AD&D 1st edition Class: Hellknight (PEACH)

[killer_monk]

AD&D Hellknight Features

Level - Experience- Hit Dice- Level Title
1st - 0-2,250 - 1d10 - Initiate

2nd - 2,251-4,500 - 2d10 - Armiger

3rd - 4,501-10,000 - 3d10 - Hellknight

4th - 10,001-20,000 - 4d10 - Signifier

5th - 20,001-40,000 - 5d10 - Maralictor

6th - 40,001-90,000 - 6d10 - Paralictor

7th - 90,001-150,000 - 7d10 - High Paralictor

8th - 150,001-225,000 - 8d10 - Paravicar

9th - 225,001-325,000 - 9d10 - Master/Mistress of Blades

10th - 325,001-650,000 - 9d10+3 - Vicarius

11th - 650,001-975,000 - 9d10+6 - Lictor

12th - 975,000-1,300,000 - 9d10+9 - Lictor

+325,000xp per level beyond 12th

Abilities:
1. Can Detect Chaos in 60ft of concentrated direction. As often as desired.

2. At 2nd Level you earn the right to wear Hellknight Armor, and you move at full speed in such armor. This armor is a special brand of Full Plate, and can be enchanted as such, as well as made of any materials that regular full plate can be made of. It gives AC 1.

3. You are immune to fear at 3th level.

4. Fearsomeness: you emit a 2ft/level aura of fear at 4th level while wearing Hellknight armor, as the spell "cause fear". Anyone in this area is permitted a saving throw against this, and this fear only persists until they leave the aura or make their save. They only get one save per time they enter the effect. They also must know you're there for the effect to take place. The Hellknight may designate any number of allies who won't be subject to this effect, and he may suppress it whenever he so desires.

5. You make all saves at +2 at 5th level.

6. At 8th level you can see in darkness of any kind, including magical darkness, and are 50% resistant to fire.

7. You may start a freehold at 9th as a Fighter, but it must be well kept and of a lawful nature. You must also have a castle or fort from which to operate. This is identical to the Fighter's freehold otherwise.

8. At 10th level the Hellknight becomes immune to to Fire while wearing Hellknight armor. This armor is itself immune to these effects, and may include a cape or anything else the armor is directly part of, but excludes external bags, scabbards, tankards etc. Additionally, any 1 weapon the Hellknight uses gains either the Flaming or Unholy enchantment in addition to any existing enchantments the weapon may have. Hellknight's choice. Regardless, any given enhancement bonus may never exceed +5. This weapon retains this enchantment as long as it remains within 100ft of the Hellknight. If the enchanted weapon leaves this range it loses it's enchantment until which time the Hellknight again holds and designates it as the enchanted weapon of his choice. This ability can be replaced at any time on a new weapon by merely touching it.

A Flaming weapon gains an additional +1 to hit and damage against regular creatures, a +2 to hit and damage against regenerating creatures, a +3 to hit and damage against cold using, inflammable and avian creatures. This flame activates when the command word is spoken, which is chosen by the Hellknight when he grants this enchantment to a weapon. The flame can easily ignite oil, webs, papers, parchment, dry wood etc.

An Unholy Weapon gains a +2 to hit and damage, except it becomes +5 to hit with a +5 to damage to good aligned creatures or humanoids.

These weapons retain these enchantments as long as they remain within 100ft of the Hellknight. This enchantment cannot be dispelled by the spell "dispell magic".

Strictures: a Hellknight must always be lawful, and any Hellknight who breaks this code can no longer advance as a Hellknight and must hereafter advance as a fighter

Additionally, a Hellknight does not attract mercenaries as a fighter does, and they may not have more paid mercenaries with them than exceeds their class level (so a 5th level Hellknight is restricted to a maximum of 5 paid mercenaries) the only troops he receives is men for his freehold. He gets a few Hellknight initiates and at least one 5-6th level Hellknight to fight for his free-hold. These men must stay protect his hold. He generally prefers adventuring either solo, or in small groups.

