Revisiting some of my favorite Unearthed Arcana subclasses, we have perhaps the mightiest with the Heroism Paladin.
Personally, I love this subclass...not just for the impressive features, but for the roleplaying possibilities.
This is one of the most morally-flexible paladins thus far...more so than the lawful evil-inclined Conquest Paladin, or the laid-back goodness of the Ancients Paladin.
This is largely because the Heroism Paladin is self-serving...yeah, they could be helping people out of the goodness of their heart, but the core concept is that this paladin is trying to make a name for himself...to become a legend. Maybe they're becoming a hero to scare the forces of evil away...in which case, they're good because they're a protector to the people...like say, All-Might from My Hero Academia.
But say they're just in it for the glory...maybe they're scared of being forgotten, or fading in to obscurity...maybe they were an urchin destined to die on the streets, and vowed to become something greater...or maybe they just buy in to their own hype.
I find these to be more interesting characters...because they can do good things, but for selfish reasons. An urchin would achieve great deeds to become famous, and perhaps claw their way out from poverty. Maybe they learned how to captivate both the poor and the rich and wealthy, and their heroism is all a facade to keep them rich and fed.
Or maybe they fought as a Gladiator, and moved on from the arena to seek new challenges, and isn't really a hero at all...maybe they're just bored.
Perhaps a Soldier won notoriety on the battlefield, and uses their bloody reputation to intimidate his nations enemies.
Maybe a Noble from a powerful family groomed their son to be the perfect knight...dedicating a whole team of people to making them "perfect" to protect the family's reputation. The reality could be...maybe the noble is secretly sadistic, and enjoys hurting people and being praised for it, and resents that he must appear outwardly heroic.
If any of these sound familiar, you get the idea...the Heroism Paladin is for the more Neutral and Evil character concepts. Characters like Homelander from Amazon Prime's "The Boyz", Kratos from "God of War", Russell Crowe's Maximus from "Gladiator", or even Gaston from "Beauty & the Beast" are all examples of a Heroism Paladin with a darker side.
What are some ideas you all have for this glory-hungry paladin?
What weapon styles fit this aesthetic, or the new spells they receive?
I'm currently playing a Fallen Aasimar Paladin who used to be a Deva in service of the god Helm. She was charged with protecting something important before helm was slain, and continued in that duty in his wake. Some time after Helm's fall, she succeeded in repelling a demonic incursion, but became corrupted by some kind of fiendish influence in the process. With a growing darkness inside her, she was stripped of her rank and cast out from the Celestial planes to the Prime Material, where she's been just kind of drifting, looking for purpose while wrestling with the darkness within, and selling her services as a merc or bodyguard to survive.
Her darkness manifests as her Necrotic Shroud ability, with some modifications that also make it detrimental to her, and she can't control it yet (Wisdom saves to prevent it from triggering, and the triggers are determined by my DM). I have plans for her to eventually overcome whatever corruption is within her, and in the process of beating it back she will regain her heavenly gifts, eventually ending up as a Paladin 6, Divine Soul Sorcerer 14, regaining her true wings at 20th level from the 14th-level Sorcerer feature.
... Or, she may succumb to the corruption and go dark side, in which case she'll become an Oathbreaker and Shadow Sorcerer, potentially with a level or two of Warlock. Her path will depend entirely on how the story goes.
Fallen Aasimar always makes for an interesting roleplay...they're either stories of redemption, or they track how much further the aasimar will fall into darkness.
The first was for a high level one shot dungeon. He was a gladiator who got so good it became clear to himself that he was some kind of hero that was divinely selected. He figured his exploits must have been entertaining to the gods. He got bored of just fighting and decided to try to start speed running dungeons.
The second was an NPC that was your standard ******* prince. He was based heavily on Jaime Lannister.
The first was for a high level one shot dungeon. He was a gladiator who got so good it became clear to himself that he was some kind of hero that was divinely selected. He figured his exploits must have been entertaining to the gods. He got bored of just fighting and decided to try to start speed running dungeons.
The second was an NPC that was your standard ******* prince. He was based heavily on Jaime Lannister.
Gotta love those ******** who actually live up to their fighting reputation.
I can see how they could really bait a party into a foolhardy duel.
Revisiting some of my favorite Unearthed Arcana subclasses, we have perhaps the mightiest with the Heroism Paladin.
Personally, I love this subclass...not just for the impressive features, but for the roleplaying possibilities.
