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So for flavor, imagine there's a group of adventurers who meet up in life. Two are even brothers...one goes to the academy to become a Wizard, the other joins a divine order of clergy and becomes a Paladin. Over the years together, this group of four travels the world, slaying monsters, amassing treasure and more. Until one adventure, the Wizard becomes afflicted with an incurable disease. He hides this from the rest of the party, but he spends every minute he can looking for a cure. Then he finds one. After raiding an old, haunted castle, the party finds a spellbook and without even reading it, throws it to the Wizard. Contained within are all sorts of Necromantic spells, and the last half of the tome describes the ritual for lichdom. Following the instructions means that he would be free from the disease, but doing so would lead him down a very dark path. However, becoming undead seems a small price to pay for immortality Knowing that his brother, the Paladin, would be the only one to root out his plot, the Wizard uses powerful magic to bend the other party members to his will. He stages an attack against himself in the hopes that his brother will die trying to protect him. Valiantly, but unwillingly, the Paladin slays the other two members of his group...his best friends in life, to protect his brother. It's then that the Wizard kills his already weakened brother, letting him know that the innocent blood he spilled this day will be the blood he uses to complete his ritual of undeath. The Paladin dies knowing how he failed his oaths. He rises as a Death Knight years later, only to find his body unburied, his two friends left as skeletons, all three of them stripped bare of their magical wares and all their money. His madness drives him to murder his brother, so he begins adventuring again, as a new creation. Decades later, he has amassed a formidable army, and is finally ready to destroy his powerful brother and end his eternal torment. However, instead of meeting him on the battlefield; his brother, disguised as a human and in control of a kingdom, sends 6 insignificant pawns with a white flag?
Lord Sloth, had a weakness of the flesh and fell in love with an elf maid . A love that left him faithless and cursed, kinda like Darth Vader..... in fact exactly like Darth Vader...omg Darth Vader is a death knight....lol
I know this video is ancient now, but I don't think it would be too thematically difficult to make a death knight that never broke their oath. You start with a Paladin of an order that in addition to fealty to their chosen deity may and/or must also swear a magically unbreakable fealty to a noble, mage or king who does great good. Then, whether said individual was tricking the Paladin or became corrupt, the individual they swore to chases immortality and eventually becomes a lich king. The Paladin falls on his own sword so as to neither break his oath or work for the lich, but the monster holds his soul in place and the nature of his existence causes the gods to forsake him and he becomes a death knight. He is wholly good, lawful good even, but he cannot betray his vows. Which opens up things further, as now we can have the lich king keep the only way to enter the pocket dimension his phylactery is kept in with our poor Sir Galahad. Now the king doesn't have to keep the way to his imminent demise upon his person, but still has access to it. So Galahad knows that the only way he will ever be free is if someone stronger than him and smart enough to know what to do about the lich ever puts them in their sights. As such we could even have the finally free spirit give some form of boon to our brave companions. (I see this as a very major undertaking even late in the game, so I think something like a daily d6 to any member of the party petitioning a good god for any reason is on the table)
One thing I think many players and DMs forget is monsters as powerful as a death knight don't fear the pc's. Imagine dealing with something so powerful that they intimidate, ignore or simply start ordering you around knowing that you can't defeat them. If the pc's attack the DK will simply subdue them calmly and quickly and still give them whatever task he originally gave them.
It could definitely be used with a group if there was a particular reason the death knight would need these characters to do a task for him rather than kill them and move onto another group. Perhaps a time constraint or mystical obligation or other parameter.
I could fully see a Lawyer as a Boss Monster! With Powers like "Objection!", forcing characters to lose their turn, "I'll rephrase the question" for rerolling dice and a load of Enchantment spells like Confusion or Crown of Madness :) I'm glad that there is something like the Death Knight. Usually humanoid big bads are evil spellcasters, which can get boring. But with a Death Knight (with an army perhaps) you can have a hard-hitting melee big bad too for a change. And they make great personal foes for paladins and clerics.
I can see a Lawyer being a Class that gets power from exploiting Law, whether it be Divine Law (Lawful Good), Infernal Law (Lawful Evil), or the impersonal Law of Order (Lawful Neutral). They bring charges against their enemies, defy physics by exploiting loopholes in the rules of nature, and heal themselves and allies by making reasonable arguments about why this damage they just took was unlawful and deserving of compensation.
I recently finished a campaign where I played as a Dragonborn Anti-paladin with Tiamat as his goddess, who then multi-classed into warlock after striking a deal with a Vampire Lord in game...my character died several times early on but was raised as an undead by the ruler of the land. TLDR: Motivation was revenge on the creature that killed his village thus committed many evil deeds to get to that point. Everyone hates him and armies are after him. This character, with the inspiration of this video, is now going to be a crucial villain in the new campaign I am running. Thanks Nerdarchy for bringing more pain and suffering to my players and more awesomeness to an already LEGENDARY character.
I set my Death Knight up in an undead war where he was a Paladin betrayed by the King when the King went mad. His brothers were killed in a big burning land strike by the king as a 'necessary evil'. In order to get revenge for his fallen Paladin brothers, he set out hunting down the King's spies and proceeded to torture them for information. He broke his vows as he tortured the King's own spies to get the King's location and was killed by the King's archers before reaching the King. He has basically become the spearhead of the undead army with his own unit of his now undead Paladin brothers following him.
I was thinking of a DK vs Lich idea myself. Awesome. With the players and the rest of us regular folk stuck in the middle.As far as an *army* of Revenants, I dunno. I see the Revenant as a great side NPC who is out to get one or the other because of past deeds - a real "fly in the ointment" so to speak.
Dave - Death Knight as the story driving mechanism = genius. Death Knight/Lich as Warlock patron? Possible? Deathknight Lich as the reason why someone becomes a Sorcerer? As such a larger-than-life(unlife) personality, it provides numerous interpretations for both a plot and a resource for campaign issues. Great vid.
