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Dalek Zek
2009-02-07, 08:53 AM
When I made the first draft of this class, I was not aware that PHBII had a knight class already, and I needed one for worldbuilding. I still like this one more, however, because it is more focused on being a part of an order, so I finished it anyway. What do you all think of it?
Knight[b]

The knight is a honourable warrior who defends the realm and keeps order. He is trained from early childhood on by another knight. He is a champion of the people, a hero of the army, and a trustworthy ally and comrade in battle and adventure.

Adventuring: Knights go on adventures to serve the nation, protect the defenseless, and to grow in their roles as champions. They prefer to work in groups and are willing allies to those who share their philosophy. They see adventure as their duty and task, and they will go at it with full conviction.

Characteristics: Knights are great warriors who trust in their equipment and horses. The form bond with their weapons and armor that seems almost to be friendship; no other warrior is as trained with his weapon of choice as a knight. Knights are proud of these skills and cherish the best equipment that is available to them.

Alignment: Any Lawful. In addition, a knight must follow a code of honour. If he repeatedly breask this code he will lose his status and may be declared an outlaw.

Religion: Knights are found serving any deity, although they usually serve under lawful ones and seldom under chaotic gods.

Background: Knighthood is seldom a choice: a knight is expected to serve from infancy and will be loyal to orders to the best of his capacity. Following another path can lead to excommunication or even banishment.

Races: All races can know the calling of the knight, but knights are mostly found amongst dwarfs because of the cultural similarities.

Other classes: Knights work well with paladins, clerics, and monks. If a knight works with someone of a chaotic alignment, it may lead to irritation, but no knight will judge someone based on personal matters.

[b]Knight[\b]
{table=head][b]Level|BAM|Fort|Ref |Will|Special
1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+0|Code of Honour, Mount Master +1, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword)
2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+0|Weapon Focus (bastard sword)
3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+1|Upkeep, common
4th|
+4|
+4|
+1 |
+1|Arms Master
5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+1|Knight of Rank
6th|
6/1|
+5|
+2|
+2|Teacher
7th|
+7/2|
+5|
+2|
+2|Armour Master +1/-1
8th|
+8/3|
+6|
+2|
+2|Pure Heart
9th|
+9/4|
+6|
+3|
+3|Mount Master +2
10th|
+10/5|
+7|
+3|
+3|Famed
11th|
+11/6/1|
+7|
+3|
+3|Improved Arms Master
12th|
+12/7/2|
+8|
+4|
+4|Elder Teacher
13th|
+13/8/3|
+8|
+4|
+4|Armour Master +2/-2
14th|
+14/9/4|
+9|
+4|
+4|Inpkeep, good
15th|
+15/10/5|
+9|
+5|
+5|Heroic
16th|
+16/11/6/1|
+10|
+5|
+5|Mount Master +3
17th|
+17/12/7/2|
+10|
+5|
+5|Greater Arms Master
18th|
+18/13/8/3|
+11|
+6|
+6|Royal Status
19th|
+19/14/9/4|
+11|
+6|
+6|Armour Master +3/-3
20th|
+20/15/10/5|
+12|
+6|
+6|Champion[/table]

Code of Honour: Thou shalt live by and for honour, serve thy monarch and fight on there behalf when called for. Thou shalt obey the law, keep thy word, – be generous, helpful, and hospitable, show mercy and forgiveness, be kind and protective, protect those who cannot do so alone, act as a true gentleman, and pay honestly to your order. Thou shalt not deceive, fight for anything other than honour or country, give offense, murder an unarmed person, steal, abuse, speaak untruth, harm without reason, be vicious, crude or mean.

Mount Master: The knight learns horseback riding as soon as he can walk and gets a +1 bonus on ride checks, AC, and attack and damage rolls if fighting on horseback against unmounted foes. At level 9 these bonuses increase to +2 and to +3 at level 16. They stack with all other bonuses.

