PDA

View Full Version : [4e] Blood Knight (Fel Defender; PEACH)



Loxagn
2009-12-10, 11:35 AM
BLOOD KNIGHT

http://th07.deviantart.net/fs28/300W/f/2008/052/8/2/8258e3d9727a18e5.jpg

"Come on! Get over here and FIGHT ME!"

CLASS TRAITS

Role: Defender. You cut quite the imposing presence on the battlefield, and you're better at soaking up damage than a lot of the other classes.
Power Source: Fel. You channel the indomitable fury of the Abyss, making every attack cut deeper and hit harder.
Key Abilities: Strength, Constitution, Wisdom

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple Melee, Military melee
Bonus to Defense: +2 Fortitude

Hit Points at First Level: 15 + Constitution Score
Hit Points per Level gained: 6
Healing Surges per Day: 8 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Intimidate. From the class skills list below, choose three more trained skills at first level.
Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Insight (Wis), Perception (Wis), Acrobatics (Dex)

Class Features: Blood Oath, Blood Challenge, Blood Knight's Toughness, Fighting Style

A fighter is the in-your-face combatant. A paladin, the champion of divinity who heals his allies whilst supplanting his foes with blade. A swordmage, the cunning knight who waylays his opponent with arcane magicks. A warden, the steadfast protector of the wild.

You are none of these. You are a Blood Knight. You live for battle; you long for it as others do air. There is a fury within you, a fury that cannot be quenched; the fury and power that is the Abyss. Demonologists bargain with demons; to your foes, you are a demon, an unholy tempest of blood and rage. Every blow only makes yours harder, every drop of blood spilled is soon to be repaid tenfold. The true terror in your role on the battlefield is not merely the bloody swath you carve across it; any man with a big sword can do that.
What is truly terrifying to your foes...

Is that no matter how many times you are cut, you always seem to get back up...

Blood Knight Class Features
Blood Knights have the following Class Features.

Blood Oath
Every Blood Knight has taken what is called the Blood Oath, in one form or another. The Oath is a vow of bloodshed, an unholy pact with the swirling chaos of the abyss to never fall in combat. Once per encounter, when you succeed on a death saving throw, you may spend a healing surge.
Additionally, while you are bloodied, you gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls. This bonus increases to +2 at level 11, and +3 at level 21.

Blood Challenge
There are few things more intimidating on the battlefield than a blood knight challenging his foe. Every time you attack an enemy, you can choose to mark that target. That mark lasts until the end of your next turn. While a target is marked, it takes a -2 penalty to attacks that don't include you as their target. A creature can be subject to only one mark at a time. A new mark supercedes a mark that was already in place.
In addition, whenever a marked enemy shifts or makes an attack that does not include you, you can make a melee basic attack against that target as an immediate interrupt.

Blood Knight's Toughness
While wearing light or no armor, you may use your constitution modifier to determine AC as opposed to Dexterity or Intelligence.

Fighting Style
All Blood Knights utilize axes and heavy blades as part of their fighting style, however different knights will use them in different ways. Choose either Guarding or Brutal styles.

Guarding: You have mastered the ability to parry many blows with your weapon of choice, wielding a blade like many would wield a shield. While wielding a two-handed axe or a heavy blade, you gain a +1 shield bonus to AC and Reflex. You must be wielding the weapon with both hands if you wish to gain this bonus.

Brutal: Your strength has reached such a terrifying level that you can brandish obscenely heavy weapons with only one hand, leaving a hand open for other things. You can treat a two-handed axe or heavy blade as a one-handed weapon with the versatile property. Any time you attack with a two-handed axe or a heavy blade, you may add your constitution modifier to the damage roll. You cannot use any type of shield and gain the benefits of this feature.

Loxagn
2009-12-12, 03:37 AM
Blood Knight Feats

Heroic Tier Feats


Paragon Tier Feats


Epic Tier Feats


All coming soon.

Loxagn
2009-12-12, 03:38 AM
Blood Knight Paragon Paths

Coming soon!

Loxagn
2009-12-17, 03:06 AM
Well, the basics are up. Have at it while I put together some more stuff.

tcrudisi
2009-12-17, 03:48 AM
Well, this seems to be molded from the Fighter, so I'll make direct comparisons to it.

Proficiencies are solid. The lack of ranged hurts a little bit, but not really that much (how often do you see a Fighter using a bow?). The armor proficiencies are solid considering you are giving +Con to AC, which makes it, about equal to non-Swordmage defenders. Also, the skill list is superior to the Fighters skill list (by default of having Perception on it) but gets 1 less healing surge. That seems fair to me.

Blood Oath is way too powerful. I personally do not like either feature: +1 attack and damage every 5 levels is way, way too powerful. Consider knocking that down to be based on tiers. Heck, the way it is now makes it more powerful than the Avengers oath at epic levels -- and that's the feature that makes Avengers hold a candle to other strikers.

Also allowing death saving throws to put the player back at 1hp is way too powerful. Once again, I'd scale this back. Perhaps something where it gets a cumulative bonus to future death saves? Or maybe it can, once an encounter/day when he passes a death save, spend a healing surge? That is still very powerful without making it virtually impossible to die.

With the Fighting Styles, it still seems as though this class really wants to be a striker instead of a defender. Let's start with Brutal -- compare this to the Fighters combat superiority where he gets Wis modifier to damage (a lesser attribute, some argue after Str, Con, and Dex) only on Opportunity Attacks. Brutal gives Con (which, based on BK Toughness will definitely be the secondary stat) to damage on all attacks. I'd suggest making this "during opportunity attacks and Blood Challenge attacks" only... and that is still amazing. I mean, heck, the ability to use a heavy shield and a Fullblade? And make no mistake -- anyone playing this class immediately grabs shield proficiency because of the way you have it worded: There is no clarification on it that says you must use it two-handed in order to gain the bonus damage.

Finally, the Guarding Style. It's also too much. Scale this back some, or at least don't make it dependent on the weapon. Perhaps +2 AC/Ref at level 1, then +3 at 11 and +4 at 21. That is still a huge boost, one that is better than the Barbarian and they also abuse +Con to AC with scaling defenses to get some of the highest AC in the game.

dsmiles
2009-12-18, 07:16 AM
I'm DSMiles, and I approve this class.