Paladin / Warlock Faith conflict query

[Warmaster Horus]

And I've addressed that. But clerics and Paladins are different since they get their powers from 1 god only. While clerics and Paladins acknowledge other deities, they only worship the one they serve. A normal person pays homage to whichever god is pertinent to their situation. For example, a fisherman may say a prayer to the goddess of the sea before going out to catch his fish. When he comes back to shore with his bounty, and sells it. He may thank the god of wealth. He may then go to the tavern and pray to the god of luck right before he gambles his profit away. This would be common practice to most people, and while all 3 of those gods share from his prayers, none of them are giving him any of their magic.
A cleric or paladin of Bane, only worships Bane. They don't say prayers to any other gods for any reason. As far as they are concern, the other gods might as well not exist, and if they have anything to do about it, they will kill their worships and destroy the temples of other gods and make sure that Bane,is the only god worshipped.

They give an Oath to one god. That's it, according to 5e. Clerics most likely provide sole worship to a single deity but there's nothing binding a paladin to such a commitment. Is it common? Sure, probably, like the Bane worshipers you mention. Is it clad in iron? No.

 

[neogod22]

Could you link the source for that claim please? Because I'm not entirely sure about Greyhawk, but I'm certain that Eberron's gods don't work like that.
The Sovereign Host: the 'gods' of the setting (as opposed to other divine powers capable of being a cleric's deity) are unreachable and uncontactable, and definitely don't pass judgement on mortals like the FR gods do.

I've never played Eberron so I don't speak about that. Here is a really good video I recently watched. Since 5th edition doesn't talk about the gods much, most of his information comes from the earlier editions.

https://youtu.be/BKFMOmgj3GU

 

[Mallus]

It is. This is how the gods work in D&D in general, with the exception of Dark Sun and Ravenloft campaign settings where the gods don't exist.

I don't remember it being true in the Work of Greyhawk, but admittedly my memory is fuzzy and my knowledge of the setting -- such as it is -- comes from the AD&D box set and classic modules from that era. Come to think of it, I don't think it holds true for Eberron, either, to cite a more recent D&D world.

Regardless, even if it's a common premise in published settings, a lot of people homebrew, and whatever they get up to is also part of "how it works in D&D". Though I can see it being a popular way to define a cosmology, given how it builds conflict into the nature of all religions. Great for playing 'endless holy wars' using D&D - note, I'm not being sarcastic.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

OK, how do you resolve the potential faith conflict for multiclassing warlock & paladin?

Maybe the Paladin takes the Divine warlock patron, so no conflict at all.

or

Maybe the holy and righteous Paladin also follows some Dark Entity from beyond whose power and influence is so alien that its very existence within his soul is hidden from his god.


Or maybe even high level PCs who draw power from the gods do so at a level so subconscious to the gods in question that they do not even notice and the Paladin never comes up on god-radar. In this case the real dilemma may be if he is part of some holy order that is part of the DMs world and he will have to answer to leaders of the order if his heretical study of Tharizdun is ever discovered.

 

[neogod22]

They give an Oath to one god. That's it, according to 5e. Clerics most likely provide sole worship to a single deity but there's nothing binding a paladin to such a commitment. Is it common? Sure, probably, like the Bane worshipers you mention. Is it clad in iron? No.

So the Player's Handbook is setting neutral, so that if they decide to put out settings like Eberron which I hear is different from the other D&D settings, they wouldn't have to put out a new PHB for that. However, FR seems to be the only setting they are working on, and this how it works within the realms. If you're doing a homebrew, and you want your paladins to have an oath to nothing, then that's no problem, the PHB is written so you can play that way.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

So the Player's Handbook is setting neutral, so that if they decide to put out settings like Eberron which I hear is different from the other D&D settings, they wouldn't have to put out a new PHB for that. However, FR seems to be the only setting they are working on, and this how it works within the realms. If you're doing a homebrew, and you want your paladins to have an oath to nothing, then that's no problem, the PHB is written so you can play that way.

There's no published 5e material for the Realms I'm aware of that compels a paladin to solely worship a god they've pledged an Oath to. Even if there were, entering into an agreement with a Warlock Patron is not necessarily curtailing on your worship of a god. It's a business arrangement, power for fealty, much like feudalism. European lords worshiped God and served their liege lords, after all.

 

[Satyrn]

It is. This is how the gods work in D&D in general.

I don't believe this is true. Can you provide a source for this claim?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Satyrn]

This goes back to the original Deities & Demigods, and perhaps farther.

Interesting. That helps me figure out where neogod's idea comes from.

Of couse, I should've asked for a source from this edition, for greater relevance. And in that spirit, I've just gone and looked up what the DMG has to say on the subject. It actually gets more explicit on just what the rules are than I expected, mostly because I don't remember the core books ever saying anything like "The rule is . . ." But. On page 10, under the title Gods of Your World, it does:

As far as the game's rules are concerned, it doesn't matter if your world has hundreds of deities or a church devoted to a single god. In rules terms, clerics choose domains, not deities, so your world can associate domains with deities in any way you choose.

That just doesn't jibe with what neogod says as the way gods work in D&D in general, even though it might very well be the way it worked in general in 1e.

 

[jaelis]

I can assure you that my 1e campaign did not feature any moral complexity or deities fussing about what their clerics did.