#oath of devotion etc. maybe some oath of the ancients

[baejax-the-great]

for ao3 wrapped 🎁 !

11 - what work took you longest to write ?

30 - biggest surprise while writing this year ?

this one isnt on the list so forgive me for cheating 😔 but did writing help you learn anything this year? maybe about what you like to write, a subject matter, or something else ? ^^

11. Well, I started Overboard in 2021, so I think that one is winning for taking longest to write. Screwdriver is moving along at a glacial pace much to the consternation of some readers. And I feel terrible about how i took a break from WitD to write a couple one-shots and then the monster that is Oaths took over my whole brain. I was rereading some of WitD today and man I miss that fic, so hopefully the writing will be a smidge faster in the coming year. Oaths only has a couple chapters left, anyway.

30. Oaths!!! Broken Oaths was meant to be a one shot, and then a two shot. I really just wanted to write a fic where Patroclus was on the wrong side of the war and thought Achilles was coming to kill him and then [redacted]. And then somehow it's taken me 80k words to reach the redacted part.

Nightlife was also a surprise. I haven't been much for writing smut in the past two years and I've never had much interest in gangster AUs, but the idea came to me fully formed, so I wrote it, and now I have a couple other scenarios that fit in that AU, so I might add to it in the new year.

Extra question:

I think most of my extra research has been devoted to horses this year, lmao. I am not a stranger to horses and have ridden both English and Western and done various stable chores, memorized the various colors and vocabulary relating to coats, but it's been a looooong time. Riding was never really my thing, and horses made me nervous.

And I think I've looked up information on the various foods eaten by the ancient Greeks like ten thousand times. Given that during Iliad days people were illiterate, I'm sure there are foods and dishes we don't know about, but I am constantly looking up if a cultivar existed yet or cooking techniques had been invented yet, etc etc. Like, it's not enough to know new world vs old world foods, some vegetables didn't exist yet! silk road didnt exist yet! trade barely existed! And then dumb things like reminding myself whether or not they had forks (yes, though possibly only for serving).

[vulturereyy]

Rey's OC Masterpost!! (as of 5/29/2023)

I realized I've never done one of these, like ever, anywhere, so. Maybe now is the time to change that! My OCs are from various fandoms and genres, and some are used more than others. General rules for them are as follows: Asks about them, questions, comments, all okay! If you do fanart I think I am legally obligated to marry you LOL, but really no pressure! Please do NOT use my art of them or their exact character for your own use. You are welcome to be inspired by them, and welcome to include them on references for commissions like 'I want hair like this character' etc so long as you credit me for the art! But please do not take their stories and images 1:1.

Please do not kin my characters. It makes me exceedingly uncomfortable and you will be blocked. Without further ado... Get ready to see some gay little bitches!!

Sorbet Lemonbalm

My beloved. My wife. My husband. She's been divorced three times. She's left the altar twice. She's never been married. She's my weed smoking girlfriend. She's in a polycule with a kobold barbarian and the Moon God.

Sorbet is my most recent D&D character, played during a homebrew campaign that I cannot wait to get back to. She's a Firbolg, Oath of the Ancients Paladin/Lunar Magic Sorcerer multiclass. DEVOUT follower of Selune, the moon goddess, and currently her champion, even if she frequently feels like she is not up to the task and the responsibility is slowly crushing her. Accidentally became the Fey King of the Summer Court during one of our final battles with our phase 1 BBEG, when our bard used modify memory in a very cool (and very homebrew) way against the corrupted fey queen. (She does NOT want to be fey king and has tried to pass on the crown to almost every other fey they've met since). Most recently, she 'GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT'D' her own goddess and tanked a rival god's magic bolt, destroying her tower shield in the process and giving her those necrotic scars down her side. But this bitch survived with 1 fucking hit point!! I'm trying to keep these short, but I could write an essay on Sorbet. She's the first D&D character I've really gotten into, even doing a REAL ACTUAL CHARACTER VOICE FOR HER (shout out dimension 20 a crown of candy for making me feel like I could), and everything!! I love playing her SO so much and I hope that she can wreck shit in Astora again soon. Our sessions are all recorded, maybe one time I'll get a clip together and be brave enough to share.

May'la Sugarfoot

May'la is my sweetest khajiit Elder Scrolls Online OC. She's from a moonsugar farming family in Khenarthi's Roost, though she took on a path of becoming a chef in Mistral after she found she was unable to really help as much as her sisters in the sugar fields. May'la eventually worked her way all the way up to being one of the head chefs in an Alik'r merchant house, though her real passion will always lay in baking. May'la dreams to have her own bakery one day, though she also has a far larger dream of becoming a member of the Antiquarian's Circle.

