I know it's not a unique idea, but I'm EXTREMELY new to d&d. I have very little experience with the rules of character creation. With that said, I had an idea of a Paladin that has a dark and light gauge so to speak. He starts willingly good and very much a typical paladin.
But throughout the campaign slowly dips into darker spells, BUT, even though the darker spells are more powerful, they have a drawback each time you would choose to use them. Based on the roll of the die would decide how negatively the spell effects the Paladin.
The negative effects would stack and never dissipate during the entirety of the campaign. Essentially creating a 'sanity' meter for a Paladin. The more corrupt he becomes, the higher stat chance that the spell backfires onto the Paladin or an ally for a negative effect or adds more corruption. Essentially forcing you to balance your use of the dark spells or it could lead to madness and negatively impact your group. It sounds thrilling but I'm very unsure of the logistics around such a build. Feedback is welcome. Please go easy on me.
anytime you get into things that may hurt other members of your party I would check with the other players to make sure they are ok with that kind of playing style. If they are down for it then it might be an interesting idea.
That's a good bit of homebrewing. Not to say it's an inherently bad idea, just it seems like quite a bit of work. For one, there's precious few spells that might be considered objectively evil. And there's really no RAW way to make a spell more powerful because its "dark." Spells have spell levels, and that's about it on the power meter. You can upcast, but that doesn't make it more evil, just more powerful. The way you use a spell might make it eviler, but that's going to be a judgement call between you and your DM. The kind of thing you're talking about would require a pretty drastic re-write of the magic system, if I'm understanding you correctly.
There's also not really a mechanic for a spell to backfire. And if there were, you wouldn't want it. The game is mathematically balanced to favor the PCs. Any randomness you add into the system tends to screw the characters much more than it helps them. And, well, its all fun and games until someone's character dies because you made a bad roll. So, yeah, a good bit of homebrewing, and it would likely be a pile of extra work for your DM.
Finally, it's really quite easy to play an evil paladin in this edition with zero game mechanics consequences. There's no reason that a paladin has to be good. All they have to do is obey their oaths. Now, some oaths are easier than other to bend toward evil than others, but it's quite possible for a paladin to have the kind of character arc you're describing and still remain fully within the bounds of their oath.
Thank you so much for the feedback! It does seem like quite a bit of work. But the fantasy of it all would almost be worth it. Given that the DM and the rest of the party would agree to such a home brew. I could fine tune it to where the “negative effects” of a spell for a bad roll could only affect the Paladin and not the party. I’m just fascinated by the idea of a Paladin having to do a balancing act of chance and temptation. And the madness meter would be such an interesting mechanic. Changing how the characters interact with one another. But again, it’s just a little fantasy of mine. You are very right. It would require a lot of work unfortunately.
Thank you for the feedback. I’m thinking I could fine tune the idea of the negative effects of a bad roll only impacting the paladin and not anyone else. The idea of a “madness meter” just absolutely fascinates me. I’ll have to pitch the idea around to see how massive of an undertaking it would be to figure out the logistics of it all.
have you thought about doing it as a multiclass, the more into the dark instincts you go you take levels in warlock and if you go more on the good side you take a level in paladin when you level up
Thank you so much for the feedback! It does seem like quite a bit of work. But the fantasy of it all would almost be worth it. Given that the DM and the rest of the party would agree to such a home brew. I could fine tune it to where the “negative effects” of a spell for a bad roll could only affect the Paladin and not the party. I’m just fascinated by the idea of a Paladin having to do a balancing act of chance and temptation. And the madness meter would be such an interesting mechanic. Changing how the characters interact with one another. But again, it’s just a little fantasy of mine. You are very right. It would require a lot of work unfortunately.
You can just do that. You can do all that through role play. There's no need to invent a mechanic for it. Just play your paladin as conflicted about what he's doing and why. Make him push things a little too far from time to time until the idea of what's "too far" vs what's "normal" has shifted. If you want to change the way your character interacts with the party, you just do it. It's really that simple. You don't need an external, arbitrary meter telling you how to act and when to act that way. You do it when the story beats demand you act that way. Don't leave it up to a meter, that will get in the way of a good story.
If you want negative effects, that's what you work with your DM on. maybe your lay on hands doesn't work as well after you've gone too far, or something. And then leave it to your DM when to impose such a penalty. Randomness doesn't make for a good story, intentional action on the part of the storyteller(s) does.
And, again, this will really depend on your oath. Being evil isn't necessarily a problem for many different kinds of paladins.
I know it's not a unique idea, but I'm EXTREMELY new to d&d. I have very little experience with the rules of character creation. With that said, I had an idea of a Paladin that has a dark and light gauge so to speak. He starts willingly good and very much a typical paladin.
