Paladin is one of the most powerful classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, mainly due to the various abilities you receive as part of your subclass. Your underclass sees you take an oath, which will determine how your paladin acts in certain situations and make up the majority of your background. However, just because you took an oath doesn’t mean you have to keep it. If you want to free yourself from the path of your oath, you can become an Oathbreaker paladin.
Choosing to go this route will cause you to lose all abilities associated with your Oath, but will open up your character to new abilities and dialogue options. You can see exactly how to break your oath as a paladin in Baldur’s Gate 3 by reading the guide below.
Become an Oathbreaker Paladin
First of all, choosing to break your oath in Baldur’s Gate 3 does not mean that you make your paladin an evil character. While you can, of course, go that route if you wish, an Oathbreaker paladin simply wants to stray from their original oath to follow a new set of rules for themselves.
You might encounter a scenario in Baldur’s Gate 3 that requires you to make a decision between what is right and what your oath tells you to do. If you want to follow what is right, it will lead you to become an Oathbreaker paladin. These situations can be difficult to find on your own, so we’ve covered all the ways you can break your oath below. Although each subclass requires different actions to become an Oathbreaker, so be sure to follow the actions under your specific oath in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Oath of the Elders
The official in-game description of this oath reads “You fight on the side of light in the cosmic struggle against darkness to preserve the sanctity of life and the beauty of nature.” In order to break this oath, you will always have to stay on the right side of a situation, no matter what. Here are some of the specific ways you can break that oath:
- kill an innocent
- Free Goblin Sazza in Emerald Grove
- Kill both the owlbear and the little owlbear in the owlbear cave
- Use Aunt Ethel’s wand to bring Mayrina’s husband back from the dead
- Kill the Tiefling Pandima in Emerald Grove
oath of revenge
The official in-game description of this oath reads “You have set aside even your own purity to right wrongs and bring justice to those who have committed the greatest sins.” This oath will bind you to deal with any evil person with immediate and swift judgment, regardless of the reason for which they committed their deeds. Here are some of the specific ways you can break that oath:
- Free Sazza at Emerald Grove
This was the only action I found that led to becoming an Oathbreak Paladin with the Oath of Vengeance, but there are probably more ways to do it later in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Oath of devotion
The official in-game description of this oath reads “Following the ideal of the knight in shining armor, you act with honor and virtue to protect the weak and pursue the greater good.” You will have to defend the values and beliefs of a knight with this oath. Defending the weak and pursuing the strong are both crucial to the Oath of Devotion. Here are some of the specific ways you can break that oath:
- Choose to torture Liam, the man tied to a plank, in Goblin Camp’s Shattered Sanctum
- Turn on the Goblin Camp after convincing Minthara not to attack Emerald Grove
- Kill the Tieflings that captured Lae’zel in the cage after crashing on the beach
- Let Arka kill Sazza in Emerald Grove
- Kill someone of low standing for no apparent reason
Meet the Paladin Oathbreaker

After doing one of these actions, the Oathbreaker Knight will appear in a cutscene and invite you to visit him the next time you take a long rest. The Paladin will be at your camp and you can talk to him to learn a little more about his history and what it means to be an Oathbreaker.
From there, you can either accept your new powers as an Oathbreaker or pay a Penance fee to reinstate your Oath. Obviously, if you want to be an Oathbreaker, then don’t pay the fee and instead accept your new path. You will now receive new paladin-specific abilities that you can assign to your hotbar.
We’ve got plenty of other guides to help you out in Baldur’s Gate 3, including romance options, quest tips, building suggestions, and more. Find everything in our Baldur’s Gate 3 hub.
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