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This is largely inspired by Warcraft lore, and is my first attempt at customizing a Pathfinder class. It's essentially an inversion of the Paladin, but there are a few unique things tossed in. Please let me know what you think, and don't be afraid to tell me that something is off as long as you're ready to offer up some alternative. Anyone that simply says my class sucks and I should die without offering a way to improve my class will be hung over hot coals and eaten for the enjoyment of all. ^_^
NOTE: I've not figured out how to effectively format a class table on these forums, so I'll just list progressions.
Death Knight
Alignment
Lawful Good
Hit Die
d10
Starting Wealth
5d6 × 10 gp (average 175 gp)
Class Skills
The death knight's class skills are Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int),
Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Ranks per Level: 2 + Int modifier.
BAB: Full
Fort: Good
Ref: Poor
Will: Good
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the death knight.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Death Knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with
shields (except tower shields).
Aura of Evil (Ex)
The power of a death knight's aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to her death knight level.
Detect Good (Sp)
At will, a death knight can use detect good, as the spell. A death knight can, as a move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet
and determine if it is good, learning the strength of its aura as if having studied it for 3 rounds. While focusing on one individual or object, the death
knight does not detect good in any other object or individual within range.
Smite Good (Su)
Once per day, a death knight can call out to the powers of evil to aid her in her struggle against good. As a swift action, the death knight chooses one
target within sight to smite. If this target is good, the death knight adds her Cha bonus (if any) to her attack rolls and adds her death knight level to all
damage rolls made against the target of her smite. If the target of smite good is an outsider with the good subtype, an good-aligned dragon, or a good
aligned divine caster, the bonus to damage increases to 2 points of damage per level the death knight possesses. Regardless of the target, smite good attacks
automatically bypass any DR the creature might possess.
In addition, while smite good is in effect, the death knight gains a deflection bonus equal to her Charisma modifier (if any) to her AC against attacks made
by the target of the smite. If the death knight targets a creature that is not good, the smite is wasted with no effect.
The smite good effect remains until the target of the smite is dead or the next time the death knight rests and regains her uses of this ability. At 4th
level, and at every three levels thereafter, the death knight may smite good one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: Death Knight, to a maximum
of seven times per day at 19th level.
Vile Grace (Su)
At 2nd level, a death knight gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all Saving Throws.
Pestilence (Su)
Beginning at 2nd level, a death knight can cause oozing pustules to appear on an enemy by touch. Each day she can use this ability a number of times equal to
1/2 her death knight level plus her Charisma modifier. With one use of this ability, a death knight can deal 1d6 hit points of damage for every two death
knight levels she possesses. Using this ability is a standard action.
Frightful Presence (Su)
At 3rd level, a death knight becomes a force of terror. Whenever the death knight attacks or charges, opponents within 30 feet with fewer hit dice than the
death knight must make a Will save equal to 10 + 1/2 the death knight's level + the death knight's Charisma modifier or be shaken for 5d6 rounds. An
opponent that succeeds on the saving throw is immune to the death knight's frightful presence for 24 hours. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.
Vile Adaptation (Ex)
At 3rd level, a death knight is immune to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.
Disease (Su)
At 3rd level, and every three levels thereafter, a death knight can select one disease. Each disease adds an effect to the death knight's pestilence ability.
Whenever the death knight uses pestilence to deal damage to one target, the target also must make a save or be afflicted by the selected disease. The DC of
this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the death knight's level + the death knight's Charisma modifier. All diseases inflicted by pestilence take effect immediately,
with no onset period. The frequency of all death knight diseases is 1/round.
At 3rd level, the death knight can select from the following initial diseases.
Filth Fever: Effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves
Leprosy: Effect 1d2 Cha damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves
Mindfire: Effect 1d4 Int damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves
At 6th level, a death knight adds the following diseases to the list of those that can be selected.
Devil Chills: Effect 1d4 Str damage; Cure 3 consecutive saves
Shakes: Effect 1d8 Dex damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves
Slimy Doom: Effect 1d4 Con damage, target must make a second Fort save or 1 point of the damage is drain instead; Cure 2 consecutive saves
At 9th level, a death knight adds the following diseases to the list of those that can be selected.
Blinding Sickness: Effect 1d4 Str damage, if more than 2 Str damage, target must make an additional Fort save or be permanently blinded; Cure 2 consecutive
saves
Cackle Fever: Effect 1d6 Wis damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves
Red Ache: Effect 1d6 Str damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves
At 12th level, a death knight adds the following diseases to the list of those that can be selected.
