The Problem with Paladins in D&D
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- čas přidán 23. 03. 2023
- D&D Paladins get the worst rap out of all the DnD classes. Why?
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Check out the Paladin Oath of Love HERE!
docs.google.com/document/d/15...
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*This is the space reserved for people to complain about how paladins were better when they HAD to be lawful good*
There you go, now we can keep it contained.
time for you to gain some interactions
While I feel a majority of paladins should be lawful, there is room for experimentation.
I'm gonna sit in this space so those people don't have any room to sit down.
I'm also gonna fart.
Wibbity- woobity, I played a oathbreaker and had a good time! 😛
@@MM-lv7iy MY MAN!!! *high fives*
“Do you want to tank? Do you want to fight? Do you want a class that’ll instill fright? Well take up some plate and keep the goblins in sight because you’ll want to make them eat this paladin SMITE!” A wise person
"ELDRICH BLAST" A wise person
"Fireball. Just Fireball. NOTHING BUT FIREBALL!!!" A wise person.
_JoFeline, the Wise_
Welcome to a crap guide to dnd
*bouncy bardy string picking intro*
My favorite paladin idea is an oath of redemption paladin whose motto is basically, "i'm going to drag you kicking and screaming into the light. It's not gonna be fun for either of us."
This but "IT'S gonna be fun for me"
Sounds like something for Warhammer40k
Celestial warlock multiclass and even pc themselves is kicking and screaming, at their patron. Constantine
"You are being rescued, do not resist, this is a threat"
Unfortunately more often than not when I try to play a Paladin I get the "ugh a Paladin, really? In a fantasy setting where you can live out any fantasy why would you want to be a good guy? Here try this tiefling Rogue." Unfortunately, my power fantasy is being a good person with the power help people and do good so I'm immediately branded as boring and unoriginal.
Totally valid. Don’t let them yuck your yum!
Paladins are great for being evil as well, you can be an Oathbreaker or Oath of Conquest paladin
Shows more lack of creativity on their part to be honest. 🤷🏿♂️
Super valid. I've never enjoyed playing characters that enjoy hurting people. The best I can do is a character that doesn't go out of their way to hurt people, but looks after themselves first, even if it's sometimes at the expense of others. Like my capacity to do good is much more limited in real life, so my power fantasy is also someone who can do large amounts of good without even sweating it. Good can come in so many flavors too, it doesn't always have to be a law-abiding goodie two-shoes! Sometimes stealing is morally correct, an example that this very video brings up, lol.
I love playing a good, albeit neutral to chaotic alignment, character. It is very satisfying to put good into the world even in a game 😊
I love the idea of a path of vengeance paladin who joins a party and realizes that they actually don't believe the "any means necessary" part. As they start to put the lives of the friends before their goal, they become an oathbreaker.
So Guts, basically
My paladin would definitely put his life on the line before breaking his vengeance oath, but will not allow others to die for his selfish desire of vengeance.
I mean if he has the choice of either defending you or going all in against the bad guy, he would go for the bad guy, and if you die I am sorry. But if he had to chose from saving you of falling out of ledge and letting the bad guy run away he would bregudgely save you. Cause evil must be punish, but I am not evil my self if I let others die under my choice?
Same
My Paladin became an Oathbreaker because my DM and I agreed it would be fun and since he couldn't remember his past he was technically breaking his old oaths by swearing to stop the Chessmaster of a BBEG out of pure spite. We're flavoring Oathbreaker as the Oath of Spite and gave it a single class abilty: twice per long rest he can say "fuck that" to any nat 20s or nat 1s.
They don't have to break their oath. "By any means necessary" is utilitarian thinking, if youre pursuing vengeance to the detriment of people who don't deserve it, then is it really justice? That's sort of the difference between an unhinged bully who just wants to impose their morality on everyone versus a person delivering proper street justice; a champion of the people who strives to protect them and only stacks bodies in extreme circumstances.
Love the idea of a pair of Paladin and Barbarian siblings who chose very different paths of "Emotions give me power"
Their parents were killed, one wants to kill the perp, thus becoming an oath of vengence paladin, the other angry to all hells wants to kill the perp, thus becoming a barbaran.
For Paladins its supposed to the the devotion, not emotion that gives them power.
And this video gets the traditional limits on alignment so wrong. They are restricting, but that is in keeping with what it takes to attain this level devotion.
People often roleplay it poorly because they go too black and white with it. Forgetting that their character is in fact a flawed lifeform, chasing an ideal. They will stumble in their devotion from time to time, they will crack in their stoicism and let down their guard from time to time. Thus making these moments more valued for them and their comrades.
That is the class. Whining about, I want to play a paladin and play how ever I want, flies in the face of what the class actually is.
Stepping outside ourselves and roleplaying an alignment that is foreign to us, is where so much of the magic from D&D can be created.
Rather than gimme what I want, because I want it.
@@Duncan275 I have waited for an excuse to do a paladin dragon who is librarian devoted to his library for so long
@@Duncan275 Forced alignment restrictions are ALWAYS bad. Every deity has holy wariors super devoted to them, but if you're super devoted to say, a chaotic good deity, guess what your alignment is going to be... and that doesn't mean chaotic good deities never have paladins, that makes no sense.
Absolute devotion to an ideal can take many forms, not all of those forms are going to be Lawful Good. Paladins get their powers from zeal and devotion, and are basically a more martial form of a cleric, channeling it into their martial discipline moreso than for spellcasting. They should absolutely be many alignments, based on A) what they are devoted to, and B) how they themselves interprete its meaning. If it's a deity, they are going to embody the nature of that deity.
