Indorilous
2020-12-19, 12:47 PM
Hello all.
I am currently running along with a party of 3 total players, all evil and death related. I had an idea about making us worshipers of Orcus. So the party's wizard is a necromancer who was drawn to necromantic magic by the power it bestows to it's user. We also have a warlock who is a hexblade and draws her power from the wand of Orcus. She saw it on one of her dreams and ever since she vowed to worship and serve it.
And me, a paladin who broke his oath of conquest because he thought that this way was not enough to bring order to the world the way he envisioned it. And by that, I was drowned closer and closer to the evil side until I met the other two and found some kindred spirits. We decided to found a cult for Orcus and worship him. That's about the sum of our backstory. Now to more pressing matters. I would like to ask for your help in order to make this build as close to a Death Knight as possible. First, let me tell you about the party and my character so far and then I will tell you how I picture a Death Knight in my mind.
We are all level 6 and we just finished the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan from the Tales of the Yawning Portal series. I think we will go though all of the remaining adventures, all the way until level 15. And perhaps above that, reaching level 20 at some point. So we assume that our end game character will be level 20. Because we are only 3 of us, the DM gave as an enhanced version of the Standard Array, meaning 16,14,13,12,11,10 & 8 instead of 15,14,13,12,11,10 & 8. This means that my starting stats are Str:16 Dex:10 Con:14 Int:8 Wis:12 Cha:13. I chose the Fallen Aasimar race, which gave me +2 to Cha and +1 to Str, resulting in 17 starting Str and 15 starting Cha. I used my first ASI to pump Str and Cha to even levels. I also took the defense fighting style, because +1 AC can get you a long way and Death Knights are clad in plate armor, which I am also wearing right now, reinforced with adamantite. I carry a Frost Brand Longsword and a +1 Shield, resulting in a total 22 AC at level 6.
Now in my mind and I think in the general lore, the Death Knights is a creatures of immense power over death and decay, who has no fear at all and can be very hard to kill. He can even point you out and you fall dead instantly, he just can tell you to die and you die outright. There is the occasional relation to "cold as death" related spells and effects (see warcraft universe), which is kinda interesting but not essential to this build and it wont make any difference in crucial decisions (just perhaps in the spell picks along my career). As I already said, he wears the heaviest of armours and holds the deadliest of swords, all painted black (let's rock that s**t!). He is a deadly combatant, a master swordsman, but also a skilled caster with enough spells to see him to victory by any means necessary. He heavily relies on smiting his enemies away, because smiting is the paladin's strongest feature. Oh, he also commands legions of undead. Or at least a cohort or something. I think that sums up the picture I have in my mind. Now, onward to the ideas I have on how to apply it in DnD 5e. I can use every published book there is with no limitations. And perhaps some of the UA, if it is relevant.
In terms of race, I think a Fallen Aasimar is perfect for this role. I can even get my DM to allow me to gain flight with Necrotic Shroud at higher levels (perhaps 14 or 18). He is very cooperative and open minded. As of stats, I wanted both Charisma and Strength to be high. And I think Charisma is more important, because it governs your spellcasting and your save DC overall, which I think is more important to this build than a higher Strength Score. I have even reflavoured Divine Smite to deal necrotic damage instead of radiant. I think sword and board is a good way to go in general, but I also think Death Knights are much cooler using greatswords. And what better greatsword than Blackrazor, which resides under White Plume Mountain (which also happens to be our next adventure). I can convince my DM to let me keep it. I can't of something more iconic for a Death Knight's weapon than this. I mean, it has everything a Death Knight can wish for, free hit points, free advantage to everything, free haste and much more. I was thinking of retooling it to be a longsword rather than a greatsword, so am able to use it along with a shield for the extra AC, but I am not sure. I would like to hear your thoughts on that. If I keep it as a greatsword, I will still carry along a longsword and a shield for the harder days and to deal with undead.
There are three main ways which I see fit to reincarnate this dreadful warrior in DnD adventures. The first one is go straight Oathbreaker all the way to level 20. You get amazing hit points (d10), death related abilities and spells, animate dead at level 9, the all powerful Aura of hate at level 7, resistance to nonmagical damage at level 15 and Dreadlord at level 20. Personally, I don't find dreadlord super amazing for a level 20 ability, but it is still better than others and pretty powerful overall. I haven't tested it ever in play so feel free to change my mind. You also get full ASI's (5 of them). You need 4 to max Str and Cha, which leaves 1 ASI to customise your character with a feat. You don't even need full Str for this build, so you can get another feat for extra customisation. One feat that is very important for this feat is War Caster of course. But my DM is willing to give it to me as a reward for completing a quest later on the campaign. I can even command another Death Knight with the Command Undead Channel Divinity option at level 18. All and all, the pure Oathbreaker gets the job done pretty well. He even can conjure his own Nightmare steed with a level 4 spell. What I don't like that much in this build, is the lack of variety in spell options. And I also would like it a little bit more spell oriented, with more spell slots to fuel my smites, more spells to chose from that can give an answer to a challenge which doesn't require brute force.
