The Oath of the Spellguard is the new “mystic subclass” for Paladins, and it’s giving off some strong mage hunter vibes.
Fantasy stories are full of people who specialize in fighting against spellcasters. Whether we’re talking the Templars out of Dragon Age, the Inquisition out of various Warhammer worlds, or even the occasional magic-user who specializes in fighting other magic-users, like in the Dresden Files. It’s an archetype that you can see evoked in feats like Mage Slayer for D&D – and now, thanks to the latest Unearthed Arcana, in the new Paladin playtest subclass, the Oath of the Spellguard.
In a nutshell, this is a class for Paladins that are “sworn to battle those who use magic to harm others.” Practically, this means you get abilities that make you very good at fighting spellcasters. Overall, I think it’s a solid concept, but the 5.5E rules do raise a few questions. We’ll get to those towards the end, but for now, let’s take a look!
Oath of the Spellguard Paladin – ‘Hit ’em While They’re Casting’
The Oath of the Spellguard Paladin has a lot of work to do. First of all, it has to give you most of the stuff right away, because Paladins only gain features at levels 3, 7, 15, and 20. It’s a burden of backwards compatibility that I wish had changed hands in the edition, for reasons you’ll see once we get to level 6.
But level 3 rips. You get three features, starting with the Oath of the Spellguard Spells, a list of bonus spells that centers around “confounding spellcasters.” You get some classics here, as well, including Shield and Silence, as well as both Counterspell and Dispel Magic, See Invisibility, Detect Magic, and then higher-level spells like Circle of Power and Freedom of Movement. It’s not the most exciting list of spells, but there’s no arguing it’s very on brand.
You also gain the ability to protect your allies from harmful spells, thanks to Guardian Bond. With this feature, you can use your Channel Divinity to decide you’re protecting someone for an hour, and for the duration, whenever your ally is hit by an attack, you can use your Reaction to add your Charisma modifier to their AC. That’s a pretty potent buff, though it will be real situational. I don’t know if it is as thematic as some of the other things though, because you can only increase AC, not saving throws or whatever.
I bring this up, especially, because the final level 3 feature, Spellguard Strike, brings the Mage Hunter vibes to the fore. It’s real simple: whenever a creature within your reach casts a spell with V,S, or M components, you can attack them as a Reaction.
See what I mean about Mage Hunters? But, given that, I almost feel like the Guardian Bond feels out of place. It feels like you’d maybe use Channel Divinity a la one of the other Paladin Subclasses to increase damage against magic users or to make your attacks more disruptive to Concentration or something. Or, conversely, maybe to add bonus or resistance to your Bonded target – though the AC boost is pretty nice.
And, it’s a good way to protect a target from monsters that use magic but don’t use spells, of which there are plenty. Many magic-using monsters now have a “magic attack” that is just them shooting a burst of fire or necrotic damage or whatever else, and it’s just a regular attack, not a spell that they have to cast, so the Guardian Bond gives you something to do against them.
The Spellguard At Higher Levels
At higher levels, you gain even more protective features. Starting with the Aura of Concentration, which surprisingly, makes you great at helping magical allies. Anyone in your Aura of Protection also gains Advantage on Concentration checks.
At level 15, Spell-Breaking Blade finally comes online, and here we get to what feels like something the class should have been able to do much earlier. With this feature, whenever you use your Spellguard Strike, you can also cast Counterspell as part of the same Reaction. A huge benefit, a way to shut down spellcasters – but it feels like something the Paladin should be doing before level 15, though there’s no room. At level 7, Paladins can’t cast Counterspell yet, so this is as early as it gets. Maybe there’s a way to stealth in some counterspell-like features.
Either way, at level 20, the whole subclass caps off with Eternal Spellguard, a feature which lets you empower your Aura of Protection to give your allies multiple benefits for a minute. First of all, while within your Aura, your Guardian Bond ally has Resistance to Damage, everyone in your Aura has Advantage on saves vs. spells, and any spell attack roll against you or your allies has Disadvantage.
All in all, a solid class. Maybe a little limited by the chassis of a Paladin subclass, but this is one I’d play. I love the feel of it. But that’s just what I think. WotC wants to know what you think, and as it happens, the feedback survey has opened today!
So check out the Oath of the Spellguard subclass and survey at the link below!
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