May'la's mother, Dra'tarrina, is a senche-raht pit fighter and former member of the Undaunted, who toured in Dragonstar Arena for years. When May'la was just a nosy kitten, she found her mother's old armor and shrine to Boethiah -- still strangely well-tended. Unable to curb her youngest daughter's incessant curiosity, Dra'tarrina began telling May'la tales of her time in the arena, and her quiet worship of Boethra, the khajiiti aspect of Boethiah. Boethra worship was all but wiped out with the Riddle'thar epiphany, and as such, May'la has secretly made it her life's goal to find and preserve any scrap of Boethra worship and lore she can. She wants to eventually present to the Antiquarian's Circle so it can continue to be passed on.

Devotion (Llewyllyn) and Gytha (Hollow Knight) (I reuse names)

Devotion is my current main Hollow Knight OC. She's a tall, toned dragonfly knightess with an extreme, well, devotion to the White Lady. She served in the Queen's Guard for years, but eventually succumbed to the infection. Terrified of hurting her fellow knights or her queen, Devotion threw down her shield and nail, and fled all the way to Kingdom's Edge. She sealed herself off in one of the many caves, and essentially... Rotted by herself in that horrible, blinding light until the Radiance was finally defeated 😭. The infection took most of her memories with it, but she had repeated her oaths to herself until her voice gave out. Everything is hazy for her post-infection, but she remembers a White Lady -- and remembers that she is dearly devoted to her service. Devotion is currently in the Colisseum of Fools, attempting to train herself in mind and body again, before she feels she can make the journey back to Hallownest. And besides, it's the only place that offers free room and board right now... So long as she puts on a good show. Gytha, The Thorned Bulwark, is the knight that trained Devotion as a squire. She's brash, boisterous, and unafraid to speak her mind, even if it is directly against her King or Queen. Gytha and Devotion were very close, though Gytha retired from knighthood long before the infection swept Hallownest. I'm not quite sure what I'll be having her doing, but I do think she traveled to the lands beyond the kingdom. She would be the type to try some grand adventure, even if it would be her last. You can learn more about Devotion and Gytha here, in the app I made for an RP server :) (including a way too long backstory lmao)

Thimble!

Thimble is my Grimm Troupe OC, fitting in with @grollow's wonderful setting! Thimble is a skittish but good-hearted little butterfly from a kingdom in its death throes, and after said kingdom's total collapsed, he sailed for the Troupe on a whim in hopes that he could find a place among them. He certainly did, and more than a few friends to go along with!

Thimble starts out as general help, far too anxious for the limelight, but after watching Ashe's OC, Mist, perform aerial Cyr Wheel, he gets struck with an inspiration he's never quite experienced before. Thimble learns Cyr Wheel and eventually performs a couple nights a week in the troupe after years of practice with Mist, and encouragement from the other troupe members :)

Thimble is based on a long-tailed skipper butterfly, a frequent visitor to my backyard.

Kindlepitch the Pardoner

Oh... Him.

"Do you not feel it? the burning, seething hatred that seems to permeate this wretched nest? Wouldn't it be best to have that feeling be done away with entirely? So much pain, so much death -- let this era rest. Let us rest, laid down upon a bed of sins inconceivable. Only in Her merciful light shall we find ourselves absolved, at last granted release from the torment the False-King inflicted upon us!" — Kindlepitch

Kindlepitch is. He's a whole lot. Scorned by the moth tribe after he refused to forget the Radiance, and boy is he deep in the orange juice. Kindlepitch believes that Hallownest's downfall was the shunning of his good lady, and that it is only her light that can finally bring peace to the atrocities of this world.

You can read more about Kindlepitch here!

Amaashaa Phykiish

Amaashaa is my main Star Wars OC. Daughter of a senator and a senator later in her own right, this gal has had. Enough. I haven't played her recently so I don't have as much to say sob, but I do love her dearly. Amaashaa served as a field medic in the Clone Wars, and later a lead surgeon on the Ord Cestus Medical Station when an injury removed her from the field. Amaashaa's life can be defined by passion; enough to burn away injustice, but also herself. After the Clone Wars, she eventually went into politics alongside her father, and was often the cause of many a fight in the senate chambers.

