I have been someone that has enjoyed playing Paladins since ADnD 1E. I love the idea of the noble warrior fighting for a greater cause. While the 5th edition rules opened up what a Paladin could be, those rules are guidelines, as are all rules in DnD. The primary rule creator is the lore and the GM. So when Larian summarily decided to drop Deity selection in creation of a Paladin I was very disappointed. This is lore for the Forgotten Realms. The whole system however, in my opinion gets WORSE with the Oath Breaker.
The idea of a Paladin had always been that a Paladin is a "Holy" warrior. His power comes from his ties to a higher power. However when a Paladin broke those ties, knowingly did something against the nature of his calling, he lost those extra powers and became just another fighter. He could not buy his way back, he had to undertake a great quest to establish his worthiness and this often require a great personal sacrifice. Larian really missed an opportunity with this to have some great spin off adventures. However for simplicity stake I understood this.
It got worse however as they gave us the Oath Breaker. Understand I am not opposed to an "evil" Paladin but even they had rules they had to abide or lost their powers. The implementation of the Oath breaker however in BG3 is screwed up in my opinion. Instead of a Paladin losing his way and falling from grace, he pivots. This very concept by the understanding of a Paladin makes ZERO sense in lore. If he is so weak willed one act can pivot his oath to another then his oath was weak from the start and would have never been worthy of being a Paladin.
Knowing that they threw out the lore, we quickly see they why. You see there is no penalty for becoming an Oath Breaker, in fact it is something of a reward. An Oath Breaker is still a Paladin but now has no oath to follow. Be good or bad, no one cares. Be purely chaotic, no one cares. The Oath Breaker as implemented is a cheap way to break the game and let a Paladin just be a spell casting fighter. It removes all that made a Paladin an interesting class to play.
While people are talking about various romances and sex scenes, focused on who sex's who. I look at the game and am sad, because an ICONIC class in DnD has been neutered and not only do we not get an explanation into why, we get no one crying out about it.
