Making a Death Knight PC

[TheAmishPirate]

Hi. I'm a relatively new D&D player, though long-time studier of mechanics and such. I had a great death knight character idea that I want to prepare for future campaigns, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I've searched online, and I can't even find a monster description to go off of, much less a class guide.

I can condense my troubles into a few basic questions:

1) Is there a standard Death Knight class description? If it is copyrighted material, just the book/magazine name would do.

2) If I were to work this as a PC, would it be my main class, or a prestige class?

3) The character himself might work better as a different creature entirely. Are there any close relatives to the Death Knight? Specifically, sharing things like power derived/bestowed from necromancy or evil forces, undead or undying, free will, etc.

Thanks!

[NMBLNG]

Look up "Blackguard". It may be what you're looking for, the evil equivalent of the Paladin. Note that it is for 3.5.

If you're looking for 4th edition stuff, just talk with the DM and see if you can reflavor some of the powers for a paladin on [evil deity].

[Eldariel]

What exactly do you think of when you say "Death Knight"? What kinds of abilities are you after? MM2 has a Death Knight race, and Cleric and/or some of the evil Paladin-variants can get you a lot of thematic abilities, but to be of more help, we need to know what "Death Knight" means to you in terms of what you want to be able to do.

[Temotei]

A hexblade is an idea, if that fits your description, though I agree with Eldariel.

[TheAmishPirate]

Power-wise, a Blackguard is a step in the right direction, but I was thinking more along cleric-y lines and less paladin. A bent towards melee combat with some class spell-like abilities. For example, the Death Knight we saw in Azure City mostly used direct combat, but had some spells at its disposal (the sphere of flame).

I'll try to describe as best as I can what I picture this character being: Most likely an undead, but an undying person would work too. Wears armor, and fights with basic melee weapons and a small assortment of spells. Their powers primarily stem from an evil deity, much like a paladin's powers come from their patron deity. They have the ability to think and act on their own, possibly with some level of turning resistance.

One idea that I liked was the concept of a hexblade, or a weapon that houses their soul. They cannot regenerate if they are destroyed, but the weapon will regenerate if broken. This would be a nice addition for overall flavor.

That's the best I can do at 12 at night. If I think of anything else, I'll put it here.

[The Glyphstone]

I'd suggest just straight Cleric. With self-buffings, they're melee monsters, and have all their other spells too. Slap on the Necropolitan template to become undead, and voila!

Immortality tied to a sword is harder...I suppose you could make the cleric a Lich instead of a Necropolitan, and incorporate the phylactery box inside the hilt of the sword.

If you just want an indestructible weapon, there's a special material in one of the books that fuses pieces back together if held against each other. Aurorum, maybe?

[mobdrazhar]

how about trying to get into Ur-Priest?

[aivanther]

Cleric PrC to a Bone Knight sounds like it's up your alley. Bone Knight is from the Eberron book Five Nations. It's 9/10 Caster Progression, has Full BAB (though with Divine Power/DMM/Persist that's not so ZOMG awesome), advances your rebuke undead, very fun (fluffl wise) armor, and some fun undead controlling abilities.

[TheAmishPirate]

Sweet! Thanks for all the help! I did a bit of history-digging, and I found one of the first things I found when I started looking.

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Death_K...83.5e_Class%29

It's a custom Prestige Class, and it seems to have some balance issues, but it's on the money with what I was looking for thematically (in the case of this character, the Lawful Neutral section in particular). In any case, I'll get cracking on cobbling together some hideous monstrosity of class combinations and templates.

[Person_Man]

What exactly do you want to do, and what books are available to you?

Anywho, Blackguard or Knight or Paladin of Tyranny would all work fine.

[Thurbane]

Take a Human 1/2 Vampire, give him levels of Knight/Paladin of Tyranny/Blackguard, and give him the Tomb Tainted feat chain. He gets some of the benefits of being undead, coupled with the benefits of being living.

Sources: core + Libris Mortis, PHB II & Unearthed Arcana (SRD)

[Kaiyanwang]

If you are thinking about a World of Warcraft DK, just roll a cleric (maybe necropolitan cleric) with the Death and Frost (IIRC, frostburn) domain.

Use mostly necromancy(Unholy Spec) and frost spell (Frost Spec), and use usual core buffs to beat people (Blood Spec).

Done.

[ErrantX]

If you are thinking about a World of Warcraft DK, just roll a cleric (maybe necropolitan cleric) with the Death and Frost (IIRC, frostburn) domain.

Use mostly necromancy(Unholy Spec) and frost spell (Frost Spec), and use usual core buffs to beat people (Blood Spec).

Done.

This, plus Bone Knight and either go Necropolitan / 1/2 Vampire, or load up on Tomb-Tainted Soul feats. Overall, this is probably my favorite suggestion, coupled with a re-purposed Prestige Paladin set to be as a Paladin of Slaughter/Tyranny.

-X