Paladin that fits this vibe?

[Rfkannen]

For years I have wanted to play a paladin, but every time I sit down to make a character for a campaign, I always wind up going for a different class! The problem is that while I have a vibe I want to go for, I can't find the mechanics to support it and help it turn into an actual character.

I am picturing a person who draws their strength from knowing they NEED to be strong to protect those they care for. The world is harsh, and the journey will eventually kill them, but they are willing to sacrifice everything to protect the party. A cleric gets their power from a god; this paladin reaches divinity through determination. Essentially, I want to play out the Undyne the Undying fight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLnSfrDD4w) from Undertale lol.

None of the oaths I have looked at fit that type of character. Picking a race is tricky: Aasimar's angelic powers are rad, but I want this character to be good through effort, not birthright. Halfling's community-focused society is a great fit but being small feels weird on a knight. Deva fit the vibe well, someone who cares so much for mortals that they gave up heaven for them, but 5e doesn't have those. The background is the hardest part; I honestly have no ideas for that at ALL, lol.

Any tips? What do you think would fit the vibe I am going for?

[strangebloke]

So for Paladin Oath: What you're talking about thematically is devotion paladin. Devotion to duty in particular. Helping the weak. It's a bit generic, but what you're talking about is generic paladin stuff. That's not to say it isn't cool, it totally is, but this kind of character concept is core to the paladin identity. Warding Bond and Compelled Duel in particular stand out as completely normal paladin spells that are 100% in flavor here.

Plus, you know. Interception/defense/protection fighting styles. Lay on Hands. The paladin's aura.

For race, I agree Aasimar isn't the right fit since they're more powerful and good by nature rather than by choice. I think you want something a bit more mortal. Obviously you could go triton for full Undyne flavor, but for other options...

Goliath: Classic big toughguy, big on effort. The main downside here is that their stone's endurance ability doesn't work with other reaction-based defenses like interception etc. so you'd need to rely on spells to force people to hit you.
Half-Orc: Can't deny that dropping to zero and staying on your feet is in flavor here. Also great for a grizzled toughguy look.
Warforged: Extra AC and immunities. No need to sleep. Flavor him as losing parts of himself along the way and patching himself in with bits and pieces of random material... maybe glass, because he happened to be proficient with glass-blowing implements. Give him a sweet stained-glass-window effect.
Human: Humans are a blank canvas upon which you can project your own lore, they're good for any concept. Pick up HAM at level 1.
Tiefling: Really drive home that your guy chose this path, not because of his nature. Go Levistus, then pick up fiendish resilience to resist everything.


My picks are either Warforged or Tiefling. The Warforged can just have disgusting AC, nearly 22, as well as that feeling of being an inexorable unaging warrior who's still going to eventually die anyway because of their lifestyle. The Tiefling is just fun because you can lean really hard into your CON and CHA and get a lot of survivability enhancers.

[Rfkannen]

So for Paladin Oath: What you're talking about thematically is devotion paladin. Devotion to duty in particular. Helping the weak. It's a bit generic, but what you're talking about is generic paladin stuff. That's not to say it isn't cool, it totally is, but this kind of character concept is core to the paladin identity. Warding Bond and Compelled Duel in particular stand out as completely normal paladin spells that are 100% in flavor here.

Plus, you know. Interception/defense/protection fighting styles. Lay on Hands. The paladin's aura.

For race, I agree Aasimar isn't the right fit since they're more powerful and good by nature rather than by choice. I think you want something a bit more mortal. Obviously you could go triton for full Undyne flavor, but for other options...

Goliath: Classic big toughguy, big on effort. The main downside here is that their stone's endurance ability doesn't work with other reaction-based defenses like interception etc. so you'd need to rely on spells to force people to hit you.
Half-Orc: Can't deny that dropping to zero and staying on your feet is in flavor here. Also great for a grizzled toughguy look.
Warforged: Extra AC and immunities. No need to sleep. Flavor him as losing parts of himself along the way and patching himself in with bits and pieces of random material... maybe glass, because he happened to be proficient with glass-blowing implements. Give him a sweet stained-glass-window effect.
Human: Humans are a blank canvas upon which you can project your own lore, they're good for any concept. Pick up HAM at level 1.
Tiefling: Really drive home that your guy chose this path, not because of his nature. Go Levistus, then pick up fiendish resilience to resist everything.

I hadn't really looked at devotion. The not lying thing feels a bit weird, I picture this character as being pretty rough and tumblr, but the rest of it fits pretty well. The mechanics are kind of uninspiring, it feels like a paladin without a niche. Are there any fun build things with that one? Looking at it, it is probably the best bet though.

I love all those race options, half orc in particular could be a ton of fun, the not dyeing thing is DEFFINITLY what I am picturing!

[kazaryu]

For years I have wanted to play a paladin, but every time I sit down to make a character for a campaign, I always wind up going for a different class! The problem is that while I have a vibe I want to go for, I can't find the mechanics to support it and help it turn into an actual character.