A Hellknight uses the fighter's saves and combat tables. He also starts play with proficiency in 3 weapons and gains another proficiency every 1/3 levels.

A Hellknight gains the same number of additional melee attacks a round as the fighter or paladin.

A Hellknight must have the following minimum ability scores:

Strength: 12
Dexterity: -
Constitution: 12
Charisma: -
Wisdom: -
Intelligence: -

Only humans may be Hellknights.

Additionally, a Hellknight who's strength and constitution is above 15 receives a bonus 10% experience whenever experience is rewarded.


Anyway, this was originally a prestige class from Pathfinder, and I thought it was a cool take on a "neutral" paladin. Even though Hellknights have free reign of good, neutral or evil.

I based this almost exclusively on the paladin, so it shouldn't be more powerful than that. Hellknights get to keep as much gold and items as they want, but don't get the spells, holy avenger or horse the paladin does. I also removed "lay on hands" and the ability to turn undead as a cleric.

What I'd like to see is if anybody has any additional abilities or suggestions they'd like to throw in the ring. I you think this class is too powerful, just let me know and I'll fix it to the best of my abilities.

Thanks ahead of time to everyone who will contribute!

[killer_monk]

-Placeholder for updates-
-first update- "spoilers"
-second update- "changed some clauses to be more coherent"
-third update- "change a few clauses to better describe ability functions and to ensure the class had it's racial restrictions. XP values were changed as well."
-fourth update- "changed both the resistances and the exact definitions of the flaming and unholy enchantments".

[killer_monk]

-placeholder for misc additions-
Weapons, spells, spell-like abilities, definitions...

[killer_monk]

I'm considering allowing fire-based, strictly offensive magic user spells to be used in place of the paladin spells. Does anybody have anything to say about that? Would magic user spells up to 4th level be a good replacement, or is it too much or too little?

Of course, adding spells would require a higher minimum ability score in intelligence. Does anybody have any input?

[ironwizard]

AD&D Hellknight Features

Level - Experience- Hit Dice- Level Title
1st - 0-2,750 - 1d10 - Initiate

2nd - 2,751-5,500 - 2d10 - Armiger

3rd - 5,501-12,000 - 3d10 - Hellknight

4th - 12,001-24,000 - 4d10 - Signifier

5th - 24,001-45,000 - 5d10 - Maralictor

6th - 45,001-95,000 - 6d10 - Paralictor

7th - 95,001-175,000 - 7d10 - High Paralictor

8th - 175,001-350,000 - 8d10 - Paravicar

9th - 350,001-700,000 - 9d10 - Master/Mistress of Blades

10th - 700,001-1,050,000 - 9d10+3 - Vicarius

11th - 1,050,001-1,400,000 - 9d10+6 - Lictor

+350,000xp per level beyond 11th


Please turn this into a proper table. Will make reading much easier.


Abilities:
[SPOILER]1. Can Detect Chaos in 60ft of concentrated direction. As often as desired.

2. At 2nd Level you earn the right to wear Hellknight Armor, and you move at full speed in such armor. This armor is a special brand of Full Plate, and can be enchanted as such, as well as made of any materials that regular full plate can be made of. It gives AC 1.


There's no reduction in movement speed in 1st, so the note is unnecessary.



3. You are immune to fear at 3th level.

4. Fearsomeness: you emit a 2ft/level aura of fear at 4th level, as the spell "cause fear". Any opponent in this area is permitted a saving throw against this, and this fear only persists until they leave the aura or make their save. They also must know you're there for the effect to take place.

Do enemies get a save each round? What defines 'opponent?' Alignment? Player Choice? When do you designate that? Can it be changed? How often? Can the effect be suppressed?

This also might be better as a property of the armor than of the character, but that's just my opinion.



