Paladins cannot ritual cast, unlike other classes like Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Wizard. The Ritual Caster feat allows them to cast any bard spell, but they cannot cast ritual spells as they do not have any class features that allow them to do so. The Dungeon Master’s Guide does include a rule that explains this.
Ritual spells can be cast following normal spellcasting rules or as a ritual, but the ritual version takes 10 minutes longer to cast. Paladins cannot cast ritual spells from their prepared spells, even though the Oath of the Ancients always has a conversation with animals. In the Player’s Handbook, the Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Wizard can cast ritual spells, while the Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Wizard cannot.
The spellcasting subclasses for non-magical classes, like the Artificer, require the “Ritual Caster” ability granted by their spellcasting feature or the Ritual Caster character feat. Paladins are not ritual casters, as they only have access to the Ritual Caster feature associated with a full caster class.
In DnD 5e, Paladins prepare spells daily, competing with concentration spells like Bless and Aid for value. When casting a spell as a ritual, players cannot choose to cast it at a higher level. Paladins can get the Ritual Caster feat, which allows them to cast rituals from their own spell list. However, they are not allowed to choose from another spell list.
Despite their limitations, Paladins are a viable duel wield class.
📹 D&D Spellcasting Explained | Part 1
This is spellcasting explained for D&D 5e! Here in part 1, we’ll go over go over spell levels, casting at higher levels, spell slots, …
Is ritual casting a feat?
It should be noted that the Ritual Caster feat is a discrete skill that is not contingent upon one’s actual class(es) or ritual casting rules. It is conceivable that JavaScript is disabled or obstructed by an extension, and that your browser does not accommodate cookies.
Can you cast cleric spells as rituals?
The text delineates the circumstances under which a bard spell may be cast as a ritual for Wizards and Clerics. It states that a Cleric spell may also be cast as a ritual if it has the ritual tag and is prepared. It should be noted, however, that the wording of the “Ritual Caster” feature differs between classes.
Can paladins do ritual spells?
Artificers are a half-caster class, combining spellcasting and physical combat skills. They can only cast spells up to level 5. They have access to ritual casting as a class skill and must prepare their ritual spells daily. Players who choose the Pact of the Tome subclass for their warlock characters can access ritual spells, which come with the Book of Ancient Secrets invocation. This allows them to learn 1st-level ritual spells from any class spell list and cast warlock spells with the ritual tag as ritual spells.
In D and D 5e, every character class has subclasses, offering specialized skills for characters to learn. Warlock characters can choose from several subclasses, but Pact of the Tome is the only one with different ritual casting options.
Can Bard cast ritual spells?
Bards possess the capacity for “Ritual Casting,” which enables them to cast any Bard Spell as a ritual in the event that it bears a ritual tag. This enables the caster to perform the spell without expending a spell slot, though it does require an additional 10 minutes.
What classes can cast ritual spells in 5e?
In Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition, only five classes can cast Rituals by default: Artificers, Bards, Clerics, Druids, and Wizards. These five can cast any spell they know or have in their spellbook as a Ritual. However, any character, even a non-magical one, can pick up the Ritual Caster Feat, which allows them to choose one of the Ritual Casting classes and learn two level 1 spells from their spell list. These spells can only be cast as Rituals, but a Ritual Caster can copy more spells into their Ritual book as they find them.
Copying a spell takes 2 hours and 50 gold pieces for each level of the spell. For example, a level 6 Barbarian trying to copy a level 3 spell would take 6 hours and cost 150gp. However, the benefits of being able to perform magical effects as a non-caster character are significant. Players can also copy spells directly from their companion’s spellbooks, ensuring a well-organized team is always on hand.
Can Paladins use healing spells?
In raid environments, healers are divided into raid and tank healers, with paladins being the best class for healing tanks due to Beacon of Light and Holy Light’s heavy-duty output. Holy paladins often beacon the tank taking the most damage, spam heals on other tanks, or help heal the raid, ensuring constant reflection of heals onto the main tank. Multiple holy paladins can be assigned to different targets to maximize reflected heals. Sacred Shield is a powerful mitigation tool that should be kept on the main tank at all times, and can be enhanced by speccing for Divine Guardian in the Protection talent tree.
It is especially useful for improving Flash of Light performance, allowing the paladin to maintain a healing-over-time effect on the main tank by casting Flash of Light on the shielded target. This bonus gives the paladin a 50 bonus to Flash of Light’s critical strike chance, often ensuring a near-perfect critical strike rating for Flash of Light.
Can paladins cast cleric spells?
The Paladin table displays the number of spell slots available for casting spells. To cast a spell of 1st level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. All expended spell slots are regained after a long rest. To prepare a list of available spells, choose a number equal to your Charisma modifier + half your paladin level, rounded down. The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, a 5th-level paladin with a 14 Charisma can have four 1st or 2nd-level spell slots. Casting a 1st-level spell doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared spells.
Can druids cast ritual spells?
Ritual casting in BG3 is a complex concept that varies among different classes. Clerics and Druids require a prepared spell, while wizards only need it in their spellbook. Bards can only know the spell, but no other classes can cast as rituals. Solasta correctly allowed wizards to ritual cast spells from their spellbook without memorizing them. Clerics could only ritual cast spells they had prepared.
BG3 faces a situation where ritual spells may not be effective due to the ability to switch spells at will without time sacrifice. This could lead to a mechanic that may feel “out of place” or create work for the sake of trying to fit something. To address this, ritual spells could be made to behave like cantrips or removed as a mechanic. While neither method is better, it is important to note that for BG3, ritual spells may not make sense.
Is a cleric or paladin better?
While the spell lists of paladins and clerics have some overlap, clerics typically have a greater number of healing spells at their disposal. Both classes have the option of selecting subclasses, with paladins able to choose Oath Spells and clerics able to select Domain Spells. Clerics rely on their spells for healing, thereby enabling them to heal more HP, whereas paladins utilize the Lay on Hands ability.
Can Arcane Trickster ritual cast?
Arcane Trickster Rogues are unable to write down their spells, learn them from scrolls or spellbooks, and are not ritual casters. Consequently, they are unable to cast their known spells as a ritual. The browser in question does not support cookies.
Can paladins change spells?
The Paladin table indicates the number of spell slots available for casting spells. To cast a spell of 1st level or higher, one must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. After a long rest, all expended spell slots are regained. To prepare a list of available spells, choose a number equal to your Charisma modifier + half your paladin level, rounded down. The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
For example, a 5th-level paladin has four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Charisma of 14, your list of prepared spells can include four spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. Casting a spell doesn’t remove it from your list.
Your Charisma is your spellcasting ability, as its power derives from the strength of your convictions. You use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
📹 Can Paladins Work as D&D Villains?
