D&D: Tal’Dorei’s Oath Of The Open Sea – A Pirate’s Life For Me
Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn‘s Oath of the Open Sea will have your Paladin shouting “drink up me hearties, yo ho!”
It’s a pirate’s life for me, a pirate’s life for you, a pirate’s life for anyone who follows the Oath of the Open Sea. The Oath of the Open Sea is a new Paladin subclass introduced in Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn. It’s an interesting take on Paladins, for sure.
Paladins of the Open Sea devote themselves to the call of the limitless horizon. They crave the wind at their back smooth seas below. Oath of the Open See devotees are swashbucklers and seafarers. And they get to have a ton of fun doing it.
In a nutshell this is a swashbuckling class for Paladins. Or at least, that’s how it presents itself. It actually is more of a magical warrior in practice. There’s less mechanical incentive to swing from the riggings. But, with the right mood and spells, Oath of the Open Sea Paladins strike with the terror of the depths.
Oath of the Open Sea– Tenets And Spells
Like all Paladin subclasses, the Oath of the Open Sea has some great roleplay rules in its tenets. Though the tenets are more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules. Still, they are:
- No Greater Life than a Life Lived Free
- Trust the Skies
- Adapt Like the Water
- Explore the Uncharted
And if that doesn’t get you excited to be a seafaring Paladin, then I don’t know what will. But onto the mechanical bits. To start with the Oath of the Open Sea gets a mixed bag of bonus spells. A few gimmes like create/destroy water and control water are on there.
But importantly, they also get Misty Step at 5th level, which is huge for them. Paladins love a teleport (everyone does, really.) They also get two new spells. At 9th level, Oath of the Open Sea Paladins get Freedom of the Waves, a brand new spell that creates a 15 foot cylinder of damaging oceanic phenomena. It could be a tidal wave, waterspout, whirlpool– dealer’s choice, really.
Creatures in the area take 2d8 damage and are knocked prone. But if the caster is in the area, they can teleport to an empty space somewhere within the area as well. It’s not the best spell, honestly. For a 3rd level spell it does perishingly small damage, and the teleport is very short range.
Freedom of the Winds, which Oath of the Open Sea devotees get at 17th level is a slightly beefed up fly spell that lets you teleport as a reaction when you’re targeted by a spell or attack, potentially avoiding it. Seems like a lot of fun, and it’s a pity to have to wait so long to get to use what could be the defining thing of your subclass.
Oath of the Open Sea– Channel Divinity And Aura
Aside from spells, Paladin subclasses are defined by their Channel Divinity and Aura options. And for the Oath of the Open Sea, these options are of varying usefulness. For starters Oath of the Open Sea Paladins get two Channel Divinity options: Marine Layer and Fury of the Tides.
Marine Layer lets you channel the sea to create a 20 foot radius cloud of mist that heavily obscures everything around you. Except you and your allies get to treat it as lightly obscured. This can be useful in a pinch.
But you’ll probably want to use Fury of the Tides more often. This lets you use a bonus action to add a knockback effect to your attacks, once per turn. That means you can potentially knock someone back on an opportunity attack as well as during your own attack action. The real benefit is that if you knock someone back into an obstacle or another creature, they take extra damage.
At 7th level your Aura of Liberation lets you ignore the restrained condition, and you can’t be grappled. This aura of not being grappled extends out 10 feet from you, and it also ignores the penalties for underwater movements. It’s not the most universally useful aura. So unless you’re playing in a campaign with lots of water or grappling enemies, it’s not going to come up that much.
Dread Pirate Capstone
Paladins of the Oath of the Open Sea can do a lot at higher levels too. Their Capstone features add some interesting options. At 15th level, the Paladin gains Stormy Waters which grants them a reaction whenever a creature moves into or out of their reach. They can use that reaction to deal 1d12 bludgeoning damage and knock the triggering creature prone if they fail a save.
And at 20th level, Mystic Swashbuckler allows Paladins to channels the spirits of historic sea captains to become a paragon of heroic adventure. Which basically turns you into a swashbuckling rogue, complete with bonus dash/disengage actions.
All in all, this isn’t the most powerful Paladin subclass, but if you want to be extremely thematic, it’s not the worst either. There’s a lot of fun to be had with it.
Happy Adventuring!
