I need some help on how to justify two opposites; the Paladin and the warlock. Currently my thought is hexblade warlock and vengeance Paladin. To justify how they could work together, I thought of the sword Nepenthe being the warlock patron, which would canonically work well with an oath to vengeance. Does anyone have any other ideas since this seems pretty plain?
He was first a paladin who was so obsessed with destroying great evil that he did all he could to become stronger. He was quite the golden boy in his early paladin years, but the many years to come consumed him and he became a bit too invested. He made a pact with a hexblade. It was a blade designed to kill strong enemies like monsters etc. Very violent, but otherwise quite neutral.
Slowly it made the paladin more and more violent too. A monster to kill monsters, so to speak. He never abandoned his oath. If anything, he committed to it even more. But he was far from righteous. He would probably torture an innocent to find the "bigger evil".
If you don't want to be evil or edgy (at least not right away) you could do oath of the watchers or devotion and there oath is to watch over the sword which has a demon or something imprisoned inside it and only use it's powers for good and the sword could tempt him and that could lead to some very interesting interactions.
Paladin - ho look a tavern!
Sword - let's burn it
Paladin - no, why would we do that!
Sword - because it's funny to hear them screaming
Paladin - definitely not!
Sword - pleeeeeeeeease
Paladin getting even more annoyed - NO
The party - who are you talking to?
Paladin - ho it's just my sword, no biggie
The party - looks concerned about the Paladins mental state.
Joe the blacksmith's son was a good young man, raised right by his loving parents, and taught the teachings of Lathander - as all who lived in Lathanderville should. He wanted to be a paladin and do the good work of Lathander, and spend his life working to spread light in the world.
However, something horrible happened. And maybe it wasn't even all that horrible, but it was just way worse than young Joe was able to handle. See, he was quite enamored with Leesa, the village clerics daughter - and as such, that was fine: Lathander smiles on young love. What happened though was that at one of the village feasts, young Joe got considerably more to drink than he should have, and one thing lead to another which lead to a third, and through barely any fault of his own, young Joe woke up the next morning not with Leesa, but with Arielle - Leesa's mother. Who was married woman. To the village priest. Who was teaching Joe about Lathander, and how to be a paladin.
This was - perhaps understandably - a bit much for young Joe to handle. He fled in a blind panic, unsure how he would ever be able to put the pieces of his world back together again.
He fled into the deep woods, and there found an old ... shrine, or some such, where he sheltered against the rain (of course it was raining - wouldn't be a tragic tale without rain).
Now, a kind spirit watched over this place. A fey spirit. And this spirit approached the young paladin to be, and asked him what was wrong. As Joe explained, it replied simply: Fret not - this is nothing I cannot fix for you. Vaguely suspicious, but also desperate, Joe asked how. And the spirit replied that it had the power to manipulate memories - it could make everything simply go away.
Now, Joe surely imagined that the fey spirit would make everyone else forget. But the fey, being a practically minded sort, knew that no one else either knew, or cared, or would tell. And so it made Joe forget. Oh, enough remained: Joe remembered that he'd done something terrible, awful, unforgivable - but that the spirit had fixed everything for him, and also relived him of the burden of remembering what it was.
And so, Joe the Paladin became also Joe the Hexblade - always torn between two masters, never knowing he'd been duped.
For a small twist ... who knows, maybe the whole thing never happened, but the spirit just placed the memories there, to later remove them.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Paladins are based in oaths and Warlocks in pacts, which I don't think needs to be at odds. Your paladin can make a pact that furthers their vengeance oath, or potentially that the pact led to actions that now require some level of vengeance. I think the easiest way to frame it is how can you make your character's internal goals mesh with an external agreement? An interesting thing to do with that particular sword, which can't distinguish the innocent and the guilty, is have it so that the pact is that it will only kill those you want vengeance upon, but as time goes on it does not recognize who is and isn't guilty. I would definitely talk about options with your DM, but good luck with your character!