Bubonic Plague: Effect 1d4 Con damage and 1 Cha damage and target is fatigued; Cure 2 consecutive saves
Demon Fever: Effect 1d6 Con damage, target must make a second Fort save or 1 point of the damage is drain instead; Cure 2 consecutive saves
These abilities are cumulative. For example, a 12th-level death knight's pestilence ability heals 6d6 points of damage and might also inflict Filth Fever,
Shakes, Red Ache, and Bubonic Plague simultaneously. Once a disease is chosen, it can't be changed.
Channel Negative Energy (Su)
When a death knight reaches 4th level, she gains the supernatural ability to channel negative energy like a cleric. Using this ability consumes two uses of
her pestilence ability. A death knight uses her level as her effective cleric level when channeling negative energy. This is a Charisma-based ability.
Spells
Beginning at 4th level, a death knight gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells which are drawn from the death knight spell list. A death
knight must choose and prepare her spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, a death knight must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against
a death knight's spell is 10 + the spell level + the death knight's Charisma modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a death knight can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on
Table: Death Knight. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Charisma score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). When
Table: Death Knight indicates that the death knight gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, she gains only the bonus spells she would be entitled to
based on her Charisma score for that spell level.
A death knight must spend 1 hour each day in quiet prayer and meditation to regain her daily allotment of spells. A death knight may prepare and cast any
spell on the death knight spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily
meditation.
Through 3rd level, a death knight has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, her caster level is equal to her death knight level – 3.
Vile Bond (Sp)
Upon reaching 5th level, a death knight forms a vile bond with the forces of evil. This bond can take one of two forms. Once the form is chosen, it cannot be
changed.
The first type of bond allows the death knight to enhance her weapon as a standard action by calling upon the aid of an unholy spirit for 1 minute per death
knight level. When called, the spirit causes the weapon to shed light as a torch. At 5th level, this spirit grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus. For
every three levels beyond 5th, the weapon gains another +1 enhancement bonus, to a maximum of +6 at 20th level. These bonuses can be added to the weapon,
stacking with existing weapon bonuses to a maximum of +5, or they can be used to add any of the following weapon properties: axiomatic, brilliant energy,
defending, wounding, frost, icy burst, unholy, keen, vicious, and speed. Adding these properties consumes an amount of bonus equal to the property's cost
(see Table: Melee Weapon Special Abilities). These bonuses are added to any properties the weapon already has, but duplicate abilities do not stack. If the
weapon is not magical, at least a +1 enhancement bonus must be added before any other properties can be added. The bonus and properties granted by the spirit
are determined when the spirit is called and cannot be changed until the spirit is called again. The unholy spirit imparts no bonuses if the weapon is held
by anyone other than the death knight but resumes giving bonuses if returned to the death knight. These bonuses apply to only one end of a double weapon. A
death knight can use this ability once per day at 5th level, and one additional time per day for every four levels beyond 5th, to a total of four times per
day at 17th level.
If a weapon bonded with an unholy spirit is destroyed, the death knight loses the use of this ability for 30 days, or until she gains a level, whichever
comes first. During this 30-day period, the death knight takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
The second type of bond allows a death knight to gain the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal undead to serve her in her crusade against
good. This undeadt is usually a skeleton or zombie, although more exotic undead may also suitable. This undead functions as a druid's animal companion, using
the death knight's level as her effective druid level. Bonded undead have an Intelligence of at least 6.
Once per day, as a full-round action, a death knight may magically call her undead to her side. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to
one-third the death knight's level. The undead immediately appears adjacent to the death knight. A death knight can use this ability once per day at 5th
level, and one additional time per day for every 4 levels thereafter, for a total of four times per day at 17th level.
At 11th level, the undead gains the fiendish creature advanced simple template.
At 15th level, a death knight's undead gains spell resistance equal to the death knight's level + 11.
Should the death knight's undead die, the death knight may not summon another undead for 30 days or until she gains a death knight level, whichever comes
first. During this 30-day period, the death knight takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Command Undead (Su)
At 8th level, a death knight gains Command Undead as a Bonus Feat. If she already possesses that feat, she instead gains a +4 bonus to the DC for undead to
resist her control.
Aura of Vengeance(Su)
At 11th level, a death knight can expend two uses of her smite good ability to grant the ability to smite good to all allies within 10 feet, using her
bonuses. Allies must use this smite good ability by the start of the death knight's next turn and the bonuses last for 1 minute. Using this ability is a free
action. Good creatures gain no benefit from this ability.
