Dungeons & Dragons: How To Build An Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin

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• What Are The Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin Features?

• What Are The Best Species For An Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

• What Are The Best Attributes For Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

• What Are The Best Spells For Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

• What Are The Best Feats For Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

Like many subclasses in Dungeons & Dragons, the Oath of the Open Sea takes a much different angle than our traditional Paladin. Though they keep their focus on exploring a life well lived and exploring the dark, the class takes a different role than the Oath of Vengeance Paladin we know and love.

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With oceanic tools and combat prowess, this archetype combines the love of the sea with combat finesse. Channel Divinity powers add strategic depth, benefiting your party in unique ways. Whether a sea enthusiast or Critical Role fan, this class offers a treasure trove of captivating features for adventurers.

What Are The Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin Features?

When acquiring your oath at third level, a Paladin gains two things: Oath Spells, and Channel Divinity options.

First are the Oath Spells:

Spell Level

Spell Name

Third

• Create or Destroy Water
• Expeditious Retreat

Fifth

• Augury
• Misty Step

Ninth

• Call Lightning
• Freedom of the Waves

Thirteenth

• Control Water
• Freedom of Movement

Seventeenth

• Commune With Nature
• Freedom of the Winds

Each level is equipped with two spells that paint a clear picture as to what this archetype is all about.

Expeditious Retreat and Misty Step are excellent spells to begin moving around the battlefield with ease; not only is Misty Step a bonus action that can be used before or after you make a round of attacks, but Expeditious Retreat allows you to use your bonus action after casting it to take a Dash action.

Along with staples like Create or Destroy Water and Control Water to manipulate the waves, Freedom of Movement is a particularly potent spell that allows you or an ally to freely escape non-magical grappling and restraints.

Weaving in and out of combat are all things this class seems to do very well from their Oath Spells alone.

Second, we have the Channel Divinity options:

Marine Layer

Create a large fog that moves with you, rendering you and creatures inside of it heavily obscured. You and creatures close to you treat the fog as lightly obscuring, allowing you to use the fog to your advantage to strike unsuspecting foes while keeping your allies close.

Fury of the Tides

For one minute after using your bonus action, you can choose to have an attack you make against a creature push them back and deal damage to them when they impact an obstacle. When paired with spells like Expeditious Retreat, you can use your attacks to drive enemies away from you before Dashing away.

With seventh level, you gain Aura of Liberation, which ultimately creates a ten-foot aura around yourself that provides you and allies with the same benefits as Freedom of Movement. Among other things, this means that you cannot be grappled while you are not incapacitated.

Albeit only relevant among certain enemies, this ability invalidates a variety of creatures like Ropers, Giant Toads, and even Krakens.

Fifteenth level allows you the ability to further manipulate your surroundings, as with a reaction, you can deal damage and knock enemies prone that move in and out of your reach.

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Finally, the twentieth level provides you with your magnum opus, allowing you to become a Paragon of Heroic Adventure for one minute. You gain a climbing speed (or double it if you already have one), advantage on attacks against creatures you're alone against, gain the Dash and Disengageabilities as bonus actions, and have advantage on Dexterity checks and saving throws.

What Are The Best Species For An Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

The best features that this Paladin has to offer is through their ability to freely move within their surroundings. Capitalizing on that with a particular race can make it easy to slip in and out of combat.

Bugbear

An additional melee range of five feet is of great use when attacking enemies within the fog of your Marine Layer. Stealth as a free proficiency and advantage against the charm condition make this species a great option for playing a powerful mid-range Paladin, especially after getting the level 15 ability.

Dragonborn - Gem

In general, Dragonborn make effective Paladins by granting potent resistances and powerful breath weapons. The Gem Dragon however, among other abilities, grants you a Fly Speed at fifth level (that's unrestricted by armor, no less).

Using this to get in and out of combat from different angles can provide even more options to your combat strategies.

