Being An Oath Of Vengeance Paladin In Baldur's Gate 3 Is Not For The Weak

Summary

Playing an Oath of Vengeance Paladin in Baldur's Gate imposes moral codes that restrict choices and require ruthless decisions.
Game rules limit role-playing flexibility, forcing executions instead of diplomacy or manipulation.
The game's structure highlights the limitations of video games in fully capturing the complexity of morally ambiguous characters.

Two months ago, I started a new Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough, one where I play an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. I did this as a long winded way of 168🌸澳洲幸运5开奖网:pretending to be a moral🌊ly ambiguous Jedi – 🌊or rather, more morally ambiguous than every Jedi is. Because I chose to play this way, the game imposes a moral code on me that I have to follow, unless I intend to break my oath, which I do n൩ot. As this type of Paladin, I’ve sworn to always fight the greater evil and murder evildoers. My loyalty is to vengeance. I’ve tried very hard to stick to this. Whenever I see an option that has Oath of Vengeance next to it, I pick that option, even if it feels wrong to me.

Very often, it does feel wrong. If this were a real Dungeons & Dragons game, I’d at least be able to argue with my Dungeon Master before she threw a gavel at my head and shouted “OATH BROKEN!” For example, I could say, I don’t think these people were active abettors of oppression, because they were coerced or forced to do the bad things they did. Helping them and keeping them safe will better prepare me to strike at the a🎶ctual root of evil. I don’t think they are t🧸he people I need to kill to get revenge.

Official Tabaxi art over the Baldur's Gate 3 cover

Tabaxi Will Get Me To Start A Second Baldur's Gate 3 Playthrough

I loved my time as a drow, but tabaxi could be eꦍven better

Posts 168澳洲幸运5开奖网: 💙 🐲

But this is not a real D&D game, it’s made of code. There are rules that I cannot break because the game will punish me immediately, and sometimes, they’re abstruse – early in the game, I did something completely innocent and was promptly informed that I no longer felt the power of God rushing through my veins. Thanks, God! Luckily, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:I’m a save scummer, so I immediately undid the mistake, but imagining that happening during an Honour Mode run when I wanted to keep my oath does ma🔥ke me want 🅘to scream.

On one hand, these rules have strengthened my commitment to the bit. Obviously, I am not the kind of person who murders anybody I consider to have made a morally bad choice, otherwise my country would have a much higher crime rat꧙e. I’m typically a believer in rehabilitation, because there are a lot of reas♚ons a person might do something bad, and most of those reasons are not that they were born evil.

My paladin, however, is basically the embodiment of capital punishment, and having to consciously keep that in mind has led to having to make some choices I wouldn’t usually make. I know I’m not supposed to tell Mol she can be the greatest perpetrator of organised crime in Baldur’s Gate, even though it’s in my nature to tell little girls to follow their dr♛eams. In Punish The Wicked, I made Madeline stab herself, even though I personally think that she was more a coward than a “great evil”.

On the other hand, while I’m getting deeper into my roleplaying, I’m more worried about the way the game will interpret my actions than I am whether I’m roleplaying accurately. For example, there’s no sparing Sazza from her death in the Druid Grove, even if I just want to use her to enter the camp🍸 and kill her later. You can’t ag💝ree to help Minthara, even if you’re only doing it to betray her later. You can’t play the long game as a Vengeance Paladin, there’s no room for diplomacy or manipulation, there are only executions.

I guess these are just the consequences of Baldur’s Gate 3 being a video game, and that’s fine. If I want to argue with a DM about my character’s justifications, I’ll go start a fight with my actual D&D DM. But as much as I love playing a Vengeance Paladin, and I love being held to it by the game, it♒’s also highlighted the flaws of the medium for me. The game gives you more freedom than nearly any other game, but it can never be total freedom.