Nerdarchy If we look at the Death Knight or Lich as the Warlock Patron or Sorcerer Origin, it brings up a whole new set of categories on level abilities and Boons. Necrotic damage buff/damage resistance, fear options, and possible animate dead spells come to mind. When you get into the category of Liches like Vecna, then you have a Warlock Patron on par with some Fiends and Archfey.
I had an undead good-aligned paladin in one of my games. I used the mummy template. Osiris FTW. Actually, IIRC, it wasn't that Soth was unrepentant, it was that he was utterly apathetic. The guys that run Ravenloft simply couldn't torment him because he had become so utterly numb to feeling that they kicked him out.
Anti-Paladin/Oathbreaker as an early level villain who comes back as a deathknight in the service of the end game BBEG is what immediately comes to my mind.
Orc, Deathknight, Dragonborn, Antipaladin, with levels in sorcerer, Riding a beholder which he enthralled, with an army of illithids and hobgoblins and minotaurs that he also enthralled. Roll initiative.
Some great RP ideas guys. In terms of the DK stats, the ommision of "finger of death" sorta bugged me. That was perhaps the trademark ability of Lord Soth, and arguably Death Knights in general.
Nerdarchy another thing about DK's, as Lord Soth has demonstrated, they may not go it alone. At least while on Krynn, Soth had a crew of undead he rode with. They were lesser knights who servex Soth in life and continued to do so in death. I forget what they were called but there was a 2e monstrous compendium entry for em somewhere.
What happens if you just polymorph the deathknight into a card, or a black statue of a knight on a horse. and then a character in the next campain has it as their heirloom.
Catfoodbob in 5th edition, polymorph requires concentration to maintain, then durations only an hour. reverts to undead form after spell ends, even carrying damage over means it still wont die.
btw, it was Milteades of Tyr from Pools of Darkness. He comes to join the heroes to defeat a vampire on their way to Phlan then duels General Brittle. Also White Wolf sort of hinted about Soth's return, but renamed him the Black Rose. I always thought that deathknights rose primarily through the corruption of the demon princes. Good vid!
Great video! I was literally typing to suggest "Silver Surfer" when Dave mentioned it, lol. I think that's a great campaign idea. It'll give really great moral decisions for the party. It makes me want to run a game around that concept. Where is the oneshot group? I couldn't find it (though, I'm pretty bad at finding things, so it's probably in plain sight)
Thanks. You goes getting ideas from our ramblings is so awesome to me. Also great minds think a like(Silver Surfer). Here is the Tabletop One Shot Group facebook.com/groups/tabletoprpgoneshot/ -Nerdarchist Dave
Great descriptions all. It would be an honor to play with the likes of you three. I haven't played & played well in many a moon. Consider me a noobish noob with heaps of patina on top.
I playing a Death Knight, well I'm calling it that, in my current game. The kind of spin I put on it was kind of fun. I have a warlock infuse his soul into a young warrior. The warrior ends up keeping his body and mind but gains a dark voice in his head with some unholy powers. This is how I'm trying to play it.
Fledgling DM here, slowly working on creating a homebrew for the near future. I planned on having a death knight far down the line as a stepping stone to facing the BBEG lich. I thought about having the Death Knight wield the Holy Avenger that was corrupted with him. This would help explain why his sword attacks have necrotic damage attached to it, and why him and the undead around him would have advantage on saving throws. I would greatly value some more experienced thoughts on this, and possibly help me determine if Im missing anything or should add anything or make changes to any of his abilities because of it.
great discussion, Love you guys, I am so putting a death knight into my campaign now. I have been toying around with the idea of doing some sort of powerful undead villian, and had been bouncing back and forth between the vampire and lich, but now i am totally sold on the Deathknight, my party is level 4 right now, and i am going to introduce him soon, to really push the "impossibly powerful villian" idea, so that when they do get to level 14 or 15 and can take him on, it will be a very rewarding encounter.
Super awesome imagery at work Dave. The DK is truly represented on your creative canvas. Now steal one(or all!) of the characters souls and hold it for added insurance until the task is done...muhahaha!
I think the most important question is who did they worship and why were they cut off. Do they feel abandoned or repentant? they could be leaving horror in their wake as they seek out opponents of their old god, seeking redemption by killing old foes but only seeing the end, not the way they get there.
I never knew the death knight was so awesome I'm totally going to set up one to take the part of a villain in one of my campaigns I'm thinkibg death knight antipalidan perhaps with some homebrew thrown in the perplex the party
Thank you, you gave me an idea for a death knight that tries to hound a paladin by trying to put the paladin in situations where the paladin is constantly being put in situations where the paladin oath is made to be broken, and then after the paladin oath is broken, here comes the death knight to harvest the paladin's soul to turn to a death knight.
Like a vampire, creating vampire spawn, this would be a death knight creating death knight spawn. Hence the viability of these guys being around and the method of reproduction and manipulation of events.
My Mushroomhead inspired Kobold lackeys are led by a Half Dragon Death Knight who has a helm made out of his black dragon fathers skull with patches of his scales covering the eye wholes so that he looks like he still has scales but he is skeletal under the armor. His father was killed by a disease that was engineered to kill Draconic creatures only and almost wiped out the Kobolds in Ravenloft. That being the reason they are almost all gone along with Draconic creatures of all kinds. He goes by Lord Jaman Poppins and can appear as a illusion on any road he has visited to communicate with willing participants. For him its a mission of revenge. He still believes that all his choices and actions to this day are not merely justified but divinely inspired by the spirit of Justice itself.
Derex Hunter Just an example of how I used a Death Knight. I find it useful to see what others have imagined and take bits and pieces from others ideas.