A barely-failed assassination attempt is what finally drove Amaashaa away from the senate, at her father's behest. They planned to lay low and 'make quiet trouble' for the empire in the meantime. Amaashaa was placed upon an off-radar scrapper crew of the Spicer (created by @rabiezcore, if I draw her with other characters they are likely Rabiez') and has since learned that... Wow, she can actually exist as a living person and not just a vessel for service. There's a lot to unpack there, but she's had a lot of character development. Amaashaa does eventually rejoin the rebellion when it reforms, and serves as a medic among them for a while, before injury does finally force her into retirement for realsies. Then she gets to live out her dream of living with her mando definitely-not-boyfriend and having loth cats of her own at last.

Lullaby Heartstrings

Lullaby Heartstrings was my sheep-flavored Minotaur Barbarian for a D&D 5e Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign.

Towering over her party at a grand 7'2" tall and nearing 500lbs of wool and muscle, it's not surprise that Lullaby is an intimidating figure, even despite her coloring and innocent sounding name. This journeyman member of the Emerald Enclave is a frequent sight in Neverwinter and the various northern Moonwoods, most often called upon by pilgrims looking to traverse the Lurkwood or caravans in need of mercenary guards. Despite her affiliation with the enclave, Lullaby's relationship with nature is far more akin to respect between warriors than the reverence a druid may possess. She believes nature to be a cruel, unyielding mistress who cannot be tamed, but also takes her challenges with silent honor, knowing they make her stronger in the long run.

Lullaby is generally quiet, softspoken, and has been called 'grumpy' by those who take her as a guard, but she is not unkind. Those under her protection will often find her aiding in setting up their tents, ensuring everyone has a decent amount of food and water, and always taking the first shift of watch. Her preferred method of communication is through gestures and actions rather than words.

Lullaby was originally born into a circus troupe, the Heartwood Heartstrings, but an incident involving her debilitating stage fright ended with her running away from home as a young teen. She's been with the enclave ever since.

Lullaby's greataxe is made out of two Axebeak beaks; one that she hunted herself, and the other that a mentor killed.

(WIP below)

[vaultsixtynine]

anathema deserves to Cope Badly :)

we deserve a masochism paladin...... where is the oath of the flagellant

[utilitycaster]

any thoughts on a paladin with dunamancy abilities? i’m kind of a newbie to dnd, but i feel like there’s maybe some fun potential there with rp and mechanics. i’m realizing now that that’s kind of big question, but ik you’re a fellow paladin enjoyer, so any thoughts are welcome

I like it! I am a paladin and dunamancy enjoyer, and this sounds like a fun idea. I'm not sure if you were talking "full homebrew subclass" (in which case, yeah, that's a lot of work and I...will not be doing that) but I do have some ideas on how you could achieve some of the flavor for less effort:

While there's a little bit of competition in the action economy (bonus actions), have you considered taking three levels in echo knight? The ability to attack from the echo seems like it would stack well with paladin, and paladin/fighter is a good combo anyway and won't stretch your ability scores too thin.

If you're more interested in the spells, I think you could conceivably either replace a few domain spells for one of the existing oaths (devotion is fairly all-purpose; oath of the crown makes sense if you're playing a wildemount campaign and you're within the dynasty) with dunamancy ones of the appropriate level; or, alternately, it's not too hard to reflavor the aesthetic of Oath of the Ancients to fit the Luxon (I mean...the tenets already fit) to be dunamantic - instead of vines, the foe is ensnared by gravity; the aura of warding still fits the vibe; undying sentinel can be re-explained as channeling a possibility where you did not fall to 0 HP, etc.

[zivsparacosm]

The Hexadin

The Hexadin (Hexblade Warlock-Paladin) is one of the most popular multiclasses. It provides immense power both in close combat and the Warlocks long range options. As such it is a very popular option amongst optimizers especially since using this build you primarily need to focus on Charisma as you can substitute it for Dexterity or Strength for your attack and damage rolls.

However as all should know it is imperative to look to roleplay and not simply create powergame blank sheets. So if you desire to play a powerful Hexadin but still have a character with an interesting story, possibly arc and set of goals and personality behind them, this is your post.

My primary focus will be on broad concepts, this is an advise blog, not a already done out character, a concept not a sheet. Feel free to copy it, work it in and meld it however you may wish to and if anybody feels like it tell me of stories you had with Characters similar to this, I'd be quite interested.