Paladins are known as the goodie class in DnD, but can a paladin work with the iconic D&D lich? What could a Paladin Lich even …
I think the Holy Sisters could be a really good example of an ACTUALLY morally complex antagonist; not just “morally indefensible but with a nametag that says HERO on it.” Have Sister Ursula be correct; something on the island is discretely causing the constant strife, that they haven’t been able to find, possibly because of the mindset that led to their oath. But, if the party finds out, they find the Sisters surprisingly willing to lay down their Undeath if the threat passes–because they genuinely only keep it up out of obligation. The Sisters mourn for every soul they take, have memorized the names of every sacrifice, and if they found a way to fulfil their oath without continuing to pay that price, they would gladly reach for it.
I made a corrupt paladin as a boss. He was infected by the essence of a defeated lich as the phylactery’s shards burried themselves in his flesh. His aura effect turned into a weakening miasma and by draining the corruption from the party, he’d gain health, deal damage to them or other effects, as a metaphorical tax for the “healing”. They hated/loved the fight xD
I had to pause the article to type this. I can’t decide what I like the most in these articles. The edit is simply ingenious. The clips to fit the script, the humor used is clever, the puns fit and match – the whole thing is amazing. And on top of that there’s the content itself: fresh and uncompromising. The reasoning behind is always thorough which allows one to understand the process and how the suggested theme works. Even the god damn adds are great. Whoever came up with this style for the adds needs a trophy. You know it’s the add, but you are too intrigued to skip it because of the story and graphics designed for it. So listen up all you people selling us things: this works. Throw your dollars or pesos or euros towards this ma.. hat, towards this hat! And to end this little message: I do not write comments – ever. This is a very rare exception and reflects heavily how much I appreciate the content. Now, let’s get liching!
As someone who just ran a campaign with a villainous paladin who swore an oath to the god of fear and nightmares to become an immortal dream killer and torturer. YES they can be villains! He became what i called: A Knightmare. Name of the character was Punisher Grigorey. Who was executioner of a kingdom, until he was ousted for being too cruel and searched other methods to fufill his craving for others pain. Swearing that nobody would ever be safe from him. An oath of fear
My interpretation would be a Paladin so single-mindedly devoted to his oath that he just ignores everything else. Pleasures of flesh? Ignored. Any villanious group not connected to his oath? Ignored. Any harm done to the people or the land that is not connected to his oath? Ignored. Death? That is something that would just be an obstacle to fulfilling the oath so ignored The oath itself would be a philactery, so a party would have to either help the Paladin in executing his oath or trick him into breaking it.
Oath of redemption forsword who is the last of his order. He is confronted about his lichdom. How he needs souls to survive. “As long as there are people in the world who will dismiss redemption for their own gain at any chance and threaten the lived of others, I will have souls to feed on” “And what if there are no longer people like that? What if you slay all the irredeemably evil people there are?” “Then my work is done and I have given all to the world that I am capable of. I will rest knowing that there is no more need for me.”
I might use this to re-hash a character I once played: Torrin Vosh Hammerlock, a Shifter Barbadin (Oath of Watchers) who many referred to as “The Watchdog of Langden Fortress”. So named for his devotion to the Dwarves who treated him like kin, and to be a force to strike back at the horrid creatures that crept up from the Underdark and other planes of existence. Torrin even earned himself the Axe of Dwarvish Lords (though it’s more of a loan than a gift. lol). He reappeared in a different game as a legacy NPC, who started an order of knights based out of Langden to be protectors of the realm, and even had a Sapphire Dragon in his council.
It’s crazy to me that we haven’t seen more paladins as villains. I think Ketheric was one of the first I’d ever seen in something like officially associated with DND. They’re honestly such great fountains of story! Pious, honorable, faithful, obsessive, wrathful, paladins are the perfect villains to represent that bad guys think they are the good guys.
I was going to make a lich-paladin npc for a spell jammer campaign as the ruler of the home planet and hero of the old war before spell jamming happened, but then I realized I was just making Warhammer 40k’s god emperor of mankind for D&D. I wouldn’t have worried about it except for the fact I play 40k with everyone in my D&D group.
If I remember correctly in the case of Soth it wasn’t just that he cheated on his wife, it was that he got paranoid at some point, then killed his mistress, killed his wife, and then killed himself. Yeah breaking his vow to his wife was part of it but the betrayal and murder of three people in addition to that is what pushed it over the edge.
Great article! I never understood why people didn’t think paladins could be villains. Any oath taken too far will make you a villain. One of my players is trying to, “redeem herself,” by, “bringing peace and order to all.” There’s already a state in my world demonstrating why having an immortal ruler can be super cool, so I can’t wait for her to encounter the forsworn.
Playing a Oath of Conquest Paladin in a game and becoming Forsworn with the Vengeance Paladin (along side some NPCs we have frequent dealings with) seems the best way to fight the bbeg’s on equal footing (a Vampire Lord and a blackmailed Archlich). DM is probably using a Forsworn Order eventually as they love Pointy Hats content
Loved you in the new Ginny Di article. How did that come about? Any other partnerships in the near future? You gotta make an Eberron article. You are the perfect person to do it. But I also really wanna see how you would create Chaotic Celestials, ones that don’t look like Angels at all. Same way demons are the counterpart to Devils. Just an idea. This is still one of the coolest websites about D&D.
For a campaign I finished recently, I made the BBEG what’s basically a Lich Paladin, the backstory was that she was a Devotion Paladin who sought to cure death, and found herself in the position where she could replace Vecna, so she became a lich god and made everyone in the world a lich, and for the soul consumption problem, she hid it through a secret organization that would hunt the souls of “lesser races” (she was racist) and fees the population with them. So everyone, including the PCs, were liches without knowing it. I’m quite proud on how it turned out
Idea: Ursula discovered the Forsworn Ritual while investigating the Demons as something the Demons themselves used. Fighting Fire with Fire kinda thing, not seeing another way to defeat them, and it turns out the souls of the squires were sent to the hells. Also they kept it hidden from Leona where the squires went and why she was never allowed a squire, because she wouldn’t be able to “do what is necessary”
i’ve been running a campaign based on this series of articles called Song of Sorrows, where the party has to hunt down and kill 16 “liches” spread across the Southern Isles, an archipelago currently under a whole lot of curses that the stars themselves have abandoned. Each lich is based on a class, with some of them being based on these articles, and others being ones of my own design based on the “checklist”. For example, the artificer one, instead of requiring flesh, requires Individuality. The idea being that people have personality, have soul, have independence and such. And the Steel Song, the artificer lich, consumes that to fuel its massive hive mind, then turns the husks of the hollowed out “people” into golems, use them as sleeper agents controlled by the hive, or simply burn them as fuel. Sort of expansionist spooky stuff. For the paladin, my version is the Martyr. It goes more in the direction of the Crusades, of zealotry and such. Essentially, if a paladin wishes to become one, they must gather a group of Crusaders, other paladins who believe in their cause, before ritually forcing an innocent in some way related to the group they’re trying to crusade against to Kill the paladin in question. Doing this makes them a Martyr, and the Crusaders (any paladins who witnessed the act, in this case 7) become the phylacteries. The martyr’s spirit can possess and control any of the crusaders via a piece of the original body, and the only way to truly end them is to kill all seven crusaders.
