Creation of Elemental Paladins

[Captain Bob]

Rather than a Sorcadin build, Eldritch Knight, or whatever the new Barbarian option is...How would you folks go about constructing 'elementally thematic' (Fire, Earth, Air, Water Etc.) Paladin Oath options into the game? I'd assume that each would have it's own unique emphasis in terms of fluff and mechanics - For example the fire oath gaining aggressive or offensive abilities...while perhaps air would gain movement enhancing features and spells.

The main thrust here would be to accomplish something more thematically interesting and mechanically cohesive than what could otherwise be put together, while not veering off into abject brokenness (thus, my plea for help).

[Randomthom]

Paladins tend to be tied to specific codes or tenets, I'm not sure how that would work for an Element. Wouldn't Fighter & Eldritch Knight or Bladesinger be better starting points for the design (depending on how spell-heavy you wanted it to be).

[Mortis_Elrod]

Hrm. Probably something like Oath of Elements where you choose the element when you reach 3rd level each one doing a different bonus affect along with the standard feature. Tenets would be something like an Avatars oaths if they had any (last air bender ).

Definetly doable here, Paladins would draw towards that Primordial Force of Creation that is say an Ancient Elemental.

[lunaticfringe]

Me & a player built a Dark Sun Fire Cleric by using the Light Cleric Expanded list on a Vengeance pal and having him smite Fire.

If you can find it Dark Sun had behaviors, quirks, and Pacts for Elemental Clerics. Might give you some Oath Ideas. Also there was a 3.X Dragon Article about Neutral Paladins, they were Elemental as opposed to holy/radiant.

[Aett_Thorn]

Just by switching some bonus spell lists around a bit (plus some spells to fill in the Druid bonus lists), you could probably be off to a good start, and then a subclass feature as mentioned above allowing them to replace the radiant damage from smites to be their Elemental damage type instead.

Lightning/Thunder: Tempest Cleric
Cold: Arctic Druid
Fire: Light Cleric
Water: Coastal Druid
Earth: Mountain Druid

[intregus]

You could even look at the Princes' of Apocalypse book where it talks about each cult and how they view each element to help create what each elemental oath would look like