Would a Vengeance Paladin spare Astarion?

[76561199674603385]

I don't particularly want to kill him considering, you know, he was a slave and made a vampire against his will. But would a Oath of Vengeance accept that nuance?

Just a roleplaying question.

[Orion Invictus]

It's your character, that depends on you.

[Chroniver]

If the character can rationalize sparing him as a good decision for the greater good and he doesn't hurt any innocents, why not.

At least that's how I did the roleplay in the my playthrough.

[Moonlight Knight]

Originally posted by Coby:

I don't particularly want to kill him considering, you know, he was a slave and made a vampire against his will. But would a Oath of Vengeance accept that nuance?

Just a roleplaying question.

A Vengeance Paladin isn't just a machine that kills monsters, to be clear. Batman is as much as Vengeance Paladin as the Punisher - probably moreso, in fact.

Restitution is the final tenet of the Oath of Vengeance. "If my foes wreak ruin on the world, it's because I have failed to stop them. I must help those harmed by their misdeeds."

While Orion's point is pretty salient since I can't speak for your specific character and their understanding of the world and their Oath, the Oath of Vengeance itself is pretty clear what to do in this situation. The victim of a monster is to be protected, if they've survived.

[76561199674603385]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

It's your character, that depends on you.

True. I'd like to imagine Baldwin (my Dwarf Paladin) can understand the difference between Astarion's playful sadism and someone like Auntie Ethel. I also used the Illithid power during the confrontation to see him feeding on rats. I guess I could say he realised there was truth in Astarion's words and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[76561199674603385]

Originally posted by Moonlight Knight:

Originally posted by Coby:

I don't particularly want to kill him considering, you know, he was a slave and made a vampire against his will. But would a Oath of Vengeance accept that nuance?

Just a roleplaying question.

A Vengeance Paladin isn't just a machine that kills monsters, to be clear. Batman is as much as Vengeance Paladin as the Punisher - probably moreso, in fact.

Restitution is the final tenet of the Oath of Vengeance. "If my foes wreak ruin on the world, it's because I have failed to stop them. I must help those harmed by their misdeeds."

While Orion's point is pretty salient since I can't speak for your specific character and their understanding of the world and their Oath, the Oath of Vengeance itself is pretty clear what to do in this situation. The victim of a monster is to be protected, if they've survived.

This is exactly how I rationalised sparing Astarion as my Paladin Dwarf. He is a victim of a monster, not a monster.

[Kappa]

Astarion would kill you by drinking your blood if you don’t stop them at some point.

Consider also that it could have been a civilian rather than an adventurer ( and maybe the victim wouldn’t have been so lucky to awake while them was approaching ), so it’s definitely ok to kill them ( as a vengeance paladin I’d probably kill them just because leaving a monster alive could be the worse outcome ).

On my first run me and friends killed almost everything but sh and wyll because they attempted to our lives or they were annoying ( talking about you gale ).

[arikel.pv]

Concerning Astarion, i'd say through all the 200 years being a spawn there are victim and villain intertwined in him. So for a Vengeance Paladin killing or sparing him is a question of acting on his behalf or on behalf of those he lured to his master.
For one thing definite, allowing him to become an Ascendant breaks the Vengeance Oath (an issue from my own walkthrough)

[76561199674603385]

Originally posted by arikel.pv:

Concerning Astarion, i'd say through all the 200 years being a spawn there are victim and villain intertwined in him. So for a Vengeance Paladin killing or sparing him is a question of acting on his behalf or on behalf of those he lured to his master.
For one thing definite, allowing him to become an Ascendant breaks the Vengeance Oath (an issue from my own walkthrough)

I heard it undoes the development he has through the story so I'd best not, at least for my good playthrough. I'll definitely do it in my Durge run.

[Cutlass Jack]

On my first run, I put a stake in his chest because my female berserker interpreted Astarion as attempting to sexually assault her rather than having lunch. He should have known better, quite honestly, given that he saw her barbarian conversation options prior.

On other playthroughs I gave him a chance to explain himself. I think there was enough wiggle room in that scene for a paladin to give him a little more of a chance.

[arikel.pv]

Originally posted by Coby:

I heard it undoes the development he has through the story so I'd best not, at least for my good playthrough. I'll definitely do it in my Durge run.

If you're talking about Paladin character here, then no, it just replaces some oath channelling abilities. IMHO those that the Oathbreaker obtains seemed much more useful to me. As for storytelling, there are some new dialogue lines, but no more

[Steffan]

Originally posted by Coby:

I don't particularly want to kill him considering, you know, he was a slave and made a vampire against his will. But would a Oath of Vengeance accept that nuance?

Just a roleplaying question.

Minthara has no issue with Astarion, I see no reason why another vengeance paladin would want to destroy him.

If your character wants to make a decision with regards to Astarion, the answer is not in the oath.

[GriffinPilgrim]

Yes. An Oath of Vengeance will err on the side of smite but there does still need to be something to avenge. In Astarion's case he literally had no way to refuse to do what he did so the moral weight for his actions falls on Cazador, not him. A Vengeance paladin would likely keep a careful eye on him to make sure he doesn't take after his master now he's free but they wouldn't need to kill him based on where he's at at the start of the story.

[TaKo]

feel like yall have a severe misunderstanding of what the oath of vengeance is about

if anything, the oath that would have a bigger issue with astariion's existence would be oath of ancients, as him being an undead vampire spawn would be agains the natural order(same reason that creating an undead breaks the oath)

[76561199674603385]

Originally posted by arikel.pv:

Originally posted by Coby:

I heard it undoes the development he has through the story so I'd best not, at least for my good playthrough. I'll definitely do it in my Durge run.

If you're talking about Paladin character here, then no, it just replaces some oath channelling abilities. IMHO those that the Oathbreaker obtains seemed much more useful to me. As for storytelling, there are some new dialogue lines, but no more

I meant Astarion's character development

[76561199674603385]

Originally posted by TaKo:

feel like yall have a severe misunderstanding of what the oath of vengeance is about

if anything, the oath that would have a bigger issue with astariion's existence would be oath of ancients, as him being an undead vampire spawn would be agains the natural order(same reason that creating an undead breaks the oath)

It's quite easy to misunderstand it when the game does a horrible job at explaining what your oaths actually are