The tenets of this subclass are the following: "You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."😂

A note about the level 15 feature - the damage appears to auto-hit. It’s only the prone effect that offers a save. That boosts its relative damage value when compared against a typical attack of opportunity.

I like how Chris loved the Marine Layer ability when, during the show, it had been nothing but an hindrance for the party anytime it was used! It generally messed up all their turns, often leading the Pally to simply drop the effect quickly as a result. 😅 (They never were within 5feet to start with when used and it was a huge pain for 7 other party members to need to gather in such a small area)

So basically the tenets are saying “be like water my friend”

It would be fun to see you review more third party (sub)classes! Maybe MCDM's Talent?

The tenets sound like "be able to pivot your methods," which then makes me think of Ross yelling PIVOT! in that one friends episode

I’m really enjoying this series! I wonder if given your friends over on the dungeon dudes channel if you’re going to go through their new class and subclasses? Colbys videos with them was a blast, and I’m curious on your thoughts of their subclasses.

I actually adore this subclass, especially on a Sorcadin or Pallock. Gives you some funky utility tricks. Plus, the two unique spells could be fun flavor grabs for a Bard

I was so happy to see you review this sub-class. I run a lot of seafaring themed, priare campaigns, and this has been my favorite paladin subclass for some time, since it fits that niche so nicely.

Dwarf-only subclass: Oath of Excavation Tenets: 1- Diggy diggy hole.

Hey Chris! Optimancer here. It’s pretty funny how a new set of eyes on something can find errors/ issues that the original dev was seemingly blind to. For example, I recently did some QA for a company by reviewing their new hire documents documents and found more than a few errors. Nothing really egregious, but things you can clearly notice. Of course, the original writers probably read the same thing so many times that they either never noticed the error from the start, or the error was a result of multiple development branches coming together and were missed by other people on the team. Or if something was written on mobile, autocorrect might have messed something up. Thankfully DnD is a game where the group at the table can decide to house rule something on the fly. The same cannot be said for a large company’s new hire packet 😅

They must have updated Marine Layer's effects when they published the book because in the campaign, it caused a lot of sighting problems for the party the first couple times they used it.

Awesome! I don't know if it would fit into the video schedule, but I would love a character build, centered on some type of condition Immunities, it would be neat to see what all you can come up with :)

Functionally the issue I see with Marine layer is how is screws over allies which are not within 5 feet of you (which can mess up casting or counterspelling) and especially if they can't get close enough on their, and how the paladin doesn't get much help from this feature because they are typically melee warriors. Not to mention if they are in melee with an enemy, the ENEMY now can see everyone, allowing them to cast spells without fear of being counterspelled.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's smite for me.

I played this subclass at level 11 and it felt soooo good. It shined in fights against water elementals because of the 7th level aura, I could set up combos with fury of the tides to push enemies into my steed that was standing behind them, and it really felt like I had some option either from the class or subclass for every encounter

Its a flavorful subclass with an overall solid design. I'm a big fan of the multiple effects of Freedom of the Waves and Winds spells as well, even if they are more fun on a Druid

Since other classes then the Paladin can learn the spells it double dipping into effects it already has makes a little bit of sense. That way if someone other than the Paladin uses it they would not have those core Paladin bonuses already.

I’m using a multiclass that utilizes the oath of the open sea. It’s so useful to have a smoke screen that comes back on a short rest. Currently level 11 with a reach weapon and flying (variant tiefling)

Thank you for your information video

I did notice that Stormy Waters just does damage, no attack roll. The save seems to only be against being knocked prone. Not a lot, but interesting nonetheless.

This Oath seems to lean toward the alignment Chaotic Neutral.

We were talking about a seafaring campaign. This would be rad.

I'd forgotten about this subclass when you first started this series. I do recall thinking that if I ever played in an Exandria campaign, and didn't play a Chronurgist, that I'd play an Oath of the Sea Sorcadin. I see a good thematic fit for an Eberron character, too. A particularly heroic Lyrandar captain (at sea or in the air) would make a nice thematic fit. The obvious multiclass would be Storm Sorcerer, but... meh. I'd probably go Divine Soul instead.

I want to play this SO BAD! It would pair beautifully with my favorite subclass, fathomless warlock. To have an embroiling storm around you as you reach out to slam foes with icy tentacles or appearing behind enemies within the whipping wind to strike them down with trident strikes (probably flavored from rapier or a pole arm)

Freedom of the Winds spell redundant effects are aimed to be shared with the paladin's mount... 😅

My group had one of these paladins in a martial heavy party and I can confirm that Open Sea's Channel Divinity is absolutely the strongest one in the game, it was broken for the lower levels we were at.

I quite like Freedom of the Waves - it is an upgraded version of misty step in effect, and not that much more expensive. When you do get in trouble surrounded you can now get out AND potentially harm and knock prone all the enemies that were swarming you. Assume that horde fails a few saves and now some of its members will waste more movement to stand and have to dash to catch back up to you, if they even can with that dash - though that is likely enough without some elevation change you can zap to inside that 10' of height... Would be nice if it was the common half damage on success for a levelled spell, but it is only a level 3 spell. Also the Freedom of the Winds is pretty darn epic, with the grappling parts being but a ribbon on the flying and teleporting parts, mobility is great and mobility on an opponents turn that can just take you out of range of the attack is so much better than just flying (though will lead to some debate with the rules lawyer on if out of line of sight but still inside maximum range counts or not). Also not as useless a ribbon as you make out - assuming you are allowing these spells for the other classes as suggested it really makes sense thematically and it is ultimately just a spell not a class feature.