I am picturing a person who draws their strength from knowing they NEED to be strong to protect those they care for. The world is harsh, and the journey will eventually kill them, but they are willing to sacrifice everything to protect the party. A cleric gets their power from a god; this paladin reaches divinity through determination. Essentially, I want to play out the Undyne the Undying fight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLnSfrDD4w) from Undertale lol.

None of the oaths I have looked at fit that type of character. Picking a race is tricky: Aasimar's angelic powers are rad, but I want this character to be good through effort, not birthright. Halfling's community-focused society is a great fit but being small feels weird on a knight. Deva fit the vibe well, someone who cares so much for mortals that they gave up heaven for them, but 5e doesn't have those. The background is the hardest part; I honestly have no ideas for that at ALL, lol.

Any tips? What do you think would fit the vibe I am going for?

Oaths
devotion oath is kind of the catch all 'best boi' oath. but you're right that, as written, none of the oaths themselves are great for covering every possible character archetype. both devotion and ancients make pretty solid party protectors both through their channel divinites and their auras. immunity to charms and resistance to spell damage, respectively. but in terms of the 'ideals' portion of your oath, you're probably gonna need to homebrew that. if the DM is unwilling to homebrew specific tenents, then devotion is probably the best fit due to their 'compassion' and 'duty' tenets, both of which have to do with protecting others. From there you just RP the character. sure he made an oath of honesty, and he keeps to that, but in his case he's more invested in the other tenets.

race
your don't have to play an aasimar as good through birthright. they can struggle with doing the right thing. or even, they can struggle to do whats best for the party over pursuing other 'greater' goods. As for the other races, i mean, the phb is pretty explicitly written from the perspective of stereotypes. a member of any race can have a strong sense of community, even if its uncommon in their race. you could also go with one of the 'monster' races, but be a legitimately good person. perhaps you still struggle with your 'evil' nature, however that may manifest. (malevolent indifference for yuan-ti, selfishness for kobold, bloodlust for orc, etc.) If you want to honor the PHB's description of the race, thats fine too. you could go through and pick the race you want mechanically (str based of cha based are probably optimal here) and then look at how to contextualize that race given what you want for the character. and thats something you should be able to do with any race, except for maybe yuan-ti.

background
background should, in general, be the easiest, since you can make your own, at least as far as most of the mechanical benefits. But before doing background i'd focus on what race you want. so like, if you went kobold (not ideal, im just using it as an example) you could go with the background feature of the charlatan. before you became who you are, thats what you were. a con artist. then x happened, and you decided to un-**** yourself and became what you are now.

if you went a traditionally 'good' race, there's always the folk hero background. you don't need to write a super elaborate backstory about saving a town from monsters. maybe you're a folk hero because of a mountain of little things you've done over your life (thus far at least). helping out people in little ways that ripple into larger benefits for them. i mean, you've probably gotten into, and won, a scuffle or two but these fights needn't be with a major threat (like a troll, or like..even a cr1+ creature) for them to justify the folk hero background. essentiall, you don't need to have a lvl5 characters resume in order to considered a folk hero.

[strangebloke]

I hadn't really looked at devotion. The not lying thing feels a bit weird, I picture this character as being pretty rough and tumblr, but the rest of it fits pretty well. The mechanics are kind of uninspiring, it feels like a paladin without a niche. Are there any fun build things with that one? Looking at it, it is probably the best bet though.

I love all those race options, half orc in particular could be a ton of fun, the not dyeing thing is DEFFINITLY what I am picturing!

The Channel Divinity is a big deal because its not concentration, so you can stack it with divine favor to deal tons of extremely accurate damage. An 11th level devo pally might be dropping 1d8+7+1d8+1d4 per longsword attack with a +12 attack bonus, which is nuts no matter how you look at it. Of course the more usual thing is to combine this with GWM or SS.

Immunity to charmed does help your melee friends a good deal, but its not bad to switch to fighter after 6th.

Not lying has an easy workaround. Just shut your mouth and let the bard smooth things over. ;)

[kazaryu]

I hadn't really looked at devotion. The not lying thing feels a bit weird, I picture this character as being pretty rough and tumblr, but the rest of it fits pretty well. The mechanics are kind of uninspiring, it feels like a paladin without a niche. Are there any fun build things with that one? Looking at it, it is probably the best bet though.


keep in mind, their AoE channel divinity is one of 2 abilities (the other being ancients) in the game, that can turn multiple fiends. arcana clerics can turn a single fiend. and...thats it as far as i know. as was also pointed out, the immunity to charms can be huge. its not an ability that is likely to come up often, but when it does come up it can turn an encounter on its head. there are several monsters who are far, far less dangerous if they can't hit an ally with some kind of dominate effect.