The conflict of classes: In a lot of ways warlocks and paladins are unlike each other to a fault. In the classical conception paladins have sworn a divine Oath to eradicate evil wherever they may find it and fight for rigtheous ideals while a warlock has sold all but their soul, or even that, for otherworldly power granted by a nefarious entity. Some may find the deals made by Warlocks incompatible with the Oaths of the Paladin. I find it to be an opportunity. You will have to appease two powerful entities at once to maintain your power. This delicate balancing act forms the center of our Character

How Pact and Oath were made: I recommend starting things off with the Paladin as it grants more proficencies with Armor and can make for a character who swore an Oath and was set for a path of righteousness before being driven off the path by circumstance. A desperate callout for aid in the wrong moment may have attracted the attention of a less than divine patron. The exact circumstances are up to you but this makes a tantalizing possibility for internal conflict. Maybe your character likes the new powers they're being granted? Maybe they feel conflicting loyalties? Or their new patron has some form of leverage over them. Whatever you choose there is a lot here that can lead to interesting bonds and plot hooks so go wild.

How to make the Oath and Pact work together: I feel as though this is fairly important. Pact and Oath can't conflict too heavily. Some conflict is good for rp and drama, too much may make you disfunctional as a party member. As such I suggest using subclasses like the Oath of Devotion sparingly, but things like Glory, Crown or the Ancients can be integrated very well based on their tenets and laying them out in a certain way. The pacts conditions can be things like information, feeding the blade the souls of the people you killed etc. This causes them to conflict but not completly oppose. Exactly what we want, as both sides nudge your character into their direction.

I believe if you follow these three steps and fill out the Blanks you'll have a truly amazing character by the end of it. But remember that it is your character, change anything you want to, take elements or copy it and make it your own. Add characteristics and I hope you will like it. Remember this is only an idea, feel free to adapt, change or edit it as you may. If you wish for some inspiration read into Nephente, a sentient magical sword from van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft, which has become obsessed with Vengeance and can't differentiate guilty from innocent. Basically Light from Death Note minus the god complex. It may be a interesting Hexblade Patron to integrate into your character or inspire your patron by.

Have a good one and stay safe in these days,

Ziv.

[pilferingapples]

"#the Les Amis RPG Character sheets just BOOM there" Can you please tell us what class each of the Amis would be?

HAH okay fun!  I’m assuming you mean D&D classes specifically?  Note that I’m working more off the spirit and rough general proficiency  for all the classes here, rather than looking for exact feats and stats (if anyone tries to bring Math into this I will pretend I did not see it) and going from Les Mis canon setting and info– in a high-fantasy D&Desque setting I think there’d be some tweaking, but this is what we’ve got here! (and I fully expect and invite Debate, especially from people who play a lot of D&D):

Enjolras: Paladin. It’s awkward because Courfeyrac is also (specifically!)  a paladin, but that’s just what fits. I’m thinking of mostly 1-3 edition Paladin-type here, but a 5thE Oath of Devotion style would work really  well here…

Combeferre: Probably Cleric? On the one hand, definitely Team Healer,  and he talks more about religion than nearly anyone else in the book who isn’t specifically ordained or employed by the Church!   But with his wide interests , I’m also open to Wizard or nearly any other knowledge-powered Good-aligned class!

Edited:  @aporeticelenchus  makes this solid argument for the Cleric class for Combeferre: 

“The knowledge domain cleric seems like a good fit for Combeferre, or even arcana domain. All the nerdery of wizards with debatably even MORE commitment to learning all the things!“Jean Prouvaire:  Bard. Just. Bard. We can talk about special classes and so on but we all know he’s the group bard. Sorry to not have anything more original here but sometimes things are just True. 

Feuilly : I’m honestly stumped on this one!  We have a good set of combat specifics for Feuilly–he has an eye for battlefield layout, fortification, and probably sharpshooting.  Anyone have a suggestion for what would fit that in D&D?

ETA Update: I’ve had several strong suggestions for Artificer Feuilly (specifically Artillerist) , and one for Druid! @aporeticelenchus again:

Besides Artillerist Artificer, other thoughts for Feuilly could be Druid or Oath of the Ancients Paladin. Love of the world without much interest in borders, commitment to kindness and caring, etc. (Feuilly is less interested in nature per se than in the well-being of human kind, but with a few tweaks I think you could get Oath of the Ancients there)

Courfeyrac : Another Paladin! I mean that’s just…there. And it works, with what little detail we have about his fighting and everything we’ve got about him as a character! I like the idea of having Courfeyrac’s cheerful, social version of the Paladin Life in the same party as Enjolras with his Paladin Classic approach :D 

Bahorel:  Some people are going to expect me to say Barbarian. And maybe I would, if D&D Barbarians were more Fafhrd and less Conan, but they are what they are, and that’s not what Bahorel is. Yes, Bahorel is absolutely one of the team’s Fighters, but what are his real main skills , according to the narrative and his fellow party members?   His people skills, his knowledge of the city, his sense of humor, and– by Omniscient Narrative Decree!– words that break everything.   His core traits are INT and CHA, not CON and STR. 