I think the better undead template to think of when picturing a Paladin Lich is not a Death Knight, but a Revenant. A Revenant is usually just out for revenge, but the fact that they are in a position where they are incapable of dying while they pursue their adversary gives them that Paladin being devoted to a single purpose feel. Probably helped that one of the more well-known Revenants in 5E is Godfrey in Curse of Strahd.
Maybe not a villain per se, but I once had a character that was a Paladin of Pelor, with the twist that he was originally a Death Knight who got a Belt of Alignment Shift put on him, and had amnesia. He took his immolation whenever he prayed or used his Holy spells as a blessing to use as a martial buff. Even when he regained his memories – when he and the party realized that he was actually undead due to a giant knocking his head off – he decided that he liked who he was currently, and continued like business as usual. In the battle against the BBEG, he was integral to the fight, (re)dying after putting the absolute beatdown on the BBEG. And was buried recognized as fully redeemed in Pelor’s eyes.
so idea for warlock lich, there’s a warlock who desperately clings to life. Their desire for immortality becomes so intense that they inadvertently become a patron. As a result, they can bestow their power upon other warlocks. These recipients, in turn, become the warlock’s phylacteries, storing their essence. However, the more power the warlock shares, the weaker they become.
Now I have watched! I am of two minds here, haha! First, I think these are really cool, really good concept, and really well made too. I definitely can see then as one way to mash up Paladin and Lich. On the other hand, I feel like a Paladin lich is one idea that should allow for a sorta good or at least ambiguously grey being, as that for me is not mandatory for a paladin (not anymore), but is strongly part of the archetype, it frels missing. I also personally prefer if their achievement of undeath is requiring by either a corruption of their oath that they chose to embrace anyway or their oath being a monkey’s pawn from the star. Meaning, I prefer if it build off their original oath instead of breaking and replacing it. Say, a Paladin oath is the defence and service of a royal family/bloodline, who then become or are later revealed to be vampires. Now their line of vampires is their soul tupperware, ironically. Or say a paladin is a religious one, and their deity falls, gets coreupted, some shit happens. So the paladin actively begs gor life expansion so they can continue being the deity’s champion. Or say the deity “died”, and the paladin still loyal to them and accepts remaining their champion even in death. But now they also need to grow the flock in hopes of enough devouts resurrecting their deity (any guess what is their Tupperware), which would also pair well with a whole organisation such as a church entirely filled with mummies mummie lords and the like. This mayblead to just peaceful ish interaction paradoxically, but when the stakes are the life of their deity, chances are they will try less savory shortcuts.
I have an island similar to Durdham (Durham? Durdam? Idk) in my own campaign setting. These would be perfect for this. The premise is simple: A cult was formed some generation or so ago, one built around – secretly – a fallen angel of redemption, now twisted into a dark god of the abandoned and spiteful. Instead of uplifting those who were left to rot for one reason or another, they take the arms of the one that reached out to the church and the angel for aid, adding their strength to its own terrible power and even making up its very wings. The cult, of course, frames itself as a religion of redemption and even knowledge, “teaching” those who have nowhere else to go and wanting a new life.
Imagine the party encountering a lone survivor forsworn who as a former paladin of the ancients his skeletal body is covered in moss and bark and they become the reason that he has to revive his order from the afterlife by reaping more souls to fight the party. Because the party’s actions violate the oath of the forsworn or they must try to stop him from reviving his old teammates into the order.
I actually had a fan idea for a paladin Lich awhile back called “an inquisitor”. I never really got around to writing it down, but basically, an inquisitor is what happens when an order of paladins becomes desperate to fulfill the will of their god, with one of them offering themselves up for a ritual, where they’ll be beaten, tortured, maimed, and ritualistically brutalized for seven days and seven nights to prove their faith (yeah, lot of religious horror in this one). Eventually, on the seventh night, the paladin finally dies, only to come back to life through divine intervention, revived as a walking vessel for their god’s will, the order itself acting as the inquisitor’s phylactery.
I can’t be the only one who’s first thought was that this is very similar to the abyss watchers from dark souls 3. Genuinely really cool though, I think that elevates both concepts. I’m a huge paladin enjoyer and this was a really cool article and amazing concept. I think this does fit better for lichdom compared to death knights, since the fall is normally well… a fall not a choice from the outset. You can become a death knight from just making a deal with demons(iirc, maybe they just create them instead of transforming people), and I think it’s mentioned somewhere that their swords kinda function like a phylactery(?). But it still the “you can’t fully die until you redeem yourself” deal even if the sword is destroyed soo… doesn’t really change the point… Sorry I’m rambling, I’ve just really like the death knight concept for a long time. Again, fantastic article, thanks for the great stuff
OG Raistlin apologist and fan girl here. I read so many books in the Dragonlance series without even realizing that it was a D&D setting at first. When I finally realzed it was from this weird devil worshiping dice game I was hooked, that was 30 years ago.. Needless to say, my family worried about it being “Satanic” and thought I would be some weird childless cat lady. Little did they know I would “raise” my own family of Devil Dice game playing heathens.. Anyway, I LOVE Soth! He’s a great family man and totally OBSESSED with his wife! Top Teir!
i’ve got an idea for a Rouge/Thief Lich. Phantom Thief. their Loot is their soul jar, but it gradually gets evaporated by their souls energy, or used to fuel their abilities, a real Pay To Win Lichdom this also incentivizing more theft to replace what is lost. Enchanted stuff takes longer to evaporate, meaning if they steal rarer and more valuable stuff they can go longer between heists, but even then they have to replace the stuff eventually. their loot is also not exempt from being stolen by others, or being used as fuel for other Phantom Thieves powers. Two Thieves fighting over a cave of loot will burn through the entire thing if they aren’t careful. dying an reforming would also cost loot. i.e Phantom Thief 1 has just lost a fight ;( their body explodes into corroded coins, and back at their secret lair, a bunch of loot glows and flows together to remake their body. the less loot they have, the weaker they come back. a Phantom Thief with a single coin to their name is embarrassingly weak, but unlike a lot of other liches, it won’t die for good if they die again, but unless their coin touches something expensive enough/gets added to a big enough money pile, they are stuck in the Fragile coin, unable to do more than talk and glow slightly. coins containing other liches do not count as loot, so its technically possible for some BBEG to have a coinpurse full of lich coins that screams when the bag is shaken.
