Hellknights: When? What?


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

Dark Archive

Variant Paladins from Dragon 310 and 311.

Crusader from Bo9S.

Liberty's Edge

Variant aligned paladins from Unearthed Arcana. I also took some stuff from an Inquisitor Prestige class and added them in as alternatel class abilities. Now where did I post that guy...

-DM Jeff

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16, 2010 Top 4

Fighters and Knights (from PHB II), but I've only presented these as squires and initiates to the Hellknights, the full members of which are still ambiguously spooky. But my players were suitably impressed by the centaur Hellkinght leader they saw in Magnimar.


I saw in one of the Pathfinder issues, on a wandering monster chart I think, that you can use 4th level fighters for some of the lower level guys. Probably give them something similar to the Gray Maidens, masterwork bastard sword and heavy shield, masterwork full plate, etc.

No clue on what the higher ranking ones would be though.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

Bah! Sure the Hellknights are cool, but what about the Bloatmages?

The Exchange

Eyebite wrote:
Bah! Sure the Hellknights are cool, but what about the Bloatmages?

I've been quite fortunate in that I havn't had to actually present Hellknights as combatants yet, (my player sensibly avoided confronting them during the riots.)

Some form of sword and board type fighters I think with a smattering of other classes thrown in.

Contributor

Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

It still might be a little while before the Hellknights get much love. While we're definitely talking about them in the campaign setting book, even that's mostly just more info on thier various orders and what not. I admit that I've been a little protective of them--I REALLY like'em. I also don't just want them to be some prestige class or fighters with a feat. Since that's all we've really had the space to do so far, we're holding off untill we can do them right.

All that being said, I just ran across a prestige class yesterday from the Unholy Warrior's Handbook called Order's Tyrant. It's not right on, but it was enough to spark the words "Hey James, check it out, there's a Hellknight prestige class in here." If you're looking for a proxy hellknight untill we finally agree on what to do with them, looking there might be a good option.

Contributor

Eyebite wrote:
Bah! Sure the Hellknights are cool, but what about the Bloatmages?

Bloatmages, on the other hand, will see some love in Pathfinder #12. We JUST got the art in infact... GROSS!

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

How about Pathfinders? C'mon! How long are we going to have to wait for this one?!

Sovereign Court

Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

How about Green Ronin's Anti-Paladin handbook ?

Not used it yet, but promising .... MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA !

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Stereofm wrote:
Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

How about Green Ronin's Anti-Paladin handbook ?

Not used it yet, but promising .... MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA !

Hellknights aren't necessarily anti-Paladins though. They just aren't LG. As a LN organization, they still might do many of the sae things Paladins do, they'd just be open to doing something more akin to a Blackguard if that would enable them to uphold the law better. I think that the name Hellknight is deceiving in this regard, as they are not evil. Then again, from what I've seen of them so far, they seem to lean more that way then toward the good. But that might just be the Order of the Nail.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32

F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Eyebite wrote:
Bah! Sure the Hellknights are cool, but what about the Bloatmages?
Bloatmages, on the other hand, will see some love in Pathfinder #12. We JUST got the art in infact... GROSS!

Awesome.

Sovereign Court

F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

(...)

All that being said, I just ran across a prestige class yesterday from the Unholy Warrior's Handbook called Order's Tyrant. (...)

Isn't this handbook or at least part of it included in Green Ronin's "Book of Fiends"?

Greetings,
Günther

Dark Archive Contributor

yoda8myhead wrote:
Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

How about Pathfinders? C'mon! How long are we going to have to wait for this one?!

August. There'll be one form of a Pathfinder in the hardcover.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Mike McArtor wrote:
yoda8myhead wrote:
How about Pathfinders? C'mon! How long are we going to have to wait for this one?!
August. There'll be one form of a Pathfinder in the hardcover.

Kickazz. This wonderful news deserves a smurf.

Dark Archive Contributor

yoda8myhead wrote:
Kickazz. This wonderful news deserves a smurf.

Oh yeah... 8)

Liberty's Edge

F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

It still might be a little while before the Hellknights get much love. While we're definitely talking about them in the campaign setting book, even that's mostly just more info on thier various orders and what not. I admit that I've been a little protective of them--I REALLY like'em. I also don't just want them to be some prestige class or fighters with a feat. Since that's all we've really had the space to do so far, we're holding off untill we can do them right.

All that being said, I just ran across a prestige class yesterday from the Unholy Warrior's Handbook called Order's Tyrant. It's not right on, but it was enough to spark the words "Hey James, check it out, there's a Hellknight prestige class in here." If you're looking for a proxy hellknight untill we finally agree on what to do with them, looking there might be a good option.

So what would you recommend for entry into the PrC? (again, as a stopgap, obviously.) Fighter? Knight? Crusader? Rogue?


My players are voting this week, but right now it looks like they want to play an all-Hellknight party for Curse of the Crimson Throne.


tbug wrote:
My players are voting this week, but right now it looks like they want to play an all-Hellknight party for Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Wow... that sounds awesome and absolutely terrifying at the same time. I mean... they're HELLKNIGHTS! Who screws around with these people? Nobody! These are people who can ignore kings and get away with it!

