CowardlyPaladin
2017-01-19, 11:47 PM
So….the Knight.
The Knight is one of those classes that basically exist as a replacement paladin, since WOTC has absolutely no idea how to do the Paladin concept correct, but because they weren’t able to give the Knight any unique characteristics, despite its cool mechanics it basically fell by the wayside, forgotten. So I decided to make the Knight a more interesting class storywise, and for that to work, they need to be moved thematically away from the Paladin so they can be their own entity. So this is an attempt to create a distinct class, but mechanically its basically the same.
The Paladin's theme is trying to be a good person while adhering to a very rigid moral standard, while with the Knight I drew more on the actual Authorian ideals of honor and glory. Just an important clarification, the Paladin isn't actually required to be married to the notion of honorable combat, they can't kill prisoners, torture or do anything thats an evil action and they have to be lawful, but ambushes, traps, and lying are all perfectly acceptable for Paladins. A paladin can dig a pit, fill it with holy water and then tell a Devil to come and get him, but a
Knight wouldn't want to play with such cheap tricks.
So without further ado, the Kight
“All is Fair In Love and War”
Such a sentiment is abhorrent to a Knight, in a way the Knights exists as opposition to such terms. After all, so much of our concepts of fairness come from in regards to love and war, rules of war have existed as far back humanity, and codes of proper behavior in regards to dating date from the same era. Love and War aren’t in opposition to fairness, they are the creators of it, and now Knights exist to personify and defend it. Mostly the War Part because relationships get complicated real fast.
Knights are honorable warriors and their honor makes them strong, literally. Following their code of honor allows them maintain their powers. Some of these powers include immunity to “Dishonorable techniques” provided the Knight themselves doesn’t employ them. They at higher levels become immune to flanking, poison, being flat footed, certain combat tricks, and sneak attack for people not four levels higher than they.
The Knights code
Don’t attack an unaware opponent, especially not sleeping opponents.
Don’t stab an opponent in the back
Don’t flank an opponent
Surrenders must be honored, at least in the moment.
Don’t kill unarmed opponents (Unless they insist on fighting unarmed).
Don’t slay fleeing opponents, unless they are doing some Parthian shot ****. You may of course try to harm them to keep them from running away though.
Always be the last to retreat, and do so as a fighting retreat.
Be polite as much as possible.
Always strive to be cultured (literally no knights agree on what that means)
Always be willing to accept a duel and honor the terms of said duel.
Don't use Poison.
Questing
The focus of a knights life beyond all things, is the ideal of the Quest. Knighthood is all about doing extremely dangerous things for its own sake, often with little reward, for the sake of complete adventures, some might call them the Platonic ideal of adventurers. Others might call them “The people who get it wrong”.
New Powers
Questsight: Knights connection to the ideal of questing is so great they can sometimes “Feel” a quest in the area. A certain number of times per day (varies on level) the Knight can observe the area and “feel” if certain people who have a problem and feel like they need a hero to solve the problem. Some Knights describe the experience as a sense of certainty, that they hear the person’s need almost like a song and are drawn to it. Others describe it as an exclaimation mark over a person’s head, but they are generally seen as gauche.
Questsense: More powerful Knights understand their powers so well that they realize where they must go for the sake of the quest. A certain number of times per quest, they can just “know” what item they might have to get for the sake of continuing the quest, or what location they have to go to, or what person they have to talk to. What they are supposed to do next is unclear, but it is a good hint. And no, it doesn’t look like a marking on a mini map, shut up.
The Questing Beast
Should a Knight really have no ideas of what to do next, they can summon a questing beast to give them guidance. A knight must spend a day either in prayer or meditation (if secularly inclined) alone (or with a small group of companions) in the wilderness contemplating for the answers, and then the moment the sun goes down they will see a glimpse of the questing beast, and the Knight must pursue. The path they follow is a magical one, and they will likely find themselves in completely different locations, a knight located in the middle of the desert might pass behind a dune and emerge by a lake or on top of a mountain, the only limitations are that the Questing Beast always stays on the Material Plane and they never bring Knights to locations where they wouldn’t be able to survive (so a Water Elf Knight might go underwater but a human wouldn’t unless they had a magical item). If the Knight losses his way, he will turn a corner and emerge back where he started.
Along this road, the Questing Beast will bring the Knight to random locations across the Material Plane where they might do battle with great monsters, each journey contains 1-3 combat encounters. These are almost always encounters with mindless monsters, but not always (see below). Should the Knight or their companions die, their bodies appear back where they last rested, which confuses the attackers. These encounters are always actual locations on the Material Plane, which means that band of knights might emerge at any point and attack random monsters, something that stresses people out (though the odds are astronomically small). Evil outsiders always have to plan for the possibility that knights might randomly attack them when they are on the Material Plane.
