Café de Nuit

Hey guys. So I'm starting a new solo campaign for a player and we're running an evil campaign and he's going to be an Oathbreaker. My question to you guys is who exactly would his patron be? I'm not sure of the evil deities in Ravenloft (if they even exist) because of the dark powers, so I'm not sure how to proceed with this exactly.

If he needs an evil deity, there are plenty in Ravenloft, from L/E Lawgiver and Zhakata, to N/E Elrik; There are also plenty of C/E ones.

Is he an Outlander or a native?

An outlander could basically worship any evil deity from where he comes from - it are the Dark Powers who provide divine characters with their abilities and features, not the deities themselves.

A native has already plenty of choice of evil faiths, as Mistmaster pointed out. If they are faux religions simulated by the DP doesn't change their viability for providing abilities and spells - and it would be far from common knowledge that they are faux anyway.

Considering that oathbreaking is rather unlawful, I am not sure that the Lawgiver would be a good patron.
As a negligent, trickster death deity, Erlin (Gazetteer I page 26) might make more sense.

He had to have an oath originally. Which oath did he break? A good source of power would be whatever evil entity would most benefit from the paladin's corruption.

So after discussion with the player, we came to a happy conclusion which we even played a bit today. We decided that the players former oath was oath of devotion. The deity we chose also was Zababa.

Little late but keeping on topic...

An oathbreaker, black knight, antipaladin, etc doesn't necessarily have to have an evil deity/patron to grant him or her their extraordinary gifts. What if they just act out of spite and in spite of their former centre universe? A spiritual orphan, drifter, rover whathaveyou, who is more than willing to open their being to any and all who will answer the call that will help them wage war on their spiritual bane. As such they connect like Wi-Fi; tapping whatever and wherever but always maintaining just enough juice to do their wrathful thing. After all, they are among the elite few that have developed a spiritual connectivity like no other. Hell, it could even be self-empowerment that allows them to continue accessing their abilities. A philosophical "deity" that plugs the hole left in their spiritual tank. A psychological juggernaut of a nightmare for the Betrayer's sycophants, err, followers.

That's just with the "fallen knight" theme in mind. Play it from any angle you want really.

A paladin in RL that is somehow disconnected from their god but who can't switch their connectivity off and who now is forced to live a sort of fugitive life on the road because they keep tapping into powers that they cannot understand or control. Some are benevolent, some malicious, others quiet and unknown. Regional strength of faith is or could be a deciding factor as to this poor bastard's spiritual "umbilical cord". All he or she knows is that it's disturbing, to say the least, being a vessel for these unnamed powers. Easy to see where a godless paladin or a god-hating paladin (or their equivalents) might come from...

Model the paladin's gradual alignment shift somewhat after Dark Sun's half-giant for an easy enough mech rule.

So yeah. In my head it's ok to have paladins come with gods not included. I mean, why not?

So if you can't find an Evil One for your evil one, then don't worry about. Go hop the fence and see what's on the other side.

Edited a bunch of times to prevent thread bog/hog.

A visual seed for your imagination. Oh how the god(dess) weeps.

Or, is the Faceless One purging a Chosen One?

A sickened mind and spirit
The mirror tells me lies
Could I mistake myself for someone
Who lives behind my eyes?
Will he escape my soul
Or will he live in me?
Is he trying to get out
Or trying to enter me?

- Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osbourne, Diary of a Madman)

Epically wrote:So after discussion with the player, we came to a happy conclusion which we even played a bit today. We decided that the players former oath was oath of devotion. The deity we chose also was Zababa.

Interestingly, Zababa is an ancient Mesopotamian deity in real life. Here's a link with some more info on him:
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/list ... index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zababa