Upkeep: At level 3, a knight may charge any common stay in a inn for his party to his order. At level 14 he may do this with any good stay.

Arms Master: Knights are trained from early childhood how to use weapons and begin training with masterwork weapons as soon as they reach there the age of eleven. If a knight wields masterwork weapon, he no longer fails on a natural 1. At level 11, he deals +1 damage with a masterwork weapon. At level 17, any masterwork weapon wielded by a knight count as a magical weapon with the alignment of the knight fore the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

Knight of Rank: At level five, a knight is recognized as an true knight, no longer an upcoming squire. He may take places in tournaments and is allowed to join in at official occasions like balls or other functions.

Teacher: At level 6, the knight may take a squire to train to become a knight. This squire counts as a level one knight except for that he doesn't have Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword) from his class. The knight is responsible for both her safety and training, but receives a monthly payment equal to her charisma score times her knight level from the parents of the squire or his order. A squire will typically stay with a single knight for a year before his coming of age, or be sent to a other knight to learn more. On request from the squire's parents, the order, or from the knight or his squire himself, the squire may be allowed to stay with a knight for an additional year. A knight may always refuse to take a squire and then decide to take one later. At level 12, a knight may have two squires.

Armour Master: Knight live in armour from as soon as they can carry it and learn to wear them with ease. At level 7, a knight gets +1 to the maximum dexterity bonus of any armour and –1 to the armour check penalty. This increases to +2 and –2 at level 13 and +3 and –3 at level 19. The armour type does not change.

Pure Heart: At level 8, a knight has grown in his role as hero and gets a +4 bonus on saves against fear. Each allied creature within 30 ft. of the knight also gets this bonus.

Famed: At level 10, a knight is a well-known hero of the realm and may give orders to knights of her order who have 5 or fewer HD. Note that knights need not follow any order that is unbecoming of an officer and a gentlemen, or any that would violate the code of honour. Also, a knight is not allowed to use his position to make people follow him as a leader or a warlord: only his monarch may do this.

Heroic: A knight may now order other knight of his order that are 10 or fewer HD.

Royal Status: Knight is really the lowest of the royal ranks, but for a knight with Royal Status this is no longer true. You may ask for audiences with his monarch, carry swords in castles, challenge other royal knights to duels, and may be given a small scrap of land to rule as a count. This could require a quest from a monarch or baron.

Champion: You may now order any non-royal knight of your order alsong as that knight has 19 or fewer HD.

d10 HD.
Skill points: 2 + INT Modifier, (2 + INT) x 4 at level 1.
Class skills: diplomacy, handle animal, intimidate, ride, knowlege (nobility and royalty).

Weapon Proficiencies: Simple, Martial
Armor Proficiency: All armor and shields

Shades of Gray
2009-02-07, 09:23 AM
Write that they have shield proficiency.

I've always thought that Knight's would be able to use their status to help with diplomacy and gather information checks, that's just a personal preference.

Frog Dragon
2009-02-07, 09:34 AM
Looks good, but


Upkeep: At level 3, a knight may charge any common stay in a inn for his party to his order. At level 14 he may do this with any good stay.

GAHH:smalleek:
Plot writing abilities are BAD you hear me BAD!!!! Please replace it something else or just plain eliminate it, butI don't think that should be a class ability at all.

Shades of Gray
2009-02-07, 09:36 AM
Yeah. That seems less heroic, more like "Meh, I bet my order will take care of it".

Dalek Zek
2009-02-07, 10:52 AM
Yeah. That seems less heroic, more like "Meh, I bet my order will take care of it".

I put this in to creet an element of your order taking care of its more active members, so that there more stimulated to go out and fight the good fight. Also it ceeps a reminder that you are a part of the order while traveling trow your own lands. I agree however that in dos realy not tie in with a heroic theme. Replacing it with some bonus on diplomacy may not be a bad idee.

I dont realy know what 'rinding a plot abilety' means, please explain?

