Hunt down aberrant beings with relentless zeal while trying not to succumb to madness.
Oathbound warriors, dedicated to eradicating aberrations, aliens and all other unnatural creatures that threaten society. They are zealous and relentless warriors, but this zeal often comes at a cost as it often places them closer to the madness they strive to eradicate.
If a paladin that can teleport relentless to a given target and deal enhanced attacks against them sounds great, then this subclass could work well for you. They also happen to have enhanced senses allowing them to detect things that others can’t.
Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt is a 3rd party book released for D&D 5e and 5.5e. A part of the book was recently launched on D&D Beyond as a player pack. You can also grab the full supplement from MonkeyDM’s website. This guide tackles the 5.5e version of the oath of the eldritch hunt paladin.
At a glance
- A tough, melee class enhanced with spellcasting
- Can teleport large distances to hound a target with enhanced damage
- Is great at detecting things whether through enhanced perception, blindsight or spotting vulnerabilities
4/5 – The oath of the eldritch hunt is great for relentlessly attacking a single target. Their fairly long range teleportation makes it easy to reach targets, their senses are enhanced so they can find and evaluate them and they can use their bonus action to eventually teleport, attack and still use divine smite.
Oath of the eldritch hunt features
Hunt the prey (Lv3) – 4/5
This could be a terrifying feature against glass cannon enemies like spellcasters and assassin type creatures and it’s quite good against many other enemies. That 60ft bonus action teleportation that doesn’t even disrupt using divine smite is great for getting you in the right places without sacrificing damage output..
I did check if divine smite could now be applied to attacks of opportunity against your marked target, but the attack that qualifies need to be made immediately after you teleport. It certainly seems that this isn’t the intended ability, even if mechanically it’s a tad vague.
Oath spells (Lv3) – 3/5
| Paladin Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 3 | Faerie fire, spectral slash |
| 5 | Moonbeam, hold person |
| 9 | Displacing maw, spectral fury |
| 13 | Black tentacles, maiden of bones |
| 17 | Contact other plane, hold monster |
Kind of a mix of quality of spells. Your level 1 options aren’t the best. Faerie fire requires a setup turn which isn’t great for a paladin. Spectral slash is alright if you can’t quite reach your target, but this can be what thrown weapons are for and with some strong teleportation already, this subclass isn’t desperate for movement support.
Moonbeam is alright, but it’s more of a spell for saving spell slots while still doing decent damage, but your attacks can achieve this. Other options fit the subclass better though. Displacing maw is great for teleporting and damaging a target (get them close to you or your barbarian or away from your wizard). Maiden of bones is really handy for being a save or suck spell that doesn’t require concentration.
I feel like this spell list isn’t great for this subclass until you start getting level 3 spells, and then it improves considerably. Unfortunately, this isn’t until you hit level 9.
Stolen eldritch gift (Lv3) – 3/5
3 enhanced skills is pretty strong for a ribbon feature. Perception is especially useful and athletics often is too. Survival is often less useful though. The boost should be decent here if you’ve invested in charisma (which, as a paladin, you should be doing.
Sharpened senses (Lv7) – 4/5
Knowing resistances, vulnerabilities and immunities of all creatures that enter your aura of protection is quite handy, especially for a spellcaster who should have a few options of damage types they can use and switch to. I do have an issue with this though, as I think it’s the kind of feature that would stifle gameplay a bit as the DM is repeatedly pestered for all these bits of information on each enemy they get close to.
Blindsight is really useful when you need it. It’s the best way to handle invisibility and means you don’t have problems with things like darkness either.
Relentless pursuit (Lv15) – 4/5
I think this bonus action attack occurs whenever you teleport (using hunt the prey), not just when you initially activate it. I don’t think it’s mega clear from the feature description so check with your DM before you use this. This gives you a solid boost to your damage output and you should be able to have this active for most major encounters.
Perfect hunter (Lv20) – 5/5
Invisibility alone is great, especially as it lasts 10 minutes and you can keep this active while making attacks and casting spells. This already is better than the level 4 spell, greater invisibility. Add to this a decent damage boost (usually +2d8 to +3d8 extra damage per turn if you hit with attacks). Immunity to a few conditions is nice too. I’d say it’s worth the level 5 spells you might use to restore a use of this.