Reminds me of talion from shadow of war. A deathless thing, a demon in man flesh, a gravewalke. He was sacrificed to Sarron by a cult, but as his soul left his body a wraith possessed him to claim vengeance on the dark lord and all those who followed him. Banished from death he would die over and over again, conquering and enslaving entire nations inside Mordor. I won’t spoil anything else because it’s a really great game, you all should play it.
It didn’t strike me right away, but this sounds like the Undead Legion from Dark Souls 3. They style themselves after Artorius the Abyswalker, and at one point, as a group, manage to re-kindle the First Flame. Now, they fight an eternal battle amongst themselves after being driven mad by the Kindling ritual.
So cool I am using this idea to effect my worlds Cursed Lords. So to adress the spell casters supremeness in my dnd game I made the cursed lords, (think of them as Nazgul dwarves). Essentially when ever you cast a spell of 5th level (level not slot) or higher you have a chance to summon a curse lord, they will attack the caster relentlessly for a rolled number of rounds. It just lets casters think twice about casting big spells and can add a third enemy group to a fight not planned. They were a combo of a death knight and lich, but after perusal this I am gonna make them similar to these lich paladins. After all these guys were essentially liches who hunted down magic users based on an oath they took many years ago. But making them previous paladins before they became the curse lords even makes them more unique.
When I saw the article I was so excited!!! I love so much this series and your work! I do want to purchase some of your work but I don’t have the money… yet… Also, I agreed with your statement on the Darknigth… Lichdom must be by your own will. OMG!!!! THAT SO COOL!!!! the number of stories you can made with that is just awsome! I also have some questions. Can you resurect all the order of Paladin if it have only one member remaning? The issue I had is that you need to regoup and all swear the oath again to ressurect a member. However did remaking the vow ressurect only one memeber at the time or all member that have died until now? Also can the ritual to become lich is the same then the one to remade your Vow? If that the case can that ritual be done alone or not? Also, what happen if a memeber of the Order had an doubt so big that it unable to redo is Vow?
Alternative for solitary paladins: the oath itself is the phylactery. With each death, the oath must be sworn anew, and must grow more fanatical. Ending an Unrelenting is simple: the paladin must willingly and knowingly break their oath. Ending an Unrelenting is not easy: what leverage could you possibly bring that would shift someone who has died countless times for their principles?
Weeeeeeeell…. Technicly Soth was a Solamnic Knight. Which is like a Paladin if you boost his social skill but take away his magic. So basicly – a talking warrior 😀 Also – Soth failed not because HE commited adultery, but because he was fooled into believing that his beloved wife had an affair with his friend 😉 DragonLance nerd here 😛 But I love this article! And the rest of them as well as your articles. I am super looking forward to your warlock-lich article 😀
Idea for a warlock litch. For warlock to become a litch is fairly simpler than most classes but far more risky as well . The consequences of failure is not only the warlock’s but their immortal soul. The ritual is called the signing. The ritual involves craving a contract out of warlocks own flesh and written in the casters own blood. Next they have to write an extremely airtight contract . Put it in specific clauses the patron cannot harm the warlock or the contract or let the warlock or the contract come to harm . And the warlock can have unlimited access to siphon life force from their patron. Next summon a potential patron. Negotiate a deal with the potential patron for a seemingly usual warlock deal of power for service. Warlock must do one task for the patron, of its choosing, for free, Next the warlock must have the patron sign the flesh contract in their own blood. After the warlock stabs themselves in the heart, with the same knife used to carve the flesh contract. The patron must be more powerful than the warlock. If by some miracle, warlock becomes a litch . The contract and patron become the falactories. The warlock becomes a Sisyphus and the patron becomes a Faust. The Sisyphus perpetually feeds on the life energy of the Faust to sustain its undeath. The faust cannot harm the Sisyphus or the contract. However if the contract is destroyed the Faust is free to take revenge Sisyphus. If the Sisyphus is destroyed, the contract will drain more from the Faust’ life force to reconstitute it’s master.
I know I can be pretty critical, but… bro… this shit was amazing! While you were talking about the Holy Sister Knights, I was already coming up with concept after concept of what I could do with a character. Like, imagine this; apparently Revenants are a thing, yeah? I remember something like it being a thing in 4E. But essentially they’re somebody raised from the dead for a specific purpose. As player characters, they’re pretty much sentient undead. Don’t know if they have to do the whole lich thing. Like, imagine your character dealing with the Sisters is a *former pirate*, and he was brought back to life by the very god the sisters worshipped. Perhaps it’s a god he, at one point in his life, was wholly against for one reason or another. Perhaps he was the member of a smaller faith that was wiped out by the paladins (guess who) of a strange order of a small island nation? And so he joined with a pirate crew that he knew was intending on ransacking this particular island. He didn’t care about their treasures, only their *heads*. And so he sought to take them. He and a few others broke into the royal family while the paladins were kept busy, and they slaughtered the royal family, so locked as he was in a blood-drunk frenzy of revenge. And while successful, he was defeated by Sister Milagros. But rather than being killed outright, he and the few pirates that had been taken alive were going to be imprisoned for purposes none of them understood. Not until Milagros and four others approached their cells, blade in hand, with open wounds upon their chests over their hearts.
Ok. ok ok ok. Hear me out. idea for the next ones (not much left 😂) Warlock lich: After years of learning all the intricacies of his pact, a warlock attains lichdom by finding and exploiting a contractual loophole allowing him to become his own patron. BUT, for the loophole to hold he can never be his only “follower”and therefore must find someone else to sign a pact with him during (a requirement for the lich making ritual). Doing this he gains access to lichdom and steals a permanent link to part of his original patron powers. His phylactery is his closest living disciples. At first he doesn’t feed on their life force/energy/whatever, but because he doesn’t have the other-worldy mind of an eldritch being (or other contractual reason?) he cannot bare for long the energy drain and mental of being a patron but he finds out it can go both ways and decides palliate by signing up another victim, and since the more he can offset on the energy of others, the more he can enjoy his immortality, he signs another one, and another, and another, in a kind of ponzy scheme of soul binding pacts. That’s a very quick and basic idea anyways 🤷♂️ free to use and improve upon by anyone of course 😂. Oh! And his appearance is correlated to how much his being drained from him. This lich wants followers, enough to stabilize the energy requirement they ask of him, but not enough that it becomes unmanageable, and he prefers them inactive. A good indication that someone’s patron is a warlock lich is when his followers look older than they should and always tired except when making use of their patron’s power.