And no, it isn't restricted to good. Evil deities should have paladins too and not just fallen ones. Every god has champions, and many causes and ideals do too... what makes a paladin is their devotion being taken to such extreme levels it starts to manifest as powers, channeled from that concept and their faith.
Simply put the idea of the holy, absolute warrior blessed by their devotion to what they believe in should be much more universal than just "always lawful good". Clerics make far more sense, needing to be within a step of their deity's alignment. Paladins should be the same if they have a deity, and if it's an ideal it's all about their interpretation of that ideal.
@@Prismwind Because you are devoted to a Chaotic Good deity, doesn't mean u can be chaotic good yourself. Paladins are champions and protectors of the Deity's belief(which itself is lawful in nature). A paladin can believe in a Chaotic good deity, but their function doesn't allow them to be Chaotic themselves. A soldier that disobeys command is fundamentally a shitty soldier, ya he can be a good swordsman but he failed his function as a soldier. In role-playing wise, lawful good doesn't mean everything action you do must be "lawful" or "good", that is a machine not a human(other races) being. A paladin belief in a chaotic good deity may join up with a group of thieves if the local government is shitty. Also, for evil deities... their champion is called Blackguard or Antipaladin, which by itself stands as a class.
I once played a homebrewed Oath of Devotion paladin, the twist was that he was entirely devoted to himself. He was such an ego maniac, that he developed magic powers purely to show how amazing he was. All of his abilities were flipped around, his aura gave him more power the more allies were around him, his lay on hands was a life draining ability that he could only use to heal himself, etc. He was a lot of fun to rp
This is similar to my character who I made with his Oath I called “The path of Victory” basically it was a character who’s main flaw was his overwhelming need to be victorious to a toxic point, and we decided that I’d be the only person in the party not using XP but instead a achievement system where if I lost in battle or in any situation my character saw as a challenge I would lose power or in case of winning I would gain power. It made for awesome character role play potential and hilarious comedic moments of my character having existential crisis over something as simple as not peeling fruit as well as another party member and literally becoming weaker because of it.
You made Lucius the Eternal, nice!
Lol in a funny way you made a character very similar to an old school paladin.
They were better than everyone else. They didn’t have to sneak because they weren’t cowards and would face things head on.
They were Nobel but that was also part of their conceit.
Sounds awful to play in the same table lol
For some reason this reminded me a lot of Gaston... But that is such a good idea!
I really love BG3's twist on Oathbreakers with how the initial acquistition of the Oathbreaker subclass your character basically has a heartattack
Honestly it makes a lot of sense since you basically betrayed the very thing giving you your powers, so you literally break a part of you/your soul... Heartattacks make sense
I read a great series where breaking a blood oath basically nearly mentally killed some one over a little time, since your literal life was devoted to someone magically. It made for some interesting plot moments when one of the main characters broke theirs in a show of defiance over what their master was doing (they lived dont worry)
So yeah it makes sense
In one of my games there was a Vengeance Paladin who was technically Lawful Good, but she was easily distracted and sometimes forgot parts of her oath. It was hilarious! She also had a chatty sentient sword who’s voice could only be heard by people who were Lawful Good, and no one else in the party was, so our characters all thought she was going crazy, having one sided conversations with her sword.
Had a paladin in mine who got goaded into throwing a bomb she wasn't aware was a bomb. She never lived it down.
Fi from the Master Sword
So Deadpool if he gave a damn about the legality of his actions?
Now I'm imagining a character shifting to Lawful Good while the Paladin is mid-conversation with the sword, thinking they finally fucking lost it.
I've always wanted to play a paladin whose oath was their wedding vows... this is perfect! Thank you so much!
What if someone kills their spouse?
@@Mark73 Switch to Oath of Vengeance
Roran Garrowson is the inspiration you need
M'lady
LITERALLY SAME 😂
Just before i start watching the video, i just wanna say thank you. You have to be one of the BEST content creators out there. You aren't just funny, talented and creative, you also seem to be one of the most generous people in the world. You are not only making this amazing videos to give us new ideas, you are actually WORKING and giving us the content for FREE. You are just so passionate about this channel and this community, and we really, really, REALLY, appreciate everything you do man. Thanks for everything.
There's not enough words to say how true this is, and how much of an inspiration he is to me and I'm sure to many others too.
Goat
Pointy Hat is king
Couldn't have said it better
@@mr.zendar885Should rebrand to Pointy Crown.
I played a pretty basic paladin once, he was Oath of Vengeance because he had a bit of an anger issue, but he was the typical goody two shoes! The twist? His oath was to the Cult the party was hunting down. He was placed on the team as a spy and spent the whole campaign feeding vital information to this cult. We had some TEAR FILLED sessions when he finally realized that maybe possibly his cult was not so good and told everyone in the party. It was some of the most fun I've ever had.
The first thing that came to mind with the Love Paladin was Hydaelyn from FF14. A paladin with parental love for the people/world, someone who loves meeting new people, new places, new vistas.
One of the most fun characters I’ve played was a paladin whose oath was “I’ll pay you back, I promise”. He had borrowed money from a devil to pay off his debts to a gang, then he borrowed even more money from a celestial being to pay off the devil. The celestial empowered his promise with paladin magic so that my character could get the money, but if he missed his interest payments then he’d be breaking his oath
So your celestial being was just Visa?
Sir Ponzi, paying off his old debts by owing a new God a new debt in a chain of debts.
