D&D 5E How often do your Paladins actually violate their Oaths?

[Charlaquin]

So, all the recent Paladin talk, got me thinking... Is this really something that comes up a lot for the DMs of EN world, or is it just one of those things we like to pontificate about in theory but rarely happens in actual play? Personally, I’ve never actually dealt with this at the table. Generally speaking, people who want to play Paladins either want to play to their Oaths, or specifically want to explore roleplaying a fallen Paladin. Either way, Paladin Oaths have never been a source of out of character conflict at my table. But maybe I’m the weird one here. So I’m asking all of you. How often do you actually have to deal with Paladins breaking their Oaths at your table?

 

[Salthorae]

It might be interesting to update your thread to a poll to get more reliable data?

 

[Charlaquin]

It might be interesting to update your thread to a poll to get more reliable data?

I meant to originally, but forgot to name the poll. Should be up now.

 

[Salthorae]

Cool.

Crossposting from the thread that originally spawned this one

The experience I've seen most often with Paladins, DM's, and punishment is often not the Paladin violating their oath on purpose, but DM's and Player disagreement on what it means to violate the oaths and the consequences of that before they start play with the paladin PC.

 

[iserith]

If anyone in my game did do that, I didn't notice it and probably wouldn't unless it was just egregious. At which point the sidebar in the PHB tells the player and me what to do.

 

[Charlaquin]

The experience I've seen most often with Paladins, DM's, and punishment is often not the Paladin violating their oath on purpose, but DM's and Player disagreement on what it means to violate the oaths and the consequences of that before they start play with the paladin PC.

And have you seen this happen much recently? I ask because I get the impression that this is one of those worries that, like the unavoidable trap or the “you didn’t say you were looking up,” was a common problem when we were all teenagers playing the game for the first time, but these days is something of an orphaned anxiety.

 

[Charlaquin]

If anyone in my game did do that, I didn't notice it and probably wouldn't unless it was just egregious. At which point the sidebar in the PHB tells the player and me what to do.

That’s pretty consistent with my own experience. I’d count that as a vote for “never.”

 

[Salthorae]

Yes. I mean "happen much" is relative for a hobby I get to play once a week, but yes.

I've been playing for 25+ years and I see things just like the unavoidable trap or the "you didn't say xyz" happen all the time. The Paladin Oath snafu/"gotcha" as well.

It's interesting to me that you're assuming your POV of experience with the table is true for everyone having gotten over these "orphaned anxieties".

I play with new players every week, many of who ARE teenagers playing for the first time. And also DM'ing for the first time to get new DM's into the mix/fold. But it's not limited to teenage first-time DM's/players. I've seen 40-year-old first-time players/DM's fall into these issues.

I've also seen very experienced DM's who have adversarial mentalities do these things because it's just how they play.

 

[Charlaquin]

Yes. I mean "happen much" is relative for a hobby I get to play once a week, but yes.

I've been playing for 25+ years and I see things just like the unavoidable trap or the "you didn't say xyz" happen all the time. The Paladin Oath snafu/"gotcha" as well.

It's interesting to me that you're assuming your POV of experience with the table is true for everyone having gotten over these "orphaned anxieties".

On the contrary, I assume other people have had different experiences, which is precisely why I’m asking about those experiences. Thank you for sharing yours.

I play with new players every week, many of who ARE teenagers playing for the first time. And also DM'ing for the first time to get new DM's into the mix/fold. But it's not limited to teenage first-time DM's/players. I've seen 40-year-old first-time players/DM's fall into these issues.

I've also seen very experienced DM's who have adversarial mentalities do these things because it's just how they play.

Ahh, that makes sense. I tend to play with pretty consistent groups, so naturally your experience playing with different people each time would be quite different, and especially if you play with a lot of mixed age ranges and levels of experience, I can see how misaligned expectations would be a common problem.

 

[Oofta]

In all my years of DMing it's happened once, it was more of a mistake by the paladin based on an assumption than a willing violation.

Then again as I've stated in other threads, I'm probably more lenient than some people. I don't generally put people into no-win situations but if they do happen. I don't see taking the only reasonable option as violating an oath.