The second one is a paladin sorcerer multiclass. The main idea is to get to at least paladin 6 to be able to tank efficiently with a bit more hitpoints and have better saves with aura of protection. But if you stop there, you lose Aura of Hate, which is godly for this build (and if you consider the fact that there is a full necromancer along in the party who will start to raise an army now that he got to level 6), it becomes beyond godly. So we assume 7 levels in paladin. The sorcerer multiclass will give us more spell slots, more versatile spells (like hypnotic pattern, haste, hold monster, misty step, shield, etc. etc. just to name a few), sorcery points (a total of 13), metamagic options and a lot of cool sorcerer abilities. The spellcasting ability is also the same as the paladin, so no harm done there. Now the main two candidates for a sorcerous origin are the divine soul and the shadow magic. The main reason to choose divine soul is the expanded spell list. Many cleric spells are perfect for our Death Knight, including Animate Dead (which we don't get by being Oathbreaker since we won't go to level 9) and Create Undead. The other subclass abilities are just meh for the build, they don't add anything useful. Now, my DM is willing to grant me those two spells at the appropriate levels by some way, even if I don't chose the divine soul subclass. Which leads us to the (I think) near perfect shadow magic. Oh boy, what is not to like here. Eyes of the dark. Just use it and be the boss of the fight since no enemy will be able to hit you between your high AC and the disadvantage they get from Darkness. Strength of the Grave is a very handy survival ability which will compensate a lot for your lost hitpoints from multiclassing and Hound of Ill Omen is essentially a much better version of the Hightened Spell metamagic. I can reflavour all the spells I pick to be more Death Knightish. For instance, if I pick fireball (and I think I will), I can rename it to Death Orb and have it deal necrotic damage instead of fire. I can rename Sickening Radiance to Sickening Darkness, and also have it deal necrotic damage instead of radiant. Changes like these that will give the build a better feel and immersion. The part also found a Ring of Spell Storing inside Roper's guts, which I might be able to use in order to store a Find Greater Steed spell, if I am able to find a paladin who is able to cast it for me. That way, I can also have my Nightmare steed available. One thing I will be missing is Shadow Walk from sorcerer 14. I think this is an immense combat advantage, which also has many out-of-combat uses. But I would have to chose that over Aura of Hate. And I also get a 9th level spell slot from being a 17th level spellcaster (which is not something too powerful really, 8th level spell slots can serve you the same) I would like to get your opinion on that. In the end, I can achieve something similar with Misty Step...
The final build I have in mind is a paladin 6 or 7 and a wizard (necromancer) 13 or 14. The wizards has considerably more options in the spells he can learn and store in his spellbook, compared to the sorcerer. But he has a different casting stat than the paladin, which means that I either have to also pump my Intelligence (impossible, my Intelligence is 8 right now) to appropriate levels, or choose only spells which don't require a save or an attack roll. What this multiclass give me is Undead Thralls, which is perfect for a Death Knight, because he can raise a better army, and a permanent undead servant, if we go all the way to wizard 14 (mainly a mummy lord at best). But I think that this option is the weakest of all of them in terms of optimisation. Perhaps it can give you the Death Knight feeling, but it will rarely work. And there is already a full necromancer in the party.
I also have considered further multiclass, mainly a one level dip into Warlock, to get the Hexblade patron. That way, we can use only our Charisma for everything and just have 15 Str in order to wear plate armour. We also get Hexblade's curse, a couple of spell slots that recharge on a short rest, 2 cantrips and Hex. Now, Hex is an awesome spell, but it will compete with other mighty spells in terms of concentration. It has it's uses, but there are much better things to concentrate on. Plus, we already have a warlock in the party who loves to Hex things and blast them away with her Eldritch Blast. Adding a level of warlock in the build means that we have to concede on a level of either Paladin or Sorcerer, meaning that we either give up Aura of Hate or sorcery point and a spell known. I don't know if that is worth it, please let me know in the comments.
Sorry for the long post. That is all from my part. In the end, I think i am leaning a little bit more towards the paladin/sorcerer multiclass, but I am still considering to go pure Paladin Oathbreaker. Let me know what you think of all these in the comments. I would love to hear some opinions. If I have left something out, let me know and I will add it later.