Annnnnnd that's how MLM was born... 😂
Sounds like a warlock though
"The Oath of the Ponzi" eh?
That’s actually insane, about a week ago I made a paladin who’s main goal was protecting their brother, who is played by a different party member. You just made a perfect subclass for it!
This is insane, just yesterday I made and played a paladin whose main goal was to save his younger brother who was cursed with lycanthropy by a powerful werewolf (Loup Garou) that he must kill, and we were thinking if one of the party members could actually secretly be that Loup Garou!
I just wanted to comment under this, too, because of just the similarity of recently playing a paladin who wants to protect his brother 😆
Ha, nice!
@@jannfredryckmatias3545 This is insane, just yesterday I made and played a paladin whose main goal was to save his younger brother who was cursed with vampirism by a powerful vampire (Loup Varou) that he must kill, and we were thinking if one of the party members could actually secretly be that Loup Varou
I just wanted to comment under this, too, because of just the similarity of recently playing a paladin who wants to protect his brother 😆
I love the Wisteria concept so much, and the artwork even more. An insectoid elf gives me chills. Wish i thought of it.
There was a really cool paladin subclass that I found once. It was called something like Faithless or something like that. The basic gist was, the paladin had lost all hope, and their faith was a dying ember. And, like, the only thing keeping the paladin going was them trying to prevent others from turning faithless and losing hope. It was really cool, and I'm super sad I can't find it again.
Fun fact:
If you multi class a paladin/Barbarian, you can smite while raging
Because smiting isn’t casting a spell
I think oath of vengeance mixes best with Barbarian
I know I'm super late, but I actually have an Oath of Vengance Paladin with a single level dip into Barbarian! She's an angry little girl and- though I have never been able to get her high enough to where her backstory comes into play at the table- her entire character Arc is "when one seeks vengeance, one must dig two graves." She could either fulfill her vengeance by killing the people who killed her father (leaving her hollow and ultimately unfulfilled) or figuring out "Hey, the man my Papa worked for was actually kind of shit and I was a super sheltered child?" And turning her vengeance away that way.
Pointy hat videos are like a Friday ritual for me at this point
Time to start the PH Temple
fucking same
so you picked your class hold onto your ass cause race a part of a role you can play some sentient clay a he she or they. a beast that gets real snarly a regular dude name Charley if home brew is free a big talking tree welcome to a half guide to dnd
ALL HAIL POINTY
@@johndargis7656 I'm sorry repeat that?
I once made an Oath of the Watchers paladin! She was basically a magical girl in anything but name, 'protecting the realms' with a smile, pink ribbons, and a big heavy greatsword. Her way of thinking was very black-and-white initially, differentiating between 'wrongdoers' and 'the good guys' based on her own biased perception. She was actually quite violent and lawless in her methods.
Initially? Did she have character development?
@@RedeemerofDark Yeah! we had a run-in with a few kenku who were repeating some sentences that heavily implicated them in a murder that had happened. My paladin deemed them the wrong-doers and swung, not knowing how kenku worked. Turns out they were innocent; they had hidden away when the murder happened. They were the witnesses. She only realised their innocence afterwards. Naturally, she's been more doubtful of her don't-ask-just-go approach and her 'justice' since then.
@@nom2157 Very nice and straightforward 👍
That's a neat twist! I played one in a Diablo themed campaign and made him an overzealous demon hunter haha
@@nom2157I don’t understand, she should have broken her oath by being reckless and slaughtering innocents. Isn’t a watcher paladin supposed to protect innocents from space monsters (summarized crudely ofc)
I find the oath of conquest works really well for Goliaths and their urge to break personal records or "conquer" their goals.
On the other hand: think of perhaps how which god a paladin may worship affects how they interpret their oath. For example a paladin of conquest who worships Kord may choose to conquer all who use their might to oppress the weak and to conquer all cowards in their path, rather than conquer straight up everything.
I know its already a paladin spell, but would really consider adding ceremony to the oath spells for love, being able to hold a wedding at any moment thanks to it being auto preped just seems on flavour
I can see some comedic moments with that one. A party member is grappling with a goblin, the paladin does his ceremony and poof, they are now married to the goblin.
@@ttbrianm Then have some divorce related debuff for added shenanigans
@@M33f3r And has to give the goblin half their gold as part of the divorce. Go goblin!
Horny bards and paladins would hate that 😂
"Ceremony", D&D 3.5
My oath of devotion paladin got the typical edgy rogue backstory but went the complete opposite direction and basically tried to prove he wasn't a monster by becoming the goodest guy he could think of. He basically runs through life trying to do as much good as possible cause everyone calling him monster/devilspawn felt really bad and he wanted to prove them wrong.
Played a vengeance paladin through a campaign ran a few years ago, His story ended with him returning home and ending up as part of the city's Council with a key interest in forming friendships and treaties with local towns, other cities and general populations.
Final epilogue was a orc + goblin camp having a party over a recent loot run after a raid on some caves which held a kobold population that had earned a place in the city through mining and trade with the dwarven population. The last we heard was just him arriving to the camp alone before going to town on the camp for invading some innocent lizards.
And that's still my favourite way to play vengeance paladin. Doesn't have to be a mad search for wrong doers. Sometimes defending your home town is enough for them to reveal themselves
I made a subclass called the Oath of Mischief, with an aura that reduces enemy mental saves and a spell list based around Enchantment and Illusion. When you described Wisteria I thought immediately of the Oath of Mischief.
