Triton Oath of Ancients Pally concept help?

[Mwhawk2]

Anyone had any experience playing a Triton Paladin or more specifically a Triton Ancients Paladin? If so how did you design their backstory and concept? I know in 5e you’re no longer required to build a pally who serves a deity but I like the idea and am hoping to include that in my Triton Ancients Pally. Any suggestions on gods/goddesses or other entities that might work well? Thanks!

[Finney]

Anyone had any experience playing a Triton Paladin or more specifically a Triton Ancients Paladin? If so how did you design their backstory and concept? I know in 5e you’re no longer required to build a pally who serves a deity but I like the idea and am hoping to include that in my Triton Ancients Pally. Any suggestions on gods/goddesses or other entities that might work well? Thanks!

If you're playing in the Forgotten Realms, there is a pantheon called the Asathalfinare (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Asathalfinare) that is worshipped by aquatic races, with Persana (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Persana) being the creator and patron of tritons.

[Chugger]

The above poster's link looks helpful. Just make sure you pick something you can live with. Be careful, becaue the "standard" thing for Oath of the Ancients, protecting nature or the arts or something like that - in your case possible a threatened sea bed - can get tedious and unworkable. Tritons can be arrogant, and you may want to play that over the ancients thing, for example.

A Triton might, right after advancing an idea or opinion, assume that everyone else is on board with it (because it's such a good idea, of course) and then start acting like everyone else has agreed when they haven't. I would imagine they don't like to be contradicted or corrected. He might threaten to "turn off" his aura for any party member who slights him, whether or not he can really do this. Or not heal them when they go down. Or threaten not to. Then being basically noble heal them, anyway. If needed.

[Sparky McDibben]

Anyone had any experience playing a Triton Paladin or more specifically a Triton Ancients Paladin? If so how did you design their backstory and concept? I know in 5e you’re no longer required to build a pally who serves a deity but I like the idea and am hoping to include that in my Triton Ancients Pally. Any suggestions on gods/goddesses or other entities that might work well? Thanks!

The fun part is that you don't really need to stick to the approved pantheon. You can make up your own god. It's possible to have them model themselves on a noble figure with minor deific status (a demigod or a saint, depending on your interpretation), pledging their oath to that figure. You can make up a triton mystery cult (a group that keeps their theology secret and might be viewed as subversive) that has goals which require cooperation with the surface world. None of this requires your religion or demi/god to be actually harmful or evil, just have a couple of secrets. The biggest thing that your religious hook needs is an adventuring motivation. It needs to answer the question, "Why are you up here and how far are you willing to go?"


The above poster's link looks helpful. Just make sure you pick something you can live with. Be careful, becaue the "standard" thing for Oath of the Ancients, protecting nature or the arts or something like that - in your case possible a threatened sea bed - can get tedious and unworkable. Tritons can be arrogant, and you may want to play that over the ancients thing, for example.

A Triton might, right after advancing an idea or opinion, assume that everyone else is on board with it (because it's such a good idea, of course) and then start acting like everyone else has agreed when they haven't. I would imagine they don't like to be contradicted or corrected. He might threaten to "turn off" his aura for any party member who slights him, whether or not he can really do this. Or not heal them when they go down. Or threaten not to. Then being basically noble heal them, anyway. If needed.

This is a terrible idea unless you want PvP. It might a) be impossible, if the DM decides you can't selectively aura your party, b) encourage them to backstab you, c) be a violation of your oath, if the DM interprets that as not "defending the light."

Also, playing a jerk that screws over his buddies is a **** move. A big, big **** move.

[Guy Lombard-O]

Anyone had any experience playing a Triton Paladin or more specifically a Triton Ancients Paladin? If so how did you design their backstory and concept? I know in 5e you’re no longer required to build a pally who serves a deity but I like the idea and am hoping to include that in my Triton Ancients Pally. Any suggestions on gods/goddesses or other entities that might work well? Thanks!

I played a Triton paladin. I chose to lean into the triton lore as described in Volo's, and made him a fairly unbending and dedicated warrior from a militaristic underwater empire (think Romanesque). I thought that Conquest fit the personality better, so went that direction instead. While hard-charging and occasionally brutal, his backstory included substantial time in an ambassadorial corps, so he's equally likely to attempt persuasion as intimidation. His attitude toward the other PCs is that they're his brothers in arms, and he'd die to protect them.

Due to not being the only PC from an underwater race, I and another player conspired to both worship Eadro (sort of neutral ground, not dedicated to either of our races). I once again used the ambassadorial background as cover for this choice.

[Chugger]

[QUOTE=



This is a terrible idea unless you want PvP. It might a) be impossible, if the DM decides you can't selectively aura your party, b) encourage them to backstab you, c) be a violation of your oath, if the DM interprets that as not "defending the light."

Also, playing a jerk that screws over his buddies is a **** move. A big, big **** move.[/QUOTE]

In some campaigns, sure. I don't think you understood me and are overreacting a bit. Triton and Ancient Oath - doesn't easily get along - Tritons are described as haughty. I've seen haughty work - it's more show or threat and no actual backstabbing. Sometimes we have to learn to be subtle when we roleplay and not literal - not over the top. You can learn this.

[Sception]

Most D&D settings are pre-industrial. As such the large scale threats to marine ecosystems, especially deep water ecosystems, aren't overfishing or pollution. If there are conflicts between Tritons and maritime surface powers over fishing or whaling, they are more likely to be regular style resource conflicts, who has rights to fish where, rather than environmental battles over potential ecosystem collapse.

Things that are large scale threats, and might in particular motivate cooperation between surface and undersea powers, are the same sorts of fantasy threats that endanger the surface world - deific conflicts, fiendish incursions, planar convergences, magical disasters both natural and artificial, etc. Several such events have threatened most fantasy worlds, including that of the Forgotten Realms, so it's reasonable for Triton empires to want to send heroes and diplomats to the surface, not just for trade but also to keep an eye on whatever arcane apocalypse the oxygen-drunk land people are courting this week, and maybe help head it off before the more sensible ocean folk have to worry about it. They've got plenty to deal with already between hostile aquatic species, krakken, aboleths, their own lineup of trouble making divinities, & so on.