I am currently running along with a party of 3 total players, all evil and death related. I had an idea about making us worshipers of Orcus. So the party's wizard is a necromancer who was drawn to necromantic magic by the power it bestows to it's user. We also have a warlock who is a hexblade and draws her power from the wand of Orcus. She saw it on one of her dreams and ever since she vowed to worship and serve it.
And me, a paladin who broke his oath of conquest because he thought that this way was not enough to bring order to the world the way he envisioned it. And by that, I was drowned closer and closer to the evil side until I met the other two and found some kindred spirits. We decided to found a cult for Orcus and worship him. That's about the sum of our backstory. Now to more pressing matters. I would like to ask for your help in order to make this build as close to a Death Knight as possible. First, let me tell you about the party and my character so far and then I will tell you how I picture a Death Knight in my mind.
We are all level 6 and we just finished the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan from the Tales of the Yawning Portal series. I think we will go though all of the remaining adventures, all the way until level 15. And perhaps above that, reaching level 20 at some point. So we assume that our end game character will be level 20. Because we are only 3 of us, the DM gave as an enhanced version of the Standard Array, meaning 16,14,13,12,11,10 & 8 instead of 15,14,13,12,11,10 & 8. This means that my starting stats are Str:16 Dex:10 Con:14 Int:8 Wis:12 Cha:13. I chose the Fallen Aasimar race, which gave me +2 to Cha and +1 to Str, resulting in 17 starting Str and 15 starting Cha. I used my first ASI to pump Str and Cha to even levels. I also took the defense fighting style, because +1 AC can get you a long way and Death Knights are clad in plate armor, which I am also wearing right now, reinforced with adamantite. I carry a Frost Brand Longsword and a +1 Shield, resulting in a total 22 AC at level 6.
Now in my mind and I think in the general lore, the Death Knights is a creatures of immense power over death and decay, who has no fear at all and can be very hard to kill. He can even point you out and you fall dead instantly, he just can tell you to die and you die outright. There is the occasional relation to "cold as death" related spells and effects (see warcraft universe), which is kinda interesting but not essential to this build and it wont make any difference in crucial decisions (just perhaps in the spell picks along my career). As I already said, he wears the heaviest of armours and holds the deadliest of swords, all painted black (let's rock that s**t!). He is a deadly combatant, a master swordsman, but also a skilled caster with enough spells to see him to victory by any means necessary. He heavily relies on smiting his enemies away, because smiting is the paladin's strongest feature. Oh, he also commands legions of undead. Or at least a cohort or something. I think that sums up the picture I have in my mind. Now, onward to the ideas I have on how to apply it in DnD 5e. I can use every published book there is with no limitations. And perhaps some of the UA, if it is relevant.
In terms of race, I think a Fallen Aasimar is perfect for this role. I can even get my DM to allow me to gain flight with Necrotic Shroud at higher levels (perhaps 14 or 18). He is very cooperative and open minded. As of stats, I wanted both Charisma and Strength to be high. And I think Charisma is more important, because it governs your spellcasting and your save DC overall, which I think is more important to this build than a higher Strength Score. I have even reflavoured Divine Smite to deal necrotic damage instead of radiant. I think sword and board is a good way to go in general, but I also think Death Knights are much cooler using greatswords. And what better greatsword than Blackrazor, which resides under White Plume Mountain (which also happens to be our next adventure). I can convince my DM to let me keep it. I can't of something more iconic for a Death Knight's weapon than this. I mean, it has everything a Death Knight can wish for, free hit points, free advantage to everything, free haste and much more. I was thinking of retooling it to be a longsword rather than a greatsword, so am able to use it along with a shield for the extra AC, but I am not sure. I would like to hear your thoughts on that. If I keep it as a greatsword, I will still carry along a longsword and a shield for the harder days and to deal with undead.
There are three main ways which I see fit to reincarnate this dreadful warrior in DnD adventures. The first one is go straight Oathbreaker all the way to level 20. You get amazing hit points (d10), death related abilities and spells, animate dead at level 9, the all powerful Aura of hate at level 7, resistance to nonmagical damage at level 15 and Dreadlord at level 20. Personally, I don't find dreadlord super amazing for a level 20 ability, but it is still better than others and pretty powerful overall. I haven't tested it ever in play so feel free to change my mind. You also get full ASI's (5 of them). You need 4 to max Str and Cha, which leaves 1 ASI to customise your character with a feat. You don't even need full Str for this build, so you can get another feat for extra customisation. One feat that is very important for this feat is War Caster of course. But my DM is willing to give it to me as a reward for completing a quest later on the campaign. I can even command another Death Knight with the Command Undead Channel Divinity option at level 18. All and all, the pure Oathbreaker gets the job done pretty well. He even can conjure his own Nightmare steed with a level 4 spell. What I don't like that much in this build, is the lack of variety in spell options. And I also would like it a little bit more spell oriented, with more spell slots to fuel my smites, more spells to chose from that can give an answer to a challenge which doesn't require brute force.
