I went into my paladin playthrough with the intention of seeing whether I could become an oathbreaker by making choices that a character I could see myself being interested in role-playing would make. I’ve still got a fair amount of game to go, but so far my oath of devotion paladin has done all of the following without it apparently impacting their oath:
- read the Necromancy of Thay
- said they found Shadowheart’s description of Sharran faith convincing
- raided Withers’s tomb
- allowed a vampire spawn companion to feed on enemies
- received the blessing of Loviator
- accepted the brand of the Absolute
- killed all the druids in the grove, after killing Kagha at Zevlor’s suggestion
- used the tadpole power multiple times and said to Shadowheart that they found the vision of destruction attractive, and that it would be foolish to ignore the potential power of the tadpole
- got imprisoned and broke out (though think something went a bit wrong here as I jumped through the hole in the roof in the locked house in the grove and in the middle of the injured tiefling challenging me she suddenly broke off and someone came in and arrested me without me getting a chance to reassure her)
I agree that there is currently a problem with it not being clear what the paladin’s oath is or to whom it is made. Without the ability to pick a deity to whom loyalty is due, and to whose tenets it would be expected the paladin would adhere, it’s arguable that none of the above actually contradict the oaths of devotion. Except maybe killing the druids failing the latter clause of the promise to “do as much good as possible while causing the least amount of harm” given the amount of collateral damage and that there were plausible alternative actions to help the tieflings.
I’m continuing with my playthrough and will see if my oath is still intact by the end of the EA content, but at the moment I’m finding it quite unfulfilling playing such an unpaladiny paladin without any consequences.