This is one of the most morally-flexible paladins thus far...more so than the lawful evil-inclined Conquest Paladin, or the laid-back goodness of the Ancients Paladin.
This is largely because the Heroism Paladin is self-serving...yeah, they could be helping people out of the goodness of their heart, but the core concept is that this paladin is trying to make a name for himself...to become a legend. Maybe they're becoming a hero to scare the forces of evil away...in which case, they're good because they're a protector to the people...like say, All-Might from My Hero Academia.
But say they're just in it for the glory...maybe they're scared of being forgotten, or fading in to obscurity...maybe they were an urchin destined to die on the streets, and vowed to become something greater...or maybe they just buy in to their own hype.
I find these to be more interesting characters...because they can do good things, but for selfish reasons. An urchin would achieve great deeds to become famous, and perhaps claw their way out from poverty. Maybe they learned how to captivate both the poor and the rich and wealthy, and their heroism is all a facade to keep them rich and fed.
Or maybe they fought as a Gladiator, and moved on from the arena to seek new challenges, and isn't really a hero at all...maybe they're just bored.
Perhaps a Soldier won notoriety on the battlefield, and uses their bloody reputation to intimidate his nations enemies.
Maybe a Noble from a powerful family groomed their son to be the perfect knight...dedicating a whole team of people to making them "perfect" to protect the family's reputation. The reality could be...maybe the noble is secretly sadistic, and enjoys hurting people and being praised for it, and resents that he must appear outwardly heroic.
If any of these sound familiar, you get the idea...the Heroism Paladin is for the more Neutral and Evil character concepts. Characters like Homelander from Amazon Prime's "The Boyz", Kratos from "God of War", Russell Crowe's Maximus from "Gladiator", or even Gaston from "Beauty & the Beast" are all examples of a Heroism Paladin with a darker side.
What are some ideas you all have for this glory-hungry paladin?
What weapon styles fit this aesthetic, or the new spells they receive?
What are your favorite Heroism features?
What are your goals?
Share some of your character ideas below!
Give the bards something to sing about ; )
One NPC I have with my brother is a Female human Oath of Heroism Paladin, who is missing her right arm, and left eye. Her goal, as a champion of justice, who follows Lathander: Fight for the weak. Bring evildoers to to justice, through either redemption, arresting them, or (only as a last resort) killing them.
She rides a Green dragon, who is head over heels for her, and wields a great sword.
One NPC I have with my brother is a Female human Oath of Heroism Paladin, who is missing her right arm, and left eye. Her goal, as a champion of justice, who follows Lathander: Fight for the weak. Bring evildoers to to justice, through either redemption, arresting them, or (only as a last resort) killing them.
She rides a Green dragon, who is head over heels for her, and wields a great sword.
One NPC I have with my brother is a Female human Oath of Heroism Paladin, who is missing her right arm, and left eye. Her goal, as a champion of justice, who follows Lathander: Fight for the weak. Bring evildoers to to justice, through either redemption, arresting them, or (only as a last resort) killing them.
She rides a Green dragon, who is head over heels for her, and wields a great sword.
Appearance: Inheriting the typical appearance of a drow, Thaos has light, charcoal-grey skin, long silvery hair he keeps somewhat tied back, and deep red eyes. He is also suprisingly muscular for the normally lithe and thin-framed half-elf race...he is stacked with muscle, and would look quite monstrous and fearsome...if not for a perpetual grin he keeps plastered on his face.
Fighting Style:
Using variant rules, Thaos will start combat with regular fist-fighting...believing it makes for more of a challenge.
He keeps a greatsword on his back, however...using it only when an opponent seems interesting.
Attitude:
Thaos is a follower of Eilastraee, the benevolent drow goddess. However, her warrior followers are comprised solely of women wielding bastard swords, and so Thaos found himself somewhat isolated from their order.
Deciding to bring honor to the dark elf lineage himself, he vowed the Oath of Heroism to become a legendary figure that would inspire a new generations of his worth. To that end, he projects a confident and laid-back persona to put those around him at ease.
Appearance: Inheriting the typical appearance of a drow, Thaos has light, charcoal-grey skin, long silvery hair he keeps somewhat tied back, and deep red eyes. He is also suprisingly muscular for the normally lithe and thin-framed half-elf race...he is stacked with muscle, and would look quite monstrous and fearsome...if not for a perpetual grin he keeps plastered on his face.
