A few years ago, I dove headfirst into the Underdark with a dragonborn character, Nemesis the Oath of Vengeance paladin. We would be playing an Out of the Abyss campaign with a relatively new D&D crew. The adventure would start in a drow prison cell, deep in the Underdark, and we would later explore various subterranean settings and creatures, eventually going toe-to-toe with the deadliest of demons.
I joined the campaign early on, but after session 1, so Nemesis hadn’t been with the party when they all woke up in a drow jail. The DM was pretty flexible, and said I could just ‘pretend’ my character was with them the whole time, or we could work her in some other way. I chose the second option, as I thought it would make more sense to the story.
Who was Nemesis?
In the first few years of her life, Nemesis was part of the Vkriss clan. They were nomadic shepherds, breeding sheep and horses, who sold and traded their goods to live a modest life. As a young child, Nemesis was taught to gather roots, wild shrubs and fungus from their surroundings, that would make up much of the clan’s diet. The Vkriss dragonborn were descendants of the once powerful Daarendrin clan, who long ago turned from the path of battle and violence that had plagued their people. They didn’t carry any weapons of war or wear armour for protection. All they possessed were the clothes on their backs, tools for farming and herding, and a small stash of communal survival supplies. Every winter season, the Vkriss would plant themselves in one spot to hunker down for the winter.
A traumatic past
During Nemesis’ 5th winter, they struck. Out of nowhere, trained killers every one of them. Bloodthirsty, drow warriors had made the trek from deep within the earth to the surface world. They attacked on a moonless night, using dark magic. The screams would echo in Nemesis’ nightmares for years afterwards.
The drow were quiet, but once the first few shepherds had been slain, there were roars from the dragonborn and flames engulfed a few of their assailants. Nemesis had been away from camp when the drow began their attack, picking mushrooms in a nearby grove. Young and unaccustomed to violence, she froze in fear, and remained crouched in her mushroom grove, sheltered by the woods around her. She watched as her mother and father were slain, then the leader of their Clan. Friends she used to play with in the fields, her favourite horse. All massacred by these horrifying dark elves. Only a small handful of her kin were left alive, but they were taken underground with the drow party to become new slaves.
A few days went by before she was found, lost and confused, in the midst of the deserted battlefield, by an elderly man. He had, at one time, been a prolific knight. But now he wandered the grasslands, bringing the word and helping hand of his god from place to place. The old knight took Nemesis under his wing, he vowed to show the child how to defend herself.
Oath of Vengeance Paladin
After many years of training and battling, they eventually parted ways. Nemesis followed his teachings, and swore a binding Oath of Vengeance – vowing to kill those responsible for the massacre of her people.
Why was she created?
I joined the campaign after a few sessions had been played and everyone else already had a character. Our party consisted of the following at level 3:
- Gnome rogue
- Human monk
- Dragonborn druid
- Tiefling ranger
The party was lacking a “face”, no one had any charisma. Additionally (depending on how the druid was playing), the group also was lacking in healing/support and someone to soak up damage/play in melee. I wasn’t looking to play anything too complicated and I wanted to help round out the party composition. A paladin checked all those boxes.
As mentioned earlier in this post, I had decided that Nemesis would meet up with the party mid-campaign. Before I even had a backstory, I had to have a reason why she would join their troupe. I knew they had recently escaped a prison and had been held captive by drow, and they were in the Underdark. Ok, so why would Nemesis be in the Underdark? Why would she trust this rag-tag team of strangers?
She probably wouldn’t trust them… but maybe they could share a common goal? An enemy of my enemy is my friend? If the party was anti-drow, because they had been imprisoned by them, perhaps Nemesis would have a beef with the drow too?
From there, I started peeling away her backstory.
How to roleplay her?
When Nemesis first stepped in to the game, she was mistrusting, strong-willed, and heavy-handed with her maul. She was fairly one-dimensional, with strength as her strength and an oath to vanquish all evil drow. I was pretty light on the divine aspects of her power, and didn’t get into her backstory too much. In the beginning, I focused on her pure physical prowess and intimidating appearance to do most of the talking. Towards the end of the campaign, I leaned heavily in to her mistrust and hatred towards drow. Which did pin her as a racist. But she eventually repented for that, realizing her skills could have a much more positive purpose.