Aberran Fox How about a deathknight that has fooled a whole civilization into thinking he is a god, and u have to free the civilization from his rule. he could be a deathknight that became a deathknight for power thus is a greedy tyrant. this would change a typical hack and slash style game and turn it into more of a espionage. a lot like shield vs hydra. the party would have to set up a way of infiltration, such as become a "believer" or staying as guests. you can change the whole story based upon their choices. a lot like the butterfly effect. if they were "believers" they would have to fit in to society and gather information about the deathknight. if they had dinner as uests with the death knight, he could try and capture them and brain wash them he could try and either kill them(which lets u play around with hidden traps in houses, a sort of "dracula's castle feel"). so u can make an unpredictable game for your party that makes your adventures more fresh. and makes the players get more ino the minds of their charactors. have fun
Derex Hunter I don't get how that Death Knight takes away the hack and slash option. And how mine does not. I think either could be played either way. Not really sure what you are getting at here.
+Aberran Fox no im not saying your thing is whatever im saying from a typical game. and it takes away from the hack n slash because in order to free the people from the deathknights dellusion of being a god they have to prove it. so they would have to go under cover or an other way of infiltration to get evidence. some thing along those lines
Paladin of Conquest quested for and found the book of Vile Darkness and used it to increase their power(become a death knight) to bring "eternal peace." You stop him by finding the book of Exalted Deeds, and reading his story to him out of it and completing the Ceremony spell. The LV 1 spell takes an hour and the PCs have to come up with a way to keep a death knight still.
A nice alternate for a pseudo far-east campaign would be a Death Ronin. A samurai who did something so dishonorable, not even seppuku could make up for it. Not that he performed it, having become so evil. So when he died of some other cause, he rose again as an undead Samurai, a walking fount of Kegare (spiritual filth and impurity). Sources of water go stagnant when he passes, and he leads an army of undead soldiers, bandits, peasants, and ninjas (yes, _zombie ninjas_). He can only be put to rest if he can be convinced to perform cleansing rituals on himself, to purify his kegare.
to add to the imagery,instead of having him mounted on a nightmare,have him go over the battlefield on a throne made of his fallen foe's skeletons and skulls, where the throne is held aloft by wveryns or some sort of flying undead creatures.
i like your ideas about the deathknight encounter. But i have to agree with the middle guy. If you willingly forsake your vows before you die you would stop being a paladin at that point (if we use inspiration from 2nd). Id think that a deathknight was forced to abandon his vows in life by hard choice, love or manipulation and grows evil by the feeling of guilt and torment that he takes with him to the grave.
I see a death Knight could be also a paladin that was tricked into using an item against a powerful lich that you were told would weaken him so you could finish him, but instead it kills all the townsfolk in the nearby village. this sets him on the path of redemption but dies before he feels he has redeemed himself.
How about a revenant paladin? Stayed true to his vows in life but was betrayed into death in such an unclean way that he could not rest until the wrong was avenged. So maybe not inherently hostile to you but could be a wandering threat since his thirst for vengeance is so great the revenant is searching for his betrayer all the time and does not let anything side track him or get in the way.
I am new to being a DM and to 5e. I am currently creating my first campaign, and the Death Knight is who I selected to be my main villain. This is what brought me to the video. His only weakness will be an amulet of where his soul was placed. He was brought to life through 5 necromancers, 2 of which he killed when he was brought back to life. The other 3 serve him, and are doing his dirty deeds threw out the land. I am torn in when to bring the DK in, I was thinking maybe having him teleport in when the first necromancer is about to die, and have him steal the necromancers soul, and to incapacitate a few player's before a deity teleports them out to save their lives or the first time to see him as the undead army is getting ready to attack the town, kind of like what you were talking about here.
Another way to get rid a death knight, wizard spell imprisionment, "you will be trapped, untill you think what you did wrong and repent." or something along the lines.
Unthar the Giant Slayer - This was the name given to a mighty Paladin of the Order of the Sun Blades, a faction spread throughout the Fathingaar Grotto. Unthar's troops were ordered to find the source of the sudden rise in the undead, and came across a powerful necromancer. Through her wits and deception, she tempted Unthar with the thought of gaining enough power to save his wife, Gralda, from death he foresaw in a vision. He took to the Lich Queen's side, he became maddened in his undead form and slew the former allies of his order, and took after his wife. It was too late, as Gralda was dead. Unthar now lives his unlife as a Death Knight, riding his corrupted, but once noble, steed Wrath, serving his new queen in her conquest to spread control over the realm. His Greataxe, Immortal, cleaves through the living and brings them back up as servants in the army of the damned. The only way Unthar can redeem himself is to break free of her control and rescue his wife's soul from the depths of the Nine Hells, where she lay forever imprisoned.
Accidentally the pc's could discover what caused the death knight to flip. If the pc's fix, discover the truth etc... could snap the death knight out of his need to betray his god and paladin vows.
Perhaps, if the players could show the death knight what he eventually will become in 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k years, it could give him cause to contemplate another path.
TPK the group that has a Paladin. There yoy got your Death Knight even more mad because he always did good deeds and for some reason he came back as that.
I thought Lord Soth was kicked out of Ravenloft because he began to show remorse for his actions which rendered him effectively immune to being tormented by the Dark Powers.
GM 911 so I made a death knight to chase the party as a clearly overpowered enemy. I even setup his entrance where without him doing anything yet he has an army of zombies destroying the temple they are in and 3 demons that the party tired and can't even damage. only thing keeping them alive is a cross of light that makes it so they can't be attacked but is being slowly destroyed by the demons. they have a way out behind them but they won't run away because the cleric thinks he can handle it. They are also level 5 and I can't let the death knight die cause I need him for the rest of the campaign to chase the party whenever they get comfortable. how can I get them to fear for their life?