Very interesting and thought-provoking article as always, but this time I have some notes 😀 So in the example immortality just happens to a person? This feels a little contradictory to the lich™ certified recipe® in questions of actively choosing lichdom (the order founder didn’t really choose it) and performing a ritual (again, she didn’t, and there’s no ritual to beef jerkify a paladin without joining an existing gang). I’m also sensing some inclination to make soul tupperware a group of people instead of an object, really feels like a theme now. And I’m not sure if it doesn’t make this particular setup overpowered: like, don’t travel all together; have a planned annual undead-paladin-con where you’d revive the fallen; kill yourself if you can’t make it there so the ritual can happen — and you have an unbeatable force unless you trace them and catch them when they’re all together (and that can be an actual army you’d have to defeat to get rid of them for good).
This is very thematic. I am running a campaign, where such an order entombed its own slumbering members as undead To have them ready to fight a recurring threat. I will use this for the mechanical part and some of its fluff of course, somebody is now collecting these former warriors for their nefarious schemes, not knowing that the end of the world approaches.
I actually do have (pseudo) liches in my game world, that you can become on accident. There’s an incredibly rare type of crystal sometimes found in the world, and after prolonged exposure to one, someone becomes a partially crystallized, and still intelligent, zombie, only killable with very specialized magic which is also used to destroy the crystal anyway. If the crystal is destroyed, after some time, you’ll revert back to your living self and be freed from the curse/blessing. I had a massive one up in a frozen mountain, which was slowly turning all of the wildlife in the zone into pseudo-liches. Undying birds, fish, etc… Party even found the head of a deer in a bush, still trying to eat the berries.
Hey Pointy Hat, love your articles! ❤ I love the idea of making something evil more complex and nuanced, for my favourite stories are morally grey instead of black and white. For example doing something bad, evil for a arguably good result. Something utilitarian at the cost of life, like the forsworn sisters you made. It made me think about this idea, the possibility of combining different type of liches you made, for reading between the lines of the forsworn, the communal lich. They have their original oath and take up a new one to be forsworn. In essence it is not excluding or overriding their original oath. What if we take that train of thought to its logical extreme and extend it to different types of lichdom. Let’s say a hierarch (sorcerer lich) or a virtuoso (bard lich) decide that they wish to have a failsafe to maintain their unlife and find like minded individuals or even their family and found an order of forsworn. Now they have multiple ways to maintain their unlife through song or family blood lines alongside their oath brethren. That further encourages the narrative possibility of something arguably evil using less savoury ways to achieve good, or vise versa. Imagine an order that proselytize through music, a hymn perhaps or induct new members who are exclusively of certain bloodlines, alongside the possibility bringing back fallen knights through retaking their own oath. I dunno it sounds funny :D. It certainly is an intriguing combo, but most importantly it showcases the fact that your patented lich making series is filled to the brim with creativity and possibilities. I most certainly will partake in using your ideas as a spring board of creativity for my own games 😀 Thank you for the endless inspiration, loads of love from a which lich enjoyer<3 -Ventus
There was a fantasy story where a paladin who was the king of a realm was nearing death, made a deal with his god, he was given lichhood as a paladin to rule and protect his realm for an additional 1000 years. The cost of this was the destruction of his body and soul at the end of the 1000 years. He gladly did this for his people.
i’ve always hated the paladin being tied to a god and then with 5e to an oath. i’ve always thought paladins are paladins due to their overwhelming power of their will and the god and oath stuff is just a crutch, something to focus on to keep their will strong. a crutch that as a paladin grows stronger and more experienced has less and less need of. a strong enough will could just BE a paladin without any oath or god. and paladins that break their oaths or are forsaken by their god who dont take the easy path by being redeemed or turning to a darker god or oath can regain all their power by themselves. why else would gods and the powers of the cosmos try so hard to win paladins to their side and promote these very specific oaths? because the strength comes from the paladin themselves not the oath and not the god and those powers want it. its thematic as hell too, a common cliche of “the power was within you all along”. which brings me to the deathknight. in any dnd setting i make the standard lich like deathknights of being bound to cursed armor would absolutely be a thing, but that’s just of a knock off lich ritual to create a powerful undead lieutenant. a paladin that wants to be a lich can just break their oaths and do an actual lich ritual and be done with it. but a paladin that wants to live forever AS a paladin no matter what, who comes to realize their past oaths and fealty were not the source of their power but holding them back, who embraces their own power and demands the world bends to their command, and puts all their reality bending willpower towards the absolute refusal to die becomes true death knight.
Didn’t know where to put this, but there is a small error on the statblock. A CR 21 monster has a proficiency bonus of +7, and gives 33k XP. Can’t tell if it is if the CR is wrong, or the bonuses are wrong. cuz they are right for a CR 20 monster. Edit: Also, Str and Con saves are identical, when the con save should be +2 higher
Death Knight’s could be self-made if the DM makes up a way for them to achieve it, buff them to CR 20 or something, and there you go. It could be as simple as Paladins either take their oath to a twisted extreme that they commit a ritual to bind their souls to the oath (probably a vengeance or conquest oath since they are evil-like), or they break their oath and perform a ritual to become the pure antithesis of the oath they used to embody.
I don’t know why but in my head the minimum number needed for a foresworn order is 7. Anything lower just doesn’t feel right to me. maybe you could even have the ritual to start the order take a week. where one dies every day and will stay dead until the ritual is complete. until the last one standing must plunge the blade into their own heart dying in the process and not rising until the dawn of the new day/week with their new undead sworn brother and sisters.
Of course if you want to go 3rd Edition “Must Worship a GOD,” the Arcana Unearthed suggested “Paladins for Evil Gods” that share their Alignment. From there you can build a Foresworn group sworn to a God of Undeath. I can also see one of those organizations feeding off of aspirants “Final Challenge” in which a would be member must do something GREAT for their God & if they fail they become food for the Soul Tupperware.