5. You make all saves at +2 at 5th level.

6. At 8th level you can see in darkness of any kind, including magical darkness, and are 50% resistant to fire.

7. You may start a freehold at 9th as a Fighter, but it must be well kept and of a lawful nature. You must also have a castle or fort from which to operate. This is identical to the Fighter's freehold otherwise.

8. At 10th level the Hellknight becomes immune to to Fire, and 50% (75% on a save) resistant to both cold and acid while wearing Hellknight armor. This armor is itself immune to all three of these effects, and may include a cape or anything else the armor is directly part of, but excludes external bags, scabbards, tankards etc. Additionally, any 1 weapon the Hellknight uses gains either the Flaming or Unholy weapon quality. Hellknight's choice. This weapon retains this quality as long as it remains within 100ft of the Hellknight. This ability can be replaced at any time on a new weapon by merely touching it.


That's a lot of blanket immunities, especially for 1st Ed. There is no precedent for it in the system (which while not invalidating the ability, does tend to cast an unfavorable light on it). Perhaps change it to just better saves?

Also, there are no such things as weapon qualities in 1st, so the second half of the paragraph is meaningless.


Strictures: a Hellknight must always be lawful, and any Hellknight who breaks this code can no longer advance as a Hellknight.

What would he advance as then? Remember, multi-classing in 1 is at first level ONLY and only in certain combinations and only for Demi-humans.

What race(s) is/are allowed? Humans obviously, but who else? If demi-humans, are there any multiclass options? Is this a sub-class of Fighter or it's own thing? If Unearthed Arcana is in use, is this a sub-class of Cavalier?


Additionally, a Hellknight does not attract mercenaries as a fighter does, and they may not have more paid mercenaries with them than exceeds their class level (so a 5th level Hellknight is restricted to a maximum of 5 paid mercenaries) the only troops he receives is men for his freehold. He gets a few Hellknight initiates and at least one 5-6th level Hellknight to fight for his free-hold. These men must stay protect his hold. He generally prefers adventuring either solo, or in small groups.

A Hellknight must have the following minimum ability scores:

Strength: 12
Dexterity: -
Constitution: 12
Charisma: -
Wisdom: -
Intelligence: -

Additionally, a Hellknight who's strength and constitution is above 15 receives a bonus 10% experience whenever experience is rewarded.

These ability mins are trivial to meet. If that's intentional, then all is well, otherwise, update them perhaps.

Overall Thoughts:

With the exception of the immunities, this class is pretty much universally worse than the Paladin, particularly if Unearthed Arcana is in play. Some of that is to be expected, considering the Paladin's stringent ability minimums, but nonetheless. It also advances way to slow for it's abilities. It's only marginally better than the fighter, but requires significantly more XP to level.

Also, you never note what attack matrix or saving throws it uses. I'm assuming "as Fighter," but you do need to list it.

As for the possibility of spells... would they be cast-able in armor? If so, then adding them would make the class appropriate given the XP targets (provided you take a look at the immunities, see above). If you limit the spells to only (or substantially only) fire spells, then the XP targets should be reduced.

[killer_monk]

Please turn this into a proper table. Will make reading much easier.

I can't do this, as I have to do everything from an iPhone.


There's no reduction in movement speed in 1st, so the note is unnecessary.

Armor, such as plate, will slow it's user's base speed from 12" to 6" from having the very heavy encumbrance". I did this so a Hellknight may wear this armor and keep his base 12" movement while doing so. Though I could be wrong. Just give me a heads up if that's the case.


Do enemies get a save each round? What defines 'opponent?' Alignment? Player Choice? When do you designate that? Can it be changed? How often? Can the effect be suppressed?

Would it be preferable to suppress it? And how does a lich's fear work? It's everyone who sees him, but not his allies, right? I would think it would effect everyone who isn't designated by the Hellknight. I'll change this to that momentarily.


This also might be better as a property of the armor than of the character, but that's just my opinion.

I'll add a clause that states that the immunities and resistances are only in effect while the user is wearing the armor.