+Adorian Pious depending on the situation here are some solutions: Clearly you dont want the players dead, so maybe the death knight just knocks them unconscious and has plans for them, at which the players must find a way to escape ( either through their own means or perhaps help from npcs) The players will learn :a. the deathknight is a major villain, and b. the deathknight is not to be fucked with. The other thing you could do is flub some rolls saying "oh shit he rolled low" or something and when he still almost one shots them they might excercise the better part of valor. The last thing you could do is have an npc join them for a bit and get him to take some muliattacks. The cleric might change his mind after hearing "so the npc takes 90 dmg from those three swings"
My plan: I'm engineering a pre-campaign setting, like a prologue, and from that, I intend to show my players a Paladin's fall into Death Knight. THEN, in the campaign proper, I'm going to bring in the Undead Army, led by the Death Knight, and sponsored by an Arch-Lich. Let's hope my players make a few diplomats, and not murder-hobos.
beginning part of the story is kinda generic... army destroys glade... she get's pissed and goes after them... paladins find her and in this case actually vow to help her because this army is from a rather evil kingdom. However, as she fights with the paladins she learns begins learning there ways. When she finds the general that was responsible for destroying her glade and she deals a mortal wound to him, he tells her he has felt complete guilt since that day but did as he was ordered by his king. Heartbroken that she killed the man for seemingly no reason, she swears an oath of vengeance against tyranny and starts a long campaign against the evils of oppression. However... the longer she campaigns the more she begins to order people around seeing them as needing orders to be efficient in the war against tyranny. Eventually she falls and is killed in battle when she loses her powers for denouncing her army as insubordinates and tries to take on the evil army by herself... however... her soul still burning for vengeance... she comes back as a death knight still waging war against all kings as she sees them all as oppressive tyrants. She herself of course is still a tyrant in undeath, punishing her living subordinates and lich commanders when they don't do what they are as they are ordered.
Nerdarchy *takes a bow* I actually came up with this thanks to this video. The whole, gotta find a way to make them realise they are in the wrong works for this one... assuming she cares... which she will... by the end of the campaign after the final 6 stage boss battle in her living necropolis built from the dead bodies of all her victims in both life and undeath.
Nerdarchy I think that works really well with the "herald" concept you mentioned. Especially if you want to create sub-bosses for the guy as players lead upto him. Or conversely Blackguard and Warlocks in a playergroup serving him.
Late, but just watched. Thought RE: your comments - Pact Bound to a Lich/Demilich/Alhoon and the Pact of the Blade can (eventually) grant Death Knight-like status. Maybe invocations can give utility and spell power. Random thought. I think the good-aligned one is Deathless (BoED)? Then again, I could be totally wrong there.
Hey guys, it seems from your website and other things I've read, you are in the Philly area, right? If so we would love to host you at our Ravenloftish campaign on Friday night at the Dallas Diner off of Rt 13 in Bucks County starting at 7 pm. Just ask for Jesse or Charlie.
A Death Knight is cursed to be undead... Soth just enjoyed it and became truly evil. They are not unbeatable nor are they entirely free willed. Look to Orcas and presume a being like him is the true power behind the reanimated fallen.
not gonna lie, ima steal the shit out of that idea of him forcing the players to do something (or many somethings) for him by threatening something the party holds dear.
+Nerdarchy what is your thought in a death knight that serves a lich who is obssesed with ending existence. Because he believed that the end of everything is the only way to end his suffering. And in the end he can redeem himself by helping defeating the lich.
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what about playing death knight character
So for flavor, imagine there's a group of adventurers who meet up in life. Two are even brothers...one goes to the academy to become a Wizard, the other joins a divine order of clergy and becomes a Paladin. Over the years together, this group of four travels the world, slaying monsters, amassing treasure and more. Until one adventure, the Wizard becomes afflicted with an incurable disease. He hides this from the rest of the party, but he spends every minute he can looking for a cure. Then he finds one.
After raiding an old, haunted castle, the party finds a spellbook and without even reading it, throws it to the Wizard. Contained within are all sorts of Necromantic spells, and the last half of the tome describes the ritual for lichdom. Following the instructions means that he would be free from the disease, but doing so would lead him down a very dark path. However, becoming undead seems a small price to pay for immortality
Knowing that his brother, the Paladin, would be the only one to root out his plot, the Wizard uses powerful magic to bend the other party members to his will. He stages an attack against himself in the hopes that his brother will die trying to protect him. Valiantly, but unwillingly, the Paladin slays the other two members of his group...his best friends in life, to protect his brother. It's then that the Wizard kills his already weakened brother, letting him know that the innocent blood he spilled this day will be the blood he uses to complete his ritual of undeath. The Paladin dies knowing how he failed his oaths.
He rises as a Death Knight years later, only to find his body unburied, his two friends left as skeletons, all three of them stripped bare of their magical wares and all their money.
His madness drives him to murder his brother, so he begins adventuring again, as a new creation. Decades later, he has amassed a formidable army, and is finally ready to destroy his powerful brother and end his eternal torment. However, instead of meeting him on the battlefield; his brother, disguised as a human and in control of a kingdom, sends 6 insignificant pawns with a white flag?
Lord Sloth, had a weakness of the flesh and fell in love with an elf maid . A love that left him faithless and cursed, kinda like Darth Vader..... in fact exactly like Darth Vader...omg Darth Vader is a death knight....lol
Who knew. I never really drew the correlation before you mentioned it.
-Nerdarchist Dave
He even had a sorta death, when he got horribly burned and needed to be "reborn" as a cyborg.
Holy crap, and he only was 'allowed' to die when he sought redemption.
I know this video is ancient now, but I don't think it would be too thematically difficult to make a death knight that never broke their oath. You start with a Paladin of an order that in addition to fealty to their chosen deity may and/or must also swear a magically unbreakable fealty to a noble, mage or king who does great good.
Then, whether said individual was tricking the Paladin or became corrupt, the individual they swore to chases immortality and eventually becomes a lich king. The Paladin falls on his own sword so as to neither break his oath or work for the lich, but the monster holds his soul in place and the nature of his existence causes the gods to forsake him and he becomes a death knight.
He is wholly good, lawful good even, but he cannot betray his vows. Which opens up things further, as now we can have the lich king keep the only way to enter the pocket dimension his phylactery is kept in with our poor Sir Galahad. Now the king doesn't have to keep the way to his imminent demise upon his person, but still has access to it.