(My Oath of Mischief paladin exited the campaign when she used the last Wish on a Monkey's Paw to make a red dragon fall in love with her. Because it was a Monkey's Paw she fell in love with him too and they flew off into the sunset together. It removed the dragon from the list of enemy assets, which had been the plan, but...)
Disguised bard
With the idea of "They buff those they love around them" I immediately thought of a situation where the character tells the party about that, and then during a battle one player is getting really beat up and is all like "So you don't love me?!" and the character is like "I guess not?!"
Damn, imagine the captain of the guards in one of those little towns with a tight community, he is known by everyone, knows every corner, every shop and every shopkeeper, spends the time playing with kids in the streets and his love for the city blooms in an oath of love and when generic-evil-tm attacks and everything seems lost he intend to make his last stand but beside him everyday people rise their eyes and crude weapon glowing of the paladin's aura to defend everything they built togheter
I'm crying over this
One of my favorite Magic The Gathering cards "Champion of the Parish", not only has a great ability but his flavor text: "I stand for every cobbler, tanner, and fool in this town - and they stand for me."
BBEG: Hold on, yall said there were no Paladins in this town
Captain: There aren't, only citizens.
BBEG: What does that even-
*SMITE*
This description gave me chills!
I had that npc lol
For the longest time I've wanted to play a devotion paladin but for a love deity. Their goal to spread and protect love at all costs. Using a charmed bow and arrow as their main weapon, and a small blade as their secondary one called heartbreak. I have more ideas but when I saw your video I couldn't help feel seen so thank you for all you do. You're doing great and are a regular watch for me! You've got this❤❤❤
I like that in the text it says they get their magic from their oath, yet they get spell casting before they even take their oath. xD
My favorite Paladin subclass is Oath of the Ancients. It’s more than just the nature-themed paladin- It’s tenets aren’t just about protecting others physically, but keeping them happy and healthy as well. Giving people a reason to keep going and enjoying life. Its also encourages the paladin to stay happy and healthy as well. It’s nice.
I love OotA, its like... an Oath to being a hippie. fun to roleplay any way you want to approach it. Wanna be a druid knight? How about some old ass oath-sworn protector? Fairy Knight? Defender of the natural against the forces of other planes? (I'll admit with oath of the watchers there, its a much more direct alternative).
If you play tier 4 in dnd having a Ancients in the party is a must. Undying at level 15 also prevents paladin from aging, at this point the paladin no longer has a lifespan. Finally forcing any creature out of shapeshift on a failed save is truly op in role playing. You can truly wreck DM's plot by forcing a big bad to reveal itself.
@@unknownvalor9755 I do think it is quite good, the only Paladin class I'd personally rate higher than it is Vengeance. Giving the class with the highest single turn damage potential the ability to specify one guy and absolutely erase them from existence is satisfying as hell to watch as a DM, at least for me. I'm just glad when my players remember they can exploit a feature of theirs and use it to greatly help with an encounter, I love it when they actually use their features to outsmart me.
@@deadseven3474 @unknownvalor9755 I don't know. In most my 5e games aura of warding was never used that much. Most spellcasters use debuffs and CCs and when big elemental damage comes into play... it's from abilities like dragon breath whose aura of warding does nothing. Even devotion aura was better because "no" to charm mostly means no mind control. You can force someone to go out of shapeshift if it's shapeshifting not shapechange. For example, it does nothing against changelings. Ancient is one of the subclasses that you need to know that you're going to fight fey, evil druids or mages using magic to do damage not banish, charm, wall of forcing you etc. For example, it can easily shut down enemy warlocks! Undying is mostly just for RP. It's cool. Like... you can be a knight that was standing like a statue in an ancient tomb defending it and then when evil came you woke up. Sadly in the 15th level.
Vengeance on the other hand... like Deadseven said. It's just stronger because in 5e action economy, damage and CCs are the kings not healing and tanking. Hunter mark, misty step and channel divinity of vengeance pala are just too strong in later tiers. You can dish out cosmic level of damage with polearms which this subclass is build for. And when you're mounted is strong. About mounts... Do you know? Paladins WITHOUT subclass is strong enough base that they don't have any weak choice because the weakest choice is still a strong one because paladin. In t4 almost immortal (you can summon it and heal it because of special rules), flying paladin on fooking gryphon is scary enough.
And I still prefer the oath of the watchers. Because I love templars in dragon age and hunting evil mages is fun. Even if the subclass is weak.
@@deadseven3474 My main D&D character is 100% a hippie paladin. He's a paladin of small and forgotten gods, like the kind worshipped in a single out-of-the-way village or discovered as a crumbling idol in an overgrown temple. His oath is to protect the small and downtrodden, and he forswore unnecessary possessions, owning only his robes, his blade, and a pack of supplies. He's multiclassed with hexblade (CHA for attack and damage, and Armor of Shadows so he can use mage armor instead of needing to own expensive plate armor), and last time I played him he swore his Oath of Ancients to the primordial tree/deity that a druidic commune called home, swearing to find a way to cure its blight.
He's an itinerant holy weirdo who refuses to wear shoes and I love him so much
Batman's Two-Face is a great take on a Paladin, His Oath would be a total commitment to Fate (Or Chance depending on personal views of the coin flipping). I could see a Chance based Paladin dipping into wild magic, maybe a smite that punishes Constructs or highly armored creatures (it could be called Shattering Smite) or if one insists on alignment rules, lawful creatures.
I'm in love with this idea. Now I want to see more Alignment-bound Paladins with abilities that specifically target their enemies.