Again, Pointy! Again, you manage to make something amazing that is so easily usable, compelling and thematic! And again, it just happens to be the je ne sais pas that I was missing for the homebrew setting! Amazing stuff, my guy. I’m always looking forward to your content and thoroughly enjoy both the old and the new. Edit: With regards to your comment around 9:30, might I offer another possibility? A lich vichyssoise, or lichyssoise, if you will. 😏
Hmm 🤔 I like the idea of the order giving them additional strength but I think there’s already too many examples in lore of how the oath of a single individual is more than enough to cause undeath. I mean vengeful spirits, revenants, and as mentioned Death knights are all examples of this. it’s actually even likely the case that the oathbreaker subclass is the prerequisite to becoming a death knight, the beginning stages of onset so to speak, and when they die that’s when the full conversion happens. I also don’t think deathknights should be tied to gods necessarily, its just a byproduct of breaking such a strong vow. And revenants specifically are just on a mission for vengeance which fits really well with vengeance paladins. It seems to me having their oath itself become their phylactery is the best option rather than an order of people upholding the oath. The order can be flavor txt with minor mechanical benefits, but the core should be the individual oath, if you can get the foresworn to forsake their original oath even briefly, they essentially are then destroyed and remade as a deathknight in which case the soul is bound to whatever caused them to to whatever they used to break their oath and becomes a more tangible thing that can be destroyed
My first thought for this absolutely stellar villain group is one of the members of this order (liekly before the lichdom took full effect but possibly habing regretted their taking of souls) goes rogue, finds a group of adventurers that they try and guide and mold into new heroes to defend the lands the forsworn currently defend/ lurk, and having them take down members of the forsworn one after the other until all that remains is their mentor and one final other forsworn. With the climax being the 2 fighting (possibly with the lich reveal of the groups mentor already happening, but played as their undeath being tied to vengence against the forsworn rather than being one themselves, maybe even have them be a death knight for that lich vs “lich” extra flair) and the mentor telling the party to Goku and Raditz the 2 to finish off the forsworn order. Then phase 2 hits, because the 2 of them being the last parts of the order means they fulfilled the revive requirements, and the party must now take on all of the order 1 last time
This one is a miss. You have “Immortal as long as someone is alive and holding you to your oath” angle. It’s active because the Forsworn has to keep looking for a master willing to invest their own life into the Forsworn’s path. If the Forsworn falters, the new master dies and they, as a phylactery, are destroyed. The Forsworn has to convince someone to back them and believe in not just their oath, but their commitment to their oath enough that they become their Phylactery. The one they swear to buys in to the oath, and the devotion of the Forsworn, so completely that they tie themselves to the faithfulness of the Forsworn and gain a Lich-Paladin protector for their life. When they die, the Lich Paladin has to seek out and convince a new master.
Fun fact: a mystic could work as a lich in the exact same way the emperor of mankind does. Just get a psionic that left his body in a special throne or some other place (phylactery) and he now roams the world as an immortal spirit of paionic power. However he needs other psions to fuel their energy so he can maintain this state (soul stuff). Congrats. The emperor of mankind is here
Would that guy from Indiana Jones that guarded the chalice be a Paladin Lich? Because thats what I immediately thought of when I saw this article title. Using the Forsworn as a group is cool but I also like the idea that everyone in the order broke their oath to guard some like ancient Treasure except one who remains alone locked away at the end of a dungeon, until the party comes to loot it.
Honestly, I kinda feel like this is one of the few “liches” that can be lawful good. (Outside of Pathfinder since the negative energy plane is what fuels undead there.) I saw another comment about this so the idea isn’t mine originally but I am extrapolating upon it. A group of Foresworn could swear an oath that lets them hunt down and slay evil creatures and people. That way they don’t have to kill innocents but they still have a source of souls to feed on to extend their immortality. The ritual to become a Forsworn could even be done as a penance in a sort of self flagellation. Maybe a group of Paladins did something horrible in their past that they believes is truly unforgivable. So instead of being turned into death knights they make one final deal with their patron deity to take the oath and become a Forsworn and continue a repentant oath in undeath. Suffering as liches who are literally sustained by continuing to carry out their oath (hunting down evil people/creatures for eternity or until they earn their god’s forgiveness). And should one of them break that oath, the rest would hunt him to the ends of the earth to slay him and cast his soul into hell or the abyss or whichever evil afterlife they’d be dragged to. Of course, if you want a lawful good Forsworn who is still an antagonist, they could become so utterly single mindedly devoted to their oath that they don’t care about details or minutiae, seeing the world completely in black and white. And that single minded devotion makes their goals completely antithetical to the goals of your party.
Definetley interesting, but I do feel like as a whole most if not all of the class-based liches have their phylactery be another being or beings. Works for most but it really does feel odd with Paladins, (though the order concept is a very neat connection to their real world origin and the round table type deal!) an extremely neat concept though
I predicted the oath phylactery, but a villain GUILD? Awesome!! Take the paladin subclasses as a framework for personalities and abilities and, BOOM, evil power rangers. IN FACT, make the Soulsworn the “rivals” or dark mirrors of the player characters. The fighter is overly competitive? One Sworn is an undead Conqueror. The Druid is empathetic? Another Sworn is an undead Watcher etc etc etc.
Conquest Paladins are perfect. Ran an Antagonist of the Party in my last Campaign was a hellfire paladin of Zariel. He was a PC who was Killed. I took him over, he offered the party to work with him to eliminate the BBEG’s forces (demonic in nature). They fought, and worked with him later, and it was INCREDIBLE.
in 3.5 unearthed arcana one of the variants from that book was alternate alignment Paladins. Paladin of Freedom (CG) Tyranny (LE) and Slaughter (CE). I basically turned Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance 2 into a gestalt (uber multiclass variant, everyone levels 2 classes simultaenously) D&D campaign with my friends and my BBEG was a vampire lord dark paladin/shadowcaster.
I love how many Oaths could feasibly work for evil or at least non-good characters. Sure theres the obvious ones like Conquest and Vengeance, but you could also have a really narcissistic Glory Paladin (think Gaston), a “my country, right or wrong” Crown Paladin, or a really xenophobic human-centric Watchers Paladin (think Terrans from Star Trek or UED Terrans from StarCraft).
Sir Pointy Hat. Gotta say, despite our very opposed opinions on the subject of alignment that you dove into hard on your main Paladin article, as a die-hard Paladin main, this concept is absolutely amazing! More than that, I would LOVE to run the Unholy Sisters as an adventure and/or campaign. You’ve made such interesting characters in the past but again, Paladin bias totally admitted, these characters really speak to me. Thanks for all you do. Going to go back to perusal your Drag-On Race articles to boost those. (PLEASE for the love of God don’t stop those!)
I had made a similar situation, an undeath paladin that continued his service and oath despite his condition. Though I did use the Death Knight template for him, but this Forsworn sounds more accurate. I recall, somewhat fondly, a confrontation between the players party and the ‘Death Knight’ I made. Party Paladin: How can you justify the consuming of souls to continue your unholy existence?!? Death Paladin: By upholding the oath I swore to the kingdom and the future. Yes, I’ve slain hundreds. To save thousands and millions more. Party Rogue: All to keep a treasure locked away in the vault? Death Paladin: No. To keep a calamity from ever seeing the light of the sun ever again. Now. Enough talk. Party Cleric: Wait explain yourself further. Death Paladin: No more talk. Leave these hollowed grounds or become nourishment for my eternal vigil! *Death Paladin launches Hell Fire Blast at the party as opening move*
Amazing work, oh wonderful magical head accessory! I’m actually planning on using your Hierarch for the BBEG of a homebrew campaign I’m running (with a few tweaks to fit a theme I made for them, specifically shadow-magic). I will definitely see if I can add this as an upper-echelon member of the Hierarch’s followers, or maybe as a rival organization in a foreign kingdom (the possibilities are endless…). However, I must ask, do you have any updates regarding the Adept Devils and their system for converting mortals into more of their kind? I saw you made a post about a year ago about it, but I was wondering if you have any more updates about it? I love your work and style, and I can’t wait for your next article!