So Galahad knows that the only way he will ever be free is if someone stronger than him and smart enough to know what to do about the lich ever puts them in their sights. As such we could even have the finally free spirit give some form of boon to our brave companions. (I see this as a very major undertaking even late in the game, so I think something like a daily d6 to any member of the party petitioning a good god for any reason is on the table)
One thing I think many players and DMs forget is monsters as powerful as a death knight don't fear the pc's. Imagine dealing with something so powerful that they intimidate, ignore or simply start ordering you around knowing that you can't defeat them. If the pc's attack the DK will simply subdue them calmly and quickly and still give them whatever task he originally gave them.
It could definitely be used with a group if there was a particular reason the death knight would need these characters to do a task for him rather than kill them and move onto another group. Perhaps a time constraint or mystical obligation or other parameter.
I could fully see a Lawyer as a Boss Monster! With Powers like "Objection!", forcing characters to lose their turn, "I'll rephrase the question" for rerolling dice and a load of Enchantment spells like Confusion or Crown of Madness :)
I'm glad that there is something like the Death Knight. Usually humanoid big bads are evil spellcasters, which can get boring. But with a Death Knight (with an army perhaps) you can have a hard-hitting melee big bad too for a change. And they make great personal foes for paladins and clerics.
Love the flavor text for "The Lawyer". Yes he is a martial threat, but he also has some divine magic to bring to bare.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I can see a Lawyer being a Class that gets power from exploiting Law, whether it be Divine Law (Lawful Good), Infernal Law (Lawful Evil), or the impersonal Law of Order (Lawful Neutral). They bring charges against their enemies, defy physics by exploiting loopholes in the rules of nature, and heal themselves and allies by making reasonable arguments about why this damage they just took was unlawful and deserving of compensation.
Death knights are my favorite monsters in all of dnd and that description for an intro to a death knight... DAMN that is bad ass!
Glad you enjoyed the intro to the death knight. I have loved Death Knights ever since Lord Soth.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I recently finished a campaign where I played as a Dragonborn Anti-paladin with Tiamat as his goddess, who then multi-classed into warlock after striking a deal with a Vampire Lord in game...my character died several times early on but was raised as an undead by the ruler of the land. TLDR: Motivation was revenge on the creature that killed his village thus committed many evil deeds to get to that point. Everyone hates him and armies are after him.
This character, with the inspiration of this video, is now going to be a crucial villain in the new campaign I am running. Thanks Nerdarchy for bringing more pain and suffering to my players and more awesomeness to an already LEGENDARY character.
I set my Death Knight up in an undead war where he was a Paladin betrayed by the King when the King went mad. His brothers were killed in a big burning land strike by the king as a 'necessary evil'. In order to get revenge for his fallen Paladin brothers, he set out hunting down the King's spies and proceeded to torture them for information. He broke his vows as he tortured the King's own spies to get the King's location and was killed by the King's archers before reaching the King. He has basically become the spearhead of the undead army with his own unit of his now undead Paladin brothers following him.
A Death Knight leading an army of revenants against a Lich and his army of undead would be a pretty cool campaign setting
I was thinking of a DK vs Lich idea myself. Awesome. With the players and the rest of us regular folk stuck in the middle.As far as an *army* of Revenants, I dunno. I see the Revenant as a great side NPC who is out to get one or the other because of past deeds - a real "fly in the ointment" so to speak.
Not for everyone caught in the middle. :)
-Nerdarchist Dave
Mike Gould
Yea old school revenants are far to rare and powerful to make up an army. Some other kind of undead would work fine.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Dave - Death Knight as the story driving mechanism = genius. Death Knight/Lich as Warlock patron? Possible? Deathknight Lich as the reason why someone becomes a Sorcerer? As such a larger-than-life(unlife) personality, it provides numerous interpretations for both a plot and a resource for campaign issues. Great vid.
Thanks. Love the warlock/sorcerer idea for death knights and liches.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy If we look at the Death Knight or Lich as the Warlock Patron or Sorcerer Origin, it brings up a whole new set of categories on level abilities and Boons. Necrotic damage buff/damage resistance, fear options, and possible animate dead spells come to mind. When you get into the category of Liches like Vecna, then you have a Warlock Patron on par with some Fiends and Archfey.
Mike Gould
I like the idea it could open up some interesting possibilities. I believe Vecna got elevated to god status.
-Nerdarchist Dave
From Dragonheart: "Death should be a release, not a punishment."
I had an undead good-aligned paladin in one of my games. I used the mummy template. Osiris FTW.
Actually, IIRC, it wasn't that Soth was unrepentant, it was that he was utterly apathetic. The guys that run Ravenloft simply couldn't torment him because he had become so utterly numb to feeling that they kicked him out.
Anti-Paladin/Oathbreaker as an early level villain who comes back as a deathknight in the service of the end game BBEG is what immediately comes to my mind.
Or as the end BBEG. Death knights are not simple lackeys.
-Nerdarchist Dave
The undead host in Lord of the rings who were human soldiers and oath breakers that failed Gondor.
Yup great example.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Orc, Deathknight, Dragonborn, Antipaladin, with levels in sorcerer, Riding a beholder which he enthralled, with an army of illithids and hobgoblins and minotaurs that he also enthralled. Roll initiative.
I think it needs to be a little more challenging.
-Nerdarchist Dave
+tyler milroy Throw in his pet tarrasque, and you're golden.
He has an army of what look like skeletons, but they are all actually Demiliches pieced together to form individual skeleton bodies.
In my experience an unbreakable door is the greatest foe to all parties because I swear my dice know when I am picking a lock!
The ultimate evil, a death lawyer. Suing you for all eternity!
Not unless you find and destroy his license to practice law, rendering him harmless :)
+MisterTutor2010 Each of those guys is a real lich.
If you go deep enough and devious enough into the 9 Hells then yes Death Lawyers pretty much exist.
could have him on a undead dragon. like a dracolich mount
Some great RP ideas guys.
In terms of the DK stats, the ommision of "finger of death" sorta bugged me. That was perhaps the trademark ability of Lord Soth, and arguably Death Knights in general.