This is so good.
Maybe you get an oracle device (like a dice, or a coin) and your DM can force you to do a roll to choose what you're doing.
And you could definitely go for wild magic, but divination also has massive potential (maybe smite and force an enemies next roll to be something predetermined? Or buff an ally's roll. Of course getting overridden by nat 20/1 as that means that fate itself clearly had chosen the outcome, and who are you to intervene)
I actually played a chaotic neutral rogue like this once. He was not a sloppy guy, he was ideologically devoted to chaos and worshipped Tymora, goddess of luck. I played his alignment by flipping a coin with Tymora's visage on one side when I had to make a binary choice with narrative weight. I flipped one irl. It was fun but it killed him in the very last encounter in the campaign.
@@igor_kossov Thats quite a poetic end if you ask me
Oath of Glory is my favorite because your oath is just "my name will be known across the land!" How you get there can line up with any alignment
Oath of cloutchasing
The oath of Crom... I will crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and will hear lamentations of their women.
I just started getting deeper into DnD now that I started DMing and I just wanted to thank you. Your content is absolutely amazing! All your content for FREE makes it so much fun to do research and learn about the game.
I never would have guessed that being raised by a hat on the internet is all I ever needed ,:) Oh and also much thanks from my party! They’re sending love and dice blessings ^^
Okay, but when you showed the elder form on that Fey Paladin I actually popped off in my chair that design KILLS! Amazing job, great video!
Need a story about a paladin of a love goddess and a cleric of a war god getting together tbh.
Though not a d&d idea, I am recently working on a framework for an idea around the ancient "eden" of Arcadia protected during a Golden Age by the goddess Astaera and how it was corrupted by Prometheus. Kind of a faction based, which divinity do you side with kind of idea for maybe an mmorpg?
Evening Glory+Orkus. They both really click when it comes to the idea of undead
@@huivnthecaitiff1098 it’s a reference to Aphrodite and Ares in Greek mythology
make a godess similar to ishtar and you'll do both.
Pladins and Clerics of Freya: Those are the same picture.
Your design for her Elder Champion form is freaking amazing!!! That's one of the most beautiful and frightening character designs I've seen in a long damn time.
Love your videos! They help me understand DnD better and help me think outside the box. Also, congratulations, you made me want to try playing a new class! I’m super new to DnD, so thanks for the content! Love it, and keep up the good work!
I have an Oath of Devotion paladin but chose to make my devotion to family. She's a sweet middle-aged dwarf mom who decided to go adventuring like the heroes in her pulp novels after all the kids moved out. The party she met up with became part of her family during their harrowing escape from the under dark and that's how they benefit from her aura.
i had an oath of Devotion paladin as well. but my Secret worship to Vecna got figured out with a failed roll on Slight of hand when i was attempting to re-hide my Amulet of a Hand holding an Eye after our party got arrested because our monk decided to pick a fight. when the party first meet my character they didnt even question my Left hand being a prosthetic and having a fake eye. it was an interesting session for sure, instead of trying to break out all they wanted to do was interrogate me for half our session. All was forgiven when my Background False identity got us out of jail. but they didnt know part of why i joined the group was to lead them into a trap. This character replaced the one i played before that died while raiding an abandoned temple where a Cult of Vecna worshipers were gathering. Funny enough they didnt kill one of them. so when i talked to the DM, he let me turn that character into my new character for an interesting storyline.
¿Devotion? All right take a heavy weapon (greatsword or a greataxe), use your channel divinity to add extra modifier to your attacks and combine it with greatweapon master.
The results won't disappoint you.
Vin diesel as a little old lady
Thanks for your videos! I think your builds and roleplay ideas and suggestions are so helpful when coming up with my own characters' backstories, I've not yet adapted one as is but they're awesome inspiration at times.🤩
Also, you got a happy subscriber.
Your videos are awesome, and they make me (a newb) really really excited to finally play D&D. Please keep making more videos!
Conquest paladin turned orphanage patron defies Gruumsh and his oath of laying waste to the hosts of Maglubiyet in favor of defending the kids. So he's broken his oath now, but... He's most definitely not an Oathbreaker. I've been wondering what his future career might look like for quite some time now. And now I know! Faaantastic job, as always! Can't tell you how much I appreciate your work.
That reminds me of Cecil from FF IV, except, that girl had a mother, who... anyways he turns to Redemption, and the girl, turns out to be the parties Druid...
You can stay conquest. Just change your targets!
"I will bring ruination to anyone who attacks someone before their fated hour of conflict. I will shatter their bones to dust and spread it amongst the crops of the future.
One day a soul I spared will stand against me and in that moment, I'll see the fulfillment of my oath as their strength runs true."
And you basically chase after fights that are of equal or greater strength with the ability to put that aside to beat down those who only look for the weak.
@@riastlin2891 Absolutely! That was my original plan. Add a conflict of faith with the introduction of Ilmater, and explore the nuances between conquest as eradication and conquest as protection. But then again, this Oath Of Love looks sooo clear in concept, and sounds like a super fun device for directly incorporating said change of faith. Maybe *eventually*...
I'm all for making Oathbreakers that defy the traditional edgy, Darth Vader route
Recently I've wanted to play an Oathbreaker Revenant for Curse of Strahd
The idea is this:
The Oathbreaker was once a knight, and swore a sacred oath that he would slay Strahd alongside his comrades.
Only for him to flee the battle in fear.
