Seelie Knight | Ranger Archetype, on rangers and paladins, and on one page or two pages

I realize I promised Sacred Oaths, but it made sense to me to share one of my most recent works after sharing one of my oldest. This distinction is slightly misleading, I grant, as they're both old and both recent. The Oath of Society was one of the first homebrews I made, but I revisited and revised it as recently as a couple months ago. I put together this PDF of the Seelie Knight a few days ago, but its first draft was from over a year ago! So really, they're both old and both new.

Rangers and Paladins have a lot in common as classes in Fifth Edition: they're both half-casters, which is to say they both cast spells but progress in their spellcasting half as quickly as so-called full casters like clerics and wizards, they both gain the Fighting Style feature at 2nd level, and they both have archetype or subclass features at 3rd, 7th, and 15th levels.

At the same time, I think the Seelie Knight helps demonstrate these classes' unique differences. Paladin Sacred Oaths have to hang a lot of flavor and mechanics onto the two limited-use Channel Divinity options at 3rd level, but Ranger Archetype 3rd level features have the flexibility to have a different recharge cycle. For example, multiple times per rest, or even at-will. While 7th level Sacred Oath features are almost always an aura, the 7th level of a Ranger Archetype is only 'usually defensive.' And the differences go on.

Each structure highlights the unique elements of the class. The paladin's role as a defensive bulwark in the party and as a warrior that over grows to further embody their ideals is emphasized by the structure of Sacred Oaths. And the ranger's narrative as a wilderness hunter whose unique tactics reflect their quarry or their training is emphasized by the way Ranger Archetypes are designed.

The Oath of Society and Seelie Knight are also interesting to compare for their length. The Oath of Society is two pages long, while the Seelie Knight is only one page long. As a homebrewer, this raises a surprisingly spirited question: how many pages can a homebrew subclass be?

Many homebrewers make it a goal to limit a subclass to a single page: the limitation can engender creativity and encourages brevity. Plus, the majority of currently-published Wizards of the Coast subclasses can fit on one page (the Battlemaster and Oath of Redemption are the only exceptions I know off the top of my head).

On the other hand, there are also many homebrewers don't make any specific effort to keep the content to only a page. The additional space an extra page (or two, or three) provides is used to display thematic art, or to include additional mechanics, or to write more lore.

Before you get the wrong idea, it's not as if there's a schism or debate among homebrewers about this—at least, there isn't one that I know of!—but it's food for thought as a content creator. Myself, you can see that I've done both. I could've trimmed the Oath of Society to be only a page, but I chose to use a second page, filling the extra space with optional variants, additional spells, and explanatory sidebars. Meanwhile, the Seelie Knight doesn't really raise the question anyway: it fits cleanly onto a single page. But there are other subclasses where I've made that decision: either to aim for a single page subclass, cutting content where necessary; or to go for the second page, and creating content to fill the second page.

When it comes to length, what's right for you, and for your homebrew, is a decision that only you can make. (With advice, of course; that isn't to say one shouldn't ask for feedback, because advice and feedback is always awesome!)

(Link to the GM Binder version)