How good is the oath of the eldritch hunt subclass?
The oath of the eldritch hunt is a relentless hunter. It can easily be used to target more dangerous and evasive enemies and take them out quickly. It perhaps lacks the right spells for its build and I think sharpened senses could easily stifle the flow of combat.
It is worth keeping in mind that without hunt the prey active, that this subclass doesn’t have loads going for it. Fortunately, this can be used a fair bit and when it’s active, it is quite a strong enhancement. Overall, I think the subclass is pretty good.
4/5
Building an oath of the eldritch hunt paladin
The same principles that apply to other paladin subclasses apply to the Eldritch Hunt subclass when it comes to your build. You’re looking to build a resilient melee warrior that’s adept at spellcasting and as a party face.
As this is a Steinhardt’s Guide subclass, I’ve just looked at character options in Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt book in my build advice below and shared which work well for this paladin subclass. If you want a full breakdown on how to do this using D&D 2024 character options, you can check out my paladin optimisation guide.
Species/race
Largely you’ll want a species that enhances your durability and ability to deal damage with the following your best options from Steinhardt’s Guide:
- Demidritch: Some decent resilience from the blinded condition and cold damage. Darkvision is always useful. I’d take nebulare as you’ll already gain blindsight at level 7 and are likely to be in the midst of enemies a fair bit for some solid AoE damage.
- Deep One Dwarf: Some resilience to cold damage and the poisoned condition is useful for a tank. I’d take brutal pincers for your slumbering legacy. It can make your damage solid for unarmed strikes, but is obviously only good for an unarmed build.
- Manikin: The lightning resistance grants a bit of resilience. For your integrated gold plating, I’d take tormentor (assuming you’ve gone for a strength build). This is the equivalent of full plate without spending the gold and is accessible at the lowest levels. I’d probably favour the custodian service model for the defensive reaction, though this may mean fighting alongside an ally. Otherwise, thespian is a decent option.
Backgrounds
For the oath of the eldritch hunt, you’ll want to prioritise ability score increases for strength, charisma and constitution first and foremost. Some paladin builds can trade dexterity for strength, but strength tends to work better for a paladin. You may also want to grab a face skill if you can too as the likely face of the party.
| Name | Ability scores | Origin feat | Skill proficiencies | Tool proficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cult initiate | Constitution, wisdom, charisma | Faithful | Arcana and persuasion | One kind of artisan’s tools or musical instrument |
| Inquisitor | Strength, wisdom, charisma | Faithful | Intimidation and religion | Torture tools |
| Marked for death | Strength, dexterity, constitution | Grizzled | Arcana and survival | None |
Feats
The following are all good feats for the oath of the eldritch hunt:
- Curious: Can temporarily gain proficiency in a skill you don’t already have this for. Nice for a class often using face skills. You also have some enhanced skills from stolen eldritch gift making you a potentially strong option on a few other skills. Learning resistances, vulnerabilities and immunities of enemies can be handy in combat too.
- Faithful: Charmed and frightened resilience plus you get heroic inspiration when you roll a 1 on a d20 test. You should be making a fair few d20 tests as a reasonably high attack subclass (2 attacks with your action and a fair few bonus action attacks) which means more d20 tests to potentially get heroic inspiration on so you’re a decent choice for this. Just be aware that you do get immunity to the frightened condition at level 10.
- Grizzled: This loses some appeal from level 10 as paladins become immune to the frightened condition at that point, but as a tank, you can expect to be bloodied a fair bit which means more heroic inspiration.
- Focused hunter: Some extra effects you can use once every short rest. The arts are quite good for a melee build, especially defensive arts for a class often throwing themselves into middle of combat.
Weapons
The cleaver is a decent option as you can use it with a shield or go all out on damage. A scythe can be a decent alternative to other reach weapons, but this paladin especially wants to teleport into melee range of enemies and keep them close. I’d probably avoid the firearms as they tend to need gaining feats to use well and you likely lack the dexterity for them. You likely also want to be a lot closer to the action than these usually allow.
More from Steinhardt’s Guide
Interested in what else is available from Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt? Why not check out some of our other guides?