…He’s a Swashbuckler.  

Bossuet:  …Also Bard. 

People will want to fight me on this and I Welcome It, but listen! While Legle is to all appearances a competent fighter, his main role and contribution in battle is keeping up others’  spirits, and mocking and demoralizing the enemy (…to whatever extent that matters). And definitely the entire rest of his life is heavily built around his verbal and narrative skillset! So yeah, I’m calling Bard on this one. 

Joly: Definitely a Cleric, maybe an Apothecary-type specialty?

ETA: there has been a good suggestion from @subsequentibis  that Joly would work as an Artificer Alchemist? :i would put joly as an alchemist artificer! they’re pretty decent healers and they get a homunculus which has all kinds of Humorous Potential. although he blows his daily spell slots on ‘purify food and drink’ all the time

Grantaire: …Commoner. With a Sleep feat. SORRY GRANTAIRE try joining the big dramatic adventure-party scene next time!!

(Suggestions have also been made for him being a Bard , but the Worst Bard, which does have potential…)

@aporeticelenchus  also suggests:

Not an Amis, but Marius kept inefficiently multiclassing for several levels because he couldn’t decide what to play. He finally ended up stuck with barbarian. (I assume, judging by barricade events. Marius entered a Rage early on and never stopped; survived because of half-damage from all attacks.)

[utilitycaster]

This is not an obscure or ridiculous question, but I do have a question I didn't know who to ask. I'm kinda new to playing DnD. What exactly is the difference between a paladin and a cleric, mainly in terms of the relationship to their god? The phb wasn't too helpful for me. I admit I chose cleric because they get more spells, but is that the only difference? One fights via magic the other mainly with weapons (but can enhance them with divine magic)? Thank you and have a great weekend!

Good question! I’m going to editorialize a little but the lore here will all be pretty standard; the editorializing is more about my personal thoughts on mechanics, rules as written, etc. Also this is going to be long but I’ve split it up so you can stop reading when you’re like “ok I get it shut up”

Relationship to a god

(note: in some interpretations, clerics can be devoted to a pantheon, and paladins can be devoted to more of a concept. I don’t super love the idea of a cleric to a pantheon, but I do think some interpretations of paladins devoted to a concept, particularly oath of the ancients, can work. That said I’m focusing on clerics or paladins of a specific deity).

Clerics: there’s some leeway but as a rule they are the chosen ones of a god. In general this is played as mutual; a god chooses one of their faithful and grants unto them magic powers.

Rules as written they need to be no more than one step away from their deity’s alignment; since alignment in my opinion works more as a general suggestion than a hard-and-fast rule you don’t need to be super strict but in terms of flavor you should focus on being at least kind of similar? Like, if you’re the cleric of a deity of chaos, you should probably be a little chaotic yourself; if you’re the cleric of a good deity you should not be evil.

A cleric can damage their relationship with their god, but there’s a bit more wiggle room than with paladins.

Paladins: paladins have been granted powers by a god, but specifically in their devotion to an oath to said deity (or concept). That oath is their defining feature, more so than the god.

In past versions, paladins were always lawful in their alignment. This has been relaxed in 5e, and I agree with that, but they should be absolutely adherent to their oath. They can be chaotic in every other way but they need to stand by this promise. If they break that oath, they lose their powers. That’s how paladins work. (obviously this shouldn’t be done lightly, but a serious misstep, like deliberately killing an innocent when you’re a good-aligned paladin, should be dealt with as as betrayal of your oath).

Mechanics (spells and stats)

Clerics: Mechanically they are full spellcasters, like bards, druids, wizards, and sorcerers (warlocks are their own thing).

Flavor-wise/also mechanically, they are wisdom-based prepared spellcasters [people here more for spicy takes than discussion of mechanics, please skip to the bottom]. What this means:

Wisdom: based on that stat and the skills based on them, clerics will be decent at reading people and situations, working with animals, they’ll be perceptive, and they’ll either be intuitively good at healing or have some training in it.