Fighting Style:
Using variant rules, Thaos will start combat with regular fist-fighting...believing it makes for more of a challenge.
He keeps a greatsword on his back, however...using it only when an opponent seems interesting.
Attitude:
Thaos is a follower of Eilastraee, the benevolent drow goddess. However, her warrior followers are comprised solely of women wielding bastard swords, and so Thaos found himself somewhat isolated from their order.
Deciding to bring honor to the dark elf lineage himself, he vowed the Oath of Heroism to become a legendary figure that would inspire a new generations of his worth. To that end, he projects a confident and laid-back persona to put those around him at ease.
I actually made a drow who is a follower of Eilastree, but she's a bard, and very a very recent follower, so she still has some of that classic drow tendencies that's she's working on getting ride off
Ok, so I'm a bit late to the party, but I might as well throw in my two cents here. My DM is running a setting he homebrewed himself, and the current campaign is drawing to a close. Soon after I joined the current campaign (the one that is ending), I came up with a cool concept for a Paladin. After some twists and turns (the original concept was a Fallen Aasimar Oath of Conquest), I came up with the following character for the next campaign (who, in my opinion, is the best concept I've ever come up with).
Meet Temerity Cassandra von Aila Vivienne de Soren:
She is a Zariel Tiefling Paladin of Heroism. My DM's setting has Tieflings as supposed descendants of the Horned Lady, Hadlea (an Archfey). My character was called by Hadlea to serve as her divine champion and be a guiding light for the other Tieflings, as well as to spread the word of Hadlea's ascendance to godhood. Of course, most other races view Tieflings as monsters/hellspawn/cursed, so my character has an uphill battle. I like the flavor of a Heroism paladin 'divinely chosen'. One of the tenets says, "Embrace Destiny: You did not choose this path, but it is yours to walk. And it will carry you into legend." I find that this tenet is what I'm building my character around. She did not choose to be a hero, she was called to protect and liberate her people.
I plan to take the following feats for this character in order to raise her to the power level of a divine avatar:
Polearm Master (Level 4): Coupled with the Haste spell I get at level 9, this will eventually give me 4 attacks per round that crit on a 19-20 Sentinel (Level 8): My character now has a massive 'No Touching Zone' around them and even more chances to trigger Mighty Deed Spell Sniper (Level 12): Weird choice, I know, but this allows me to get Eldritch Blast so that I'm no longer burning 1st level slots for Guiding Bolt. 240 ft. of ranged force damage is nice Ability Score Improvement (Level 16): Dump into STR and DEX. Going 15 levels with a +3 to strength is gonna suck, but it can't be helped (the other feats are too important). If the DM is nice and lets me train during downtime to raise stats, then I will ignore the ASI and take Inspiring Leader (more for RP than power) Tough (Level 19): 38 extra HP. Yes please. This will put me at a solid 204 HP by level 20, more than enough to serve as the Divine Champion of the Tiefling Race
Ok, so I'm a bit late to the party, but I might as well throw in my two cents here. My DM is running a setting he homebrewed himself, and the current campaign is drawing to a close. Soon after I joined the current campaign (the one that is ending), I came up with a cool concept for a Paladin. After some twists and turns (the original concept was a Fallen Aasimar Oath of Conquest), I came up with the following character for the next campaign (who, in my opinion, is the best concept I've ever come up with).
Meet Temerity Cassandra von Aila Vivienne de Soren:
She is a Zariel Tiefling Paladin of Heroism. My DM's setting has Tieflings as supposed descendants of the Horned Lady, Hadlea (an Archfey). My character was called by Hadlea to serve as her divine champion and be a guiding light for the other Tieflings, as well as to spread the word of Hadlea's ascendance to godhood. Of course, most other races view Tieflings as monsters/hellspawn/cursed, so my character has an uphill battle. I like the flavor of a Heroism paladin 'divinely chosen'. One of the tenets says, "Embrace Destiny: You did not choose this path, but it is yours to walk. And it will carry you into legend." I find that this tenet is what I'm building my character around. She did not choose to be a hero, she was called to protect and liberate her people.
