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source: Book of Blades
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![[assets/4611dd15fc19f335426bcb2035bc8a8f_MD5.jpg|Ember Nick|338x239]]

The Ashen Base is a simple oath, as old as nations and hatred. These paladins dedicate themselves to a self-destructive loathing for someone or something. Its adherents are evil, either knowingly or by degree, as their oath turns their lives to its central truth: everything burns.

The Ashen Base is the oath of total warfare: burned villages, slaughtered innocents, salted fields, and the ruin of nations, even one’s own, because victory is not enough. T his oath exalts gods of murder, warfare, or the Baleful Sun, an aspect of the Sun in its role as bringer of drought and wildfire. To the devotees of Ash, the only thing that matters is ensuring that your foe dies so thoroughly that generations to come remember them only as a warning.

# Tenets of Ash 

Tenets of the Ashen Base are remarkably consistent, considering the enormous variety in its adherents. Fallen heroes, remorseless butchers, and bereaved scions all pledge themselves to a life of violence, bereft of beauty, kindness, or peace.

- **No Quarter.** To provide mercy, even to the most meagre or sympathetic of foes, is an affront to your rage. To ask for it is unthinkable. You shall never surrender, nor shall you accept it.
- **No Bystanders.** No belonging, holding, or relative of your enemy is safe. If you find a treasure of the enemy, it is to be destroyed. If you find a home, it is to be sacked. If you find an ally, they are to be slain.
- **No Rest.** To falter is to allow the enemy to recover. You shall not allow yourself laxity, sloth, or joy. When your current enemy falls, you shall find a new foe.
- **No Restraint.** No weapon is too dangerous, no associate too vile, to be wielded against your foe. Anything and everything that can be used in your war must be used.

||**Ashen Base Progression**|
|---|---|
|**Paladin Level**|**Features**|
|3rd|Ashen Base Oath Spells, Channel Divinity: Ignite the World Kiln, Channel Divinity: Rite of Devastation|
|7th|Aura of Contempt|
|11th|Scorched Earth Brand|
|15th|Form of the Destroyer|

# Channel Divinity 

_3rd-Level Ashen Base Feature_ 

You gain the following two Channel Divinity options. 

- **Ignite the World-Kiln.** As an action, you stoke the hatred within you and a torrent of unnatural flame follows in your wake. When you activate this ability, and at the start of each of your turns for 1 minute, deal fire damage equal to your **PB** to all creatures and objects within 10 feet of you. While you burn in this fashion, you emit dim light in a 20-foot radius.
- **Rite of Devastation.** As a bonus action, you raise your holy symbol and recite a condemnation of all edifices of civilization. For 1 minute, double all damage you deal to objects, and any successful melee attacks you make against doors, walls, and floors are critical hits.

# Ashen Base Oath Spells 

_3rd-Level Ashen Base Feature_ 

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed on the Ashen Base Oath Spells table.

||**Ashen Base Oath Spells**|
|---|---|
|**Spell Circle**|**Spells**|
|3rd|hellish rebuke|
|5th|misty step|
|9th|fireball|
|13th|fire shield|
|17th|contagion|

# Aura of Contempt 

_7th-Level Ashen Base Feature_ 

You armor yourself in disdain for your foes. A hostile creature within 10 feet of you can’t use reactions if you dealt damage to it since the start of your last turn. In addition, if you deal damage to a creature with a melee weapon, you have advantage on saves against effects from that creature until the start of your next turn. 

This aura is enhanced by the 17th-level Aura Improvements paladin class feature.

# Scorched Earth Brand 

_11th-Level Ashen Base Feature_ 

You can manifest an icon of devastation when you attack. When you deal damage with your Divine Smite class feature, you can cause the wound to take the shape of a glowing, painful brand. You know the location of any creature with this brand, even on other planes.

You have advantage on attacks against a creature you have branded. In addition, if a branded creature within line of sight would regain hit points, the brand flares painfully and prevents the first 10 HP the target would regain.

You can brand creatures in this manner a number of times equal to your **PB**. You regain all uses after finishing a long rest. All brands issued last for 24 hours before disappearing. 

# Form of the Destroyer 

_15th-Level Ashen Base Feature_ 

As an action, you transform into an embodiment of the Baleful Sun, the fiery aspect of the Sun which will one day extinguish itself in a grand detonation, scouring all life from the world. Your appearance changes in a manner you define. Common themes include an aura of green flame, black sclera, sharpened teeth, burning hair, or metallic skin.

 For 1 minute, you gain the following benefits: 

- Killing a Humanoid sates your need to eat, drink, or sleep for the next 24 hours.
- You soar upon jets of flame, gaining a fly speed of 60 feet.
- Whenever you deal radiant damage to a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can spend a bonus action to deal that much radiant damage to a different creature you can see within 30 feet of you.
- Your Rite of Devastation and Ignite the World-Kiln Channel Divinity subclass features are active without the need to spend a bonus action or action, respectively.

Once used, this feature can’t be used again until you finish a long rest.