So, my main in World of Warcraft for nearly my entire time playing the game (it'll be 20 years this September) is a Protection Paladin. When I first encountered the Paladin class, it was in Quest for Glory V, and in that, you started with a shield that had a big sort of mystic eye on it, so I initially thought of Paladins as a more arcane/esoteric class. While I do enjoy the righteous, holy light feel of my WoW Paladin, it would be cool to give him a more arcane aesthetic (as I've written many times, I love "Battlemages" like the Eldritch Knight).
The Spellguard has some of those vibes - a Paladin oath dedicated to countering wicked spellcasters. But on top of that, they're also strongly oriented around being bodyguards. While they don't work quite like the Ancestral Guardian Barbarian, for example, they will be very good at protecting an ally.
Frankly, the RP potential to have a party with a Wizard and their loyal friend and protector Paladin is strong (like an Aes Sedai and their Warder from The Wheel of Time).
Let's get into features:
Oath Spells:
1st: Detect Magic, Shield
2nd: See Invisibility, Silence
3rd: Counterspell, Dispel Magic
4th: Freedom of Movement, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere
5th: Circle of Power, Hallow
Ok, first things first: Shield is insane on a character who wears heavy armor. I could almost never be hit on my Eldritch Knight, and a Paladin has better spell progression. But there are also some very solid spells here, like Dispel Magic, Freedom of Movement, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere.
Silence, Counterspell, and some others here really secure this subclass as the, if you'll pardon the expression, "Mage-Fucker" subclass.
Level 3:
Guardian Bond:
As a magic action, you can expend your Channel Divinity to forge a bond with a creature within 5 feet of you for one hour or until you're unconscious. (You can also end it early if you want, and it ends if you use this on another creature).
If the creature is within your reach and it hit within attack, you can use a reaction to add your Charisma to the bonded creature's AC (minimum of +1) and potentially make the attack miss.
This is strong, though we should note that you need to really stick close to the ally. "Within reach" is interesting, because you might thus really want to fight with a reach weapon (and maybe be a Bugbear as well) to ensure that you have the most ability to protect them.
If we assume you try to start off with a +3 to Charisma, this is pretty solid, and if you're able to cap it, that becomes basically a Shield spell you can cast on your friend. Notably, while it only lasts an hour and takes your Channel Divinity, the actual uses of the reaction are unlimited, so if you can stay close to your buddy, you can really protect them quite a lot. But that range is, admittedly, pretty tight.
Spellguard Strike:
Also at 3, when you see a creature within your reach casting a spell with Verbal, Somatic, or Material components, you can take a reaction to make a melee attack against them with a weapon or Unarmed Strike.
This is nice - but we also need to reckon with how spellcasting NPCs have changed in 5.5. While they still often cast real spells, most of their "bread-butter" damaging "spells" aren't technically spells, and there's no indication on whether an Archmage's Arcane Burst involves any components. Technically, I think they don't. Still, they'll often cast a real spell especially on the first few rounds of combat.
Level 7:
Aura of Concentration
Your Aura of Protection grants advantage on Constitution saving throws that you and affected allies make to maintain Concentration.
While I'd advise nearly any spellcasting character to pick up War Caster ASAP, thus making this redundant, it's likely you won't have that, and you're the person who most often benefits from your aura. With advantage and your Charisma bonus to the saves, this will make it very hard for you or nearby allies (like the one you're probably protecting with Guardian Bond) to lose concentration.
Level 15:
Spell-Breaking Blade
After you hit a creature with your Spellguard Strike, you can cast Counterspell as part of the same Reaction. If the creature is still able to cast their spell despite your Counterspell, your spell slot is not expended.
Again, this is very dependent on whether you are facing a lot of spellcasters that are actually casting spells. If you are, I think this is great, getting both some damage and locking them down on top of that. This could be insanely clutch if it stops something like a villain escaping with a Dimension Door spell. And I like the refund here, especially given that a 3rd level slot is probably a lot more precious to you as a half-caster.
Level 20:
Eternal Spellguard
As a bonus action, you can empower your Aura of Protection for 1 minute (or until you end the effect for some reason). You can do this once per long rest, but regain the ability if you expend a 5th level spell slot. You get the following:
Bodyguard: When the target of your Guardian Bond is in the aura, they have resistance to all damage.
Protection from Magic: You and your allies in the aura have advantage on saving throws against spells.
Spell Ward: Spell attack rolls against you and your allies in the aura have disadvantage.
Really important clarification needs to be made: In the 5.5 monster stat blocks, they don't mention if something is a "spell attack" or a "weapon attack." But I'd argue that an Arcane Burst from an Archmage is 100% a spell attack, even if it's not technically a spell being cast. If it's only "spells that use an attack roll," this becomes much less powerful.
But I think one of the really great things here is the Bodyguard feature, really expanding the use of Guardian Bond.
Overall Thoughts:
This subclass has the potential to be awesome in the right campaign. But you are going to need to be fighting a bunch of mages, which largely means humanoid NPCs. That said, it need not only be such monsters. Yes, we've got Liches, but also most adult/ancient dragons now incorporate spellcasting into their multiattack, and powerful fiends like Pit Fiends have spellcasting as part of their suite of abilities.
As a DM, I'm super grateful that spellcasting monsters don't have a ton of spell slots to track anymore, but I do think especailly at higher levels, you will still see them casting real spells, and this subclass is very well-suited to dealing with them.
Guardian Bond is one of the subclass' biggest universal features, but you've got to think a lot about who you want to protect with it - protecting a squishy Wizard does make sense, but that might make it harder to wade into melee while the casters are far away. You might actually be better-suited putting it on a Monk or Bladelock.
Yeah, I think this is quite powerful, and situationally insanely so. But I can also imagine scenarios where you've just picked this for the wrong campaign, and that would feel bad.
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