After the conflicts are resolved, the Knight will find themselves at a pool, where the Questing Beast will face them, before vanishing. It will leave behind an item or clue to help the Knight to slay the Questing Beast, who usually have a small hoard of items with them, but should the killer ever encounter another knight, they will instantly recognize them as a slayer. Questing Beasts will answer future calls, but tend to take the knight to more dangerous encounters, provide less useful information (certainly no bonus magic items) and when they do show up, tend to have buddies with them. However they will always answers summons, and a few particularly psychotic Black Knights have made a habit out of killing them, though eventually the Questing Beasts will start to lead other Knights to these killers so they could be brought down. Questing Beasts can choose not to answer a summons, but if a Knight asks for a questing beast for a year and a day, their request must be answered.
In terms of encounters, most Questing Beasts simply make it an easy combat encounter, madd cityoften against an unambiguously evil force like undead, a monster, or evil outsider (Darkspawn are also popular). Among Questing Beasts, its considered bad form to involve politics into it, but there are always Questing Beats who buck the trend, and so knights might encounter people who the Questing Beast simply doesn’t like, or even have an ideological disagreement. A knight might encounter a band of Harmonium, or possibly a Peasant revolt, and the Knight might be expected to talk them into going home, or slaughter them, entirely depending upon the disposition of the Questing Beast in question. They are required to give the Knight a hint on how they want to solve the quest, but no details. So if a knight sees an ogre war band, they might see a dove fly by as an indication that the Questing Beast wants them to make peace.
Knightly Orders
Knights like to form orders, much like guilds, where they work to get a bunch of different quests, normally based around a theme. Knights are extremely honorbound and
Terms
Hedge Knight- A knight who hasn’t yet joined an order.
A knight Errant: A knight who hasn’t earned a rank in said order.
Landed Knight: A knight who commands his own lands and lords.
Household Knight:A knight who doesn’t join an order, but instead serves a lord or other official.
Sworn Shields: Personal Bodyguards for important people.
White Knight: The champion of the Guild, expected to answer challenges. Only rank other than Purple which must be Appointed.
Purple Knight: The Leader of a Guild or Order, sometimes called a Grandmaster, they assign people on Quests and maintain the group. Often call themselves kings.
Red Knight: The Knight with the highest kill count, often go out to fight big dangerous beasts.
Blue Knight: Defender of the common folk or the helpless, often assigned as a protector.
Green Knight: Guardian of a location or region.
Yellow: Winners of Championships
Gold: Who brings back the most money
Silver: Who brings back the most magic items
Brown: Who discovers the most new locations.
Grey: Who kills the biggest and baddest monsters.
The Knight is one of those classes that basically exist as a replacement paladin, since WOTC has absolutely no idea how to do the Paladin concept correct, but because they weren’t able to give the Knight any unique characteristics, despite its cool mechanics it basically fell by the wayside, forgotten. So I decided to make the Knight a more interesting class storywise, and for that to work, they need to be moved thematically away from the Paladin so they can be their own entity. So this is an attempt to create a distinct class, but mechanically its basically the same.
The Paladin's theme is trying to be a good person while adhering to a very rigid moral standard, while with the Knight I drew more on the actual Authorian ideals of honor and glory. Just an important clarification, the Paladin isn't actually required to be married to the notion of honorable combat, they can't kill prisoners, torture or do anything thats an evil action and they have to be lawful, but ambushes, traps, and lying are all perfectly acceptable for Paladins. A paladin can dig a pit, fill it with holy water and then tell a Devil to come and get him, but a
Knight wouldn't want to play with such cheap tricks.
So without further ado, the Kight
“All is Fair In Love and War”
Such a sentiment is abhorrent to a Knight, in a way the Knights exists as opposition to such terms. After all, so much of our concepts of fairness come from in regards to love and war, rules of war have existed as far back humanity, and codes of proper behavior in regards to dating date from the same era. Love and War aren’t in opposition to fairness, they are the creators of it, and now Knights exist to personify and defend it. Mostly the War Part because relationships get complicated real fast.
Knights are honorable warriors and their honor makes them strong, literally. Following their code of honor allows them maintain their powers. Some of these powers include immunity to “Dishonorable techniques” provided the Knight themselves doesn’t employ them. They at higher levels become immune to flanking, poison, being flat footed, certain combat tricks, and sneak attack for people not four levels higher than they.
The Knights code
Don’t attack an unaware opponent, especially not sleeping opponents.
Don’t stab an opponent in the back
Don’t flank an opponent
Surrenders must be honored, at least in the moment.
Don’t kill unarmed opponents (Unless they insist on fighting unarmed).
Don’t slay fleeing opponents, unless they are doing some Parthian shot ****. You may of course try to harm them to keep them from running away though.
Always be the last to retreat, and do so as a fighting retreat.
Be polite as much as possible.
Always strive to be cultured (literally no knights agree on what that means)
Always be willing to accept a duel and honor the terms of said duel.
Don't use Poison.
