Reward for Paladin roleplaying their tenets

[Crucius]

Hey there!

One of my more roleplay-shy players is going to play a paladin (conquest) soon and I want to encourage their roleplay by also leaning on the tenets. Now, instead of slapping them with an oathbreaker when they don't uphold their tenets, I would like to reward tenet-related roleplay when they do make a cool in-character decision.

I currently have a fate-point like system implemented that uses inspiration points to promote and reward roleplay, but as I said, the player is not too comfortable with roleplaying (yet) so I'd like to reward them doubly/separately, to encourage them you know!

My question is: what kind of small boon could I give (repeatedly) when the player performs cool acts of roleplaying that are tenet-related?

My first thought was a d4 bardic inspiration thing that lasts an undetermined amount of time, but I was hoping that someone had a less generic idea.

[Contrast]

Can you explain why you don't think the existing inspiration mechanic would work for this?

Rewards don't always have to be mechanical. Another option is to just tell the person they did a good job - 'Hey good job sticking to your paladin oath there'.

If you prefer it in game 'As you X you feel the divine energies within you swelling, responding positively to your faith and commitment to your oath'.

[sophontteks]

Use the inspiration system. Going beyond this will detract from roleplay, as your basically trying to teach your player that RP should be done for the mechanical rewards.

[Crgaston]

Isn't the amazingly awesome power of having a Paladin PC it's own reward?

Seriously, though, I agree with Contrast... Inspiration plus social praise are the best rewards.

[Sparky McDibben]

So I disagree with a lot of Playgrounders on here. I think there ought to exist a separate mechanic to reinforce roleplaying, because the game rewards optimization and specialization, not roleplaying. Choosing the role-playing solution (making an in-character choice simply because that's what your character would do) may be very suboptimal from a mechanical standpoint. That might piss off your party, who now have to salvage a situation because the paladin interprets "Rule With An Iron Fist" very literally. So acting in character might not garner them much social praise, and Inspiration seems anemic as hell, just because a lot of DMs forget to hand it out.

Minor spell effects can do a world of good here. If you want to reward the player for sticking to it, then give them either concentration-free guidance on a skill check (for social encounters) or either bless or divine favor (for combat). Flavor it as "the spirits of conquest are pleased by your rigid devotion to law, and seek to help you CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES! GRIND THEIR BONES INTO THE DIRT AND WEAR THEIR SKULLS UPON YOUR IRON PAULDRONS!!!" If they keep doing really well, maybe them a boon that allows them to have those spells as oath spells (always prepared, even though paladins don't normally get cantrips).

Because everyone on the site will have a conniption fit about party balance, you might also consider how each of your other players can work to get RP-related boons to entice them to RP more, too. This could mean the evocation wizard starts small fires (or attracts lightning, etc.) when they get excited, or that the war cleric advocates trial by combat for solutions when that is definitely not the best idea. I have a lot of fun with those, because they add more chaos and weirdness to the campaign, instead of being a mechanically optimized dungeoncrawl. But those are just my two cents.

One more point is to talk through with your player how they interpret the tenets of the Oath of Conquest, and identify some problem areas. For example, your PC's tenets include:

"Douse the Flame of Hope. It is not enough to merely defeat an enemy in battle. Your victory must be so overwhelming that your enemies' will to fight is shattered forever. A blade can end a life. Fear can end an empire." That could have some ugly implications, both for the game and especially for PvP.

"Strength Above All. You shall rule until a stronger one arises. Then you must grow mightier and meet the challenge, or fall to your own ruin." Does this mean if someone beats the character, they start following them because they're stronger? Like I said, I'd sit down and talk through these with the player to avoid any unpleasant surprises in the game.

[sophontteks]

The reward is a good time. Roleplaying is something we do because its fun, and we don't need further inspiration to have fun. If you coerse people into roleplaying by trying to give it another game mechanic, that's all it becomes. The whole point of roleplaying is that it is not a game mechanic. You want to get their heads OFF their character sheets to roleplay.

We can easily make mechanical reasons why your friend must follow their tenants, but are they really roleplaying when all they are doing is trying to gain a mechanical advantage?

"There I followed tenant 2 so I should get...1d4 on my next roll."

That's not encouraging roleplay, its not roleplay at all.

Even the idea of following the tenants isn't roleplay. That's what the character follows to be a good paladin. That's their order. But its not what defines them, and as they develop they may very well break those tenants on occasion, and when those reasons are good. When it makes sense for the character to break their own vows and they do so, that's good RP.

[Expected]

The reward is a good time. Roleplaying is something we do because its fun, and we don't need further inspiration to have fun. If you coerse people into roleplaying by trying to give it another game mechanic, that's all it becomes. The whole point of roleplaying is that it is not a game mechanic. You want to get their heads OFF their character sheets to roleplay.

We can easily make mechanical reasons why your friend must follow their tenants, but are they really roleplaying when all they are doing is trying to gain a mechanical advantage?

"There I followed tenant 2 so I should get...1d4 on my next roll."

That's not encouraging roleplay, its not roleplay at all.

