

That's why I think of all of a Paladins channel abilities as pulling out all of the stops type of abilities. For the vengeance paladin it's the, that guy is going down ability.

 

[Valador]

That's why I think of all of a Paladins channel abilities as pulling out all of the stops type of abilities. For the vengeance paladin it's the, that guy is going down ability.

For Vengeance, yes, it's a pulling out all the stops type of deal. With the other two oaths, not quite as much. You can still pull out all the stops, but you can get more use out of them because they have more features not tied down to their channel.

 

[sithramir]

I chose vengeance because of the spells. Hold person, misty step, HASTE are some very useful spells.

Yes you lose some smites but teleporting 30' as a bonus to then attack (can still smite!) An enemy is awesome. Or hasting for more AC and extra attacks...

 

[Saeviomagy]

As a DM, I would probably allow a paladin to regain his channel use when he follows his vow against his best interests, similar to how gaining inspiration works.

 

[jrowland]

As a DM, I would probably allow a paladin to regain his channel use when he follows his vow against his best interests, similar to how gaining inspiration works.

I've actually explicitly allowed inspiration for regaining short rest abilities...Channel, Warlock Spells, Wizard Arcane Recovery, Rage (ie you can rage again in the same battle if you spend inspiration).

It looks way OP reading it like this, lol! but in practice its not so bad. I think maybe 1/session of 4 people it happens...usually its adv they use it for. We haven't really done any long slogs (dungeon crawls) except the 1st Episode of HotDQ and I think they mostly didn't have those abilities and/or were to new to the system, so maybe I'll change my mind in a big dungeon crawl, but my gut says I'll appreciate their ability to push a little more.

 

[Stalker0]

Spells have to be included for a full balance discussion.

Doesn't vengeance also get the ranger mark spell that gives an extra d6 to every attack?