D&D General Weave Your Tale in the Forgotten Realms With 8 Epic Subclasses (D&D Beyond Article)

[doctorbadwolf]

Mechanically you have a point. Lore wise it matters.

Lore wise the Paladin isn’t getting their magic from Genies, they’re getting power from Faith and oath and investment. This subclass is odd though.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Genies are elemental beings. Druidic magic comes at least partially from the elemental planes. These paladins are far more druidic/primal than arcane, and no more lore breaking than an oath of the ancients.

The Oath of the Ancients has been pointed out by some as being the where the Warden Class of 4e (the Primal Defender) partially went to.

 

[TwoSix]

The Oath of the Ancients has been pointed out by some as being the where the Warden Class of 4e (the Primal Defender) partially went to.

I mean, even if 5e had a coherent cosmology of "power sources" (it doesn't), 5e seems to lean pretty strongly towards class being more methodology and not a 1-to-1 linkage between class and power source.

5e fully supports having a primal or arcane themed paladin, instead of divine.

 

[Charlaquin]

It absolutely does matter, but Lore wise, Paladins in 5e get their powers from their Oath, not from gods. At least as the default Lore written in the books - every DM can obviously alter the lore as they see fit for their table

Yeah, I think the source of a magic user’s powers is meaningful from a story perspective, but there isn’t a clean arcane vs. divine split anymore. If anything, it’s class-by-class.

 

[SkidAce]

My thoughts are;

If you are using the paladin class as a chassis for a concept...go wild. (but its not a lore/in game paladin)

If its a paladin paladin, then it's divine sponsor or divinish oath.

 

[Piperken]

When I read the Banneret, I thought immediately of the draft Paladin class proposed for Shadowdark.

Why has the Paladin migrated away from this concept? As described, this is a character I would want to adventure with! >.<

 

[Henadic Theologian]

My thoughts are;

If you are using the paladin class as a chassis for a concept...go wild. (but its not a lore/in game paladin)

If its a paladin paladin, then it's divine sponsor or divinish oath.

My old school, its an oath to a God in FR, I don't like none theistic divine casters in FR, and never have. Divine caster should mean something other white mage.

Other setting can be very different, like Eberron, but not FR.

 

[Maxperson]

Divine magic va.arcane isn't really a thing in D&D at this point, Paladin are not mechanically tied to gods.

It is really a thing. It's just not mechanically a thing for the most part.

 

[Maxperson]

It absolutely does matter, but Lore wise, Paladins in 5e get their powers from their Oath, not from gods. At least as the default Lore written in the books - every DM can obviously alter the lore as they see fit for their table

That's not entirely accurate. This is from the 5e Paladin.

"Although many paladins are devoted to gods of good, a paladin's power comes as much from a commitment to justice itself as it does from a god."

That's a 50/50 split between the oath and the god, so about half comes from the gods.

 

[Maxperson]

But...does it, though?

100%, unless the DM changes the lore for his personal setting so that it doesn't. By default, though, it matters.