Upon his inevitable death, the sheer, uncontrolled hatred of his fallen comrades, combined with the innate darkness of Barovia, bound his spirit eternally to the land, not unlike Strahd himself. His paladin abilities come from his innate connection to Barovia itself.
Rather than an edge lord, he's a kind, polite, soft spoken father figure with a healthy amount of existential dread and regret
11:20 Someone once said that the moment a DM goes "Ah, they chose this thing, so I need to make the game harder", then there's a problem with the option. I don't think that Oath of the Ancients is busted, but I don't believe that the reaction to an overpowered character option should be an equal and opposite force.
I once made an ancient paladin that was an interpretation of siding with life/the forest itself. It did so mostly because it wanted to keep unnatural things (monstrosities, extraplanar beings, undead etc.) as far away from the forests as possible. It was nice being good without having to play the hero.
Thank you!! Great content as always!!
Paladins are probably my favorite class, i can't stop playing them. I suspect it's because, on top of the very cool features, it really works for me to have a nice big chunk of their personality/belief system already baked into the class from the get-go. Makes it much easier to dive into the RP confidently and figure out where they stand on the morality spectrum as encounters come up.
Currently running an Oath of the Ancients paladin. He’s a Ser, knighted and ready to uphold the virtues of a Druidic circle. Having a lot of fun being the grandpa of the group who lets some mischief commence as life is boring without it.
*Sir.
Unless he's in Westeros.
Paladin will always have a soft spot in my heart because it was the only class I could beat the Baldur's Gate series when I was a kid when I couldn't comprehend the rules or mechanics. Personally have never played a ttrpg with people but I just love consuming this info (fantasy book guy) and your type of info, presentation, humor and good will is just everything. Thank you for the content, it is quite wonderful
I'm a grown man and I still can't comprehend Baldur gate 1 and 2's mechanics
@@DarkGreenFire Welcome to THAC0 and D&D 2e. The poor game had nothing to do with it, it was just born with dumb inverted armor class.
Your videos always inspire me to make characters who don't fall into archetypes, thank you very much. Love paladins sound great, can't wait to try one out
Dude I love your Paladin concept so MUCH! At first I thought it was going to be your typical Oath of the Ancients, but the further I got into it, the more intrigued I became, and the more flavorful this character was. When I got to the end, I was almost thinking, "At Level 20, this character could simply be the BBEG," and that'd STILL make for a very interesting story! Like, goshDAMN!!! Well done my good sir! Bravo!
I'm so happy that you made the Oath of Love. As someone whose favorite deity is Sune, and was heartbroken when we had the Love Domain ripped away from us, it is absolutely amazing to receive this gift. I'm definitely going to include this at my tables. Though, you seem to have only given them 1 spell per level with their oath spells. Might I suggest adding:
Charm Person (which isn't mind control, it just makes creatures view you as friendly) though Heroism can also work, Warding Bond, Beacon of Hope or Protection from Energy, maybe Compulsion to draw the enemy toward you, but Aura of Purity and Aura of Life can also work if Compulsion is too close to mind control, and maybe Greater Restoration, Mass Cure Wounds, Skill Empowerment, Telepathic Bond, or even Hold Monster could be appropriate additions. I get that there's a heavy emphasis on protecting and encouraging one's friends. If social graces are part of the identity as well: Gift of Gab can let you take back insulting comments, and of course Ceremony, Color Spray, Aid, Lesser Restoration, Aura of Vitality, Charm Monster, Circle of Power, and Hallow can also fit this subclass well.
I have been gaming for thirty years and I am always impressed by the fresh creativity you bring to these videos and alternative rulesets!
Well done!
Just discovered your channel. Just amazing, well done!
00:31 As soon as this began playing, I started to sing along. Sabaton do have Paladin sounding songs.
Love Sabaton. At least someone else noticed it!
A paladin that’s devoted to a passion vs one that’s devoted to an oath has some strong _Stormlight Archives_ vibes. Great video as always!
The Knights radiant are pretty much just Paladins. Now we have to think of a memorable name for our paladin. Oh! I know…. (Reads note). Kaladin.
"I swear I will stay true to try and fix my mental health issues"
yea sounds good, if only
@@anonymousname5860 Tsk, you could at least TRY to have some originality. Like Shallan, that's an original name!
Knight Radiants are the perfect example of the variaty of paladins. Kaladin and the WindRunners are the classic oath of devotion, but shallan is a total diferent thing , she is lake oath of the ancient.
Antonio, Thank you. What you're delivering to us every time is a gem of a work. The amazing content, humor and memories you often bring to us are out of this world ("I personally totally forgot about "Angel with a shotgun" Nightcore edition to which I listened a lot when I was younger and many other legendary pieces). Thank you, Antonio ❤️😇
It would be nice to see a discord server. Sharing these awesome custom content there would be great. It would be organized. Also asking for advice, finding groups and other fun stuff is a great opportunity.
literally made the build you discussed today before I saw your video! I think your idea is wonderful! In my build, I did choose to multiclass with a bard... it's called... a balladin. :D
I love watching these videos, they always come out right as I get to work on Fridays so I can listen along while I get things set up :]
One of my favourite characters I've made was an Oath of the Ancients tiefling paladin. Her whole deal was that she comes from a society of tieflings who had been tasked to protect a portal into the FeyWilds and each generation, the village chose someone to serve as their champion. On the day this character was chosen and took her vows, something happened and the portal closed. The village blamed her for it and she began her quest to discover the source of the corruption and reopen the portal.