The second one is a paladin sorcerer multiclass. The main idea is to get to at least paladin 6 to be able to tank efficiently with a bit more hitpoints and have better saves with aura of protection. But if you stop there, you lose Aura of Hate, which is godly for this build (and if you consider the fact that there is a full necromancer along in the party who will start to raise an army now that he got to level 6), it becomes beyond godly. So we assume 7 levels in paladin. The sorcerer multiclass will give us more spell slots, more versatile spells (like hypnotic pattern, haste, hold monster, misty step, shield, etc. etc. just to name a few), sorcery points (a total of 13), metamagic options and a lot of cool sorcerer abilities. The spellcasting ability is also the same as the paladin, so no harm done there. Now the main two candidates for a sorcerous origin are the divine soul and the shadow magic. The main reason to choose divine soul is the expanded spell list. Many cleric spells are perfect for our Death Knight, including Animate Dead (which we don't get by being Oathbreaker since we won't go to level 9) and Create Undead. The other subclass abilities are just meh for the build, they don't add anything useful. Now, my DM is willing to grant me those two spells at the appropriate levels by some way, even if I don't chose the divine soul subclass. Which leads us to the (I think) near perfect shadow magic. Oh boy, what is not to like here. Eyes of the dark. Just use it and be the boss of the fight since no enemy will be able to hit you between your high AC and the disadvantage they get from Darkness. Strength of the Grave is a very handy survival ability which will compensate a lot for your lost hitpoints from multiclassing and Hound of Ill Omen is essentially a much better version of the Hightened Spell metamagic. I can reflavour all the spells I pick to be more Death Knightish. For instance, if I pick fireball (and I think I will), I can rename it to Death Orb and have it deal necrotic damage instead of fire. I can rename Sickening Radiance to Sickening Darkness, and also have it deal necrotic damage instead of radiant. Changes like these that will give the build a better feel and immersion. The part also found a Ring of Spell Storing inside Roper's guts, which I might be able to use in order to store a Find Greater Steed spell, if I am able to find a paladin who is able to cast it for me. That way, I can also have my Nightmare steed available. One thing I will be missing is Shadow Walk from sorcerer 14. I think this is an immense combat advantage, which also has many out-of-combat uses. But I would have to chose that over Aura of Hate. And I also get a 9th level spell slot from being a 17th level spellcaster (which is not something too powerful really, 8th level spell slots can serve you the same) I would like to get your opinion on that. In the end, I can achieve something similar with Misty Step...
The final build I have in mind is a paladin 6 or 7 and a wizard (necromancer) 13 or 14. The wizards has considerably more options in the spells he can learn and store in his spellbook, compared to the sorcerer. But he has a different casting stat than the paladin, which means that I either have to also pump my Intelligence (impossible, my Intelligence is 8 right now) to appropriate levels, or choose only spells which don't require a save or an attack roll. What this multiclass give me is Undead Thralls, which is perfect for a Death Knight, because he can raise a better army, and a permanent undead servant, if we go all the way to wizard 14 (mainly a mummy lord at best). But I think that this option is the weakest of all of them in terms of optimisation. Perhaps it can give you the Death Knight feeling, but it will rarely work. And there is already a full necromancer in the party.
I also have considered further multiclass, mainly a one level dip into Warlock, to get the Hexblade patron. That way, we can use only our Charisma for everything and just have 15 Str in order to wear plate armour. We also get Hexblade's curse, a couple of spell slots that recharge on a short rest, 2 cantrips and Hex. Now, Hex is an awesome spell, but it will compete with other mighty spells in terms of concentration. It has it's uses, but there are much better things to concentrate on. Plus, we already have a warlock in the party who loves to Hex things and blast them away with her Eldritch Blast. Adding a level of warlock in the build means that we have to concede on a level of either Paladin or Sorcerer, meaning that we either give up Aura of Hate or sorcery point and a spell known. I don't know if that is worth it, please let me know in the comments.
Sorry for the long post. That is all from my part. In the end, I think i am leaning a little bit more towards the paladin/sorcerer multiclass, but I am still considering to go pure Paladin Oathbreaker. Let me know what you think of all these in the comments. I would love to hear some opinions. If I have left something out, let me know and I will add it later.