[RPG] Can an Oathbreaker Paladin reform and choose a different Paladin subclass

A Radically Different Idea

Your player had fun playing a greedy awesomedwarf? And now isn't having fun playing a Stop Right There! Paladin? Easy.

Have him take that in-character.

Whoa, whoa, what are you talking about?

Simple. Have the paladin start to be dissatisfied with the course he's taking. Have him start bucking authority, becoming a dangerous loose cannon. Going a bit far. Being reckless. I'm directly quoting Lethal Weapon here, because that's what you want to be. Martin Riggs is the ideal Paladin-walking-a-darker-path. He wants to be Good, and Lawful, but there's just so much darn Evil out there, and it's hurting the innocent. So many good reasons to just cut that moustache-twirling evil guy's head right off, and not give a damn.

Maybe the Captain of the Town Guard calls him in and lectures him and threatens to just stuff him in prison - maybe it's his direct superior in the paladin order. Either way, you do your part by having authority figures drive him further towards vigilantism, violence, and using evil means to defeat evil, and he can do his part by playing a conflicted, confused young man treading a path that leads to darker acts than his foes can even dream of - all in the name of Good.

And then you end up with something a bit deeper than a black suit of armour with a different flavour of boring character inside.

At the the DM’s discretion, an impenitent paladin might be forced to abandon this class and adopt another, or perhaps to take the Oathbreaker paladin option

I read this as an out-of-character game rule: if your paladin falls, that is, your DM forces you to abandon the paladin class,¹ you are required, as a player, to choose either Oathbreaker or some new class for your character. Oathbreaker’s placement in the DMG implies that this option is explicitly available only if your DM offers it.

Either way, you definitely do not have the option of remaining as a (non-Oathbreaker) paladin after you have fallen. You “lose” your powers, of course, since you are no longer a (non-Oathbreaker) paladin, but they are immediately replaced by those of Oathbreaker or your new class, as appropriate.

And when you fall, you are not abandoned by your deity, so much as you have already been abandoned and that is why you have fallen.

1. ^{As with previous editions (which were far worse about this), I strongly recommend that the narrative for how, when, and why a paladin falls should be worked out between the DM and player to maximize its effect and significance, and limit arguments and hurt feelings over differing definitions and expectations for what “good” entails. 5e does massively improve this process by making it less about morality, and more about keeping a specific oath, and by ensuring the paladin can continue to contribute and play in the game on a metagame level by replacing his powers, but I still consider it important that a fall be done in concert with the player, rather than unilaterally as the rules suggest.}