I plan to take the following feats for this character in order to raise her to the power level of a divine avatar:
Polearm Master (Level 4): Coupled with the Haste spell I get at level 9, this will eventually give me 4 attacks per round that crit on a 19-20 Sentinel (Level 8): My character now has a massive 'No Touching Zone' around them and even more chances to trigger Mighty Deed Spell Sniper (Level 12): Weird choice, I know, but this allows me to get Eldritch Blast so that I'm no longer burning 1st level slots for Guiding Bolt. 240 ft. of ranged force damage is nice Ability Score Improvement (Level 16): Dump into STR and DEX. Going 15 levels with a +3 to strength is gonna suck, but it can't be helped (the other feats are too important). If the DM is nice and lets me train during downtime to raise stats, then I will ignore the ASI and take Inspiring Leader (more for RP than power) Tough (Level 19): 38 extra HP. Yes please. This will put me at a solid 204 HP by level 20, more than enough to serve as the Divine Champion of the Tiefling Race
Revisiting some of my favorite Unearthed Arcana subclasses, we have perhaps the mightiest with the Heroism Paladin.
Personally, I love this subclass...not just for the impressive features, but for the roleplaying possibilities.
This is one of the most morally-flexible paladins thus far...more so than the lawful evil-inclined Conquest Paladin, or the laid-back goodness of the Ancients Paladin.
This is largely because the Heroism Paladin is self-serving...yeah, they could be helping people out of the goodness of their heart, but the core concept is that this paladin is trying to make a name for himself...to become a legend. Maybe they're becoming a hero to scare the forces of evil away...in which case, they're good because they're a protector to the people...like say, All-Might from My Hero Academia.
But say they're just in it for the glory...maybe they're scared of being forgotten, or fading in to obscurity...maybe they were an urchin destined to die on the streets, and vowed to become something greater...or maybe they just buy in to their own hype.
I find these to be more interesting characters...because they can do good things, but for selfish reasons. An urchin would achieve great deeds to become famous, and perhaps claw their way out from poverty. Maybe they learned how to captivate both the poor and the rich and wealthy, and their heroism is all a facade to keep them rich and fed.
Or maybe they fought as a Gladiator, and moved on from the arena to seek new challenges, and isn't really a hero at all...maybe they're just bored.
Perhaps a Soldier won notoriety on the battlefield, and uses their bloody reputation to intimidate his nations enemies.
Maybe a Noble from a powerful family groomed their son to be the perfect knight...dedicating a whole team of people to making them "perfect" to protect the family's reputation. The reality could be...maybe the noble is secretly sadistic, and enjoys hurting people and being praised for it, and resents that he must appear outwardly heroic.
If any of these sound familiar, you get the idea...the Heroism Paladin is for the more Neutral and Evil character concepts. Characters like Homelander from Amazon Prime's "The Boyz", Kratos from "God of War", Russell Crowe's Maximus from "Gladiator", or even Gaston from "Beauty & the Beast" are all examples of a Heroism Paladin with a darker side.
What are some ideas you all have for this glory-hungry paladin?
What weapon styles fit this aesthetic, or the new spells they receive?
What are your favorite Heroism features?
What are your goals?
Share some of your character ideas below!
Give the bards something to sing about ; )
I'm currently playing a Fallen Aasimar Paladin who used to be a Deva in service of the god Helm. She was charged with protecting something important before helm was slain, and continued in that duty in his wake. Some time after Helm's fall, she succeeded in repelling a demonic incursion, but became corrupted by some kind of fiendish influence in the process. With a growing darkness inside her, she was stripped of her rank and cast out from the Celestial planes to the Prime Material, where she's been just kind of drifting, looking for purpose while wrestling with the darkness within, and selling her services as a merc or bodyguard to survive.
Her darkness manifests as her Necrotic Shroud ability, with some modifications that also make it detrimental to her, and she can't control it yet (Wisdom saves to prevent it from triggering, and the triggers are determined by my DM). I have plans for her to eventually overcome whatever corruption is within her, and in the process of beating it back she will regain her heavenly gifts, eventually ending up as a Paladin 6, Divine Soul Sorcerer 14, regaining her true wings at 20th level from the 14th-level Sorcerer feature.
... Or, she may succumb to the corruption and go dark side, in which case she'll become an Oathbreaker and Shadow Sorcerer, potentially with a level or two of Warlock. Her path will depend entirely on how the story goes.
Fallen Aasimar always makes for an interesting roleplay...they're either stories of redemption, or they track how much further the aasimar will fall into darkness.
Cool concept. Helm's a favorite deity of mine.
So far I have two Oath of Heroism Paladins.
The first was for a high level one shot dungeon. He was a gladiator who got so good it became clear to himself that he was some kind of hero that was divinely selected. He figured his exploits must have been entertaining to the gods. He got bored of just fighting and decided to try to start speed running dungeons.