Even the idea of following the tenants isn't roleplay. That's what the character follows to be a good paladin. That's their order. But its not what defines them, and as they develop they may very well break those tenants on occasion, and when those reasons are good. When it makes sense for the character to break their own vows and they do so, that's good RP.

I cannot agree more. It's best to let people RP when they want and not force it. It should come intrinsically and not extrinsically. With time and getting more comfortable with their party, your player might start to RP more.

[Sparky McDibben]

The reward is a good time. Roleplaying is something we do because its fun, and we don't need further inspiration to have fun. If you coerse people into roleplaying by trying to give it another game mechanic, that's all it becomes. The whole point of roleplaying is that it is not a game mechanic. You want to get their heads OFF their character sheets to roleplay.

We can easily make mechanical reasons why your friend must follow their tenants, but are they really roleplaying when all they are doing is trying to gain a mechanical advantage?

"There I followed tenant 2 so I should get...1d4 on my next roll."

That's not encouraging roleplay, its not roleplay at all.

Even the idea of following the tenants isn't roleplay. That's what the character follows to be a good paladin. That's their order. But its not what defines them, and as they develop they may very well break those tenants on occasion, and when those reasons are good. When it makes sense for the character to break their own vows and they do so, that's good RP.

Disagree here. The OP stated the player is "roleplay-shy," but they never say anything about getting the player to open up or act. Instead they seem to be trying to incentivize them to act in accordance with their tenets - a carrot, rather than a stick. You believe the player's reward here will simply be roleplaying itself, but there's zero evidence to support that other than that's why you play the game. We don't know why they're playing the game in the first place, and the OP is trying to avoid punishing someone for breaking a tenet.

As far as them roleplaying in order to gain a mechanical advantage, isn't that sort of the idea of the paladin class? That you sacrifice certain things in return for power? That's why the oath is there. They know they can take the easy road - but the hard road is right...and might have a cool thing down there for them.


I cannot agree more. It's best to let people RP when they want and not force it. It should come intrinsically and not extrinsically. With time and getting more comfortable with their party, your player might start to RP more.

That's not what they're trying to do. They aren't forcing the player to act; they're building an incentive structure to reward them for playing their class.

[Anymage]

Inspiration is the system that gets used for this. It's also a pretty good fit.

If you want to expand the inspiration system, one of the best hacks I've seen cribs from fate points. Everybody starts with one inspiration at the beginning of a session. Inspirations can be earned any time that a character creates an interesting complication due to traits/bonds/ideals/flaws, and inspirations can only be spent when the action furthers a trait/bond/ideal/flaw. Oath tenets can then be added as another set of inspiration earners/spenders.

[nickl_2000]

No reason to give a mechanical reward. Give in game RP rewards, have the paladins order recognize her with with a ceremony in character. Have people react to her in the way that makes sense for her character. Make it do that the effort of her roleplaying actually changes the world around her.

[Laserlight]

People respond to incentives, and immediate incentives ("that was good, here's Inspiration") are weighted more heavily than uncertain future incentives ("your archpriest may say some nice things to you, in four more levels").
So toss your player an Inspiration point.
That also empowers your player to make decisions based on RP instead of best tactics, because "yeah, it's a stupid move, but it fits what my paladin would do AND I have a couple of Inspiration to help pull it off anyway."

[Foxydono]

I cannot agree more. It's best to let people RP when they want and not force it. It should come intrinsically and not extrinsically. With time and getting more comfortable with their party, your player might start to RP more.
I disagree as well. As the poster before the above quoted text posted, the main goal is about having fun. In my personal opinion, I think the game is best enjoyed when everyone is comfortabele in their (in-game) role. This includes a certain amount of rollplaying.

If, as the origional poster stated, one person is (very) shy, their is nothing wrong with some kind of encouragement system. The only thing I would do is either apply it to all party members, or, if you only reward one person this way, discuss this with the rest of the group. Also explain the reason why you do it.

As for the origional question, I love randomness. I would make a d6:
1. Inspiration die
2. Extra smite damage on best attack
3. Advantage on next check or saving throw you make
4. 10 ft extra movement on next combat round
5. Learn some unknown information from God
6. Increase aura by 15 ft for next 10 minutes.

Obviously you can alter the above list as you like. When a player rollplays well, they can roll a d6 and gain a random benefit. Probably most fun if you apply this to every party member.

[Lord Haart]

That might piss off your party, who now have to salvage a situation because the paladin interprets "Rule With An Iron Fist" very literally.

I can imagine a prosthetic-handed paladin of Tyranny that insists all other non-Warforged paladins of Tyranny are doing it wrong.

[Crucius]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Apparently this is not the super solid idea I thought it was; time to go back to the drawing board!

The inspiration system is different in my game: everyone gets one inspiration token per session. With it they can exact tangible change on the environmental storytelling. Retcon a cart to take cover behind, add a goofy hat to an npc if that detail makes a difference in roleplay, that kinda thing.

About the specifics of the tenets I don't worry about that, he already said he doesn't like the Iron Fist one, so we'll ease up on that (thank god).

I like the reputation suggestion that was made, I will probably do something along the lines of that, but maybe give a bit more immediate and direct feedback like "your god liked that" lol