That's a lot of blanket immunities, especially for 1st Ed. There is no precedent for it in the system (which while not invalidating the ability, does tend to cast an unfavorable light on it). Perhaps change it to just better saves?

This was meant to replace the paladin's ability to dispel magic as a constant effect. I figured one immunity, and two resistances weren't completely unfair to this effect. And the resistances are more or less copy and paste from the 1st level spell "resist cold", which gives a 50% resistance versus cold (75% on a save).


Also, there are no such things as weapon qualities in 1st, so the second half of the paragraph is meaningless.

I'll change to a temporary enchantment then. Would that be sufficient?


What would he advance as then? Remember, multi-classing in 1 is at first level ONLY and only in certain combinations and only for Demi-humans.

A valid statement. And what do you think of it as a human exclusive? I'm pretty sure most DMs allow players of any race to be any class, so it'd mostly be out of tradition anyways.


What race(s) is/are allowed? Humans obviously, but who else? If demi-humans, are there any multiclass options? Is this a sub-class of Fighter or it's own thing? If Unearthed Arcana is in use, is this a sub-class of Cavalier?

It would be a fighter subclass, since the paladin (it's parent class) is also a subclass of the fighter.


These ability mins are trivial to meet. If that's intentional, then all is well, otherwise, update them perhaps.

Fairly intentional. The fighter's minimums are a tad below this, so I thought an increase wasn't undue for the extra features and buffs. I also require two scores above 15 for the bonus 10% experience, which reminisces to the paladin yet again.


Overall Thoughts:

With the exception of the immunities, this class is pretty much universally worse than the Paladin, particularly if Unearthed Arcana is in play. Some of that is to be expected, considering the Paladin's stringent ability minimums, but nonetheless. It also advances way to slow for it's abilities. It's only marginally better than the fighter, but requires significantly more XP to level.

I'll change the XP values to be slightly lower as soon as possible.


Also, you never note what attack matrix or saving throws it uses. I'm assuming "as Fighter," but you do need to list it.

Yes, "as fighter". I'll list this in addition to the other changes.


As for the possibility of spells... would they be cast-able in armor? If so, then adding them would make the class appropriate given the XP targets (provided you take a look at the immunities, see above). If you limit the spells to only (or substantially only) fire spells, then the XP targets should be reduced.

Trading spells for immunity/resistances? Maybe trading the resistances alone, but trading all of it would put it back below the paladin's ability to dispel magic as a constant effect.

[viking vince]

There is also no such thing as temporary enchantments in 1E.

[killer_monk]

Any enchantment that doesn't have the spell "permanency" is considered temporary.

Would you suggest making it permanent until which time it leaves the 100ft area or just dropping this ability all together?

[ironwizard]

The problem isn't the idea of a temporary enchantment, but there is no such mechanic of weapon qualities in 1st as there is in 3.5. You can have his weapon get the qualities, but you must spell out what they do.

[killer_monk]

The problem isn't the idea of a temporary enchantment, but there is no such mechanic of weapon qualities in 1st as there is in 3.5. You can have his weapon get the qualities, but you must spell out what they do.

Good point. So if I state, "gains the Flaming enchantment, which adds 1d6 extra fire damage per hit while the weapon is flaming. While the weapon is on fire it sheds light equal to a torch. The weapon will catch fire when the command word is spoken, and it can easily burn oil, webs, papers, parchment, dry wood etc. The weapon retains this ability as long as it remains within 100ft of the Hellknight.", that would be acceptable?

[killer_monk]

Okay, I removed both the resistance to cold and acid, and I made the enchantments more specific.

Also, I thought about the spells a lot more and came up with the following:

Instead of just offensive fire spells through 4th level, why not allow fire and necromancies? That way the user would have access to both burning hands, inflict light wounds, and any other necromancies or alteration(fire) spells you guys can think of.

If anybody has any spells they'd like to throw in, or any other comments then they're always welcome.