Help with possibly my best (or worst?) character

[jaappleton]

I need help RPing this.

It’s dumb. It’s stupid. It goes against everything they’re about. It’s going to be amazing.

Nihilist Paladin.

“Please help defend up from the goblin horde!”
“Whatever. We’re all insignificant, ugly, ultimately unloved sacks of flesh that are incapable of ever making a true impact on the universe...... Enjoy Arby’s.”

The only reason he’s actually willing to contribute and help is in hopes of being proven wrong.

I need any and all advice possible.

What God would be at all interested in this guys mindset?

[cutlery]

I need help RPing this.

It’s dumb. It’s stupid. It goes against everything they’re about. It’s going to be amazing.

Nihilist Paladin.

“Please help defend up from the goblin horde!”
“Whatever. We’re all insignificant, ugly, ultimately unloved sacks of flesh that are incapable of ever making a true impact on the universe...... Enjoy Arby’s.”

The only reason he’s actually willing to contribute and help is in hopes of being proven wrong.

I need any and all advice possible.

What God would be at all interested in this guys mindset?

You don’t really need a god in 5e for a paladin’s powers. That isn’t quite nihilism, either.


That said, I’d reflavor vengeance or conquest to:

Oath of Despair.

Play him like The Comedian from Watchmen.

[Sparky McDibben]

Several thoughts:

1) Divine bet - Something like the goddess of love has bet another deity that this guy can grow into the perfect gentleman, for example. See also, "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days." You can customize this arc to whatever you want your nihilist to end up as, if "perfect gentleman" doesn't float your boat. Maybe it's a god of strategy, instead.

2) They have a guardian angel who refuses to give up on them, and actually puppeteers them around the battlefield while your nihilist just sighs at the futility of it all. See if your DM is OK running something like that.

3) Not a god, but if you want to go ancients, the Winter Fey think this guy is just delightful and offer him power just for sheer entertainment.

[No brains]

I rather like this idea!

A god of chaotic alignment who places emphasis on humility could be a patron for this paladin. Any trickery god could have interest in him just to have fun with the contradiction.

If you want to make an interesting arc for this nihilistic paladin, consider having him mature into an absurdist paladin. Let him embrace the lack of impact he'll leave and grow into a relaxed state rather than a depressed state.

Having a god inspire him to know that there's no cosmic pressure could lead to an altruistic outcome. No pressure means no urgency to act, and thus evil has no place being so aggressive. Teach evil the futility of their meaningless passion by foiling their vanity. If they repent, don't push it, they've learned their lesson.

Ancients could be a compatible oath. Most intriguing is the the tenet that mentions being a hope for those who live in despair. This might not mean alleviating despair, just helping people accept it. Conquest, weirdly, can also be the face of benevolent nihilism. Teach those passionate enough to commit evil that their weakness is folly. The last tenet of ruling until a stronger being comes along is a lesson that your own passion doesn't matter either.

[micahaphone]

Race wise, you could go aasimar, and his original reason for adventuring and doing good is just to make his angelic guide shut up and let him get a good night's rest

[Fable Wright]

Please at least differentiate between Straw Nihilism and actual Nihilism.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/nihilism.png
Why can't you have normal existential angst like all the other boys?

Nothing has inherent meaning. There is no god looking out for you. We're all ultimately cosmic dust.

That's why we need to stick together. Because no one else will do it for us.

"Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?"

-Sam Harris

Oath of Redemption, for this kind of nihilism/Planescape's Bleaker faction, is just about the perfect fit you could ask for. And it goes well with "but there's no meaning to killing them".

The theory... needs to be tweaked a bit for D&D's pantheon. Where are you playing? In most settings, it's not that "we're all cosmic dust" (that's only the case in Eberron and Dark Sun), it's "we're just god food, and nothing we do has meaning." Doubly so in the Forgotten Realms.

If you're playing in the Realms... I'd say that Kelemvor might empower such a paladin, as he has a noted hatred for the Wall of the Faithless and might be attracted to this philosophy. So might Lathandar, as the god of rebirth, empowering him to push him over the edge as a force of good. Nothing matters, and that's why you should do the right thing.