Athaniar
2009-02-07, 12:10 PM
I dont realy know what 'rinding a plot abilety' means, please explain?

Me neither, where did you get that from?

Frog Dragon
2009-02-07, 12:20 PM
Me neither, where did you get that from?
He has dyslexia as far as I know.
I think he meant "Plot writing ability"
Yeah, it means the character has abilities in his/her class that do not as much affect how (s)he works and what (s)he can do rather than affecting how others perceive him/her and what happens regardless of him/her. Such as the afromentioned "upkeep" ability which is not what your knight does. It is what other people suddenly start doing. Granted that is not an overly bad case of plot writing abilities, but it's still one and thus, shouldn't exist.
In this case when your knight reaches a certain level his order starts paying for his inn bills. This should not be a class ability, but purely determined by the DM.

RTGoodman
2009-02-07, 12:45 PM
Honestly, this doesn't seem like a real class, it seems like a bunch of role-play oriented abilities that could apply to any, but with a HD, BAB, and stuff slapped on. I mean, you're basically a Fighter with almost no real fighting ability other than a good BAB, but you don't have anything else except some fluff benefits to fall back on.

I would personally rather use the Organization rules (I think that's what they're called) from Complete Champion than a class to simulate almost EVERYTHING in your Knight class. If you get a chance, take a look at that book and how the organizations work, and custom-make one for your campaign world. You could give bonuses to a PCs Affiliation Score based on HD, alignment (+4 for Lawful, +0 for Neutral, -4 for Chaotic), class (+2 Paladin or Fighter or Cleric, -2 Rogue or Wizard, etc.), and stuff like that, and the different levels of benefits would take care of your Upkeep, rank abilities, and stuff like that.

If you WANT to keep it as a class though, it needs a bit of work. I'd go ahead and throw on a good Will save, or at least a bonus to Will saves from the very beginning (instead of later, when you get a bonus that only applies against Fear). A d10 HD is good, but you could even use a d12 if they're really defendery. Give 'em 4+Int skill points, since 2+Int sucks for everyone. Give them, basically, all of the Fighter skills, plus some Knowledges, some social skills, and stuff like that. Maybe even a bonus to Diplomacy checks equal to 1/2 class level.

Make them proficient with all shield except Tower Shields, and keep the Armour Master ability but move it up to start at somewhere between levels 1 and 4. Have it improved every 4 levels, where eventually the Armor Check Penalty is gone, the Max Dex is higher than you'd need, and you could even give +1 AC in Heavy Armor every 4 levels or so.

Get rid of Exotic Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Focus (Bastard Sword) - if a Knight wants to use one, he can spend a feat on it like everyone else. He already gets his "weapon training" through having access to all Simple and Martial weapons. I would probably suggest a bonus feat (from a list) at maybe 2nd level and a handful of later levels (maybe every 3-5 levels), though, which could be spent on WF, WS, and other Fighter- and defendery-type feats.

Arms Master is VERY underwhelming. A +1 bonus to damage at 11th level SUCKS, and counting as magical at 17th level is WAY too late (especially since most D&D characters have a REAL magic weapon before level 5 usually). I like the "never automatically fail an attack on a natural 1" thing, but it's something that probably shouldn't come into play until maybe 12-16th level or later.

If you really want "squire" or "follower" stuff, you could give the Knight a Cohort (as per the Leadership feat), but they don't get the multitudes of low-level followers and the Cohort must be a Fighter, Paladin, Warblade, or some other martial class.

I'd still get rid of most of the "fluff" benefits - those can be handled with an Organization (like I mentioned earlier) or just through role-playing. There's no need for them to take up spots for actual class abilities.

That's everything I can think of here on a quick run-through. Feel free to use or NOT use any of it, but I think overall most of the suggestions make the Knight into a more playable and fun class.


EDIT: Also, your table is a little screwed up - you might want to look over it again, just to fix it up.