How exactly losing oaths work?

[Exarch_Alpha]

Have no idea why I lost my oath of revenge, is it because I didn´t choose dialogue options?

Sucked having to pay 2000 to regain it

[Detective Costeau]

If you do something contrary to your oath, it breaks, yes. Usually it's picking options in dialog that are contrary to the tenets of your oath, like refusing to help people in need as Oath of Devotion or creating undead creatures as Oath of Ancients.
There's a few things outside dialog that can do it as well- I believe just attacking people unprovoked violates the Oath of Devotion, for example.

[Jaeleth]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Have no idea why I lost my oath of revenge, is it because I didn´t choose dialogue options?

Sucked having to pay 2000 to regain it

I'm not sure of all the mechanics (I am playing a Paladin right now - Oath of Ancients). But I know that if you break it, a sinister figure portraying as the Oathbreaker King will come to you with "much to discuss"... I think you can proceed as an Oathbreaker with losing paladin perks and gaining a few (dark) perks also or... Pay a penance to recover your lost "honour" (2000 gold if I'm not mistaken). Never broke Oath though, I always send Astarion to do the dirty work for me, lol, and always make him rob people who I want to aggro

You break your Oath if you break the conditions imposed to you by it. You have to read carefully those conditions and think before you chose a dialogue or an action. Particularly those who are marked as [Oath of vengeance][Paladin]~

Your tenets are:

Fight the Greater Evil. Exerting your wisdom, identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it. No Mercy for the Wicked. Chasten those who dole out their villainy by wiping their blight from the world forever.

So, beware of whom you ally with, for starters... Have you spared the life of a wicked creature? This seems to be quite an "absolute" and demanding oath (it's vengeance, after all) almost like: All that is not pure good, is pure evil and must be exterminated... Not much room for greyness in Oath of Vengeance I'd say... (and, ironically, being such extreme is being evil, in the end, lol)

[Tresh]

I feel you, I lost my oath for the first time when I told Mol that she sounded ressourceful and I like it at Last Light Inn, after talking to her about Raphael ^^"

Apparently being a Palalock does not absolve me of telling kids that making a deal with a devil is a really bad idea. /j

Generally, if you support evil as an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, whether that be through dialogue or actions, you will lose your oath. Doing evil isn't taken quite so seriously, as long as it's generally in the pursuit of a greater good.

[Jaeleth]

Originally posted by Tresh:

[...]

Apparently being a Palalock does not absolve me of telling kids that making a deal with a devil is a really bad idea. /j

[...]

Gee, man... Making a deal with a Devil is ALWAYS a really bad idea, even for an evil dude ;)

[Orion Invictus]

Read what your oath says. If you do something that goes against it, you lose it. It's really not that complicated.

[Tresh]

Originally posted by Jaeleth:

Originally posted by Tresh:

[...]

Apparently being a Palalock does not absolve me of telling kids that making a deal with a devil is a really bad idea. /j

[...]

Gee, man... Making a deal with a Devil is ALWAYS a really bad idea, even for an evil dude ;)

Well, yeah, but I look like a godsdamned hypocrite if I say it, because I did that myself.

[Exarch_Alpha]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Read what your oath says. If you do something that goes against it, you lose it. It's really not that complicated.

It isn´t intuitive at all.

My question here is if you can lose oath in other ways than not choosing the paladin dialogue choices.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Read what your oath says. If you do something that goes against it, you lose it. It's really not that complicated.

It isn´t intuitive at all.

My question here is if you can lose oath in other ways than not choosing the paladin dialogue choices.

If your oath doesn't let you do certain out-of-dialogue things, yes.

It's very intuitive that to break your oath you need to do things that go against your oath.

[Tresh]

Originally posted by Exarch_Alpha:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Read what your oath says. If you do something that goes against it, you lose it. It's really not that complicated.

It isn´t intuitive at all.

My question here is if you can lose oath in other ways than not choosing the paladin dialogue choices.

Ah, that wasn't quite obvious from your top post, looked like you were just asking whether not choosing certain dialogue options could cause you to lose your oath.

It's not specifically the paladin dialogue options that guarantee you keep your oath, it's what the option says that's important.

Spoiler for act 1 for an example Let's say you fought auntie Ethel and she surrenders, you simply cannot accept her surrender. Doesn't matter whether you use the Paladin option or just any option that rejects her surrender, the important part is that she cannot be let go, if you want to keep your oath.

[SpaceWombat]

Can you explain what you did up to the point you broke the oath? For the vengeance paladin you need to slay evildoers and side with those who have been wronged above all else

[Detective Costeau]

It genuinely isn't complicated, though.
You don't have to always pick the [PALADIN] options in dialog, but you do have to avoid options that directly contradict the tenets of your oath.
So, if your oath says you have to help people in need, picking an option where you refuse to help people in need will break it.
If your oath says you have to punish evildoers, refusing to do that would violate your oath.
When you start a paladin character, you're given a book that specifically says what the tenets of all three oaths are.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Detective Costeau:

It genuinely isn't complicated, though.
You don't have to always pick the [PALADIN] options in dialog, but you do have to avoid options that directly contradict the tenets of your oath.
So, if your oath says you have to help people in need, picking an option where you refuse to help people in need will break it.
If your oath says you have to punish evildoers, refusing to do that would violate your oath.
When you start a paladin character, you're given a book that specifically says what the tenets of all three oaths are.

Exactly. I'm more confused about the confusion here.

You swear an oath. You know the terms of that oath. To break the oath, you need to violate the terms of the oath.

If that's confusing, replace "oath" with "contract" and "swear" with "sign". It's virtually the same.

[brendan_in_china]

I've played devotion Pal quite a bit. Off hand, here are some of the ways I've broken my oath:

- Thrown a yellow outlined bhaalist assassin into a chasm in the temple of Bhaal.
- Told Arabella her parents were alive after discovering them dead.
- I think I lost it after summoning the ogres to defence of the Grove, and they killed some of the tiefling defenders.
- Helping Astarion ascend.

Interestingly I have not broken it when:
- Regretting animating Conner for Mayrina.
- Being absent while rest of party 'betrayed' Aylin to Larroakan.
- Astarion the assassin was doing all his solo murdering.

An Astarion rogue 12 with sleight of hand fully tricked out can steal back the 10k gold from Oathbreaker Paladin with no chance of failure. Reliable talent!

[SpaceWombat]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Exactly. I'm more confused about the confusion her
You swear an oath. You know the terms of that oath. To break the oath, you need to violate the terms of the oath.

If that's confusing, replace "oath" with "contract" and "swear" with "sign". It's virtually the same.

In fairness there are some weird things with oaths on occasion. Example being how at the start of Act 1 knocking out the tieflings who imprisoned Lae'Zel counts as grounds to break the vengeance oath.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by SpaceWombat:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Exactly. I'm more confused about the confusion her
You swear an oath. You know the terms of that oath. To break the oath, you need to violate the terms of the oath.

If that's confusing, replace "oath" with "contract" and "swear" with "sign". It's virtually the same.

In fairness there are some weird things with oaths on occasion. Example being how at the start of Act 1 knocking out the tieflings who imprisoned Lae'Zel counts as grounds to break the vengeance oath.

Tenets of the oath (from the wiki):
Fight the Greater Evil. Exerting your wisdom, identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it.
No Mercy for the Wicked. Chasten those who dole out their villainy by wiping their blight from the world forever.

Can you see where you went wrong?