Prepared spellcasters: this means clerics can choose their spells every time they take a long rest. Clerics are the most powerful healers in the game, and have a lot of utility. They have, in my opinion, the most versatile spell list in the game (wizards have far more spells, but clerics can do a little of everything).

In battle: clerics can serve multiple purposes because of how versatile they are. Typically they do serve as the main healer, but they can also do a lot of damage, and they can also do a lot of support for their allies/grant disadvantages (either literal disadvantage, or other drawbacks) to their enemies. Clerics are also a decently hardy spellcaster; they can often wear medium or heavy armor, they can use shields, and they get a d8 for hit points.

Paladins: Mechanically they are hybrid battler/spellcasters and are usually grouped with the battlers. They have comparatively few spells, they don’t have cantrips (so when they’re out of spells, they’re out for the day), and they are more reliant on their prowess with weapons - especially melee (5 ft range) weapons.

Stats: they are charisma and strength based, as written. They can wear heavy armor and their powers come from strength of will. They are good at persuasion, intimidating people, lying, performing, and feats of strength.

Prepared spellcasters: They can also choose their spells each day; however, they have far fewer spell slots than clerics, they don’t have nearly as high spell slots (top out at level 5, instead of level 9) and they have a much more limited spell list. And as you said, a good deal of their spells are based on augmenting their weapon damage (smites). Paladins also have both healing spells and a feature called lay on hands, where they can grant some healing/restoration from a limited pool.

In battle: the classic paladin build, at least, has a high armor class (medium or heavy armor), fights primarily in melee, and are much hardier than a cleric - they are harder to hit, as a rule, and have more hit points (they get a d10). They’re also somewhat versatile, but more skewed towards doing damage, soaking up damage, and minor healing. As mentioned their spells that do damage are mostly spells that augment weapon damage (vs. clerics, where the spell does the damage on its own). They have a few support spells for their allies, but they’re much more limited than clerics and are expected to spend most of their time damaging rather than casting spells.

My thoughts on Clerics and Paladins/how they’re often played

Clerics: you can play around with the non-wisdom stat for clerics but by dint of that stat they’re often kind of the mom friend? They don’t need to be, but that’s often how they are - they’re often the group confidant, especially if they have at least decent charisma. I love me a gruff, low charisma-with-heart-of-gold cleric too, but even then they often end up being the comforting one in their own weird way.

Thanks to the high wisdom clerics are often hardest to charm or control, and in general make a good voice of reason - even chaotic and ridiculous ones.

Because of your giant flexible spell list you can play around a lot - you can focus on damage, on healing, on buffs/debuffs. If you want to be a good player, in my opinion, look at the rest of the party. If you’re the only healer you can take damage spells but be prepared to spend a lot of time healing. Don’t let your friends die because you wanted to look cool. Also, speaking as someone who actively likes to play healers and utility casters...if you’re not prepared to heal you shouldn’t play cleric (we joke about Merle from TAZ and Jester in Critical Role but both actually do a whole lot of healing).

Paladins: I actually really love the more old-school interpretation, not so much the lawful aspect (as mentioned, I care more about devotion to an oath than to an alignment) but the slightly more black and white morality aspect. Which is weird, because I love campaigns with a lot of moral grayness, but maybe that’s why - I like that there are characters who do say “well, no, there is in fact good and there is in fact evil.” They’re a little less understanding at times, but a lot more intense.

Paladins as a rule are played as having less chill than clerics, and being a lot more action-oriented. Clerics might sit around and ponder; paladins are about enacting their oath in the real world.

Editorializing and Spicy Takes

With a few exceptions (letting a warlock use intelligence as a main stat which WOTC has condoned, and letting a paladin be dex-based instead of strength-based if there’s a really good in-story reason) I strongly dislike the idea of taking an existing class and saying ‘actually the casting stat is whatever I want it to be’. The fundamental concept of a wizard, for example, is that they have gained their magic through study and investigation. Basing them on charisma is not how they work, throws off all the lore, seriously unbalances certain subclasses, and makes your backstory worse. You can make a charismatic wizard! You can even make a wizard who is more charismatic than they are intelligent, if you want! You can make a wizard with intimidation or charm or other charisma-based skills as a major part of their story and character, and Caleb Widogast is a fantastic example. But in my opinion, the mechanics aren’t just a way of arbitrating or adding rules - they are part of the game, of the lore and of the flavor, and the experience is much richer for respecting that.

Also intelligence is often the least interesting mental stat to dump and you can fight me on that in the Denny’s parking lot of your choosing.