Redemption for Nemesis
After years of training and hunting the drow, Nemesis finally played her part in delivering catastrophic destruction to their home city of Menzoberranzen. Freeing slaves, including some fellow Dragonborn, and together with her party of adventurers, releasing demon lords at the Sorcere to wreak havoc on the city and ultimately to destroy each other. But she was surprised to feel remorse afterwards. Her oath now fulfilled, Nemesis was lost and filled with guilt from her actions throughout her life so far.
After saving the Realms from the Demogorgon, Nemesis embarked on a new path, going back to her roots. She took an Oath or Redemption, to instead seek out the good in people and resorting to violence only when absolutely necessary.
On using spells
On the mechanics side of things, my gameplay was pretty sub-optimal at first. I used lay on hands and cure wounds quite a bit, mostly out of combat. But I frequently forgot which spells to use in combat, and when I should be using my smites. I kept preparing find steed I don’t even remember if I used it one time. Eventually I got the hang of paladin combat, as we upped the frequency of our sessions towards the end of the campaign.
Nemesis may not have been the hero anyone deserved, but she was the hero the world needed.
What mechanics did she start with? And end with?
As a meat shield, I knew I had to make sure my hit points (HP) and armour class (AC) were high. So strength then constitution got prioritized. I dumped intelligence first, because let’s face it, I wasn’t going to be the brains of the group. By default, dragonborns get an additional +2 to strength and +1 to charisma (this was also before Tasha’s, and rules-as written there was no ability score swapping). Using the roll stats method of 4d6 drop lowest, and a full re-roll for stats totalling under 70 (see reference), here’s what she started with:
| Ability | Score |
| Strength | 17 (+4) |
| Dexterity | 10 (0) |
| Constitution | 15 (+2) |
| Intelligence | 8 (-1) |
| Wisdom | 14 (+2) |
| Charisma | 15 (+2) |
From her paladin class and acolyte background, obtained through study with her elderly knight mentor, Nemesis was proficient in the following skills:
- Insight (Wis)
- Religion (Wis)
- Athletics (Str)
- Intimidation (Cha)
As a gold dragonborn, Nemesis also had a fire breath weapon, which is great at the lower levels but then doesn’t scale well.
In this campaign, we ended up at level 13. I maxed out my strength stats as soon as I could, followed by constitution.
| Ability | Score |
| Strength | 20 (+5) |
| Dexterity | 10 (0) |
| Constitution | 18 (+4) |
| Intelligence | 8 (-1) |
| Wisdom | 14 (+2) |
| Charisma | 15 (+2) |
Magical weapons FTW
But what really topped things off her, were the magical weapons our DMs (there were two) introduced. In her first session, to ‘catch up’ with the other characters, she found a +1 greatsword in the holds of a sinking ship. Later, she came across a +2 greatsword. Finally, during the last arc before the final showdown, a forge cleric joined us. We ventured through a maze, guarded by demons, to the Plane of Mechanus where the secrets and power were unlocked to forge the Bane of Chaos. A+3 mithril-adamantine alloy greatsword, which dealt additional 2d10 radiant damage against creatures originating from a chaotic plane. This sword also created a 30-foot radius aura of protection when drawn, protecting friends from being charmed, frightened, or affected by madness. Affixed to its hilt was a 9th-level spell gem, which we were able to use to teleport away from danger on occasion.
In conclusion, would I play an Oath of Vengeance paladin again?
I would definitely play a paladin again, and I may play Oath of Vengeance. But for my next pally, I’d like to try a different subclass. Vengeance was fun and I certainly enjoyed playing the one-dimensional angry character, intimidating people for answers and being overall scary and imposing. But for my next paladin I’ll try something more creative, and I’ll definitely play my next charisma-focused character differently.
In the epilogue, after saving the Realms from the Prince of Demons, Nemesis parted ways with her adventuring friends, leading the now homeless and recently freed Dragonborn out of Menzoberranzan’s dungeons. Instead of guiding them on a path of vengeance, as she had herself pursued previously, Nemesis taught them to see the good in all living creatures. They found a small mushroom grove, not too far from her druid friend Shiv’s protected forest haven and the walls of Gauntlgrym, where they began their new life. They practiced the art of persuasion instead of intimidation, defense mechanics in melee combat, and honed protection spells instead of damage focused ones. Over time, lost souls would wander, intentionally and unintentionally, into the commune to find purpose and guidance.
Nemesis kept the Bane of Chaos on her, but mainly for its powers to ward off evil than to wreak destruction. Though cravings for blood, battle, and hunt often crept into her peripheral thoughts, she ultimately found ways to stay focused on her new life path and mission to bring peace to the Forgotten Realms.