Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Oathbreaker issues with Withers

I'm hoping Oathbreakers are on the list for some major fixes as I had a lot of difficulty not becoming an oathbreaker as it's often very unclear what options will break your oath when trying to uphold it. Also there are some enemy groups that will attack on sight, but if you attack them first apparently that's breaking your oath (even though they're vicious murderers whose trail of bodies I've been following).

I love that they included it as a possibility, though strictly speaking in D&D 5e the "Oathbreaker" sub-class isn't for paladins who merely break their oath, it's for those who are specifically evil and on course towards becoming death knights. Being an "oathbreaker" is just the first stage (losing access to oath-specific powers), and for most characters it would make more sense to change class to fighter.

On that basis I think breaking the oath should give you access to a free re-spec from the oathbreaker (no Withers required), but perhaps with limited options; e.g- barbarian, fighter, maybe monk, or paladin but with oathbreaker as the only option.

But for those of us trying to stick to our oaths they need to make it clearer which dialogue options will result in us immediately breaking our oaths, or make sure the choices that can cause it always have a [Paladin] option or something, and let us kill bhaal cultists without consequence (I wasn't even the one that started the fight, Astarion did it!).

It's one of those areas that highlights where an actual DM would smooth out the problems, because fundamental changes to your character should be a collaboration; e.g- they might ask questions like "If you attack first, that goes against your oath of redemption which requires you to believe in second chances", or they might remind you of your alignment and suggest that it may need to go from good to neutral etc. Plus it's also possible for players to be clearer in their intentions, i.e- you're making a dubious choice but on complex moral grounds like someone bad being a victim and begging for a second chance or such, but currently sparing anyone "bad" can result in instant oath breaking.