But throughout the campaign slowly dips into darker spells, BUT, even though the darker spells are more powerful, they have a drawback each time you would choose to use them. Based on the roll of the die would decide how negatively the spell effects the Paladin.
The negative effects would stack and never dissipate during the entirety of the campaign. Essentially creating a 'sanity' meter for a Paladin. The more corrupt he becomes, the higher stat chance that the spell backfires onto the Paladin or an ally for a negative effect or adds more corruption. Essentially forcing you to balance your use of the dark spells or it could lead to madness and negatively impact your group. It sounds thrilling but I'm very unsure of the logistics around such a build. Feedback is welcome. Please go easy on me.
Conquest paladin with Madness - Use DMG madness table, or madness table from out of the Abyss.
I know it's not a unique idea, but I'm EXTREMELY new to d&d. I have very little experience with the rules of character creation. With that said, I had an idea of a Paladin that has a dark and light gauge so to speak. He starts willingly good and very much a typical paladin.
But throughout the campaign slowly dips into darker spells, BUT, even though the darker spells are more powerful, they have a drawback each time you would choose to use them. Based on the roll of the die would decide how negatively the spell effects the Paladin.
The negative effects would stack and never dissipate during the entirety of the campaign. Essentially creating a 'sanity' meter for a Paladin. The more corrupt he becomes, the higher stat chance that the spell backfires onto the Paladin or an ally for a negative effect or adds more corruption. Essentially forcing you to balance your use of the dark spells or it could lead to madness and negatively impact your group. It sounds thrilling but I'm very unsure of the logistics around such a build. Feedback is welcome. Please go easy on me.
anytime you get into things that may hurt other members of your party I would check with the other players to make sure they are ok with that kind of playing style. If they are down for it then it might be an interesting idea.
That's a good bit of homebrewing. Not to say it's an inherently bad idea, just it seems like quite a bit of work. For one, there's precious few spells that might be considered objectively evil. And there's really no RAW way to make a spell more powerful because its "dark." Spells have spell levels, and that's about it on the power meter. You can upcast, but that doesn't make it more evil, just more powerful. The way you use a spell might make it eviler, but that's going to be a judgement call between you and your DM. The kind of thing you're talking about would require a pretty drastic re-write of the magic system, if I'm understanding you correctly.
There's also not really a mechanic for a spell to backfire. And if there were, you wouldn't want it. The game is mathematically balanced to favor the PCs. Any randomness you add into the system tends to screw the characters much more than it helps them. And, well, its all fun and games until someone's character dies because you made a bad roll. So, yeah, a good bit of homebrewing, and it would likely be a pile of extra work for your DM.
Finally, it's really quite easy to play an evil paladin in this edition with zero game mechanics consequences. There's no reason that a paladin has to be good. All they have to do is obey their oaths. Now, some oaths are easier than other to bend toward evil than others, but it's quite possible for a paladin to have the kind of character arc you're describing and still remain fully within the bounds of their oath.
Thank you so much for the feedback! It does seem like quite a bit of work. But the fantasy of it all would almost be worth it. Given that the DM and the rest of the party would agree to such a home brew. I could fine tune it to where the “negative effects” of a spell for a bad roll could only affect the Paladin and not the party. I’m just fascinated by the idea of a Paladin having to do a balancing act of chance and temptation. And the madness meter would be such an interesting mechanic. Changing how the characters interact with one another. But again, it’s just a little fantasy of mine. You are very right. It would require a lot of work unfortunately.
Thank you for the feedback. I’m thinking I could fine tune the idea of the negative effects of a bad roll only impacting the paladin and not anyone else. The idea of a “madness meter” just absolutely fascinates me. I’ll have to pitch the idea around to see how massive of an undertaking it would be to figure out the logistics of it all.
have you thought about doing it as a multiclass, the more into the dark instincts you go you take levels in warlock and if you go more on the good side you take a level in paladin when you level up
You can just do that. You can do all that through role play. There's no need to invent a mechanic for it. Just play your paladin as conflicted about what he's doing and why. Make him push things a little too far from time to time until the idea of what's "too far" vs what's "normal" has shifted. If you want to change the way your character interacts with the party, you just do it. It's really that simple. You don't need an external, arbitrary meter telling you how to act and when to act that way. You do it when the story beats demand you act that way. Don't leave it up to a meter, that will get in the way of a good story.
If you want negative effects, that's what you work with your DM on. maybe your lay on hands doesn't work as well after you've gone too far, or something. And then leave it to your DM when to impose such a penalty. Randomness doesn't make for a good story, intentional action on the part of the storyteller(s) does.
And, again, this will really depend on your oath. Being evil isn't necessarily a problem for many different kinds of paladins.
Conquest paladin with Madness - Use DMG madness table, or madness table from out of the Abyss.
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