D&D 5e Houserule: Paladin Shifts

There's a lot of lore associated with paladins, their oaths, and what happens when those oaths are broken. This houserule applies all of the mechanical information regarding this lore to the players characters.

Breaking Your Oath

Players who take Paladin must detail the specifics of the nature of their oath with the DM. This oath must be written up with clauses and restrictions as if it were a contract. It must be clear enough that a divine entity can hold their paladin accountable for their action. If a player breaks their oath, they become an oath breaker. If they have a subclass, they lose all of the features associated with that subclass, then gain the villainous sublcass of Oath Breaker from the DMG, gaining all of its features up to their level.

An Oath Breaker can atone for their sins by taking the Performing Sacred Rites downtime activity from the DMG. If they spend at least 10 days repenting, they can change their subclass to Oath of Redemption. A new oath contract is written up, specifying what needs to be done to have redeemed themselves- if true redemption is even a possibility. If the character completes their redemption, they may then take a new oath of any type other than Oath Breaker or Redeemer.

Death Knights

If a PC dies as an oathbreaker, they return as a death knight villain NPC. The DM should enlist the original player of the character as an assistant in running the NPC, having the player perform the NPC's speeches and plans, possibly having the player control it in combat, and asking for guidance on how the NPC should think and act, as well as ways they might atone for their sins in death. The players may be tasked with a quest of guiding their undead friend to redemption.

Eidolons

If a paladin does not waver in their convictions before death, they may have the option of becominbg an eidolon after death. The conditions to do so are as follows:

1. The character must worship at least 1 deity.
2. The character must never have ceased or altered their faith.
3. The character must never have changed alignment.
4. The character must never have become an oath breaker.