Building a Knight

[GrimJester]

I've decided to use a knight for a new campaign mainly for something different as a martial class. We are starting at level one and the plan is to make them epic level. The DM has told me mounted combat will come in handy about 50% of the time. I'll be using Lance and Shield while mounted and Bastard Sword and Shield while on the ground. Also my DM has changed my intimidate into diplomacy. I was wondering what can I do to improve his mounted combat/ charging and defense/ battlefield control. Are there any nice ways to turn Cha bonus into AC bonus or stuff like that. My stats are as followed Str 13, Dex 11, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 18. A side question would be at level 9 a Knight gets armor mastery heavy can he wear mountain plate without penalty then? Thank you for reading and the help.

[eggs]

A dip into Cleric + the Divine Shield feat (in Complete Warrior) is going to be the most practical way to get Charisma onto the AC of this build. DS has some action economy issues, but since most of the knight's class features are based on its swift actions and battlefield placement, those might not be so crippling. Also, here's the obligatory link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732) for additional methods.

Generally, improving battlefield control means increasing reach and finding ways to stop enemies from moving by you. That usually means a reach weapon and either the stand still (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#standStill) (from expanded psionics handbook and the SRD) or improved trip feats. If you want to keep a shield up for class features or AC, you can use the Improved Buckler defense feat from Complete Warrior or an Animated Shield. Combat Reflexes is also useful, if you can muster enough Dex to use it meaningfully.

Improving mounted charges usually means multiplying damage through Spirited Charge, a Lance and the Valorous Weapon enhancement from Unapproachable East while adding damage through Power Attack and reducing power attack penalties through the Shock Trooper feat in Complete Warrior. Leap Attack and Battle Jump often are added into the mix, but I have some problems conceptualizing that on a mounted character.

And to get a mount that survives an attack or two will mean either trusting the DM to provide, or taking a PrC or feat to cover the necessity. Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) is the most straightforward. Leadership, Undead Leadership (Libris Mortis) and Dragon Cohort (Draconomicon) can also provide mounts, but they can be broken hard enough that they're often either banned or strictly regulated.

[Gavinfoxx]

You do not, under any circumstances, want to spend a feat on exotic weapon proficiency bastard sword. That is a crappy feat, spending one of your very few feats for +1 to damage. Terrible.

If you want to be a knight in a D&D game which goes to epic levels, you need to:

1.) Get a flying mount, ASAP.
2.) Consider using magic in some form or other.
3.) Not be against using ranged weapons.

Consider rather than how Knights developed historically, instead the sorts of forces that a D&D sort of world would give on a culture that might cause them to need to develop aristocratic, warrior class, highly trained, extremely equipped, very expensive mounted warriors. And then consider what those warriors would look like.

I would say that they would likely end up as:

Spellcasters which are archers, battlefield controllers, or blasters primarily and lancers secondarily, on flying (or burrowing or swimming or all three) mounts.

Also, move your stats around. Are these stats rolled or point buy? Can you swap the location of stats? Lower some stats to increase others?