She was a big sweetheart who just wanted to help everyone, but was also a 7 foot tall tiefling wielding an ancient sword bigger than most people, and she just couldn't understand why everyone was terrified of her.
can i say something, i love how loud you speak sometimes my dinky little notebook can't broadcast sound loud enough and i can't hear the video, your videos are very loud and i love it never stop doing it
I have said this in a different video of yours, but even though I can’t play the game (my dnd friends are in very different time-zones), I love watching your content; your videos are amusing and really entertaining, and if I were to be able to play, really well informative and documented. Keep going, I would love to support you if you ever make a patreon!
I've been waiting all of Spring Break for this. Thanks Pointy Hat!!
A huge thank you for your content. The fact you give the new content for free is incredibly generous. Plus you pair it with quality videos full of charm and humor. You're a cut above.
P.s. the art for Wisteria and the new oath has reached a new level. Truly stunning and easily my favorites of yours now
I love the Vengeance Paladin for it's role playing potential. It was a major moment in our last campaign when near the end my Vengeance pally finally stayed his hand at the begging request of the party. It showed his growth throughout the campaign with the influence of the party.
Fantastic work as usual! I just started playing a paladin and this is the perfect subclass for him, I will most certainly be taking Oath of Love at level 3
First class I played, fun flavor but I always felt like they were a one trick pony. At least early levels, once you get your oath and a few levels you feel way more unique.
Edit: I wanna make an oath of vengeance Darth Vader Paladin now...
paladins start to kick off at level 7, once auras start to come into play in their subclasses
I’d argue that early levels of any class are going to feel the same until you get more of your subclass abilities at later levels.
@@pointyhatstudios I gotta say, as someone for whom most f my play experience was in D&D3.5, seeing Darth Vader as a paladin really threw me.
@@Lobsterwithinternet A good amount of classes are pretty unique from the get go, I suppose it’s because it’s a hybrid class but unlike others the first 3 levels of Paladin just feel like a worse fighter.
Playing out of the abyss I had an Oath of Redemption pally named Praxis who was explicitly down there to try and convince the duergar and drow to give peace a chance. He also wanted to try and get Lolth to ease up on the drow because he felt like she must just be afraid to lose them and that's why she was so cruel. He had a tendency to sing lullabys for the party
Oh my goodness, your newly suggested oath seems like a perfect theme for one of my Paladin esque (not DnD) characters, I'm definitely checking out the details ^^
I once designed a Paladin who made an oath to his horse, because it saved his life when it rode him out of a battle that he could not win.
The horse so became kind of his guiding figure, literally. He would only ride where his horse takes him and my group had to tie up the horse to another horse, so he would follow, and use the horse as bait to make him do what they wanted. Placing the horse in dangerous situations to have the Paladin participate.
When his horse didn't like someone, which could be just the wrong snort towards some random townsfolk, he killed them. And he tried to get romantic with anybody his horse liked. Tried because his charisma was so low, he couldn't even deliver the basic pick-up lines correctly.
He was the most fun guy I ever played.
YOOO PALADINS LETS GO, been waiting, checking the channel every day for the videos
Oooooh, I'm actually planning to multiclass my Dragon Sorcerer into Glory Paladin levels. A major part of her arc throughout the campaign been her striving to overcome her limitations and walls placed on her life by her mom + former mentors.
Now, she's finding the grounding to steel her own resolve to set upon her own path, regardless of all the expectations placed upon her and find her own way to independence.
Your art has always impressed me, I would love to see like a how to design visuals for your character video
I know this is old but THANK YOU for the Oath of Love Paladin. I have literally been working a Oath of Love Paladin as a mainstay of my world and my art. I am really greatful.
YES NEW VIDEO ON ONE OF MY FAVORITE CLASSES!!!! I love creating characters who believe what they're doing is good but doesn't appear so on the outside. Huge fan.
I've never been this early to a Pointy Hat video before! These vids are some of the best, most creative d&d content on youtube IMO. Keep it up, hat man!
I've played every edition of D&D since 1979. My single most powerful PC was a 5e Vengeance Paladin who dipped a couple levels of Warlock to pickup Hexblace. That guy was unstoppable! 5e Pallys can be awesome!
They were always awesome. Just most people never knew how to play them till it was watered down for them in 5e.
Thank you so much for using so much Brienne footage this video. She's one of my favorite characters ever, and having her as background footage for the Oath of Love is absolutely perfect.
The anime character with a red hair, that appears in various clips is from "The Faraway Paladin" You're welcome.
My first and favorite character was an Oath of the Ancients paladin who, not by design, went completely insane. He was completely out of his mind, and it really added to the whole "otherness" of that subclass's morality.
And props to you for using all those clips from the Green Knight, awesome film.
Woah I hadn’t realized all the illustrations were by you as well!!! That’s so impressive
My favourite Paladin I ever played was actually in 3.5. He was forgotten King of a kingdom that allowed the *Dark Lord* to move his undead army through his kingdom without a fight. As punishment the good of justice punished him but resurrecting him as an undead (zombie) and made everyone forget his name. He was tasked with correcting his failure with an oath of justice. His name was new name was Nossono (which is Nobody in Italian for proper edginess).
This is an awesome take! My last campaign I played an oath of redemption (UA) pally. He wanted to do good, but he was committed to the idea that anyone could have a second chance so he kept befriending what should be enemy encounters and then winning over a suspicious town by brewing the best dwarven stouts (he was a bartender before his oath)
It was such a blast.
