How vital are the oath tenets?

[stewstew5]

Supposing I wanted to make a character from a concept that had perfect synergy with the paladin features, but had 0 synergy with any of the oaths (and I’m not homebrewing a whole subclass for this one character (mostly to avoid a debate i’d totally do it otherwise)). How vital would you say the tenets are to the balance of the class, or the features overall? Could they be ignored in this case?

[Unoriginal]

Tennets have no impact on mechanics, including anything that could be unbalanced by their presence of absence.

[GreyBlack]

Supposing I wanted to make a character from a concept that had perfect synergy with the paladin features, but had 0 synergy with any of the oaths (and I’m not homebrewing a whole subclass for this one character (mostly to avoid a debate i’d totally do it otherwise)). How vital would you say the tenets are to the balance of the class, or the features overall? Could they be ignored in this case?

Ask your DM. Some DM's will tell you to go for it and that it's fine, some will tell you that it's not. Some will even tell you to take whatever archetype and just write your own oath up.

[Constructman]

The tenets are easily refluffed.

Mechanically, which subclass you end up taking depends on what you want to do with your character. Go Devotion, Vengeance, or Oathbreaker if you're looking for damage. If you're looking for more party support, Crown and Redemption are aggro tanks, Ancients is a meat tank with anti-caster focus and some control, and Conquest is a dedicated control tank.