Paladin and Warlock Optional Features

Some Warlocks buy into their pact with material goods, or simply form a bond through a thorough understanding of their patron rather than making any kind of deal. Others, however, trade away pieces of themselves for the promise of even greater power.

Beginning at 1st level, choose one boon and one price. You gain the benefits of the boon, but you must suffer the cost of the price.

Boons

• Eternal Youth - You don’t age and cannot be aged magically. You gain additional Hit Dice equal to half your level (rounded up) and recover all hit dice on a Long Rest.

• Knowledge Beyond Time - you gain proficiency in History, Arcana, Nature, and Religion. Choose a field of study, such as Undead, the Feywilds, or the Netheresse Empire. You have advantage on any check to recall information on your chosen subject.

• Return The Dead - You can use an action to return a non-Undead dead creature whose CR is equal to or lower than your level to life with a touch (use a creature’s level if they don’t have a CR). You suffer 1 level of exhaustion and expend a Pact Magic slot to return the creature to life with 1 level of exhaustion for each day they have been dead (minimum 1). You cannot regain that Pact Magic slot or use this feature again until you finish a Long rest.

• Peerless Talent - You gain proficiency in any one skill of your choice as well as any one tool, vehicle, and instrument. You add twice your proficiency bonus to any roll you make with the skill, tool, vehicle, or instrument. 

• Vengeance - Choose a creature tag to have sworn vengeance upon, such as Angels, Demons, Gnolls, Mind Flayers, Red Wizards, or Slaad as the targets of your vengeance. When you damage a creature that you have sworn vengeance against you deal 2 additional damage and you reduce the creature’s maximum health by the amount equal to the damage dealt. 

If you are not sure what creature tag a creature that you’d like to swear vengeance upon has, ask your DM.

• Protectorship - Choose another creature. While you are alive, they gain resistance to all damage and advantage on all saving throws, but whenever they take damage, you take an equal amount. This damage cannot be reduced in any way. 

• Muscle Memory - Choose 2 skills you are proficient in. When you make a check with either of these skills, you can treat a d20 roll of 9 or lower as a 10.

Prices

• Soul - You have sworn your soul away. When you die you cannot be brought back to life unless your Patron allows and you only succeed a Death Saving Throw on the roll of 15 or higher.

• Haunting - You have caused the death of one who you love and now their spirit haunts you. Whenever you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check or saving throw you must roll a d20. On the roll of 10 or less you become frightened for 1 minute and gain a level of exhaustion as you see visions of the one that you killed. You must make this roll even if you reroll the initial roll. Once you have gained exhaustion from this effect, you cannot do so again until you finish a Long Rest.

• Memory - You lose proficiency in one skill and one saving throw of your choice. Choose an enemy or a loved one to lose all memory of.

• Oath - You have a single rule that directs your behavior. If you ever break this rule, you then suffer terribly. When that happens, make a Constitution saving throw against your own spell save DC, if you succeed, you roll all your remaining hit dice and lose that many hit points. If you fail, you die instantly. If you are about to break your rule, you get a psychic warning before it is broken, allowing you to reevaluate your choice before breaking your rule.

Your rule can be never lying, never killing a Beast, never breaking a law, never willingly letting a Demon live, or any rule that you discuss with your DM, as long as it is likely to come up.

Some Paladins seek to uphold their Oaths as guidelines for their lives, knowing that in the real world, it is impossible to always live up to the letter of the law and exceptions must be made. Others, however, seek to embody the oath to their very core. They bind themselves inseparably to the divine tenets that guide their every choice. This kind of powerful devotion grants them additional magical power, but invokes terrible consequences if the Oath is to be broken.

Starting at 3rd level, you can choose to bind your very spirit to your oath. You gain a second use of your Channel Divinity. You also gain access to a new Channel Divinity option. Sacred Vow. 

However, if you ever break a tenet of your Oath, it leaves a wound upon your soul. You gain one level of exhaustion that cannot be cured. While you have this exhaustion, you lose access to all of your Oath Spells and cannot use your Channel Divinity.

Before you take any action or inaction that would break your Oath, you are issued a divine warning, allowing you to reevaluate your choice before your Oath is broken.

While you have this level of exhaustion, you can seek absolution with your church or another member of your order. You may be required to take an all-night vigil in prayer as a sign of penitence, or undertake a fast or similar act of self-denial. After a rite of confession and forgiveness, you lose the level of exhaustion.

Alternatively, while in this state, you can reject your Oath and embrace the darkness to switch to the Oathbreaker subclass. You immediately lose the exhaustion level and this feature, and can never return to your old Oath.

Sacred Vow

You can expend a use of your Channel Divinity and swear to your Oath. You cast one of your Oath Spells without consuming a spell slot. The spell must be of a level that you can cast, and you do not need to provide components. Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.