... although it could certainly work. Best of luck!


F. Wesley Schneider wrote:
It still might be a little while before the Hellknights get much love. While we're definitely talking about them in the campaign setting book, even that's mostly just more info on thier various orders and what not. I admit that I've been a little protective of them--I REALLY like'em. I also don't just want them to be some prestige class or fighters with a feat. Since that's all we've really had the space to do so far, we're holding off untill we can do them right.

Thanks Wes, Please stay protective of them, I want to see them done right!

I'm just praying that they are going to have Hellhound companions/familiars because that was the part of the Fluff in Pathfinder 6 that really grabbed my imagination!


Eyebite wrote:
Bah! Sure the Hellknights are cool, but what about the Bloatmages?

I'm lookin forward to them getting some lovin too, along with the Troll Augurs, Cyphermages, devil binders, cult of Pharasma, etc, etc...

But it seemed unreasonable to ask about them all at once!

Liberty's Edge

I have a feeling that a great many of us will breathe a huge collective sigh of relief when the hardcover setting book hits in August. That'll last about a day. Then we'll have even MORE questions.


yoda8myhead wrote:
Stereofm wrote:
Lawmonger wrote:

When are we gonna see some hellknight stats?

what have people been using to represent them til now?

How about Green Ronin's Anti-Paladin handbook ?

Not used it yet, but promising .... MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA !

Hellknights aren't necessarily anti-Paladins though. They just aren't LG. As a LN organization, they still might do many of the sae things Paladins do, they'd just be open to doing something more akin to a Blackguard if that would enable them to uphold the law better. I think that the name Hellknight is deceiving in this regard, as they are not evil. Then again, from what I've seen of them so far, they seem to lean more that way then toward the good. But that might just be the Order of the Nail.

The LN alignment and the general tone had me thinking "Helm, with emo/goth overtones", actually. Wasn't there a prestige class for folks dedicated to Helm in FR Faiths and Pantheons? Might be worth looking at if you're like me and don't see "Hellknight" and think immediately of Ashram from Lodoss Wars. ^_^

Sovereign Court

Guennarr wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

(...)

All that being said, I just ran across a prestige class yesterday from the Unholy Warrior's Handbook called Order's Tyrant. (...)

Isn't this handbook or at least part of it included in Green Ronin's "Book of Fiends"?

Greetings,
Günther

Does anyone know if "Order's Tyrant" is covered in the Book of Fiends, too?

I know that the Book of Fiends describes part of what was previously covered in the 3.0e Unholy Warrior's Handbook. Does it include this specific class, though?

Thanks for your feedback!

Kr,
Günther


tbug wrote:
My players are voting this week, but right now it looks like they want to play an all-Hellknight party for Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Dude, your group is crazy! First they play giantkin goblins. In a campaign where you fight goblins and giants.

Spoiler:
How did they like meeting the Rune Giants?

I suppose it could be worse. At least they didn't vote to play undead or something.

Liberty's Edge

Michael F wrote:
tbug wrote:
My players are voting this week, but right now it looks like they want to play an all-Hellknight party for Curse of the Crimson Throne.

Dude, your group is crazy! First they play giantkin goblins. In a campaign where you fight goblins and giants.

** spoiler omitted **

I suppose it could be worse. At least they didn't vote to play undead or something.

A group of hellknights would make for some VERY interesting PCs. A fighter, a fighter/cleric (asmodeus), a fighter/sorcerer (infernal), and a fighter/rogue, all LN or LE but with basically-virtuous goals would be cool.


Michael F wrote:
Dude, your group is crazy!

Well, yeah. I mean, they're willing to take me as DM. :D

Michael F wrote:
{How did they like...}

We're nowhere close to that yet. I expect it to go badly for them.

Michael F wrote:
I suppose it could be worse. At least they didn't vote to play undead or something.

That option came third. Hellknights came second. It turns out that they're playing members of the aristocracy, who are loyal to their families and to the king. We start playing on Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. There's a member of four of the five Great Houses (not the Zenderholms) plus a couple others.

Spoiler:
If they'd chosen undead then I was going to make them long-dead Shaonti who'd been killed by Kazavon back in the day. Old memories would have kept resurfacing as his spirit became more active.


Timespike wrote:
A group of hellknights would make for some VERY interesting PCs. A fighter, a fighter/cleric (asmodeus), a fighter/sorcerer (infernal), and a fighter/rogue, all LN or LE but with basically-virtuous goals would be cool.

I told them that they had to be lawful, had to take aristocrat as their first level, would start at second level, and had to have a BAB of +1. I also told them that the nature of hellknights meant that paladins would be in a continual struggle to maintain their alignment. This option lost to the foppish noble option by a razor-thin margin.

The Exchange

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

for tbug:

Spoiler:

How do you plan to deal with the fact that the head of their order is going to command them to withdraw from Korvosa following the plague?


evilvolus wrote:

for tbug:

** spoiler omitted **

They voted not to play Hellknights, so it doesn't arise. Here's what I would have done:

Spoiler:
I would have played out that scene. Their commanding officer would by this time have been a well-established NPC who had interacted with them on several occasions. He would have given them the order, as described in the adventure path.

