Design Notes - Oath of Invention (Patreon)

Let's get back to a quick-and-clean subclass design diary! Just a few thoughts on how I wrote the Oath of Invention (which seems to be pretty well-received).

For a subclass that came pretty easily, the Oath of Invention is actually one I've tried to write a few times. In Spellbound Sea, it was slated as the Oath of Progress (which would've had a bit more electrical flavor). But that wasn't quite specific enough, and stepped on the toes a bit too much of an old Oath I'd seen called the Oath of Tomorrow, so I write the Oath of Iron instead and got something very grounded in that book's ferromancy.

The Oath of Tomorrow is more steampunk. Specifically, I was feeling inspired by an old videogame I loved to death, Dungeons of Dredmor. It's a classic roguelike with a very goofy aesthetic, and one of the skill trees was the Clockwork Knight. I honestly don't remember any of the abilities and didn't boot it up to check — but I just liked the idea of a knight wearing gratuitously complicated clockwork armor. So!

The first obstacle is the spell list: let's get some spells with clockwork/machinery/invention aspects. Because it's a paladin, direct-damage spells will underwhelm, so better to focus on buffs and utility. And it turns out there's very little in the SRD that applies. I don't love reaching for homebrew spells for all 10, but it's just slim pickings otherwise. Fabricate is the only one I really considered, but I scratched it because of WotC's completely inexplicable theming on it (it's illusion and "you weave together wisps of shadow" defeats the theme). Still, between Kibbles and myself, I found just enough spells.

Second obstacle: a tinker-paladin really wants some crafting proficiencies, and there's just nowhere to put them. Proficiencies should almost always come at the top of a subclass; they're part of the character's identity and so need to be established early. But paladin 3 is always Channel Divinity, and paladin 7 is always an aura, so you don't actually get a free-form feature until 15. Dang. We'll come back to this one.

Third: Channel Divinity! Steam-powered Charge was a pretty obvious direction to go, and is the only ability that (I think) is directly inspired by the Dredmor skill tree. Converting movement to damage is fun and not something that happens very often, but it makes sense here: picture yourself with a magic steam tank strapped to your back, getting spent for extra momentum. The only real wrinkle here is adding the "you can't Smite at the same time" bit on. Honestly? It's probably fine, they're both consuming scarce resources. But some DMs would definitely get scared off by the absolutely-bonkers nova damage that would enable.

Divine Inspiration took a little more thought but I think works well enough. A non-combat channel is always nice, and boosting crafting checks makes perfect sense for the sub. And here's where I got the nice idea to cheat a crafting proficiency in: you get to pick one anytime you use the channel.

Aura of Progress: I surprised myself with this one, I thought it would be harder to get to. But incremental small improvements work for the theme, and the synergy with Steam-powered Charge is great. (It'd be nice if there were more synergy with the spell list; if I do another revision, I might write a couple more spells for that purpose). Someone on discord complimented me on the pun in the feature name, which is delightful because it was entirely by accident.

Wondrous Invention: Vancian (swappable on long rest) buffs are the usual tack I take for invention/creation/artifice features. They just fit the theme so well, letting you take time to modify your possessions in a cool way. A few early commenters didn't like the relatively low power levels here, but I'm not wildly bothered by that. The other features are all slightly strong, and this one's got a ton of flexibility to it. Clockwork Armor gives you synergy with Aura of Progress, which is nice to sneak in. Expandable Shield conflicts with an interception fighting style, but that's fine in an options-menu; a player with Interception can just choose a different option. Note that in the first draft, there was a weapon buff; I replaced it with Cleansing Coal, because it was unpopular, but I can't justify any more damage after Steam-powered Charge already gives you plenty.

Knight of Tomorrow: Choo choo, baby. It's tough to come up with an idea for an avatar of progress, but in lieu of that, getting some tankiness boosts so you can charge all over the place is fun enough. And it helps us stick the landing on the steampunk theme even though honestly not that many features relate to it.

Missed Opportunities: The one patch of thematic ground I wanted to work in and wound up dropping was...being evil. Specifically, I had the thought that this oath could be good for a Mark Andreesen or Elon Musk style of character, someone preaching that technological progress is intrinsically good and completely inevitable, and therefore it's righteous to brutalize anyone who gets in the way. You could still absolutely twist the subclass to accomplish that, but trying to be more explicit with the reference just required getting kind of nasty. So the sub itself has a bit more of a heroic feel, as opposed to that techno-templar absolutism. We'll get a bit of that feel back in the future, though, I promise.