Before I even start, to answer the titular question “Can Paladin be Liches?” I have to say, WarCraft III, WC III: The Frozen Throne and World of Warcraf exist, we all know the answer is a fat yes. Honestly, the idea of an undying Paladin imo is the most natural. Never an if, but a how specifically. Be it by a deity’s act or their oath carring them beyond their natural expiration date, there is no shortage of examples of characters/templates in fiction of a Paladin+ Lich mash up imo, or close enough to count anyway. Still looking forward to your own specific how in the vid though, this ain’t me dunking on the idea, just observing that the mash up of these two concepts can be incredibly productive in so many shapes.
I have a Dorian Gray villain who is mortally bound to the Tome of Naughty Thoughts, Words and Deeds. To avoid decay he has his “Dorian Gray” painting. I love your concept because it can be the “Oath that Binds”! Book binder, bind… 😅 Maybe he is the remaining member of the order and will do anything to rejuvenate it! Pointy Hat you have done it for me again! I have incorporated the Sorcerer Lich already in my world. The players took right to it. I gave credit where credit is due. So thank you for both of these! I love them. Time to do deeper development now of my Paladin Lich!!!!
I played a Lich PC who had their kingdom stolen, so he kidnapped a bunch of adventurers, hung himself up with them, and broke out with them Session 1, one guy clocked I wasn’t really a nice guy and tried to PK a lich via asphixiation… So yeah, the Lich was on his way to kick a guy’s ass when the Paladin breaks down the locked door, gets a face full of smoke and passes out. Divine intervention saves him, after I crit-failed a medicine check to wake him up. I then claim to be a Life Domain Cleric who brought him back. Nobody actually understood what I was playing except the DM and my living phylactery, and most were shocked when, 23 sessions in, the shady guy in a black robe, white gloves and a porcelain mask who healed from necrotic damage turned out to be undead.
Dude! The party of three I’m DMing for just beat an undead paladin boss, “Remnant of Master Paladin Escalod”. Granted, this enemy was severely weakened by its time stuck in a stone coffin, but it was a really cool first boss for my three players. If anyone wants to know more about him, I’d be happy to reply!
I remember when I used a Death Knight in my campaign, he was a Goliath Paladin who’s family was destroyed by a pair of Vampires so he begged his God (the God of Life and Death) to give him the power to avenge them, he hung out with the party for a bit since they were also looking for those vampires but they were taking too long so he walked off their flying island and continued looking on his own. They found him again when they found one of the vampires hidden bases. After both vamps died he faded away, leaving his scorched armor and artifact weapon (that the party couldn’t use because they didn’t have the favor of the God of Life and Death).
Not gonna lie, nearly cranked a fresh batch into my shorts when I heard you refer to the original Dark Knight of the Rose. Ever since I first read the Chronicles in middle school, Soth has been one of my favorite villains (in hindsight, the modern Morality Police would have lost their goddamned minds at the things I read before puberty). EDIT: Auto-incorrect screwed me, so I fixed it. 🤣
So, killing a second individual of an order before the first got revived strips all of them of the ability to revive? Forever? That sounds terrible. I propose a solution (concept): Time, cost or both to revive a single fallen (group revive not possible) increases with -log(x) with x being the fraction of members participating in the ritual. Cost in souls and maybe GP (give nice reason for a hoard/treasury for undead). Exact factors would need to be tweaked, -log(x) just has some nice properties. For those who fear the log function: The more members are missing, the more expensive and time-consuming it becomes. And the larger the order becomes, the larger the upper limit of this cost becomes. No need to calculate it, just keep that behavior in mind.
I’d point out the series Andor for some good examples of evil Paladins. Lt. Meero is a no nonsense, highly motivated figure within the empire, who sees her actions as justifiable in the name of Law and Order (dun dun). She uses some truly horrible means, but believes herself 100% justified, taking pride in her work policing the galaxy. Syril Karn is much the same; eager to prove himself in a hierarchical structure, chasing the murderer of two of his companies employees when his boss just tells him to let it go. He isn’t evil; the show goes out of his way to show how pathetic and small he is, while portraying the positive sides of his loyalty and sense of justice. Both of them legitimately believe they are doing the right thing. Paladins don’t have to KNOW they’re being evil. They just have to believe, beyond a doubt, that they are correct. I saw Brennan Lee Mulligan talking about why its horrifying to have a faith/ oath/ religion based around Cha, and not Wis. You can become so devoted to your ideals, that you can justify just about anything in service of them.
You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Power Corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The entity that granted the Sisterhood the deathless oath so they could become Forsworn, is playing the long-game. He’s letting them damn themselves while digging their way into debt to him. When the bill finally comes due, they order will be forced to serve at his beck and call. What is he? A surviving Nuperibo devil from before Asmodeus conquered the Nine Hells and created the Ba’atezu. One of the original lawful-evil Devils who escaped the purge. He’s building this order of undead holy-women up into the ultimate hit-squad. He’s what’s attracting more conventional devils/demons to the archipelago, they’re hunting for traces of him that he’s deliberately using as bait to keep the sisterhood distracted and besieged. Or that’s how I would take it.
This was a great article, but I must admit I wish you’d done a solo concept like all the others in this series I’ve watched so far, either in addition to or instead of this group concept….. I was hoping the Paladin-Lich would be perfect for a villain I’m planning, like the Death March was halfway towards fulfilling but not quite. Alas.
So is the warlock lich going to have a patron of a future/alternate self (selves)(trapping him in a sort of paradoxical/timeless state) ? A philactory being a locked point in time (meaning death would send them “back” in time). Activley seeking to become this “finalized” form which may never truly come due to the tampering of time. However the ambition and progress must still be made.
My One issue with the idea of the Forsworn is that it’s a separate Oath you take after an initial Oath. It feels like that’s kinda encroaching on the Death Knight, but other than that this idea is like AMAZING. The Communal aspect of it, being a Full Order of Undead Knights that are so complex in their goals they can be seen as Good and Evil from certain views. Genius.