Your game put it back if you feel that's what Death Knights have in your world. I forgot it was even there to be honest with you.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy another thing about DK's, as Lord Soth has demonstrated, they may not go it alone. At least while on Krynn, Soth had a crew of undead he rode with. They were lesser knights who servex Soth in life and continued to do so in death. I forget what they were called but there was a 2e monstrous compendium entry for em somewhere.
Michael Covello Skeletal Warriors.
-Nerdarchist Dave
What happens if you just polymorph the deathknight into a card, or a black statue of a knight on a horse. and then a character in the next campain has it as their heirloom.
Catfoodbob in 5th edition, polymorph requires concentration to maintain, then durations only an hour. reverts to undead form after spell ends, even carrying damage over means it still wont die.
btw, it was Milteades of Tyr from Pools of Darkness. He comes to join the heroes to defeat a vampire on their way to Phlan then duels General Brittle.
Also White Wolf sort of hinted about Soth's return, but renamed him the Black Rose.
I always thought that deathknights rose primarily through the corruption of the demon princes.
Good vid!
Great video!
I was literally typing to suggest "Silver Surfer" when Dave mentioned it, lol.
I think that's a great campaign idea. It'll give really great moral decisions for the party. It makes me want to run a game around that concept.
Where is the oneshot group? I couldn't find it (though, I'm pretty bad at finding things, so it's probably in plain sight)
Thanks. You goes getting ideas from our ramblings is so awesome to me. Also great minds think a like(Silver Surfer).
Here is the Tabletop One Shot Group
facebook.com/groups/tabletoprpgoneshot/
-Nerdarchist Dave
Great descriptions all. It would be an honor to play with the likes of you three.
I haven't played & played well in many a moon. Consider me a noobish noob with heaps of patina on top.
Thanks and LOL. We'd love to play with everyone maybe we'll have to do the Nerdarchy world tour.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I playing a Death Knight, well I'm calling it that, in my current game. The kind of spin I put on it was kind of fun. I have a warlock infuse his soul into a young warrior. The warrior ends up keeping his body and mind but gains a dark voice in his head with some unholy powers. This is how I'm trying to play it.
Fledgling DM here, slowly working on creating a homebrew for the near future. I planned on having a death knight far down the line as a stepping stone to facing the BBEG lich. I thought about having the Death Knight wield the Holy Avenger that was corrupted with him. This would help explain why his sword attacks have necrotic damage attached to it, and why him and the undead around him would have advantage on saving throws.
I would greatly value some more experienced thoughts on this, and possibly help me determine if Im missing anything or should add anything or make changes to any of his abilities because of it.
I love watching your monster creations; would you make a death knight.
Search winter lord on our channel. We did one awhile back. - Nerdarchist Dave
for some reason I cant find that video i was wondering if you can post the video
great discussion, Love you guys, I am so putting a death knight into my campaign now. I have been toying around with the idea of doing some sort of powerful undead villian, and had been bouncing back and forth between the vampire and lich, but now i am totally sold on the Deathknight, my party is level 4 right now, and i am going to introduce him soon, to really push the "impossibly powerful villian" idea, so that when they do get to level 14 or 15 and can take him on, it will be a very rewarding encounter.
Super awesome imagery at work Dave. The DK is truly represented on your creative canvas. Now steal one(or all!) of the characters souls and hold it for added insurance until the task is done...muhahaha!
PS could you guys please do a bit on fear and madness, plz?
Gabe Vapors
We did madness from out of the DMG. I just haven't put it up yet. So I'll put it up later today.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Thanks and great idea.
-Nerdarchist Dave
I think the most important question is who did they worship and why were they cut off. Do they feel abandoned or repentant? they could be leaving horror in their wake as they seek out opponents of their old god, seeking redemption by killing old foes but only seeing the end, not the way they get there.
I never knew the death knight was so awesome I'm totally going to set up one to take the part of a villain in one of my campaigns I'm thinkibg death knight antipalidan perhaps with some homebrew thrown in the perplex the party
Thank you, you gave me an idea for a death knight that tries to hound a paladin by trying to put the paladin in situations where the paladin is constantly being put in situations where the paladin oath is made to be broken, and then after the paladin oath is broken, here comes the death knight to harvest the paladin's soul to turn to a death knight.
Like a vampire, creating vampire spawn, this would be a death knight creating death knight spawn. Hence the viability of these guys being around and the method of reproduction and manipulation of events.
My Mushroomhead inspired Kobold lackeys are led by a Half Dragon Death Knight who has a helm made out of his black dragon fathers skull with patches of his scales covering the eye wholes so that he looks like he still has scales but he is skeletal under the armor. His father was killed by a disease that was engineered to kill Draconic creatures only and almost wiped out the Kobolds in Ravenloft. That being the reason they are almost all gone along with Draconic creatures of all kinds. He goes by Lord Jaman Poppins and can appear as a illusion on any road he has visited to communicate with willing participants. For him its a mission of revenge. He still believes that all his choices and actions to this day are not merely justified but divinely inspired by the spirit of Justice itself.
+Aberran Fox and
Derex Hunter
Just an example of how I used a Death Knight. I find it useful to see what others have imagined and take bits and pieces from others ideas.
Aberran Fox How about a deathknight that has fooled a whole civilization into thinking he is a god, and u have to free the civilization from his rule. he could be a deathknight that became a deathknight for power thus is a greedy tyrant. this would change a typical hack and slash style game and turn it into more of a espionage. a lot like shield vs hydra. the party would have to set up a way of infiltration, such as become a "believer" or staying as guests. you can change the whole story based upon their choices. a lot like the butterfly effect. if they were "believers" they would have to fit in to society and gather information about the deathknight. if they had dinner as uests with the death knight, he could try and capture them and brain wash them he could try and either kill them(which lets u play around with hidden traps in houses, a sort of "dracula's castle feel"). so u can make an unpredictable game for your party that makes your adventures more fresh. and makes the players get more ino the minds of their charactors. have fun
Derex Hunter
I don't get how that Death Knight takes away the hack and slash option. And how mine does not. I think either could be played either way. Not really sure what you are getting at here.