Vile Presence (Su)
At 14th level, a death knight's weapons are treated as evil-aligned for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction. Any attack made against an enemy within
10 feet of her is treated as evil-aligned for the purposes of overcoming Damage Reduction.
This ability functions only while the death knight is conscious, not if she is unconscious or dead.
One of Us (Ex): At 17th level, the death knight's form begins to rot (the appearance of this decay is up to the death knight) and undead see the death knight
as one of them. the death knight gains immunity to cold, nonlethal damage, paralysis, and sleep. the death knight also gains DR 5/—. Unintelligent undead do
not notice the death knight unless the death knight attack them. the death knight receive a +4 morale bonus on saving throws made against spells and spell-
like abilities cast by undead.
Unholy Scion (Su)
At 20th level, a death knight becomes a conduit for the power of evil. Her DR increases to 10/good. Whenever she uses smite good and successfully strikes a
good outsider, the outsider is also subject to a banishment, using her death knight level as the caster level (her weapon automatically counts as an object
that the subject hates). After the banishment effect and the damage from the attack is resolved, the smite immediately ends. In addition, whenever she
channels negative energy or uses pestilence, she deals the maximum possible amount of damage.
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I'm not clear on the WoW background here, but you have this classes Alignment as LG, but using a lot of evil. In fact it even has Smite Good. . .
What give? Was that intentional?
Without knowing/carring about the WoW backstory, I would suggest 1.) making it a little less Paladin like, (not completely, but a little more different from the alternate Alignments Paladins) and 2.) drop the Alignment, (and also all the Alignment class features), and leave it a little more open for the players.
This seems a lot more like the D&D Death Knight than the little I know about WoW's.
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I'm going to agree with Beckett on the feel of the Death Knight. If you want to make it FEEL more like the WOW version, try throwing in some variation of DK traits FROM WOW to give it that distinctive feel.
A decent source would be Death Knight Builds or the WOW Armory
For example, a great low level ability could be
Toughness from the Frost Tree- just use Toughness Feat
Anticipation from the Unholy Tree- add +1 to your DEX AC modifier OR +1 to initiative
Icy Touch from Frost Tree- perhaps your touch, or a melee weapon does an additional d4 ice damage
Blade Barrier from Blood Tree- maybe you can use your weapon to increase your AC
Subversion from Blood Tree- increase crit range with weapon
I am NOT saying your build is bad by any stretch of the imagination. As a Death Knight it is pretty cool and I like it fine. But you stated you wanted a more WOW feel to the Death Knight, or that was my impression anyway. So I thought maybe this suggestion would help achieve that goal.
Now as for a first build, first time post of the build I think you did pretty good.
BTW you can't format ANYTHING with a table on the boards... seriously sucks rocks. That is really the best you can do for formatting on here *sigh* I think the programmers must be elves...
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The alignment was a grievous NotePad "Replace All" error. Thank you for pointing it out.
As far as using WoW for a base, I really didn't want to pull too much from the specific talent trees because I'd feel like I was either leaving something out, or that I'd have to make three separate builds, neither of which I want to do. I tried to keep the core concept, though. Diseases, the Runeblade or Pet Undead options, I figured they had enough of a Warcraft taste to suit my needs.
I really didn't want to just slap a bunch of bonus feats on the class and call them class features. It pained me enough to put Command Undead on there. Any ideas that would help make this less of a Paladin subversion (regardless of the fact that that is precisely what Death Knights are) and more of its own unique class? I toyed with the idea of incorporating the Blood, Frost, Unholy, and Death Runes, but I couldn't quite find a way to implement them effectively.
EDIT: And WTF? I can't edit the original post either? Way to go, Paizo. :)
The biggest "problem" of converting the DK into a paizo class is the different specs and all that really could almost be different base classes.
When you have dual wielding and tanking or a pet part or strong 2h builds your eally get into a set of "alternate" class abilities thats really hard to do right.
Myself, i love the DK and play one regularly.
I've no real clue how to do it all but-
you need to pick one of the strong themes and build the class around it. I'd suggest 2-handed weapons. If you want to emulate the Unholy's pet, just give it a singular creature as a class feature.
The biggest issue though are the diseases. Diseases are a pretty big thing in PFRPG, and they aren't really a big deal in WOW.
A few ideas- no clue how to flesh it out more.
