Oathbreaker in Baldur's Gate 3: builds and ways to break a paladin's oath

In Baldur's Gate 3 there are many class roleplaying options, including the hidden subclass of the Oathbreaker Paladin. By choosing the path of the knights of light – bearers of the oath, a symbol of honor and valor, some players may decide not to limit themselves to what is permitted, thereby finding themselves at the crossroads of good and evil, where every decision you make will have far-reaching consequences.

For For those who are ready to follow in the footsteps of darkness, we have prepared this guide to help you find out: how to break an oath in different subclasses and whether it is worth doing it at all, as well as how to assemble the best Oathbreaker Paladin with a detailed build.

How to become an oathbreaker in Baldur's Gate 3

Explanation

< b>Oathbreakeris a hidden subclass in BG3 that can only be mistaken for roleplaying as the Paladin class. You cannot select him in the hero creation editor or when changing the class of the Withered One, since renunciation of the oath must be demonstrated by the player himself.

The path of the Oathbreaker is suitable for players who do not adhere to highly moral plot decisions, but prefer the Paladin class as the main hero of the pack. Knights of Darkness are focused on damage and control of a group of enemies + can afford to command the undead (and revive the dead by raising them to level 9).

Breaking the Oath of the Ancients

You can betray the vows of the Oath of the Ancients:

• By killing a peace-loving beast (for example, Shkryab or Medvesych with his cubs);
• Using spells to summon the undead or the “Darkness” scroll/resurrecting Mairina’s dead husband;
• It is an inappropriate choice to “attack” in a dialogue when a more peaceful outcome is possible.

Breaking the Oath of Allegiance

You can betray the vows of the Oath of Allegiance:

• By causing damage to any peaceful NPC (easiest for Act 3);
• By refusing to protect someone in need of help ;
• By betraying trust (for example, you agreed on peace with them and then attacked)/not saving, but continuing to torture Liam in the Broken Sanctum/inviting the tieflings to kill Laesel together, and when they lower the cage, attack the poor fellows.

Breaking the Oath of Vengeance

You can betray the vows of the Oath of Vengeance:

• By deciding to dissuade someone from taking revenge;
• Leaving the guilty without punishment;
• By betraying the oppressed side of the conflict and joining the offenders.

The easiest subclasses for breaking vows are Oaths of Allegiance or Ancients. But if you don’t want to take the easy route, remember: The Oath of Vengeance will be very difficult to break in the later acts, especially in the 3rd (+ simply killing a civilian NPC does not work with it).

Here are several ways to betray your covenants as a paladin , working for any subclass:

• Attack the tieflings that caught Laesel at the beginning of Act 1;
• Release Sazza, the captive, from the cage goblin, in the grove of druids;
• At the end of Act 2, choose to “clean” the neural device in the illithid colony by killing those imprisoned in capsules;

Undoubtedly, the most effective option is to play on the side of evil. For example, in the first act it is helping the goblins in the siege of the druid grove, in the 2nd act it is the betrayal of Isobel and the guests of the Last Light.

How to get a subclass

If you fulfill the conditions that violate the vow, a mysterious oathbreaker knight will appear to you and inform you of his imminent appearance in the camp. Return to the rest area and, if you do not find the guest, end the day and go around the camp again.

Discuss your renunciation of your vows with the knight, and then select the answer option “I'm ready.” I accept the name of the Oathbreaker” – a stranger will help you go over to the side of darkness.

Oathbreaker Skills

As you gain levels, you will unlock special skills of the Oathbreaker subclass. Here are the ones that will consume charges of oath power:

• Genemy: 1d4 necrotic damage over 3 turns (melee) + advantage on attack against the target hit by the skill targets;
• Ominous Face: fear status on enemies within a radius of 9 meters for 2 turns;
• Power over the undead: One of the best abilities for the Death Knight, allowing you to take control of the dead. Affects a target within a radius of 6 meters whose level is lower than yours. The minion will be subordinate until a long rest.

