Naive paladin oathbreaker - creative solution? [Mild Spoilers]

[eamon]

I'm DM'ing a 5e Zeitgeist campaign that's just reached half-way through the 3rd adventure. The party includes one Vekeshi Mystic PC, an oath-of-devotion paladin with a penchant for too much hard liquor and... a rather gullible streak.

This PC (to the groans of the rest of the table ) fell for Starke's ploy to have Rock Rackus murdered. While Rock Rackus was under house arrest (pending the investigation concerning the man Rock shot at the fairgrounds), he snuck to the Rock's back door, talked himself in under false pretenses, and shared a (poisoned) cup. When the Rock passed out, our usually valiant and merciful hero used a pillow to quicken his target's demise. The PC's choice is supposed to represent him choosing the lesser of two evils: following a edict that he may not entirely agree with.

That's fine; but now for the consequences! The player obviously knows that this wasn't his PC's smartest move; he won't mind his PC suffering for that. It's all in good fun - so pretty much anything in-game is on the table .

Some ideas:

• Stripping the Paladin of his powers. This is fine, but only temporarily. After some penance he'd be ok again. This is pretty boring, though a twist is that another member of the party sort of reveres Rock Rackus.
• Using the event to cause the PC to change paths. Perhaps he turns into a different class, or needs to take a new oath - say, one of vengeance, not devotion. Going all the way to become an oathbreaker paladin (blackguard) seems excessive.
• No mechanical effect, let the PC figure it out for himself.
• Have the Vekeshi Mystics force him to kill Starke to save his own skin. He might well refuse; and then...?
• Have the murder discovered (leading to... exit PC, or the campaign taking on a notably darker tone if murder he can nevertheless stay on)
• Something else...?

What do you think?

 

[RangerWickett]

Is Rock dead? Perhaps atonement might be to find a spirit medium that can call Rock's soul back so he can be resurrected, ideally with Starke's life as the ritual component cost.

Plus, the monarch of the Unseen Court would be rather upset to learn that a former paramour has been murdered.

 

[Maxperson]

• Stripping the Paladin of his powers. This is fine, but only temporarily. After some penance he'd be ok again. This is pretty boring, though a twist is that another member of the party sort of reveres Rock Rackus.
• Using the event to cause the PC to change paths. Perhaps he turns into a different class, or needs to take a new oath - say, one of vengeance, not devotion. Going all the way to become an oathbreaker paladin (blackguard) seems excessive.
• No mechanical effect, let the PC figure it out for himself.
• Have the Vekeshi Mystics force him to kill Starke to save his own skin. He might well refuse; and then...?
• Have the murder discovered (leading to... exit PC, or the campaign taking on a notably darker tone if murder he can nevertheless stay on)
• Something else...?

What do you think?

Don't just blanket remove his powers or force any major changes yet. Send divine dreams to him regarding what was done and why it violated the oath. Have a cleric or paladin of his deity talk to him and give him the opportunity to atone for his misdeed. Perhaps give a low chance of a power failing with any given use. Maybe 5-10%.