Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Paladin class for BG3? & Black Guards

I was wondering, that when would the paladin class be added to the game, to make your holy warriors or villainous Oath of Conquest paladins. in 5E paladin can mean as well blackguards in addition to your knights of shining armor. I would definitely want to play one evil playthrough with a Blackguard of Zariel or the Blackguard of Bhaal.

Unfortunately none of us know, but perhaps not until actual release of the game. Afaik there is speculation about how paladins, with their emphasis on smites, will be implemented in a game which, at least in its early access form, does not have a 5e style reaction system - some poeple have speculated that means paladin will be one of the last classes to be added. There is further speculation about how Larian are saving a lot of things for final release, rather than releasing content at a steady rate which for many EAs is the norm - and has become something of an expectation.

Yeah, 5e "Paladin" combines all the prior edition classes which were "paladin but not LG" under one roof. In general I'd expect an in-universe use of "paladin" to still refer to the stereotypical knightly LG crusaders or at most the zealous, unforgiving LN types you might get from some Helmites. Whereas a class-paladin of say Sune might in-universe be referred to as "champion" rather than paladin.

But, I doubt we'll see subclasses outside the base game to start... much as I'd like to see all the subclasses and all the lineages.... I would prefer the game be able to get released in the next year or two and just have the rest as DLC.

That said, I do have an LG-ish idea for a Conquest paladin inspired a bit by Saber-Alter... even have some art for her somewhere.... and you can definitely tweak Vengeance paladin to do a blackguard...

Are black guards even in 5e? I know oath breakers are in the dungeon masters guide. Would love to have one of those. I think the classical Anti-Paladin from my days never made it past 3rd edition. That’s been a many years ago. Giths used to have many anti-paladins back then. Miss my unholy avengers.

I need my dark god hating “paladin” fix.

Consider blackguard an in-universe term rather than a game mechanic term.

A paladin of Bane would be a blackguard, for instance. And would likely have the Conquest, Vengeance, or perhaps Crown subclass.

I tend not to trust the DMG classes and races... they don't feel as polished to me. It feels like they were made as "here's an example of how to make your own thing" without spending as much effort on looking into them as they did with the UA > Sourcebook stuff.

I used a nexus mod to get the oath breaker and made him a “paladin” of Merkul(sp). Interesting in game responses from Jergal(?)…. So there are set voice responses to a paladin class… We will see.

Incidentally, regarding the gods. I'm really liking the effect the trend away from alignments is having on how gods are portrayed. Like in current situation former villain-ball-enthusiasts have been getting a much more nuanced approach. Like I'd still not trust Bane for anything, but I can see varieties of his worship that aren't immediately going to be villains.

To some degree this has always been a thing. Mask has had heroic followers now and again at times, for instance. I can definitely see non-evil worshippers of beings like Loviatar, Talona, Umberlee, Auril, Bane, and what not.

And we still have enough insane types to have for "no, this lot is always horrible." Like, say Malar... or Cyric... or Bhaal... or Maglubiyet....

This also allows for evil followers of good gods... we could do with a storyline similar to the Kingpriest of Ishtar, where some good-god's servant starts off on some crusade that runs counter to his god's teachings and be the heroes trying to expose the situation and put a stop to it.

"I am doing the will of Tyr."

"No, no... you're really not."