Fascinating discussion.
@Niara, as always, I'm impressed as always by the depth your reading and the clarity of your expression. But, having said that, I'm going to be a difficult rabbit and express some differences of opinion.
… snip …
Thanks @KillerRabbit! I’m not going to have the temerity to weigh in on this debate, but it’s fascinating to read these different interpretations of FR lore, equally well and compellingly put.
For someone like myself, whose exposure to the lore has principally been via a few cRPGs and who only started learning about 5e for BG3, these sorts of posts are so useful when I’m thinking of what sorts of paladin characters I might create. I probably won’t do a full run with each of the oaths (which looks like it might be three plus oathbreaker if we get vengeance as the last PHB option in full release), but I’d at least like to design the characters I might play, and perhaps make them as custom party members if not my main character. It’d get repetitive if they all had to fit exactly the same holy knight-of-an-order archetype, and though I’m sure I’ll play at least one this way, it’s great to have this info to help me come up with (broadly) lore-friendly alternative paladins who have different sorts of histories and relationships to the gods.
On Warlocks. I don't have the source at my finger tips but in one of the youtube 5e Q&A sessions it was said that Warlocks cannot fall - which surprised me.
I was doing a bit of research on this when I was wondering what impact Mizora’s imprisonment or death might have on Wyll, or what would become of his powers if he is freed from his oath. I wonder if the Q&A you’re recalling expressed the same sort of view as
this tweet from Jeremy Crawford. I guess that is consistent with what
D&D Beyond says in the Sworn and Beholden section, which is that relationships between warlocks and patrons
can be like that between cleric and deity, but also might be more like master and apprentice. I think I read somewhere else from an official-ish source that what might happen if a warlock broke their pact would very much depend on the pact (and would need to be worked out with and agreed by the DM), but that if the relationship is more of the master/apprentice type then it probably wouldn’t involve loss of power though there might be far worse penalties such as one’s soul being forfeit. Unfortunately, I can’t find that source again, so may be misremembering.
And sorry, I know this thread is meant to be about paladins not warlocks!