+Aberran Fox no im not saying your thing is whatever im saying from a typical game. and it takes away from the hack n slash because in order to free the people from the deathknights dellusion of being a god they have to prove it. so they would have to go under cover or an other way of infiltration to get evidence. some thing along those lines
Paladin of Conquest quested for and found the book of Vile Darkness and used it to increase their power(become a death knight) to bring "eternal peace." You stop him by finding the book of Exalted Deeds, and reading his story to him out of it and completing the Ceremony spell. The LV 1 spell takes an hour and the PCs have to come up with a way to keep a death knight still.
I was once a minotaur paladin who died from betrayal, now reborn as a skeletal minotaur death knight
A nice alternate for a pseudo far-east campaign would be a Death Ronin. A samurai who did something so dishonorable, not even seppuku could make up for it. Not that he performed it, having become so evil. So when he died of some other cause, he rose again as an undead Samurai, a walking fount of Kegare (spiritual filth and impurity). Sources of water go stagnant when he passes, and he leads an army of undead soldiers, bandits, peasants, and ninjas (yes, _zombie ninjas_).
He can only be put to rest if he can be convinced to perform cleansing rituals on himself, to purify his kegare.
to add to the imagery,instead of having him mounted on a nightmare,have him go over the battlefield on a throne made of his fallen foe's skeletons and skulls, where the throne is held aloft by wveryns or some sort of flying undead creatures.
Awesome to see 3 older guy's who like dnd! :D
the death knight that doesn't kill you? he wants you to hate him and he wants you to win and end him one day, in a weird suicide by hero kind of way.
MIchael Hannah kinda like suicide by cop?
i like your ideas about the deathknight encounter. But i have to agree with the middle guy. If you willingly forsake your vows before you die you would stop being a paladin at that point (if we use inspiration from 2nd). Id think that a deathknight was forced to abandon his vows in life by hard choice, love or manipulation and grows evil by the feeling of guilt and torment that he takes with him to the grave.
the nazgul/ ring wraiths would be similar too.
True they can fill the role of any martial undead villain. Especially with a little reskinning.
-Nerdarchist Dave
That multi campaign plot is so badass
I see a death Knight could be also a paladin that was tricked into using an item against a powerful lich that you were told would weaken him so you could finish him, but instead it kills all the townsfolk in the nearby village. this sets him on the path of redemption but dies before he feels he has redeemed himself.
How about a revenant paladin? Stayed true to his vows in life but was betrayed into death in such an unclean way that he could not rest until the wrong was avenged. So maybe not inherently hostile to you but could be a wandering threat since his thirst for vengeance is so great the revenant is searching for his betrayer all the time and does not let anything side track him or get in the way.
I am new to being a DM and to 5e. I am currently creating my first campaign, and the Death Knight is who I selected to be my main villain. This is what brought me to the video. His only weakness will be an amulet of where his soul was placed. He was brought to life through 5 necromancers, 2 of which he killed when he was brought back to life. The other 3 serve him, and are doing his dirty deeds threw out the land. I am torn in when to bring the DK in, I was thinking maybe having him teleport in when the first necromancer is about to die, and have him steal the necromancers soul, and to incapacitate a few player's before a deity teleports them out to save their lives or the first time to see him as the undead army is getting ready to attack the town, kind of like what you were talking about here.
Better to have the Death Knight come take the soul, mock the players, and then leave because they are unworthy of his time.
- Nerdarchist Dave
Thanks for the reply!
Ah my brothers! i love playing a deathknight in D&D
Another way to get rid a death knight, wizard spell imprisionment, "you will be trapped, untill you think what you did wrong and repent." or something along the lines.
Lord Soth should get his own movie!
Unthar the Giant Slayer - This was the name given to a mighty Paladin of the Order of the Sun Blades, a faction spread throughout the Fathingaar Grotto. Unthar's troops were ordered to find the source of the sudden rise in the undead, and came across a powerful necromancer. Through her wits and deception, she tempted Unthar with the thought of gaining enough power to save his wife, Gralda, from death he foresaw in a vision. He took to the Lich Queen's side, he became maddened in his undead form and slew the former allies of his order, and took after his wife. It was too late, as Gralda was dead. Unthar now lives his unlife as a Death Knight, riding his corrupted, but once noble, steed Wrath, serving his new queen in her conquest to spread control over the realm. His Greataxe, Immortal, cleaves through the living and brings them back up as servants in the army of the damned. The only way Unthar can redeem himself is to break free of her control and rescue his wife's soul from the depths of the Nine Hells, where she lay forever imprisoned.
My DM made the mistake of having my Battle Master confront a death knight on a spire. Pushing attack ended the encounter really quickly
Which book are they reading this from? Couldn't find it in Volo's or Mordenkainens.
Death Knight riding a tarrasque
Accidentally the pc's could discover what caused the death knight to flip. If the pc's fix, discover the truth etc... could snap the death knight out of his need to betray his god and paladin vows.
A Death Knight redemption story would be awesome.
-Nerdarchist Dave
lol 16:05 infinity stones... infinity gauntlet.
LOL yea didn't even think of that one. Good catch.
-Nerdarchist Dave
Perhaps, if the players could show the death knight what he eventually will become in 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k years, it could give him cause to contemplate another path.
TPK the group that has a Paladin. There yoy got your Death Knight even more mad because he always did good deeds and for some reason he came back as that.
I thought Lord Soth was kicked out of Ravenloft because he began to show remorse for his actions which rendered him effectively immune to being tormented by the Dark Powers.
instead of bone chairs rising up... he waves his hands and some slaves get down so you can sit on them
He's both holy and unholy
can a lich or necromancer control a death knight
At low level the party accidentally releases him from his prison and the rest of the way they are trying to undo their mistake.
