Roleplaying a Paladin/Warlock (With a couple questions about mechanics)

[Mocpages]

Note: I don't have a ton of experience on forums in general, and less on this one, so I apologize for any mistakes I make or if this is badly formatted. I also lost the first version just after completion and it's now 12:40 so this is about three pages shorter.

Section One: Mechanics
I'm thinking about three level of Warlock, for Pact of the Blade and second-level spells. For invocations I want Devil's Sight and Eldritch Spear or Eyes of the Rune Keeper. I'm taking the Fiend Pact for spells, roleplay, and preference. I will probably be going to fourth in warlock for the ability score improvement. After that, I want to go Paladin, but I'm torn as to which oath. In combat, the fighting style is to blast away while closing to range, then lay about (probably [ab]using Darkness) with a melee weapon and making Intimidate checks. When the enemy breaks, I again shower them with Eldritch Blasts. Alternatively, I can sneak around or try sniping. Options, y'know?


Section Two: Backstory
I had about two pages of this, but I'll just summarize real fast: brainwashed a la real life cults + magic, semi-cured by a priest, joined the temple guard, eventually became a paladin, but without ever quiet abandoning his old god or the cult thereof.

Section Three: Stuff I need help with
I'd like it if somebody could check that I haven't made any huge mistakes with multiclassing or anything. Spell suggestions would be amazing, not to mention race, and I really need to find a god to serve. Similarly, more fleshing out of the cult I once served would be great, and I don't know what fighting style, weapon, or general "look" I'm going for here.

Finally and most importantly, how do I roleplay a paladin (of all things) with such a major struggle in such a fundamental area?

[RickAllison]

My suggestion is to choose a pair of beliefs that are divergent, but not opposed. My suggestion is to be a half-elf with the variant from SCAG to be half-Drow. You were reviled by the Drow that formed one half of your family, being brainwashed into nothing more than a tool devoted to Lolth and the other Drow gods (Warlock patrons). Be rescued by followers of Corellon Larethian and play up the conflict between the power thrust down upon you by the horrid Drow and the belief you feel in a more merciful god.

For a major turning point in your PC's life, he can be cut off by his patrons. Let him struggle to deal with that problem (obviously let your DM set it up for when you least expect it), but find solace in the one Drow goddess who is not filled with evil, Ellistraee. So you go from being a conflicted wanderer, to a lonely exile, to a paladin established by his own choices rather than the fate he was born into.

[Corran]

Section Two: Backstory
I had about two pages of this, but I'll just summarize real fast: brainwashed a la real life cults + magic, semi-cured by a priest, joined the temple guard, eventually became a paladin, but without ever quiet abandoning his old god or the cult thereof.

...

Finally and most importantly, how do I roleplay a paladin (of all things) with such a major struggle in such a fundamental area?
To have become a paladin, means that this character has some strong beliefs (see oath tenets), and a purpose to act on these beliefs. This is afterall why your paladin is blessed with his abilities (ie class features), which are nothing else than a manifestation of the paladin's desire to strive for and accomplish a purpose (which again is largely defined, or to put it better, is categorized, according to the tenets of the oath you chose). This purpose must be rock solid. And you must act upon it, as long as you intend to keep your oath and not become an oathbreaker Without knowing more about which oath you are going with, or at least without knowing a bit more about this character's personality and his motivations, I can only speculate. So I will speculate having in mind a devotion paladin.