on top of that, they're a half caster, you could always grab a glaive (or other reach weapon) and play them like a backline support. step forward to strike if you need to, but preferring to stay back with ranged actions. of course that works best in short adventure days, since you have limited spell slots. but even still, they have several really good spells that follow the 'cast at beginning of combat and just concentrate'. many of which are exclusive. things like crusaders mantle (AoE diviner favor). heroism: pseudo regen on 1 target (2 if you grab metamgic adept or upcast). i'd probably go something like paladin6/fighter2/paladinx. paladin 6 to get that juicy aura of protection as quickly as possible. then fighter 2 for action surge. then keep going paladin for the fun spells and (theoretically, but unlikely) eventual 30foot aura radius.

gameplay wise use a reach weapon. stand just behind your front line (if it exists). try to position yourself to cover as many people as possible with your auras (when those come online). on your turn you can step forward 5-10 feet, make some attacks, and then move back into position for your allies turns. i'd argue that fiends/undead as badguys are more common than fey, in actual play. and i'd argue that that makes the devotion channel divinity somewhat better than ancients. although ancients is, i believe, more unique. which is good, especially if you don't have a cleric. whereas if you're fighting more martial characters and need to be ready to face off with that, you can massively increase your accuracy. action surge can really help, a lot, in setting this up. i know that it can feel like doing something like 'aura of vitality, action surge, channel divinity' sounds like its wasting the action surge. or channel divinity, action surge, attack can feel the same way. but the truth is, if you're doing the channel divinity, then action surge is going to have exactly the same impact. its more a question of if you need extra accuracy. otherwise attackx4 is obviously ****ing great (x5 if you can get pam).

metamgic adept do you can BA cast a spell (like aura of vitality or crusaeders mantle, or bless, or w/e)

idk, conquest and devotion both have pretty decent ability to be played more as cha characters than str. in conquests case its because they benefit from casting (fear effects specifically) and in devotions case because it can add its cha to weapon attacks, if needs be. completely negating a lower str.

[Nidgit]

Feels like Oath of Glory could be a very good fit for you. The standard Tenets of the Oath are a bit vain but it would be a very small stretch to tweak them to focusing on achieving peak physical prowess for the protection and inspiration of others. Undyne's kind of a jock, after all.

As for race, I think you're putting far too much stock in the expected cultural background. A character of any race can be raised in or adopted into a loving and community-oriented family. Just pick whatever seems appealing and then write a backstory to fit your desires. Anyone can be a Folk Hero fighting for the people, a Noble who considers the common folk their responsibility, or an Outlander from a close knit settlement.

[Kane0]

I am picturing a person who draws their strength from knowing they NEED to be strong to protect those they care for. The world is harsh, and the journey will eventually kill them, but they are willing to sacrifice everything to protect the party. A cleric gets their power from a god; this paladin reaches divinity through determination. Essentially, I want to play out the Undyne the Undying fight (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFLnSfrDD4w) from Undertale lol.

None of the oaths I have looked at fit that type of character. Picking a race is tricky: Aasimar's angelic powers are rad, but I want this character to be good through effort, not birthright. Halfling's community-focused society is a great fit but being small feels weird on a knight.

Devotion is the most straightforward answer, but I think Watchers from Tashas is also a good thematic match. Crown does the concept via the mechanics too. Really you could bend any oath though.

Goliath, Half Orc, Half Elf and Tiefling all make for good paladins, some having tougher lives than others if thats what you want. And theres human of course.

[Droodicus]

Sounds like oath of conquest to me. I need to be the strongest thing around so nothing can bring harm to my people.

Id go some flavour of tiefling for role-play purpose. You're not evil inclined but if it makes people wary of you then so be it.

[Joe the Rat]

If you don't have a hook that needs a specific race, there's nothing wrong with being Human (Though Triton for a literal Undyne does follow). If you want the won't go down / won't stay down, Half-Orc ad Goliath stand out for being able to not fall down, or absolutely tank a hit, respectively.

As for your flavors of Paladin:
Devotion and Ancients Protect and Nurture
Vengeance is Avenging (with a side gig in Protection)
Conquest and Glory are more "Break it so you don't need to protect others from it"

This isn't just about the lean of the oaths - their abilities focus more towards protection and healing, or breaking those who would face you.

[da newt]

Maybe Oath of the Watchers would work well for you with just a little tweaking.



I like the idea of a paladin who doesn't think they are intrinsically good - they know they are flawed but they decided to focus all of their natural tenancies on doing good things. I've got a dhampir vengeance pali who explains to folks 'I am not a good man - my hunger for violence, destruction and flesh is insatiable, but I do what I can to turn this hunger to doing good deeds with extreme prejudice.'

[chiefwaha]

One idea I have that hasn't been suggested, Oath of Redemption.

You've gotten knocked down and picked yourself up, you've failed and picked yourself up. You've become the emblem of redeeming yourself. Your first resort is words, but you're pragmatic enough to know that there are those that won't listen and you won't hesitate to put yourself in harms way to protect the innocent. Perhaps that was one of your failures in the past.

Background could be soldier... You broke and failed to protect something, and now you're determined to redeem yourself in your own eyes, even if it takes your entire life.

[loki_ragnarock]

Paladin 2/ Sword Bard X

No need for those clumsy oaths cramping your style.