I mean, if you don't want it to get complicated then don't choose the weird options. *eg*

The Exchange

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
tbug wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
On the one hand, I think most players would have a hard time not reading that as "The DM wants the action to move out of the city, and merely tied it to our background." On the other hand, "Report to headquarters for floggings" seems like an order PCs might want to disobey. On the third hand, "Report to headquarters for floggings" doesn't make near as much sense when it was the Hellknights that saved the city from plague in the first place.

Spoiler:
evilvolus wrote:
On the one hand, I think most players would have a hard time not reading that as "The DM wants the action to move out of the city, and merely tied it to our background."

If my players thought that then they'd probably snicker and refuse to move the action. They can be a bit aggressive about breaking plot.

evilvolus wrote:
On the other hand, "Report to headquarters for floggings" seems like an order PCs might want to disobey.

I would have tried to be clear about that, yes. This would have been the crisis moment when their ties to the city (remember that level of aristocrat, signifying that they grew up in a noble House in town) conflicted with their lawful natures. I expect that this would have been the crux of the campaign story, and that they might have decided to break from the Hellknights or even orchestrate a change in leadership. If this even happened, of course. (See below.)

evilvolus wrote:
On the third hand, "Report to headquarters for floggings" doesn't make near as much sense when it was the Hellknights that saved the city from plague in the first place.

This is a really good point. If the Hellknight PCs actually did save the city from the plague then that scene wouldn't have taken place. I'd have to watch closely as to a) how successful the PCs were and b) how successful their boss perceived them to be.

Sovereign Court

Guennarr wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

(...)

All that being said, I just ran across a prestige class yesterday from the Unholy Warrior's Handbook called Order's Tyrant. (...)

Isn't this handbook or at least part of it included in Green Ronin's "Book of Fiends"?

Greetings,
Günther

Does anyone know if "Order's Tyrant" is covered in the Book of Fiends, too?

I know that the Book of Fiends describes part of what was previously covered in the 3.0e Unholy Warrior's Handbook. Does it include this specific class, though?

Thanks for your feedback!

Kr,
Günther

The Exchange

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
tbug wrote:
They can be a bit aggressive about breaking plot

lol @ this. Deliberately willful players would drive me absolutely batty. I have a rough enough time with my bands of unintentionally obtuse ones.


evilvolus wrote:
lol @ this. Deliberately willful players would drive me absolutely batty.

You caught the bit about playing giantkin goblins in a campaign where you fight giants and goblins, right? ;)


Guennarr wrote:
Does anyone know if "Order's Tyrant" is covered in the Book of Fiends, too?

It is not.

Liberty's Edge

Guennarr wrote:
Guennarr wrote:
F. Wesley Schneider wrote:

(...)

All that being said, I just ran across a prestige class yesterday from the Unholy Warrior's Handbook called Order's Tyrant. (...)

Isn't this handbook or at least part of it included in Green Ronin's "Book of Fiends"?

Greetings,
Günther

Does anyone know if "Order's Tyrant" is covered in the Book of Fiends, too?

I know that the Book of Fiends describes part of what was previously covered in the 3.0e Unholy Warrior's Handbook. Does it include this specific class, though?

Thanks for your feedback!

Kr,
Günther

No, it's not; the book of fiends is still very much worth having, however.

The Exchange

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
tbug wrote:
You caught the bit about playing giantkin goblins in a campaign where you fight giants and goblins, right? ;)

Oh, I absolutely did. But a roleplaying challenge that twists the AP on it's head is a different thing from players that metagame what the DM wants them to do, and then do the opposite just to frustrate things.


evilvolus wrote:
Oh, I absolutely did. But a roleplaying challenge that twists the AP on it's head is a different thing from players that metagame what the DM wants them to do, and then do the opposite just to frustrate things.

I see what you mean now. Thanks for clarifying.

The players never go to the extreme of acting out of character in order to thwart what's going on, but they'll sometimes go to the extreme of acting in character to do so.

For example, one of the giantkin goblins in RotRL has a character background that includes wanting to raise rabbits, and her priority in a lot of situations is to get home and look after her rabbits. She often just doesn't care what happens to some weird old longshanks. (This is greatly alleviated by the fact that their clan, the Birdcrunchers, lives really close to Sandpoint and a lot of the same plot stuff happens to both.)

This isn't to say that as players they don't want to see the adventure--they do. They just want it to flow organically. My comment was in response to your suggestion that they might take the order from the leader of the Hellknights as my heavyhanded way of forcing the plot out of town, and if they thought that then they'd probably think hard about what they'd do before doing anything and wouldn't be afraid to ignore heavyhandedness on my part.

In other words, they actively avoid the metagaming regarding what the DM wants them to do. If the story gives them a solid reason for acting in a certain way then they do. If I stick them on a railroad then they might jump off.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Lost Omens Campaign Setting / General Discussion / Hellknights: When? What? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.