And a few more abilities that consume spell slots:

• Darkness: magical darkness, created within a radius of 5 meters and placing the status of blindness on the affected creatures. While targets are in the cloud, they are unable to cast ranged skills in or out of it;
• Inflict Wounds: 3d10 necrotic damage to a target in melee;
• Crown of Madness: Taunts a humanoid enemy into enmity with any nearby creature (except you) for 3 turns (distance up to 18 meters);
• Hellish Retribution: 2d10 Fire in response to an enemy attack, and if he passes the test, still deal 50% damage;

< li>Curse: a melee debuff that: imposes disadvantage on a saving throw or attack/allows you to inflict additional. damage/deprives the target of a move;

• Revival of the Dead: the key skill of a necromancer, reviving any corpse of medium or small stature.

At level 7, the passive “Aura of Hatred“: after the first activation, you permanently receive 2 units. bonus to damage from melee weapons to yourself and subordinate beasts or dead men within a radius of 3 meters (if you lose consciousness, you will have to do it again).

Is it worth breaking the oath

First of all, playing as an oathbreaker is a great way to immerse yourself in the story of a necromancer knight. As for skills, you don’t lose much: all unavailable skills will only be noticeable when soloing on high difficulties or when playing as a support paladin. The main thing is that you will also be able to cast Divine Punishments. Let's look at the pros and cons of the subclass.

Pros:

• The role of an anti-hero, which does not require giving up all the advantages of the Paladin class (for example, Smite mechanics);
• Assembling a mini-army from dead summons, helping out in a single playthrough;
• Such a fallen paladin retains all the advantages of the class: critical hits, control of a group of enemies and skill in all types of armor.

And if you download mods to improve the role of a necromancer, your gameplay as a renegade will become even more exciting.

Cons:

• After becoming a dark paladin, you will not be able to change your class from Withered until his oath is restored;
• Some oathbreaker skills can cause a negative reaction among companions and greatly worsen your relationships;
• The skill to control the dead is given as early as level 9, so in multiclass you You don't have too much choice.

The common disadvantage (for paladins in general) remains small number of spell slots. This is usually solved by adding the Bard or Sorcerer classes to the build, but this way you will deprive yourself of the canonical ability of Death Knights – raising the dead and controlling the undead. Therefore, there are two ways: download a pure Oathbreaker, but save cells, or add a multiclass, but enjoy only the role of an anti-hero and the “Power over the Undead” skill from level 3 – it allows you to control low-level corpses, of which there are not so many, especially in early acts.

How to restore a broken oath

You can return an apostate to the path of light only with an oathbreaker knight, who, after the first refusal of his covenants, will remain in your camp. You will have to pay for this in gold (the first time only 1000, but with each new violation the price will increase, up to 10 thousand). Enter into a dialogue with the NPC who dedicated you and select the following response options:

• “I want to follow my oath again”;
• Give gold…

Return all as is, it won’t work out at the first conversation, only after accepting the path of the oathbreaker.

Best build

We will offer you two build options: pumping identical to the Oath of Retribution Paladin – you can repeat it in our separate article, and with the addition of the Sorcerer class – we will describe it below.

The best races, equipment, companions, Illithid skills and much more, you can also find in our guide to the Paladin “Oath of Vengeance.”

Characteristics

You can leave standard stat points, or adjust them to the Sorcerer class (right plate in the screenshot above). Take this into account from the very beginning of the game, so that you don’t experience problems with characteristics later if you suddenly decide to become a classic paladin.

Usually, knights of light are pumped up Strength, Charisma, and additionally Stamina with Dexterity (for solo play), however, at level 9, the Sorcerer can choose “Pact of the Blade” – a skill that ties your damage to Charisma. Therefore, you can not pay so much attention to Strength, and before receiving the pact, divide the responsibilities of the damage dealer between other team members.

Levelling

In the table below we showed the stages of leveling up the Oathbreaker Paladin with the multiclass Sorcerer. Prepared spells and tricks will not play a big role, but we have indicated those that will bring more benefit overall. Please note that multiclassing is not available in Story mode.

< td class="center" rowspan="2">–

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+2 in Charisma

If you want to play as the canonical Death Knight in Baldurs Gate 3, With all the special skills of the Oathbreaker, upgrade your paladin to at least 9 levels to get them all, but especially the “Revival of the Dead” skill.