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I need some help on how to justify two opposites; the Paladin and the warlock. Currently my thought is hexblade warlock and vengeance Paladin. To justify how they could work together, I thought of the sword Nepenthe being the warlock patron, which would canonically work well with an oath to vengeance. Does anyone have any other ideas since this seems pretty plain?
I had a similar character.
He was first a paladin who was so obsessed with destroying great evil that he did all he could to become stronger. He was quite the golden boy in his early paladin years, but the many years to come consumed him and he became a bit too invested. He made a pact with a hexblade. It was a blade designed to kill strong enemies like monsters etc. Very violent, but otherwise quite neutral.
Slowly it made the paladin more and more violent too. A monster to kill monsters, so to speak. He never abandoned his oath. If anything, he committed to it even more. But he was far from righteous. He would probably torture an innocent to find the "bigger evil".
Finland GMT/UTC +2
If you don't want to be evil or edgy (at least not right away) you could do oath of the watchers or devotion and there oath is to watch over the sword which has a demon or something imprisoned inside it and only use it's powers for good and the sword could tempt him and that could lead to some very interesting interactions.
Paladin - ho look a tavern!
Sword - let's burn it
Paladin - no, why would we do that!
Sword - because it's funny to hear them screaming
Paladin - definitely not!
Sword - pleeeeeeeeease
Paladin getting even more annoyed - NO
The party - who are you talking to?
Paladin - ho it's just my sword, no biggie
The party - looks concerned about the Paladins mental state.
Joe the blacksmith's son was a good young man, raised right by his loving parents, and taught the teachings of Lathander - as all who lived in Lathanderville should. He wanted to be a paladin and do the good work of Lathander, and spend his life working to spread light in the world.
However, something horrible happened. And maybe it wasn't even all that horrible, but it was just way worse than young Joe was able to handle. See, he was quite enamored with Leesa, the village clerics daughter - and as such, that was fine: Lathander smiles on young love. What happened though was that at one of the village feasts, young Joe got considerably more to drink than he should have, and one thing lead to another which lead to a third, and through barely any fault of his own, young Joe woke up the next morning not with Leesa, but with Arielle - Leesa's mother. Who was married woman. To the village priest. Who was teaching Joe about Lathander, and how to be a paladin.
This was - perhaps understandably - a bit much for young Joe to handle. He fled in a blind panic, unsure how he would ever be able to put the pieces of his world back together again.
He fled into the deep woods, and there found an old ... shrine, or some such, where he sheltered against the rain (of course it was raining - wouldn't be a tragic tale without rain).
Now, a kind spirit watched over this place. A fey spirit. And this spirit approached the young paladin to be, and asked him what was wrong. As Joe explained, it replied simply: Fret not - this is nothing I cannot fix for you. Vaguely suspicious, but also desperate, Joe asked how. And the spirit replied that it had the power to manipulate memories - it could make everything simply go away.
Now, Joe surely imagined that the fey spirit would make everyone else forget. But the fey, being a practically minded sort, knew that no one else either knew, or cared, or would tell. And so it made Joe forget. Oh, enough remained: Joe remembered that he'd done something terrible, awful, unforgivable - but that the spirit had fixed everything for him, and also relived him of the burden of remembering what it was.
And so, Joe the Paladin became also Joe the Hexblade - always torn between two masters, never knowing he'd been duped.
For a small twist ... who knows, maybe the whole thing never happened, but the spirit just placed the memories there, to later remove them.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Paladins are based in oaths and Warlocks in pacts, which I don't think needs to be at odds. Your paladin can make a pact that furthers their vengeance oath, or potentially that the pact led to actions that now require some level of vengeance. I think the easiest way to frame it is how can you make your character's internal goals mesh with an external agreement? An interesting thing to do with that particular sword, which can't distinguish the innocent and the guilty, is have it so that the pact is that it will only kill those you want vengeance upon, but as time goes on it does not recognize who is and isn't guilty. I would definitely talk about options with your DM, but good luck with your character!