There’s really no options for Holy Paladins

[Gønzö]

Every companion choice beyond maybe Halsin is just terrible. And druids aren’t what I’m looking for as a 4th. Astarion and Gale are obvious “No”. I’ll take Sir Fuzzalump and Asian ninja woman tyvm. Shadowheart is a cultist for an evil God so not really a viable choice. And Lae’zel is Githyanki. Weirdly the Githyanki are at least lawful evil so we share some things in common but they are so one dimensionally evil you can’t even side with them. I wanted to ride a badass dragon over the shadowlands but nope, thats not an option. She also has some of the worst advice. Karlach is devil spawn so again no. The “dream visitor” has major mary sue plot armor so no real choice there but honestly why would a Paladin follow their advice?. I guess the writing isn’t so deep and surface level is what you get. I really wish there could be a “Good” option to progress the story and have options for getting the old BG companions earlier on. Bummer.

[Noctoculus]

The whole Githyanki plot really could've used some Githzerai contrast. I think they did that in NWN.

[MuscleBroStolas]

Interesting.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Gønzö:

Every companion choice beyond maybe Halsin is just terrible. And druids aren’t what I’m looking for as a 4th. Astarion and Gale are obvious “No”. I’ll take Sir Fuzzalump and Asian ninja woman tyvm. Shadowheart is a cultist for an evil God so not really a viable choice. And Lae’zel is Githyanki. Weirdly the Githyanki are at least lawful evil so we share some things in common but they are so one dimensionally evil you can’t even side with them. I wanted to ride a badass dragon over the shadowlands but nope, thats not an option. She also has some of the worst advice. Karlach is devil spawn so again no. The “dream visitor” has major mary sue plot armor so no real choice there but honestly why would a Paladin follow their advice?. I guess the writing isn’t so deep and surface level is what you get. I really wish there could be a “Good” option to progress the story and have options for getting the old BG companions earlier on. Bummer.

The thing is, the 5th edition ditched moral compass. The LG-CE axis.
So it does not really matter if you are a holy paladin. You can encounter a Holy Paladin of Lolth:D

Shadowheart i would not give upon yet, if you talk with her, you will have a strange suspicion. The githyanki girl also goes through some development. Gale stays Gale(annoying as hell), Astarion stays the same...Halsin...becomes hell of an annoying second Gale. Karlach is a good option. Jaheira is too late for the party:)

[Weekend]

a real paladin would take the trouble souls and spend the game trying to save them from themselves

[Poqreslux]

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

The whole Githyanki plot really could've used some Githzerai contrast. I think they did that in NWN.

Githzerai were always underrated.

[BeelzeBob]

Originally posted by Gønzö:

Every companion choice beyond maybe Halsin is just terrible. And druids aren’t what I’m looking for as a 4th. Astarion and Gale are obvious “No”. I’ll take Sir Fuzzalump and Asian ninja woman tyvm. Shadowheart is a cultist for an evil God so not really a viable choice. And Lae’zel is Githyanki. Weirdly the Githyanki are at least lawful evil so we share some things in common but they are so one dimensionally evil you can’t even side with them. I wanted to ride a badass dragon over the shadowlands but nope, thats not an option. She also has some of the worst advice. Karlach is devil spawn so again no. The “dream visitor” has major mary sue plot armor so no real choice there but honestly why would a Paladin follow their advice?. I guess the writing isn’t so deep and surface level is what you get. I really wish there could be a “Good” option to progress the story and have options for getting the old BG companions earlier on. Bummer.

Gale, Wyll, and Karlach are all perfectly reasonable for a party with a holy paladin (I assume you mean a traditional LG paladin). It's not like parties in tabletop D&D have ever perfectly aligned with such characters, so it's kind of silly to expect that in this game.

[onealone]

Originally posted by Gønzö:

Karlach is devil spawn so again no.

Well, Tieflings are not innately evil and can even become Holy Paladins. Also, the overall vision of Paladins in D&D has changed quite a bit over the years, but especially in 5e. The question of alignment has changed as well. There are certainly very hard differences between a demon and a Holy Paladin. Yet the boundaries are a bit more fluid.

Paladins have been known to set aside certain alignment differences in order to obtain a highly important goal.

None of this means that any of this has to apply to your Paladin.

[onealone]

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

The whole Githyanki plot really could've used some Githzerai contrast. I think they did that in NWN.

Yes, please. I was wondering the same thing: Where are the Githzerai?

[Gønzö]

Originally posted by Weekend:

a real paladin would take the trouble souls and spend the game trying to save them from themselves

Yeah I heard that before. Thats not how paladins work. You take an oath and keep it. Lawful Good and Lawful Evil don’t mix. Thats sort of the point. Gandalf didn’t try to ”save” Sauron.

[eldiabs]

There is a way. Create your own characters via multiple exes in a local LAN party. It's what I've been doing this past week. 4 characters built exactly like I want with backstories I create. Keep the other characters in camp or take a couple out with the mod that allows more party members. Also opens up some pretty interesting narrative choices along the way. Currently playing an oathbreaker paladin, storm sorcerer, half orc monk/barbarian, and a ranger/assassin.

[Morgian]

The best of the Githzerai was Dak'kon in Torment. His circle of Zertimon was a very ingenious plot and story device. The second one is Zhjaeve in NWN 2, a githzerai cleric, which was likeable, despite being LN.

Edit: the once nameless slave-race of the illithids were led to a successful rebellion by Gith, who developed first defensive psionic powers to resist her masters. Later there was a split of the race and some followed Gith to become the Githyanki, and the others her son Zertimon to become the Githzerai. The githyanki planned to hunt down every last illithid, while the githzerai planned to finally have a life of their own. They pitched their tents on the plane of Limbo, while the githyanki went into the astral plane after making their deal with Tiamat about the red dragons. Githzerai are philosophers and interested in self-improvement, one of their favorite classes was monk.

[高天原]

Originally posted by onealone:

Originally posted by Noctoculus:

The whole Githyanki plot really could've used some Githzerai contrast. I think they did that in NWN.

Yes, please. I was wondering the same thing: Where are the Githzerai?

There is one in the game. At least a part of them.

[fmalfeas]

*GASP* HEAR THAT, BOO?! STINKING EVIL CRAWLS UP OUR NOSES! I SHALL KICK IT FIRMLY!

[Gønzö]

Originally posted by fmalfeas:

*GASP* HEAR THAT, BOO?! STINKING EVIL CRAWLS UP OUR NOSES! I SHALL KICK IT FIRMLY!

Yeah man whatever happened to “buttkicking for goodness!”? I wish I could get Minsc earlier on. Would have been great to find him in druid grove.

[Khryst]

Originally posted by Gønzö:

Originally posted by Weekend:

a real paladin would take the trouble souls and spend the game trying to save them from themselves

Yeah I heard that before. Thats not how paladins work. You take an oath and keep it. Lawful Good and Lawful Evil don’t mix. Thats sort of the point. Gandalf didn’t try to ”save” Sauron.

and depending on the Oath, you would in fact work with evil characters.

Oath of Vengeance, and Oath of Conquest would both work with Evil alignments as long as the end goal aligned and it didn't prevent them from doing what they do.

Oath of Peace would work them as well depending on the situation.

Oath of Ancients would try to "convert" them back to good.

Oath of Devotion is really the only one that would be like "No sir you are a villain and thus i must smite thee".

so YOU are misunderstanding how Paladins work in 5e DnD. they aren't the "stick up the ass boyscout". Honestly they never were either (as it was more dependant upon the God they served) it's just dumb players and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ DMs that treated them that way.