Classes are things your character can do. Not your entire character. You&rsquo;re approaching this from a &lsquo;all paladins are holy religious knights&rsquo; rather than a set of things a character can do. A person can RP as a traveling acrobat that uses the rogue class and subclasses to inform what abilities they have. They don&rsquo;t need to be roleplay &lsquo;the rogue.&rsquo; Paladins as a set of skills in 5e is meant to inform characters that tend towards some kind of &lsquo;higher calling&rsquo; hence the oaths. 