Ideal Knight Build (3.5)

[Zanthy1]

So basically I like the idea of the knight character, sword and board type probably. Just want to know what ideas are out there for a Knight.

Providing I only have PHB 1 and 2, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide, but can get a few others, nothing too fancy though please.

I would like to be straight knight until a prestige class, and I understand if I would have to dip into something else to achieve this. So ideas for both the PRC and the dip are appreciated.

Thanks!

[hisnamehere]

There are a number of 'knight' archetypes. You might need to be a little more specific.
Is he a:
- mounted knight? If yes, a lancer?
- sword and board? (yes)
- great sword? (no)
- chivalrous?
- good/evil?
- defense-focused?
- attack-focused?
- dragon knight?
- etc.
I'm guessing you mean a full-plated, longsword-and-shield, LG horse-rider, but we need to be sure.

[Zanthy1]

I like the idea of longsword (maybe bastard?) and shield, not mounted however, and alignment would preferably not be Lawful, however off hand I do not know if that is a requirement for knights. Full plate is very plausible. I do not have a specific campaign to play this dude in as of yet, but maybe serving under nobility?

[Kelb_Panthera]

I like the idea of longsword (maybe bastard?) and shield, not mounted however, and alignment would preferably not be Lawful, however off hand I do not know if that is a requirement for knights. Full plate is very plausible. I do not have a specific campaign to play this dude in as of yet, but maybe serving under nobility?

If you're looking at the knight class in PHB2 then lawful is definitely required.

That's really not that bad though. Lawful doesn't necessarily mean always follows the local laws; and alignment follows the character's behavior, the character's behavior does not follow alignment. (barring special circumstances)

[Answerer]

The Knight does have special circumstances; in a lot of ways the Knight's Code is more restrictive than the Paladin's.

Anyway, if you can get your DM to allow some refluffing, a Knight/Barbarian could be a very cool (if not particularly impressive) "dark knight" or something like that: berserker rage, screaming wild taunts at his enemies, blood thirst and all that.

Unfortunately, an "ideal" Knight would be something like this: Knight 1, 2, 3, 4, 20.

The other 15 levels? Are pretty much garbage.

[Kelb_Panthera]

The Knight does have special circumstances; in a lot of ways the Knight's Code is more restrictive than the Paladin's.

Anyway, if you can get your DM to allow some refluffing, a Knight/Barbarian could be a very cool (if not particularly impressive) "dark knight" or something like that: berserker rage, screaming wild taunts at his enemies, blood thirst and all that.

Unfortunately, an "ideal" Knight would be something like this: Knight 1, 2, 3, 4, 20.

The other 15 levels? Are pretty much garbage.

There's nothing in the knight's CoC that forces a character to always take the lawful option in every scenario. There's a penalty for acting chaotic too often, in the form of an alignment shift that cuts you off from the knight's challenge, but otherwise just sticking to an orderly mode of behavior and espousing (though not necessarily upholding) the idea that a society under the rule of law is better than any society that's not is sufficient to call the character lawful.

Again, you're lawful because you behave lawfully. You don't behave lawfully because you're lawful, except in unusual cases such as being an outsider with the lawful subtype.

[TopCheese]

So basically I like the idea of the knight character, sword and board type probably. Just want to know what ideas are out there for a Knight.

Providing I only have PHB 1 and 2, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide, but can get a few others, nothing too fancy though please.

I would like to be straight knight until a prestige class, and I understand if I would have to dip into something else to achieve this. So ideas for both the PRC and the dip are appreciated.

Thanks!

If you can get ToB... Crusader is the only class that can really be a sword and board type without needing outside help. (ok Warblade can to... but not as much). As long as you don't do anything to cheesy the class taps out at tier 3 so you won't have to worry about power/game breakage. Plus you get class features that allow you to be a "tank".

Anyways... Outside of that...

Really you could go Fighter sword and board and pick up some feats, ask the DM to make Martial Study/Stance feats from ToB be Fighter Bonus Feats and you could just pick up some crusader stances eventually. I tend to like playing PC's that have a great concept but can actually keep up with the game itself so I always recommend ToB in melee builds (plus a ton of DM's I play under have been jaggoffs... Making tier 3 or higher almost mandatory for their games...lol).

Otherwise... You could go Paladin, a friend of mine made a good charger paladin (without mount) that used sword and board until he dropped the shield and went two handed weapon. As much as a I hate to give them more traffic but the Pathfinder Paladin could be a good way to go for you.


Note: I was able to find a copy of Tome of Battle for 15 bucks on amazon... Not sure what they are going for now...

Note 2: Remember Lawful Good doesn't mean Lawful Nice! :D

[Grendus]

A lot depends on how optimized your party is. If it's low op (your DM still thinks monks are teh awesome), a fighter would probably do just fine. Maybe not great, but not horrific. If it's more medium op (magic must defeat magic), you're going to probably want to look into either the ToB classes (all 3 can do decent sword and board, though Crusader does it best) or a Cleric with the war domain. For high op, definitely Cleric.

[Twilightwyrm]

If you can get ToB... Crusader is the only class that can really be a sword and board type without needing outside help. (ok Warblade can to... but not as much). As long as you don't do anything to cheesy the class taps out at tier 3 so you won't have to worry about power/game breakage. Plus you get class features that allow you to be a "tank".

Anyways... Outside of that...

Really you could go Fighter sword and board and pick up some feats, ask the DM to make Martial Study/Stance feats from ToB be Fighter Bonus Feats and you could just pick up some crusader stances eventually. I tend to like playing PC's that have a great concept but can actually keep up with the game itself so I always recommend ToB in melee builds (plus a ton of DM's I play under have been jaggoffs... Making tier 3 or higher almost mandatory for their games...lol).

Otherwise... You could go Paladin, a friend of mine made a good charger paladin (without mount) that used sword and board until he dropped the shield and went two handed weapon. As much as a I hate to give them more traffic but the Pathfinder Paladin could be a good way to go for you.


Note: I was able to find a copy of Tome of Battle for 15 bucks on amazon... Not sure what they are going for now...

Note 2: Remember Lawful Good doesn't mean Lawful Nice! :D

Martial Study and Martial Stance are already Fighter Bonus Feats

[Gwendol]

So basically I like the idea of the knight character, sword and board type probably. Just want to know what ideas are out there for a Knight.

Providing I only have PHB 1 and 2, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Masters Guide, but can get a few others, nothing too fancy though please.

I would like to be straight knight until a prestige class, and I understand if I would have to dip into something else to achieve this. So ideas for both the PRC and the dip are appreciated.

Thanks!

You should probably look at this: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109429

Knights don't PrC well, due to the class getting close to no support ouside the PHBII. However, if you can convince your DM to allow stacking of levels you can try to fit in something like the Cavalier (CW) or Purple Dragon Knight.

My suggestion for playing the Knight class is to make the most out of Bulwark of Defence. For this you need a reach weapon (spiked chain being the best), the Combat Reflexes feat, DEX at 14 or above, and ways to gain Large size from time to time.

Other suggested feats are: Stand Still, Mage Slayer, and later Robilar's gambit and defensive sweep. Power attack is also good to have.

You might want to look at the demoralizing rout as well, taking feats like dreadful wrath for example.