Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Paladin Oaths Subclasses Vote

Hello all! I just wanted to start the conversation of what oath would be the most popular to add next if Larian decides to add it.

I think Oath of The Watchers makes the most sense narratively since we are dealing with mindflayers and the fact that you have a tadpole in your head puts another urgency (other than death) to get it out.

But mechanically I think I'd want Conquest for our paladins that are already evil and don't need to break their oath.

Oathbreaker is cool, but it's presented as a "I had to make a choice" rather than "Yea....I'm a Blackguard/bad pally"

Thoughts?

Paladin Oaths multiple choice, up to 2 choices
	Oath of Vengeance
	Oath of Watchers
	Oath of Conquest
	Oath of Glory
	Oath of The Crown
	Oath of Redemption
Votes accepted starting: 19/12/22 12:50 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

I want oath of conquest, and oath of glory. Conquest is the only straight up evil subclass option that doesn't involve oathbreaking, and glory is a really solid neutral subclass that I think could satisfy people looking for such a thing.

Watcher is really nice, and relevant to the story we are caught in too, but it might be hard to play with considering the events of this first act. Accepting tadpole powers, allowing the absolute cultists to continue or joining them, accepting help from Ethel, or Omeluum, all these would immediately go against the tenets of your oath.

Oath of the Watchers should start with a broken oath. They failed Vigilance.

I think Vengeance should be in, but it should let the player select their "sworn enemy/enemies" since the game has no alignment to define their "greater evil". That would allow for a more elastic paladin.

Conquest for evil pally who don't want to be a "good pally who fell to darkness" and take Oathbreaker. They should break oath when they spare enemies and use persuasion when there is intimidate option.

I think that makes the Watcher experience better. You would HAVE to have a non-tadpole use gameplay. No freeing Shadowheart in the beginning, no Aunt Ethel, no using the powers of the absolute. etc



That would be an interesting way to allow Oath breaker Paladins to start out in Character creation. You can start out as an oathbreaker but if you wanna redeem yourself, then you go straight to Watchers, via new oath or that was your original.

Anything more appropriate for evil or neutral paladins would be a plus for me.

Y'all know we don't need to vote for Vengeance, right? Larian has stated they will include all PHB options.

Watchers because I thought it said witcher.

Larian has stated that their goal is to include as much as possible from the PHB. Swen specifically has said that "there are a lot of things we're not putting in."

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=782206

Oath of Glory could be interesting, considering the fact that Glory is easily separated from terms of evil and good. It can serve both ends.

I agree Watcher could be interesting and relevant to the story, and would be interestingly hard to stick to with some genuine conflicts between its tenets and the available major story choices. In addition to what’s mentioned here, Wyll could possibly be ruled out as a companion as someone who trucks with a fiend, unless the fact he regrets his choice means that there is a path to working with him. There would at the very least need to be some negotiation and debate.

Would accepting help from Omeluum be ruled out though? He’s not a fiend and, unlike Ethel, there’s no indication I can see of him having an evil agenda. I know Watchers are meant to protect from extraplanar threats, but does that mean they need to treat every representative of an extraplanar race as a threat and refuse to deal with them?

My other pick was Vengeance, and I hope we’ll get to choose an interestingly relevant enemy (this one would make more sense to pick later, at level 3, so you can know what you’re up against).

I can see any of them being interesting, though, as long as they’re implemented well. Conquest is probably the one I’m least fussed over, and I’d rather play an “evil” paladin as vengeance, glory or oathbreaker, but I definitely understand why folk want it.

I feel that if Vengeance is included, it would have to be against the person responsible for sticking a tadpole in your head. Selecting from a menu is back to the problems with ranger Favoured Enemy.

My feeling is that Oath of the Crown is top of the list of non-PHB paladin subclasses, because of oathbreaker guy's backstory.

My personal choice would be Mat Mercer's Oath of the Open Sea (unofficial).

Having thought more about it, my guess is that they are going to default Vengeance to undead/fiends (since it has bonuses against them) or generic "chivalrous enforcer of justice" which means they are going to role-play exactly like Devotion.

Oath of Conquest is very needed. Remember that squirrel in druids' den near the telescope who tried to scare you off from her "territory"? My paladin of conquest shall make she cry!! HIA! HIA! HIA!

Minthara has Vow of Enmity, so Oath of Vengeance may be a wasted vote. As this ability is one of the Oath of Vengeance's Channel Divinity options.

The problem is Larian's ridiculous interpretation of what breaks an oath. I have never seen this problem in a table-top session...ever.


The Absolute's camp, comprised mostly of Goblin's (although not exclusively), has declared war on the region.

Who better than the Paladin's to lead the charge?


What is the goal here? To discourage people from choosing the honorable path? ...to encourage every Paladin to be an oath breaker?

It's almost like Vincke is saying "C'mon, you know you want to".


I am beginning to suspect this, after repeated encouragement to "try" the evil path...and now they are trying to make it hard to play the traditional D&D Hero arc-type.

Thankfully I am not set on making a Paladin, because then I would be very pissed off, as apposed to just annoyed and cynically aware.


Larian's choice to make the "evil and neutral characters first", their own words, and never follow up with even one additional origin character in the whole of EA is telling.


Now I am pleased with the announcement of Jaheira and Minsc, but I have been given no evidence that they will give them justice. I have yet to see them make one "Heroic character" that doesn't try to prove the point "see, good sucks"...or ANY for that matter, outside of Tav. I grow weary of "The chek is in the mail".


Don't say Halsin, cause "show me".


I actually like Wyll, and consider him good. In his own paraphrased words, he lead a selfish and drunken past that lead to him making choices he now regrets.

He is now doing his very best to be a Hero that puts others first. He is not virgin clean, but who is?


Gale is pleasant enough company, when he is not pestering me for another "hit"..."mmm artifacts, keep 'em coming".


Truly Heroic arc-types....tally zero.


Bottom line...playing a Devotion Paladin should not lead to accidentally breaking one's oath and being surprised...this is happening.

I'd rather have one oath that is correctly and thoroughly implemented than several haphazard ones. I wasn't impressed with how easily and randomly an Oath of Devotion broke in patch 9.

OK...a fix.

1. Tag evil characters (those the Paladin would consider so)...pause...perhaps the paladin should have some influence in this.

2. A warning message. "Are you sure you want to steal from Aunt May's cookie jar?", "Selune will be most displeased".

Sigh...shortsightedness.

Perhaps they wanted to make a cool way to become an oath-breaker, but they just didn't consider the complexity of it. Auto-DM requires extensive AI for this new feature.

...Or just give the option to become an Oath-breaker, and call it a completely failed attempt.

Vengeance and Conquest for me.

Minthara also use Hold Person which is only available to Vengeance. But she mostly span Soul Branding which I'm pretty sure is an Absolute cultist spell and I wonder if we can learn those if we join.

If the subclass isn't available, I expect mods unlocking it really fast after release.