Sounds really cool! I think giving an order a communal phylactery is spot on! I would personally prefer that phylactery being a relic or liege/lady. Going with the relic for example: the paladin order vows to protect a book of immeasurable evil, which then becomes their phylactery as forsworn. That part where they also have to communally bring the dead members back is genius narratively!
I don’t have the time or patience to scroll through all of the comments, but I think that you’re right. 5e needs this kind of homebrew “Villian” for various types of champagnes. Back in 3e, the Paladin Lich would have been lawful evil since all Paladins were lawful and all Lichs were evil. In fact, I think that many evil Paladins would have at some point sought out the means to become a Lich at some point if they survived long enough. On the other hand, your idea opens up all kinds of possibilities in the morally grey areas that make people think, what is truly right and just, vs. what is acceptable.
An Oath of Conquest paladin leading a crusade that gathers more and more traction, snowballing out of control until his army of conquerors and conquered people is large enough to threaten nations. A paladin of any oath, who sees something inherently wrong with the world that he believes cannot be made right except through blood and fire. This paladin does not break the oath, and still adheres to it, but interprets it in the bloodiest way imaginable, or fulfills it in an increasingly extreme and evil way. Perhaps the Oath of Devotion, stating, “They hold themselves to the highest standards of conduct, and some, for better or worse, hold the rest of the world to the same standards.” Did you steal to feed your family? DEAD. Did you lie to someone? DEAD. Did you just litter? DEAD. The entirety of the Scarlet Crusade and the Scarlet Onslaught in Warcraft.
Idea for lich. Wizard lich which philactary is no a creature, place or object. It’s knowledge. Any relevant knowledge, spell in the spellbook, blueprint for the weapon of war or tecnology which lich keeps in his library is can revive lich. But knowledge becomes unrelevant, or book where it store can be destroyed and of course paper decades over time. And in case of that lich need to move the progress and know any new invention. And war is the best way to move progress, to force creation of new spells, new weapons, and new technologies. Lich forces wars, to guarantee his survival, and it’s makes from him villain.
So for clarification in its stat block under spellcasting, when it says “Any 1st-level Oath spell” does that mean any 1st-level Oath spell from its original oath, or any 1st-level oath spell from any oath? If it’s the former, then yeah that makes sense and plus it would for certain give each Forsworn Lich more of an identity based on their original Oath, but if it’s the latter then yeah this thing is pretty deadly since it can at will cast simple spells like Create/Destroy Water and Detect Magic but could also at will just smite you where you stand with three different flavors to choose from; A fourth flavor if it decides to also use Undead smite (which I also assume that given the context it can also use its at will spells but it would just deal 1d8 Necrotic instead of the additional 2d8 if it were to use one of its 3/day or 1/day spells) or just one smite since Smites isn’t considered an Oath spell unless your campaign has homebrew settings and you have a Paladin subclass that has a smite spell in its oath spell table.
The Forsworn has been added to the Lich Enslavers horde Thanks for another awesome article Pointy Hat, always these articles give me so many good ideas. Excited for the Rogue lich article. I have a theory you might have their ritual involve either “stealing death” or stealing another liches phylactery. But I know whatever you make will be cool
I created my own version of the Paladin Lich for my game, inspired by the Which Lich series! I called it “The Anointed” and it was when a Paladin is chosen by a god to fulfill an oath. The choose unlife to prolong their existence to make sure that they will fulfill their oath no matter how long it takes. Usually the god is evil or has questionable morals—but not always! My villain lich has an oath of conquest to conquer the planes of eberron.
My first thought on a paladin liche, is Knightmare from the SoulCalibur games. His whole thing is having a demonic sword called the Souledge that pretty much gathers souls by killing with it, and the host is practically the most paladin character in the series. The true Souledge is scattered across the lands, in shards, and the only thing that can destroy the Souledge is SoulCalibur, pretty much the Mastersword or Excalibur of the games. Feels like it is in the same ballpark.
Interesting as this is, you should put more focus on the oath instead of the order. Maybe make it unbreakable – Not something they can even ponder breaking, following it to the letter is simply what they will do from that day forwards, the same way that water flows downswards and can’t choose to do otherwise. That way, there is more of a meaningful sacrifice here – otherwise you only really have a group of people that achieve immortality via common goal/principle and have to occassionally kill to stay that way, without really sacrificing anything (except the people they kill). Like, why would any group with a goal they deem worth killing for but which to pursue risks their own lives ever not choose this fate? You are going to kill anyways, and while there still is the risk of death if the last of your group dies, if you didn’t become forsworn, you’d all be dead by this point anyways. Picture a skeleton in heavy armour, standing amidst the ruins of a kingdom long forgotten. He sees a child, curiously approaching. She isn’t a threat to him nor the kingdom – and yet without any choice on his part, he draws his sword and cleaves her in twain. It would only have been a few more years before he would finally have crumbled into dust… But he is sworn to this vigil, and he can not choose to end it, not even to let it end, through action nor inaction – and so his blade runs red with the life of innocents just like those he had sought to forever protect. Isn’t that way more compelling?
As you’ve been releasing these articles, I’ve been homebrewing a super campaign using each of these liches. A band of paladins come together in order to unite against a common. Each of them have a tragic backstory relating to a different member of the Coven of Undeath. A group of liches that have been causing numerous problems for countless generations. Acting as essentially mob boss in order to keep their power. The player characters have had enough with the CoU. So with their powers combined, and a little help from their mysterious benefactor. (Which is revealed to be the druid half of a blight lich. She desperately wants to die a final death, but the land they have protected has gained autonomy and imprisoned her to preserve its unlife.) The players together make a new oath, to never stop, to never retreat, to never die! Until the Coven of Undeath is no more! Thus becoming the Order of Life’s Rest.
Haven’t even watched your article yet, just looked at the thumbnail and title and have to say that yes, paladins can be and often are D&D super villains. But usually that’s a player problem and not quite a class problem. Then there’s the what alignment are you meme where what most people think of as LG is actually CE. Anyway, lets see what you have to say on the subject shall we Edit Forgot to mention, Liches aren’t always arcane spellcasters, priests can become liches as well and if priests can then paladins, bards, and rangers definitely can too.
I just want to say while the undead order thing is a fun idea you really seem to like having these “mass phylactaries” as a thing for almost every class… druids have the entire grove… bards have anyone who remembers their song… sorcerer’s have their bloodline… barbarians have anyone they attacked but didn’t kill… and now paladins have the whole order they joined… sorry but why so many mass phylacteries when wizards and clerics have… one… each… either go back and make it one item acting as a phylactery (druid = undead tree, bard = instrument, sorcerer is fine I like the mass phylactery for them it gives them something unique…, barbarian = a target of their undying rage, Paladin = the sword that made them a foresworn) or find a way to make mass phylacteries for wizards and clerics so it’s even