Questing
The focus of a knights life beyond all things, is the ideal of the Quest. Knighthood is all about doing extremely dangerous things for its own sake, often with little reward, for the sake of complete adventures, some might call them the Platonic ideal of adventurers. Others might call them “The people who get it wrong”.
New Powers
Questsight: Knights connection to the ideal of questing is so great they can sometimes “Feel” a quest in the area. A certain number of times per day (varies on level) the Knight can observe the area and “feel” if certain people who have a problem and feel like they need a hero to solve the problem. Some Knights describe the experience as a sense of certainty, that they hear the person’s need almost like a song and are drawn to it. Others describe it as an exclaimation mark over a person’s head, but they are generally seen as gauche.
Questsense: More powerful Knights understand their powers so well that they realize where they must go for the sake of the quest. A certain number of times per quest, they can just “know” what item they might have to get for the sake of continuing the quest, or what location they have to go to, or what person they have to talk to. What they are supposed to do next is unclear, but it is a good hint. And no, it doesn’t look like a marking on a mini map, shut up.
The Questing Beast
Should a Knight really have no ideas of what to do next, they can summon a questing beast to give them guidance. A knight must spend a day either in prayer or meditation (if secularly inclined) alone (or with a small group of companions) in the wilderness contemplating for the answers, and then the moment the sun goes down they will see a glimpse of the questing beast, and the Knight must pursue. The path they follow is a magical one, and they will likely find themselves in completely different locations, a knight located in the middle of the desert might pass behind a dune and emerge by a lake or on top of a mountain, the only limitations are that the Questing Beast always stays on the Material Plane and they never bring Knights to locations where they wouldn’t be able to survive (so a Water Elf Knight might go underwater but a human wouldn’t unless they had a magical item). If the Knight losses his way, he will turn a corner and emerge back where he started.
Along this road, the Questing Beast will bring the Knight to random locations across the Material Plane where they might do battle with great monsters, each journey contains 1-3 combat encounters. These are almost always encounters with mindless monsters, but not always (see below). Should the Knight or their companions die, their bodies appear back where they last rested, which confuses the attackers. These encounters are always actual locations on the Material Plane, which means that band of knights might emerge at any point and attack random monsters, something that stresses people out (though the odds are astronomically small). Evil outsiders always have to plan for the possibility that knights might randomly attack them when they are on the Material Plane.
After the conflicts are resolved, the Knight will find themselves at a pool, where the Questing Beast will face them, before vanishing. It will leave behind an item or clue to help the Knight to slay the Questing Beast, who usually have a small hoard of items with them, but should the killer ever encounter another knight, they will instantly recognize them as a slayer. Questing Beasts will answer future calls, but tend to take the knight to more dangerous encounters, provide less useful information (certainly no bonus magic items) and when they do show up, tend to have buddies with them. However they will always answers summons, and a few particularly psychotic Black Knights have made a habit out of killing them, though eventually the Questing Beasts will start to lead other Knights to these killers so they could be brought down. Questing Beasts can choose not to answer a summons, but if a Knight asks for a questing beast for a year and a day, their request must be answered.
In terms of encounters, most Questing Beasts simply make it an easy combat encounter, madd cityoften against an unambiguously evil force like undead, a monster, or evil outsider (Darkspawn are also popular). Among Questing Beasts, its considered bad form to involve politics into it, but there are always Questing Beats who buck the trend, and so knights might encounter people who the Questing Beast simply doesn’t like, or even have an ideological disagreement. A knight might encounter a band of Harmonium, or possibly a Peasant revolt, and the Knight might be expected to talk them into going home, or slaughter them, entirely depending upon the disposition of the Questing Beast in question. They are required to give the Knight a hint on how they want to solve the quest, but no details. So if a knight sees an ogre war band, they might see a dove fly by as an indication that the Questing Beast wants them to make peace.
Knightly Orders
Knights like to form orders, much like guilds, where they work to get a bunch of different quests, normally based around a theme. Knights are extremely honorbound and
Terms
Hedge Knight- A knight who hasn’t yet joined an order.
A knight Errant: A knight who hasn’t earned a rank in said order.
Landed Knight: A knight who commands his own lands and lords.
Household Knight:A knight who doesn’t join an order, but instead serves a lord or other official.
Sworn Shields: Personal Bodyguards for important people.
White Knight: The champion of the Guild, expected to answer challenges. Only rank other than Purple which must be Appointed.
Purple Knight: The Leader of a Guild or Order, sometimes called a Grandmaster, they assign people on Quests and maintain the group. Often call themselves kings.
Red Knight: The Knight with the highest kill count, often go out to fight big dangerous beasts.
Blue Knight: Defender of the common folk or the helpless, often assigned as a protector.
Green Knight: Guardian of a location or region.
Yellow: Winners of Championships
Gold: Who brings back the most money
Silver: Who brings back the most magic items
Brown: Who discovers the most new locations.
Grey: Who kills the biggest and baddest monsters.