Sea Elf

Giving you all the other ocean-bound abilities the class lacks, the Sea Elf grants you a swimming speed, the ability to breath underwater, communication with any Beast that has a swimming speed, along with all the other goodies and Elf gets. You can't go wrong with immunity to sleep, advantage against charm and 60 feet of darkvision.

Shifter

Granted darkvision and a free proficiency in athletics, acrobatics, intimidation or survival is useful, what makes a Shifter fascinating is their Shifting ability. Their Beasthide provides a few temporary hit-points and an additional point of AC for when the fight gets tough.

Moreso, their Swiftstride grants you an additional ten feet of movement, on top of their ability to use a reaction to move ten feet when an enemy ends their turn nearby (that doesn't provoke an opportunity attack.

Tabaxi

Providing an additional ten feet of movement is a great help, but they also give both Perception and Stealth as free skills, on top of their Feline Agility.

You can double your movement speed without using an action, and gain the ability back when you spend a turn not moving. This can provide valuable options on top of this paladin's already mobile options.

Triton

Not dissimilar to the Sea Elf in terms of swimming speed, breathing underwater and communicating with underwater Beasts, the Triton trades the Elf's sleep immunity and charm advantage with ability to cast the spells Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind and Water Walk, along with the ability to communicate with ocean-bound Monstrosities and Elementals as well.

What Are The Best Attributes For Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

Paladins are among a handful of classes that have to balance three different ability scores to be effective. Strength, Constitution, and Charisma are all scores that should remain relatively high, allowing you to survive the damage you are wanting to dish out.

This also means you can forgo Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom without worrying too much about it.

Assuming you are starting with the point buy system for Dungeons & Dragons, here is a spread that would be effective to start out with:

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

17(+3)

10(+0)

14(+2)

8(-1)

8(-1)

16(+3)

You can adjust which of the stats between Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom start with a score of 10 to provide your character with a bit of versatility while keeping them from being completely lopsided.

Starting Equipment

With this paladin's ability to freely move in and out of combat, focusing more on damage than defense is a safe bet (especially if you already have another tanky character in the party).

Starting with a martial weapon like a Longsword allows you to switch freely between two-handing the weapon for better damage or using a shield for better defense.

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While not useful in later levels, starting with five javelins provides a solid ranged attack that you can switch to when you're in a bind. Moreover, the explorer's pack grants you a rope and ten rations over the priest's two rations, making it the optimal choice.

Fighting Style

Depending on your preference toward damage with and without a shield, Great Weapon Fighting and Dueling are both great options to get your damage off on the right foot. Otherwise, Blessed Warrior can fill in the gap, granting you great cantrips like Guidance or Sacred Flame.

What Are The Best Spells For Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

Already possessing a variety of mobile spells, capitalizing on your movement is key for this paladin. You should also be worried about moving to and from your allies as well, ensuring that you can reach them if the fight turns sour.

Spell Level

Spell Name

First

• Bless
• Command
• Compelled Duel
• Shield of Faith

Second

• Branding Smite
• Find Steed
• Lesser Restoration
• Prayer of Healing

Third

• Crusader's Mantle
• Dispel Magic
• Revivify
• Spirit Shroud

Fourth

• Aura of Life
• Banishment
• Staggering Smite

Fifth

• Destructive Wave
• Holy Weapon
• Summon Celestial

What Are The Best Feats For Oath Of The Open Sea Paladin?

Prioritizing your feats at later levels is an easy way to make the best use out of your paladin. With their high mobility, taking the Mobile feat at 4th level is an absolute must.

It grants an additional ten feet of movement, enemies you attack can't use their attack of opportunity against you, and with your easy access to a bonus action Dash through Expeditious retreat, ignoring difficult terrain is just the icing on the cake.

At later levels, the Athlete feat and other feats that provide bonuses to your Strength can boost your damage while providing solid benefits. Knowing that your 15th level ability uses your attack range, grabbing Sentinel or Polearm Master are easy ways to make the best of it.

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