You could Kill a death knight maybe if you down him and drop a portable alter and cast an atonement spell.
GM 911 so I made a death knight to chase the party as a clearly overpowered enemy. I even setup his entrance where without him doing anything yet he has an army of zombies destroying the temple they are in and 3 demons that the party tired and can't even damage. only thing keeping them alive is a cross of light that makes it so they can't be attacked but is being slowly destroyed by the demons. they have a way out behind them but they won't run away because the cleric thinks he can handle it. They are also level 5 and I can't let the death knight die cause I need him for the rest of the campaign to chase the party whenever they get comfortable. how can I get them to fear for their life?
+Adorian Pious depending on the situation here are some solutions: Clearly you dont want the players dead, so maybe the death knight just knocks them unconscious and has plans for them, at which the players must find a way to escape ( either through their own means or perhaps help from npcs) The players will learn :a. the deathknight is a major villain, and b. the deathknight is not to be fucked with. The other thing you could do is flub some rolls saying "oh shit he rolled low" or something and when he still almost one shots them they might excercise the better part of valor. The last thing you could do is have an npc join them for a bit and get him to take some muliattacks. The cleric might change his mind after hearing "so the npc takes 90 dmg from those three swings"
That works.
can i use a death knight as a party member if i made one up ?
lol
I think Death Knight is a class in 3.5
Look up "oath breaker paladin", there a paladin archetype created to basically be a playable death knight.
So we could create the am elite guard for our BBEG
What about the headless horsemen, a warrior who commited crimes of war.
That could work only if he had oaths before he started going on a killing spree.
Nerdarchist Ted
maybe he was an oath of vengeance guy.... ok its a stretch.
Alexander Maxwell
Not really there are things during that can drive anyone over the brink even the most righteous of Paladins.
-Nerdarchist Dave
My plan: I'm engineering a pre-campaign setting, like a prologue, and from that, I intend to show my players a Paladin's fall into Death Knight.
THEN, in the campaign proper, I'm going to bring in the Undead Army, led by the Death Knight, and sponsored by an Arch-Lich. Let's hope my players make a few diplomats, and not murder-hobos.
Aren't Death Knight a playable subclass?
Nymph deathknight with full 20 levels of antipaladin and riding a black dragon dracolich... now there is a BBEG
jabadahut50 That sounds like there is a story there, Care to share. Nerdarchist Ted
beginning part of the story is kinda generic... army destroys glade... she get's pissed and goes after them... paladins find her and in this case actually vow to help her because this army is from a rather evil kingdom. However, as she fights with the paladins she learns begins learning there ways. When she finds the general that was responsible for destroying her glade and she deals a mortal wound to him, he tells her he has felt complete guilt since that day but did as he was ordered by his king. Heartbroken that she killed the man for seemingly no reason, she swears an oath of vengeance against tyranny and starts a long campaign against the evils of oppression. However... the longer she campaigns the more she begins to order people around seeing them as needing orders to be efficient in the war against tyranny. Eventually she falls and is killed in battle when she loses her powers for denouncing her army as insubordinates and tries to take on the evil army by herself... however... her soul still burning for vengeance... she comes back as a death knight still waging war against all kings as she sees them all as oppressive tyrants. She herself of course is still a tyrant in undeath, punishing her living subordinates and lich commanders when they don't do what they are as they are ordered.
jabadahut50 what can I say but wow nymph death knight paladin.
- Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy *takes a bow* I actually came up with this thanks to this video. The whole, gotta find a way to make them realise they are in the wrong works for this one... assuming she cares... which she will... by the end of the campaign after the final 6 stage boss battle in her living necropolis built from the dead bodies of all her victims in both life and undeath.
jabadahut50 That is creepy, but glad we inspired you. Nerdarchist Ted
Halfway through watching this my thought was. "What about a Warlock PACTED to a Deathknight?" Thoughts?
DreadstarMK1 Could be fun. Create Vecna level death knight, vecna pre-godhood that is.
Nerdarchist Dave
Nerdarchy I think that works really well with the "herald" concept you mentioned. Especially if you want to create sub-bosses for the guy as players lead upto him. Or conversely Blackguard and Warlocks in a playergroup serving him.
Late, but just watched. Thought RE: your comments -
Pact Bound to a Lich/Demilich/Alhoon and the Pact of the Blade can (eventually) grant Death Knight-like status. Maybe invocations can give utility and spell power. Random thought. I think the good-aligned one is Deathless (BoED)? Then again, I could be totally wrong there.
Sit can I bring someone to eat you *evil laughter*
Hey guys, it seems from your website and other things I've read, you are in the Philly area, right? If so we would love to host you at our Ravenloftish campaign on Friday night at the Dallas Diner off of Rt 13 in Bucks County starting at 7 pm. Just ask for Jesse or Charlie.
Cassie Soletson Hey hit me up on the Nerdarchy Facebook Page or e-mail us Nerdarchy@gmail.com
Nerdarchist Dave
Death knight on a dracolich!!!!!
A death knight does not have to be a skeleton he could be more like a zombie
or could be Death the on the Pale Horse.
A Death Knight is cursed to be undead... Soth just enjoyed it and became truly evil. They are not unbeatable nor are they entirely free willed. Look to Orcas and presume a being like him is the true power behind the reanimated fallen.
Is it bad that I want my conflicted paladin to become an NPC death knight before I've even had the chance to bring him to the table?
not gonna lie, ima steal the shit out of that idea of him forcing the players to do something (or many somethings) for him by threatening something the party holds dear.
Tis but a flesh wound!
Totally stealing some ideas from Dave! I'm gonna make my players poop their pants ;)
That's why we put them out there.
-Nerdarchist Dave
+Nerdarchy what is your thought in a death knight that serves a lich who is obssesed with ending existence. Because he believed that the end of everything is the only way to end his suffering. And in the end he can redeem himself by helping defeating the lich.
+Pedro Simões sounds a bit like Darth Vader and emperor Palpatine, I like it.