WoW Death Knights to D&D 5e?

[Nykolo]

I am currently working on a campaign setting based on World of Warcraft for my friends. I have the races all worked out, and most of the 5e classes are fine the way they are. But I am at a dilemma right now. One of the classes is seriously eluding me: the Death Knight.

I am trying to figure out how to make it, but the Death Knight is several things rolled up into one, when looking at the lore of the class. It is it a template, much like the 3.5 template in MM2; or the monster in the 5e MM. It can be it's own class, using the different specializations (blood, frost, and unholy) as archetypes. But it can simply be it's own archetype, much like the Oathbreaker paladin from the DMG.

I may be thinking too much into it, but what is the best way to go about bringing World of Warcraft's Death Knight into 5e D&D?

[Mortis_Elrod]

I'm pretty sure there is good homebrew floating around that matches up pretty well with the WoW version. Also doesn't exclude ranged options which I appreciate. Let me see if I can find it, I saw it on a signature once.

Edit: found it. It's by Oramac
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478710-5e-Death-Knight-Class

His sig has the homebrewry link to it.

[Wilb]

If you prefer something wrought by Wotc hands, for some reason, UA gives a revenant character, very apt after removing the stuff related to "thing you want to do then you die", and three patrons, the Hexblade patron, Raven Queen and the Undying patron from SCAG may help it feel somewhat close.

[Asmotherion]

The Oathbreaker Paladin from the DM's Guide, as you said, perhaps with some Warlock multiclass (the Undying from Scag seems Apropriate) can be a good way to go for it with pre-existing material.

If you're going to homebrew something, I'd advice to aproach it as a Paladin Archetype rather than a whole new class... Reflavor Radiant Damage from Divine smite to Necrotic, as well as the bonus damage at level 12.

You can make the level 7 ability a choice ability were the specialisation comes to play. Build 3 separate (and balanced) abilities that sum up the idea behind the 3 archetypes.

[Easy_Lee]

Oathbreaker Paladin is the D&D equivalent. Short of Homebrew, that's your best bet.

Something to think about: the World of Warcraft Paladin has very little in common with the 5e Paladin. Similarly, a moon Druid is considerably different from and has far more forms than a WoW Druid. You'll find a similar story with every class.

With that in mind, I think you're best off going for approximates rather than exact matches. Oathbreaker should be good enough. And the fluff is not too far off, either.

[imanidiot]

An Oathbreaker Paladin or Eldritch Knight Fighter could easily be flavored as a WoW Death Knight.

[Ravinsild]

Anyone find it weird that some of the Paladin features remain for things like Oath of Conquest, Oath of Treachery, and Oathbreaker?

As far as I know you don't lose, and nothing replaces Divine Sense, Lay on Hands, Divine Health, Aura of Protection/Courage or Cleansing Touch. While the favor of the Oaths (or lack thereof) is spot on, it just seems weird it's tied with all these other trappings, right?

I wonder if it's an oversight or what...

[90sMusic]

If I had to make a WOW Death Knight without using any homebrew, only using WOTC official stuff, I would do it like so...

Fighter, Eldritch Knight, because DK's are martial/caster hybrids in WOW that smack things with their runeblades as much as they do anything else. Only grabbing necromancy and frost spells.

The kicker is the race. I'd be a "vampire" from WOTC's planeshift zendikar. This is an official race they released and here are the race attributes:


Ability Score Increase.
Your Intelligence score increases by 1, and your Charisma score increases by 2.

Age.
Vampires don’t mature and age in the same way that other races do. Every living vampire is either a bloodchief, infected by Ulamog’s influence in the distant reaches of history, or was spawned by a bloodchief from a living human. Most vampires are thus very old, but few have any memory of their earliest years.

Alignment.
Vampires have no innate tendency toward evil, but consuming the life energy of other creatures often pushes them to that end. Regardless of their moral bent, the strict hierarchies of their blood-chiefs inclines them toward a lawful alignment.

Size.
Vampires are about the same size and build as humans. Your size is Medium.

Speed.
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision.
Thanks to your heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Vampiric Resistance.
You have resistance to necrotic damage.

Blood Thirst.
You can drain blood and life energy from a willing creature, or one that is grappled by you, incapacitated, or restrained. Make a melee attack against the target. If you hit, you deal 1 piercing damage and 1d6 necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and you regain hit points equal to that amount.
The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its
hit point maximum to 0. A humanoid killed in this way becomes a null (see “A Zendikar Bestiary”).

Languages.
You can speak, read, and write Common and Vampire.

So, all you have to do is reflavor it a bit. Obviously instead of "vampires" they would just be death knights, as their own race really because they're a unique type of undead. Ability scores are the worst part because they are more traditional vampire instead of DK oriented, but a lot of times you can get away with substituting them and in this particular case I think it would be acceptable to do so to fit the DK theme. Maybe strength and con or strength and intelligence or something like that.