Assuming that the cult that brainwashed you is evil, and that the god your paladin serves now and his followers are good (simplistic, I know, but I can only guess at), the only way you could perhaps justify that your paladin has not completely abolished aything that has to do with the cult that brainwashed him, would be to have him have some doubts that his current path is the right one. Maybe it's a voice in his head (his patron's voice) that keeps telling him that his current brethren at arms are evildoers who want to corrupt him and stop him from becoming the true hero he was always meant to be. Maybe it is just in the form of haunting dreams, that show you perhaps a very respected figure within your current order (perhaps the priest who cured you?) to commit the most horrible attrocities. Maybe there are indeed some rotten apples within your order and it is them who make you think twice if you are indeed stepping on the right track. Fiends (as is your patron, like to corrupt paladins, and the best way to acheve that is to fool them, so it would make sense that if all of these ''preminissions'', which are nothing else than a fiend trying to corrupt you, are disguised as to seem that it is some good entity that tries to warn you. A celestial, or perhaps a good aligned god). Whatever the case, your character is not sure that he has made the right choice. He wants to be sure though, and that is exactly why this uncertainty is driving him crazy. He wants to be a good person and to act on his beliefs. And he wants it so much, that the fear of having made the wrong choice will be enough for the fiend to trick you and lure you step by step closer to the darkness.

How this evolves is entirely up to you. You could have your character go too far, to the point that there will be nothing remaining of his old noble self. I am talking about a big character (character as in alignment) change here. Talking about breaking your oath and becoming an oathbreaker. This change ofc has to happen over a long period of time, and to be roleplayed properly in order to make sense, it cannot happen from one day to the next. Sure there will be some key moments along the way, where you will have the opportunity to make critical to your character's fall decisions, but you need to showcase this change as a slow and believable process. But if that is indeed something that ou want to play, and that roleplaying excites you, then by all means go for it, there is no wrong and right regarding rp, I am just giving you suggestions regarding how I would do it.
Alternatively, you could have your character realize that he is being manipulated and corrupted, and have him put an end to it. And now he is out trying to fix and attone for all the wrongs he has done (if any), and/or to destroy the fiend who almost claimed him. Using your gifts (warlock powers) to bring down the fiend has a sense of poetic justice in it (talk to your DM and see if he thinks that a warlock patron can take back the power he granted you with).
Or you can go with anything in the between, regarding how you plan for this character's story to evolve.

Just remember, a paladin must be certain about his beliefs, otherwise you are starting playing with a character who tries balancing between staying true to his vows and falling. And if you want to play this, better leave it to bring it after the campaign has progressed and your character is a bit more fleshed out through playtime and through you roleplaying him. This is a good rp opportunity, dont watse it on the beginning of the campaign, when no one (not even you) knows your character all that well. Bring it in after knowong enough and caring enough about this character, so that you can have such an important change (breaking your oath) have its dramatic effect and a serious impact.

[Herobizkit]

I would think that Fiend pact and Vengeance paladin has all the damage and flavor you could want. You swear to murder all the evil above and beyond to atone for your weakness/slavery. I'd also suggest the idea that using the Fiend's warlock boons may somehow 'drain' your patron of power (stolen from Keith Baker's concepts from his Eberron blog).

[krunchyfrogg]

Isn't there an undying light warlock, or something like that in scag? That s ounds pretty paladinish.

[RickAllison]

Isn't there an undying light warlock, or something like that in scag? That s ounds pretty paladinish.

That's in Unearthed Arcana. The one in SCAG is Undying, more of a lich-style warlock.

[krunchyfrogg]

That's in Unearthed Arcana. The one in SCAG is Undying, more of a lich-style warlock.

well, whichever onw adds damage to smites and fire spells is the one you want.:smallcool:

[TheProfessor85]

Background: Oath of the Ancients/ Fey Patron...done and done, lol although slightly cookie cutter

[Klorox]

well, whichever onw adds damage to smites and fire spells is the one you want.:smallcool:

It's debatable on whether or not it works with smite. The text reads you add your CHA modifier to damage when you *cast a spell* that deals radiant or fire damage. I don't think generic smiting is casting a spell.

[RickAllison]

It's debatable on whether or not it works with smite. The text reads you add your CHA modifier to damage when you *cast a spell* that deals radiant or fire damage. I don't think generic smiting is casting a spell.

It's not even a spell attack (the Sun Soul was close enough to a spell that my DM allowed it for a player, though that was the only "optimized" thing about the character). Searing Smite it might work for.