I think the Oath of Strangers is one of my most unique sacred oaths. The thematic idea is pretty offbeat—the classic Wild West cowboy as a paladin—and the mechanic is a very different take on how to incorporate firearms in Dungeons & Dragons.
I first thought of an Oath of Strangers after considering making a homebrew Gunslinger. Now, there have been many homebrew takes on gunslinging in Fifth Edition already, and some are quite famous and popular. At the time I was thinking about this I was making a lot of different sacred oaths. And so naturally the thought crossed my mind: could I make a gunslinging paladin? Now, a gun by itself doesn't have enough thematic weight to turn into an oath—I mean, it's a tool, a weapon. But what if I go beyond just guns and include with them the archetype they are most often associated with in fiction? And that's how I came to the idea of a cowboy paladin.
So, that's the story behind the subclass's story. But what of the mechanics? Some players don't realize that there are official mechanics for firearms in Fifth Edition already. The Dungeon Master's Guide includes rules for what it calls "Renaissance weapons": a d10 pistol and a d12 musket. If you are familiar with these weapons, you might still have some objection to use those rules as-is. The pistol and musket have a big hurdle to casual use: the loading property, which makes it so a firearm can't be used twice in an Attack action, even with Extra Attack. Crossbows have the same property, but players who want to be a crossbow-wielding fighter can use the Crossbow Expert feat to overcome the loading property. No such relief exists for firearms, however.
Finally, trying to make a gunslinging paladin adds an extra wrinkle. Divine Smite and Improved Divine Smite don't apply to ranged attacks: only melee attacks. How, then, could we ever have a gun-toting cowboy paladin?
This multifaceted dilemma is how Divine Snipe was born. So, what does Divine Snipe do about these problems? What does conjuring a sacred weapon and special ammunition do?
First, Divine Snipe embraces the loading property. Instead of trying to make firearms work with the paladin's Extra Attack, Divine Snipe boosts the power of singular attacks to make it more worthwhile to make a single attack.
Second, Divine Snipe very simply allows Divine Smite and Improved Divine Smite to work with the sacred weapon and ammunition.
The end result is that although a paladin can't use Extra Attack with their firearms, they don't need it as much. The extra damage the sacred weapon deals, combined with the utility of being able to Smite at range—assuming no other homebrew, the Oath of Strangers is the only way for paladins to Smite at range—makes up for the "lost" attack. Plus, the mechanic of making singular, powerful attacks with supercharged bullets of light makes for a cool image for the paladin.
Now, this isn't necessarily the right solution for every subclass that wants to lean into using firearms. I've made an archetype for a different class that went in the opposite direction. But this design felt fun and interesting, and making bursty attacks, rather than more attacks, fits in with the paladin's base class design thanks to Divine Smite. So doing things a little differently is actually fitting here.
Finally, some readers might still have questions about whether or not there's a problem with the limited ammunition Divine Snipe grants. I would reassure you that the number has been carefully calculated. With there being an Ability Score Increase at 4th level, a standard array paladin can have a 16 Charisma score by 5th level, when martial characters normally start using Extra Attack. With a +3 Charisma modifier, Divine Snipe manifests 6 magic bullets. With combat lasting 3 turns on average with an average of two encounters per short rest, that's the perfect amount of ammunition to last the paladin. And if that ever falls short, Grit can make up the difference.
I should be up front that I can't take credit for these careful calculations: Nimademe, who I mention in the credits of the homebrew, created the fundamentals of Divine Snipe. He deserves a lot of thanks here, because the Oath of Strangers wouldn't exist without him.
Anyhowm, enjoy the cowboy knight, the palagun, the Oath of Strangers!
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