Freedom of the Waves is Misty Step + a bit of damage which is why it is 3rd level. You can make sure your friends - who they assume are near you due to your subclass features and the aura of protection - don't get hurt. It's ANOTHER teleport with add-ons. I actually like the spell. Does it do a ton of damage? No, but it is Misty Step+ which is good enough for a free spell. Would I take it as the Druid / Ranger / Sorc option? Probably not, but this subclass is a lot about movement and knockdowns which this spell gives us perfectly. I wouldn't mind an extra die or 2 for damage, but meh.

Mythic Swashbuckler is atrocious. Just turns you into a Rogue for a minute once per Long Rest. A level 20 feature shouldn't be achievable by any character taking a 3 level dip into Swashbuckler Rogue

Thought on Marine Layer - it’s effectively a small bubble of light obscurement wrapped in a larger bubble of heavy obscurement. Wouldn’t that still block sight lines for your party? They could stand next to you, but I would think they could then only see people in the small bubble of light obscurement. So, it could be a good tool for isolating enemies to focus fire, but I do think it would be disruptive to ranged Allies and casters.

the spells are a bit weird but overall I really like this subclass!

Like your vt

It's possible they designed the spells with bards in mind.

Hexadin with an on demand advantage button be like:

I'm trying to just understand the meaning of "Marine Layer". Not the effect, like, what does it actually mean lol. I'm half convinced it was supposed to be "Marine Lair", like a fun little mobile misty hidey hole for you and your best friends.

For Aura of Liberation; the first clause applies to creatures of your choice. But the second clause applies to all creatures within 5 feet of you. Thereby meaning you can no longer effectively grapple a monster because it can automatically choose to escape.

Hey I’m about to play this and my dm says marine layer works like a donut and even if I’m the paladin I can only see 5 feet in front of me as the center of the fog cloud is lightly obscured and the rest is heavy. He thinks this is how it should work and how it worked in C2 if critical role what do I do

This subclass is very weak thematically for me, the tenets nothing have to do with ideals that someone would fight about (which is what paladins do), it's just random catch phrases

I prefer when these videos really focus on the strength of a feature or class. The rules lawering like Freedom of the Waves saying equal instead of up to is just not worth discussion. No table is gonna struggle with how this feature works.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that speed and movement aren't the same thing. Movement is the resource I would spend to use speed. This is why most things reduce your speed, not your movement, and why Mobile buffs your movement, not your speed. The verbage is also always spending movement, not spending speed. It's a little esoteric, but I think this works. I'm fully willing to be wrong if someone knows something I don't, but I feel like this explains all the inconsistencies in a rules friendly way.

We all want to see TM review third party material like this more often, but he's said it's not gonna happen, since it fractures the audience and reduces views

If you attack into an area that's heavily obscured are you not at normal? Not advantage?

For the 7th level feature, I think there's a bit of an unintended funk to the wording. Creatures that enter the aura while grappled or restrained can spend 5 feet of movement to free themselves - this is physically impossible in D&D, since you have 0 movement, so you can't really move while outside the aura. And you can only enter the aura if someone drags you into it, which most likely means it's on an enemy's turn, in which case you can't spend 5 feet of movement, unless you've prepared the Dash action beforehand (which I'm not even sure you can do while you have 0 speed). So, theoretically, the second part doesn't work. It should have a fairly simple rewording which fixes it completely - "You or creatures of your choice within the aura can spend 5 feet of movement to remove the grappled or restrained conditions from themselves." And if you wanna make it really clear, you can write "on their turn." Otherwise that aura is really, really good.

Matt Mercer is many things, a good homebrewer he is not

I feel like this subclass is a good example of why I dont really care for Mercer's designs. I feel like the balance tends to be really whiplashy and not always cohesive - but he also is mostly trying to run a game for his friends but because of CR he tends to get put on a pedestal. I am a bit surprised - I normally like his lore/writing and the tenets of this oath feel so wishy-washy as mentioned in your video.

This subclass really just isn't my cup of tea. To me a paladin is all about getting powers from upholding some explicit oath (whether or not the player actually spells out what that oath is) and this subclass seems to distinctly lack one on purpose. Without the oath, its not a paladin, its some guy with sea powers that can smite.

Not talking about mechanics but on thematic level, I am not a fan of these. I know they were going for different ideas but none of them make sense, especially the bard. I mean what is a sea paladin? How does that make sense? If it was something like an atlantian twist, something like an oath of ancient but aquatic. Instead it's like "lol be a free spirit, do whatever man". The definition of a tenet is a formal rule, not only are these not rules the description don't even elaborate, they juat go off on a metaphor about water. I think if you want a swashbuckling paladin character, you can all read do that. In conclusion, if you like them, you do you, but these are dandwiki tier subclasses.

Man what a lame capstone.