In 5e, a paladin’s power comes from the supernaturally binding conviction of the oath itself. You don’t swear the oath to anyone, and no deities have to be involved — that’s for clerics.
Ahhh that actually makes so much more sense.
I was wondering how come Sh coukd still use her powers even after betraying Shar, but its because she got accepted by Selune instead.
But if a paladin breaks their oath they become an oathbreaker. Fair enough.
I have no idea what this actually means in a practical sense. I’ve only played one D&D campaign and our paladin didn’t break their oath.
You essentially go to brazil.
Plus you get some oathbreaker powers instead i think. Idk.
damn that’s really harsh
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damn, akamito got hands
I will say that in the Forgotten Realm setting specifically (where Baldur’s Gate is) a lot of Paladins are still powered by deities and that is the expected default.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/561287824964452363/1151123812218318888/image.png
-Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
Obvs you don’t need to be, there are exceptions (and one might note that all of the things in the above are all ‘good’ rather than ‘evil’ like Conquest is) but FR as a setting is one where the gods are very much meddlers, and so Paladins being tied to them, like Clerics, helps to reinforce that on a world-building-level.
It doesn’t have to be the case - Eberron’s approach to gods is far more distant, so their paladins are more generally oath-based rather than being tied to divinity.
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i can fix her
whatever is wrong with her is much hotter
i love a woman who can actually just kill me
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Paladins being attached to divinities is cooler than oaths for me, no cap.
One of my favourite screenshots was someone showing that paladins of Lolth (have to take a cleric level to get Paladin Of X dialogues) have three distinct contradictory unique lines with Minthara which is both incredibly funny and also very true to Lolth
there would be no distinction between clerics and paladins if they were tied to deities
I place a cap on your head
yeah, exactly - see that cap? that’s you rn, capped
I will say that one of the key distinctions if they’re both tied to divinity is Paladins choose while Clerics are chosen.
While many Clerics are (for obvious reasons) active worshippers of their relevant god, they don’t have to be. A god could empower someone to become a Cleric against their will - or even someone who worships a whole other god. Is it typical? Not at all, but an atheist cleric empowered by a divine entity against the cleric’s will is a valid character narrative.
An evil god empowering a good person, or a trickster deity just tossing their empowerments around for laughs, likewise, would work.
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Seelah bashes Stonetower’s head in for calling her class and dedication to Iomedae superfluous
Pathfinder is an entirely different setting and rules set! Their alignment restriction clearly delineates a difference!!
I place a larger cap on top of your cap, forming a tower of cap
Haha you are doubly wrong, for clerics and paladins in 5e are mechanically distinct from one another also
Out of the mist, a joyful shout echoes:
“Cheese for everyone!”
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That’s a hat, not a cap.