The second was an NPC that was your standard ******* prince. He was based heavily on Jaime Lannister.
Gotta love those ******** who actually live up to their fighting reputation.
I can see how they could really bait a party into a foolhardy duel.
One NPC I have with my brother is a Female human Oath of Heroism Paladin, who is missing her right arm, and left eye. Her goal, as a champion of justice, who follows Lathander: Fight for the weak. Bring evildoers to to justice, through either redemption, arresting them, or (only as a last resort) killing them.
She rides a Green dragon, who is head over heels for her, and wields a great sword.
Ooh...a one-armed paladin wielding a greatsword?
Impressive.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/profile/PatrickDees/characters/21144022 She has a prosthetic arm that's just for aesthetic reasons. dont have the eberron book on here.
Name: Thaos Rend
Race: Half-drow
Appearance: Inheriting the typical appearance of a drow, Thaos has light, charcoal-grey skin, long silvery hair he keeps somewhat tied back, and deep red eyes. He is also suprisingly muscular for the normally lithe and thin-framed half-elf race...he is stacked with muscle, and would look quite monstrous and fearsome...if not for a perpetual grin he keeps plastered on his face.
Fighting Style:
Using variant rules, Thaos will start combat with regular fist-fighting...believing it makes for more of a challenge.
He keeps a greatsword on his back, however...using it only when an opponent seems interesting.
Attitude:
Thaos is a follower of Eilastraee, the benevolent drow goddess. However, her warrior followers are comprised solely of women wielding bastard swords, and so Thaos found himself somewhat isolated from their order.
Deciding to bring honor to the dark elf lineage himself, he vowed the Oath of Heroism to become a legendary figure that would inspire a new generations of his worth. To that end, he projects a confident and laid-back persona to put those around him at ease.
I actually made a drow who is a follower of Eilastree, but she's a bard, and very a very recent follower, so she still has some of that classic drow tendencies that's she's working on getting ride off
Ok, so I'm a bit late to the party, but I might as well throw in my two cents here. My DM is running a setting he homebrewed himself, and the current campaign is drawing to a close. Soon after I joined the current campaign (the one that is ending), I came up with a cool concept for a Paladin. After some twists and turns (the original concept was a Fallen Aasimar Oath of Conquest), I came up with the following character for the next campaign (who, in my opinion, is the best concept I've ever come up with).
Meet Temerity Cassandra von Aila Vivienne de Soren:
She is a Zariel Tiefling Paladin of Heroism. My DM's setting has Tieflings as supposed descendants of the Horned Lady, Hadlea (an Archfey). My character was called by Hadlea to serve as her divine champion and be a guiding light for the other Tieflings, as well as to spread the word of Hadlea's ascendance to godhood. Of course, most other races view Tieflings as monsters/hellspawn/cursed, so my character has an uphill battle. I like the flavor of a Heroism paladin 'divinely chosen'. One of the tenets says, "Embrace Destiny: You did not choose this path, but it is yours to walk. And it will carry you into legend." I find that this tenet is what I'm building my character around. She did not choose to be a hero, she was called to protect and liberate her people.
Level 1 Stats: 17 STR, 9 DEX, 14 CON, 11 INT, 13 WIS, 20 CHA
I plan to take the following feats for this character in order to raise her to the power level of a divine avatar:
Polearm Master (Level 4): Coupled with the Haste spell I get at level 9, this will eventually give me 4 attacks per round that crit on a 19-20
Sentinel (Level 8): My character now has a massive 'No Touching Zone' around them and even more chances to trigger Mighty Deed
Spell Sniper (Level 12): Weird choice, I know, but this allows me to get Eldritch Blast so that I'm no longer burning 1st level slots for Guiding Bolt. 240 ft. of ranged force damage is nice
Ability Score Improvement (Level 16): Dump into STR and DEX. Going 15 levels with a +3 to strength is gonna suck, but it can't be helped (the other feats are too important). If the DM is nice and lets me train during downtime to raise stats, then I will ignore the ASI and take Inspiring Leader (more for RP than power)
Tough (Level 19): 38 extra HP. Yes please. This will put me at a solid 204 HP by level 20, more than enough to serve as the Divine Champion of the Tiefling Race
Any thoughts/tips would be appreciated.
Thanks,
-Spectre
That concept is awesome.
Thanks.