As for bloodthirst, you could reflavor this to just grabbing them and sucking their life force from their body with a touch. Maybe grabbing their neck with your hand or something along those lines since it has to be a grappled creature or a willing creature. WOW Death Knights can already heal themselves by absorbing vitality from things they attack like with abilities like Death Strike, so it fits. The "nulls" that it is referring to basically just says they are zombies, so use zombie statistics, and they are loyal to the death knight that "raised" them. This can give you that controlling undead theme as well, and zombies aren't terribly strong or intelligent and it is a rather inconvenient way to make them, so I can't imagine you'll have to deal with a zombie apocalypse situation. Also even if the player did want to raise hundreds of them, one fireball is gonna melt dozens at a time so it isn't hard to deal with if they try to go nuts with it.

But that is what i'd do. 100% WOTC material with no game mechanics changes aside from substituting ability scores. Little homebrew tweaks could make it even better, but you seemed to want only WOTC stuff, so here you go. That is the best death knight i think you're likely to get that fits the character in WOW.

These zendikar vampires aren't like traditional vamps with weaknesses to sunlight, water, etc or nigh invulnerability. They're much more toned down and meant to be played by players. All you have to do is get past the fact they're called vampires and you have a very interesting undead controlling race.

[Spore]

The Death Knight - as most WoW classes - unites has way too many themes for a consistent class. For the Death Knight, it unites diseases, necromancy, blood magic, cold magic, rune weapons and warriors under one wing. Besides, WoW Death Knights are incredibly powerful in universe so that a Class 1-20 shouldn't even exist. There is a reason they start off at 56 - which is the equivalent of Lv 10 in D&D I feel.

If we isolate heavy armor using melee fighter and add a single theme on top, we can start:
Frost DK is an Eldritch Knight with Frost Magic.
Death Cleric could be a decent Necromantic DK.
Rune Weapons would be a Hexblade Warlock (just MC something in that gives you heavy armor).

[mig el pig]

There is a reason they start off at 56 - which is the equivalent of Lv 10 in D&D I feel.


the reason they started off at 56 was not due to them being so powerfull in the game's lore. Blizzard wanted the players to experience Northguard instead of having thousands of lvl13 death knights running around in The Barrens.

[Nykolo]

If I had to make a WOW Death Knight without using any homebrew, only using WOTC official stuff, I would do it like so...

Fighter, Eldritch Knight, because DK's are martial/caster hybrids in WOW that smack things with their runeblades as much as they do anything else. Only grabbing necromancy and frost spells.

The kicker is the race. I'd be a "vampire" from WOTC's planeshift zendikar. This is an official race they released and here are the race attributes:



So, all you have to do is reflavor it a bit. Obviously instead of "vampires" they would just be death knights, as their own race really because they're a unique type of undead. Ability scores are the worst part because they are more traditional vampire instead of DK oriented, but a lot of times you can get away with substituting them and in this particular case I think it would be acceptable to do so to fit the DK theme. Maybe strength and con or strength and intelligence or something like that.

As for bloodthirst, you could reflavor this to just grabbing them and sucking their life force from their body with a touch. Maybe grabbing their neck with your hand or something along those lines since it has to be a grappled creature or a willing creature. WOW Death Knights can already heal themselves by absorbing vitality from things they attack like with abilities like Death Strike, so it fits. The "nulls" that it is referring to basically just says they are zombies, so use zombie statistics, and they are loyal to the death knight that "raised" them. This can give you that controlling undead theme as well, and zombies aren't terribly strong or intelligent and it is a rather inconvenient way to make them, so I can't imagine you'll have to deal with a zombie apocalypse situation. Also even if the player did want to raise hundreds of them, one fireball is gonna melt dozens at a time so it isn't hard to deal with if they try to go nuts with it.

But that is what i'd do. 100% WOTC material with no game mechanics changes aside from substituting ability scores. Little homebrew tweaks could make it even better, but you seemed to want only WOTC stuff, so here you go. That is the best death knight i think you're likely to get that fits the character in WOW.

These zendikar vampires aren't like traditional vamps with weaknesses to sunlight, water, etc or nigh invulnerability. They're much more toned down and meant to be played by players. All you have to do is get past the fact they're called vampires and you have a very interesting undead controlling race.

I like it. Minor tweaks, without going too far. I think I will try this out.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Anyone find it weird that some of the Paladin features remain for things like Oath of Conquest, Oath of Treachery, and Oathbreaker? As far as I know you don't lose, and nothing replaces Divine Sense, Lay on Hands, Divine Health, Aura of Protection/Courage or Cleansing Touch. While the favor of the Oaths (or lack thereof) is spot on, it just seems weird it's tied with all these other trappings, right? I wonder if it's an oversight or what...

Not really, I feel like being evil doesn't prevent you from enjoying the benefits of Lay on Hands, Divine Health, or Aura of Courage. It's not like evil people don't need to resist status effects or heal. Even divine senses lets you spot fiends and celestials, which makes it useful for Paladins of either stripe.

But where a good Paladin heals those who need it, an evil one uses it as a tool, healing those who prove useful or pay through the nose and withholding healing from those who cannot meet their standards. And, of course, saving the lion's share for themselves.