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

[jasper]

Other. I going to skip over the high school years due most of us were pills. But those arguments make it clear DMs and players need to know what the oath(s) mean and a code of conduct maybe necessary. In other editions I allowed my paladins to party, wench, get drunk, and fart in the airlock.
One paladin got mercenary with his own church as in not taking the his mission from Gawd without getting paid. I first fined him some paladin abilities. And when he and the other players objected just added extra damage to his pc. (Yes not nice)
One paladin got mad he did not win the dice roll for a magic sword, stole the sword for the other party member and destroyed it. I ruled that was not happening and told the person he could not play paladins at my table.
However two paladins went over and beyond the oath. One was my brother playing a cavalier paladin. Random encounter was rolled with his enemy household. He was outclassed like level 10 vs level 5. He charged away. I told he did not have too by he continued his charged and died. I offered a free raise but he turned it down. (Psst some times random encounters go sideways.)
The second was a SCA buddy, Kept up his oath. Kept the group from being murder hobos most of the time. Turned in one party member to police and gave the reward to the church. I gave him a cut down holy avenger. I think it was a +2 and this was during 2E.

 

[Leatherhead]

I've only had one player manage to never break an oath.
I've had two paladins die living up to it.
I've also had one player intentionally become a Blackguard.

Otherwise, that's what atonement is for. It's like a Wizard losing their spellbook, expect it to happen once.

 

[Beleriphon]

As a general rule I'd only let a paladin fall if the player was an asshat or they wanted that to be part of the game. Otherwise the players wanted to play by the restrictions the class imposed and would live with it, and by extension the rest of the players (ie. our friends) would go along with the paladin player and not push things to far.

 

[zztong]

For my own game, the only thing that makes a Paladin fall is the player deciding they want a fallen Paladin. (A fallen Paladin is an interesting character concept.) They're free to make their own oath and roleplay it strictly or loosely. The class, to me, is a bag of powers.

For my friend's game, when he was very strict about Paladins, nobody ever played one. He made them such a pain in the ass that they were no fun. Once he backed off from that folks started to play them and I can't think of anyone who has broken an oath.

 

[S'mon]

Never seen an oath breaking Paladin, and ever since 4e got rid of punitive Alignment mechanics I only see players playing the PC they want to play.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Kinda proud that back in 1e, my first paladin died sacrificing himself to buy more time for the rest of the party.

As far as oath-breaking paladins go, I think it was more common in the older editions, when the code of conduct was stricter and the DM relationship more antagonistic. I've only stripped two paladins of their paladinhood in all my years of gaming, and that was decades ago. Both were very much "pride before the fall" situations.

That being said, in recent times I've seen many paladins that to my way of thinking didn't act much like paladins, just fighters with a different set of powers (the same goes for plenty of barbarians, too). But I'll admit that I've got a lot of conceptions about the paladin inherited from prior editions (you will never catch me playing a paladin that's not LG, for example).

These days, as a DM, it's not my job to tell people how to play their character. Short of something like a paladin of Oghma burning down a library, I'm not going to get that heavy-handed.

I've had two paladins die living up to it.

 

[R_J_K75]

I selected "other". Generally I didnt allow Paladins in my campaigns as PCs. It takes a special kind of player to pull off a paladin PC. Besides unless the party, and campaign was well thought out Paladins seemed more trouble than they were worth as they seem to cause problems in an average party. With the removal of alignment restrictions in later editions the class has gotten too far away from what I think a Paladin should be. I havent had anyone want to play one in 5E so given the right player I might allow it. Traditionally I reserve the class for NPCs.

Were Paladins allowed different alignments in the Realms for the 2E Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons and Deities and Demigods, I cant remember?

 

[cbwjm]

I honestly have no idea. I've only run a single game with a paladin in it and I never paid attention to their oath (he was devotion, I believe). He didn't act like a douchenozzle so I never really worried about it.

 

[Oofta]

I selected "other". Generally I didnt allow Paladins in my campaigns as PCs. It takes a special kind of player to pull off a paladin PC. Besides unless the party, and campaign was well thought out Paladins seemed more trouble than they were worth as they seem to cause problems in an average party. With the removal of alignment restrictions in later editions the class has gotten too far away from what I think a Paladin should be. I havent had anyone want to play one in 5E so given the right player I might allow it. Traditionally I reserve the class for NPCs.

Were Paladins allowed different alignments in the Realms for the 2E Faiths and Avatars, Powers and Pantheons and Deities and Demigods, I cant remember?

This seems like a very punitive attitude, I'm not surprised no one wants to play a paladin in your campaign. I guess I would have a question for you.

Paladins aren't the only one that owe their power to a higher source. Clerics, druids, warlocks all get their power from somewhere else.

Do they ever get punished for not doing the "right" thing? I know some warlocks are more of the "I hope ___ never finds out!" but most are not. For that matter, if someone worships the great old one, what happens when they get to a higher level and Cthulhu notices them?

 

[ccs]

Not counting the games played during the grade school/high school years, and not counting ones I've played....

I'm surprised whenever a Paladin doesn't fall.

Now about 1/2 of those were played by my late friend Sean.
Whatever the edition, he really had 3 character types he'd play; Human Paladins, 1/2elf Rangers, & Elven Wizards. 99% of all the characters he played in the 25+ years we knew each other were one of those 3. Of those the Paladin was by far his favorite class.
Unfortunately he was really really astoundingly bad at playing Paladins. So bad in fact that he managed to fall in games where:
A) We'd discussed it & determined that he did not want to play the fallen arc,
B) The DM wasn't interested in running that arc & wasn't running anything designed to entice him to fall. There were no hidden "Gotchas!"
C) He wasn't playing with DMs whom he didn't know their styles/preferences/opinions/etc
All he ever had to do was be the good guy. With a magic sword. Shouldn't have been too hard, he was a pretty good guy IRL. And yet somehow....

Other than Sean's Paladins....
I've been a player in numerous games where the DM was deliberately trying to maneuver the Paladin into falling. Most of those Paladins fell.
I've seen 4 cases where the player intentionally had their Paladin fall.
Some have fallen because the player & DM had differing ideas concerning the oaths/restriction, didn't communicate, & the DM has final say on the matter.
But most? They fall because they choose to try & ignore the oaths/restrictions. They want the perks of the class & don't think there'll actually be any consequences because of RP choices they make. They object loudly as they discover they're wrong.

Most of these paladins never succeed in their redemption efforts (if attempted).

Every now & then though I see a Paladin who doesn't fall.