YES YES YES
I conger this is the most significant event (translation: LETS FRICKING GOOOOO)
Green knight, yeah that movie was something.
Also, your Wysteria story was well done!
There was a choose your own adventure d&d themed app that had a story about a paladin who was converted from oath of vengeance to oath of devotion, and it was a roller coaster ride of emotions!
In our next campaign I plan on playing an Oath of the Ancients Paladin that stumbled into it by helping her community of farmers and local wildlife and takes the oath 'Be the light you want to see in the world', sometimes literally. Thank you for helping with inspiration!
I was hesitant to play a paladin at first because of those pre-conceived notions of them being lawful good. But I decided to give it a go, and it immediately jumped up my list of favorite classes, and by far my favorite martial class. My very first session I spent all of my money in order to buy another character a cupcake for every one of their birthday's that I had missed. Shortly after I accidently got half the party locked up for wanting to get in a bar fight, and we had to make a prison break as a result. That was a very chaotic party, so I soon found myself becoming the "dad" of the group to prevent everyone from getting themselves killed. At one point I jumped off a cliff to catch a polymorphed companion who had been thrown, despite having no means of getting us back to the cliff. I think there was only one combat where I didn't go unconscious from tanking so much, and in one particular battle with a vampire, finished the fight with a max HP of 3 from all the life drains. I went with a 2 handed glaive as my primary weapon, intentionally avoiding a shield and keeping my AC relatively low, to encourage enemies to come for me rather than my squishier companions. And thanks to misty step, if someone tried to avoid me, I could chase them down pretty easily (unless they could fly). I had a blast.
I only make characters that are unorthodox, and all your videos appeal to my strange love of unusual characters perfectly. Thank you. I am about to play a character with a Curse at the center of their identity, and I'm excited to see how I work around it, and if I choose to be rid of it at some point, or lean into it!
I created a Love Paladin over a year ago and was just using Oath of Devotion, but now I'm excited to swap him over to this subclass. Thanks Pointy Hat!
Dude your stuff is just great and I can’t get enough, never stop
Currently rocking an Oath of Redemption Paladin. One power feature is a channel divinity that resets on short rests: Rebuke the Violent. Basically when someone other than me is harmed I can use my reaction to deal the same damage (no matter how much) back at the attacker as radient damage. They can make a save to take half. But this has proven very powerful against large damage enimies.
Oath of Redemption Pallies are my favorite to play as. They really work well with protecting allies and punishing enemies for choosing not to target the tank (aka, you).
This sounds like a good oath for building a good christian paladin. The road to being a peacemaker. It looks like flavoring them with the Bible and Jesus’ be-attitudes is almost what it made for. I want to mess around with devotion to agape love as an idea to. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
(I Corinthians 13:4-7 NKJV)
The Idea of a tank that wants to help and cares about others selflessly is what I want paladins to be. Not self righteous but loving unconditionally.
Your videos are amazing bro, i insta click on them as soon as they come online. YOUR EDITING IS SOOO GOOD.
Love Paladins. This was a concept that was played around with being a dedicant to Sune, back in the day when Forgotten Realms first came out. The only obstacle was being a lawful person to a chaotic goddess. But other than that, it worked perfectly, with some creative RP. I'm interested to see how your Oath looks!
I'm a firm believer in the power of paladin to make interesting stories. I'm currently playing an Oath of Glory paladin who's power comes from believing in himself so much, he warped reality and manifested magic. He's basically constantly high on magic and his oath is just to be the strongest and coolest person in all the planes. The only way he can break his oath is to stop believing in himself, which will cause him to lose all of his powers and revert to just being a normal guy
Your scripts and editing are great, this is solid comedy and good content.
my favorite D&D character I've ever played was an Oath of Redemption paladin whose "oath breaking" came from falling in love and having a child, which changed her ideals and made her re-evaluate her life choices. I'm honestly considering changing her subclass to "love paladin" if my DM accepts the idea 👀 having her "oath of redemption" fulfilled and changed into an "oath of love" would be so perfect for her!
Currently playing an Oath of the Ancients Satyr who is trying to hide the fact that she's miserable right now, as her childhood friend and love, a fey princess, has been cursed. Through the journey, she's realized it's her love for this partner that drives her, not the beauty and joy in the world around her per se. I fully intend to have her renounce her old vows and renew them to this individual as an Oath of Love (with DM's permission)!
The only thing I have a thought on glancing over the Oath, is why only 5 bonus spells? It seems most all Oaths get 2 spells at each tier, so I was wondering why this one only gets the 5, especially when spells like Warding Bond would be so fitting!
Anyway, thanks for the cool idea, and I'll have to see how this goes!
The Paladin strikes me as being the D&D equivalent of the Lanterns in DC Comics. The ones we know are the Green Lanterns, who are champions of Will. But there are a lot of different Lanterns, and each one takes an oath to a different emotional light.
A Pointy Hat video! It’s like Christmas! :D
5:43 Quick note, rules-as-written divine smite maxes out at 4th level, the only way to get 6d8 is when you hit a fiend or undead, BUT in 5e divine smite can stack with smite spells.
Where as in older editions it maxed out at 20th level and didn't require thrnuse of dice or spell slots. Ahh good times those were.
I have a tabaxi paladin named Beats of the Heart I made a while back specifically because I wanted to play with making a more chaotic aligned paladin and decided the Oath of Mercy fit him best out of the ones I saw available so I'm ecstatic about the Oath of Love cause it fits him so perfect!!
Thank you very much for this content. I just came across the channel. New sub :)