1) Give it a minion. The minion is undead, probably a skeleton, that scales in some relation to the caster. Probably should be treated with the same "chart" as either familiars or animal companions get. Maybe at some minus to the level. (think rangers and their -3 to the level of the chart).
2) Give them SR, but either a) for X rounds a day, usable as a swift action on a round to round basis or b) usable X times per day as a swift action, each use lasting Y rounds. The SR being based on their level, or some such.
3) Avoid the temptation to copy other classes abilities. Smite Good or Evil is all well and good but thats really the Pally's schtick.
Just my thoughts though.
-S
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Really, when it comes down to a DW/Tank/2H build, you're just going to be selecting different feats. Feats are the talent points of D&D.
And really? You don't think diseases are a big deal in WoW? They account for a significant portion of DK DPS. They're more of a hindrance in Pathfinder, and I felt that bum,ping the frequency to 1/round was needed to make the whole concept even viable for a PC class. I mean, how often is that goblin going to get to live for a few weeks to actually contract Leprosy in a normal game?
I've already given them the option of a pet via Vile Bond. They can either focus on their Runeblade, or get a Pet Undead.
I'm loathe to give a class spell resistance AND damage reduction. That just seems too much to me, but my view may be askew. I'll keep this in mind.
And yeah, I really don't like copying abilities, I'm just using this as a launching off point.
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The alignment was a grievous NotePad "Replace All" error. Thank you for pointing it out.
EDIT: And WTF? I can't edit the original post either? Way to go, Paizo. :)
So what is the actual Alignment?
You can Edit a previous post for a time, but I think once you post another responce you can't.
What you can do is reply to your first post and Edit it that way. It will be another post, but you can note what is changed. {b} {/b}, (using [] instead of {}) will bold it.
you guys are forgetting that D&D already has a Death knight monster and the Death Knight from wow is loosely based on that!
the most important thing is that in wow and D&D the Death Knight is apart of the living dead, or other wise called UNDEAD!!!!
so to make a class out of it would imply one has to be dead first!!
Diseases are not a big deal in WoW.
Shaman, Priests and Paladin can cleanse them with very little effort or cost involved.
In Pathfinder curing oneself of a disease requires you to 1) have the spell on your list and 2) to have it memorized and then to 3) expend a very valuable resource.
Giving a base class the ability to throw diseases around at will in Pathfinder *is a big freaking deal*. And that is a problem because its also one of the core concepts behind the WoW Deathknight.
I wasn't going blow by blow through your write up picking it apart, I was just giving broad ideas.
DR and SR do seem abit much. Maybe make them both require a swift action to use, last a round (or whatever) and can't be used at the same time?
maybe something like:
Defense of Unliving:
X times per day the Deathknight can, as a swift action, activate this ability. Doing so creates one of two effects which can not be activated at the same time.
1) Defense of the Unliving can give the Deathknight Y Spell resistance for Z rounds.
2) Defense of the Unliving can grant the Deathknight Y DR/X for Z rounds.
That would allow some flexibility while also requiring the person to not just walk around with both up all the time.
Again just brain storming.
-S
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I might also suggest taking a look at the Bonelord prestige class from (I think) Eberron's Five Nations. It is very Cleric or Ex-Paladin heavy, but not at all evil, (good works very well, even as an Undead Controller).
They are essentually the commanders of Undead, and come from a land where the Undead where used in "th last war" as neutral armys. You have to adopt a more realistic, (less core D&D :) ) alignmnt view, but still a lot closer to what you might be looking for all around.
It also creates it's one personal Bone Armor and Weapon (Runeblade?), gets a minion and a mount.
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Hmm... The Bone Knight is a good starting point...
Let's take a few of the Death Knight's very core concepts and then see what we can do about them.
Runeblade (Weapon)
Diseases
Ghoul (Pet)
Deathcharger (Mount)
Let's just assume a blank class template and see how we can work statting them.
I figure we could treat the Ghoul similar to an Animal Companion, as with the Deathcharger.
Runeblades I feel would work well with the Paladin's weapon bond.
Diseases need to be important, but I'm not sure how to implement them properly, or whether to just stat Blood Plague, Ebon Plague, and Frost Fever.
Funny how I always find my own thoughts reflected in this forum. Must be the geeks' coefficient. ^^
When I saw the Bone Knight back in the Eberron Supplement (Five Nations), I sort of fell in love. The idea of the shining knight in armour setting his shinyness and holier-than-thou attitude aside for King and Country, thereby becoming a pariah in his comrades' eyes was just so ... whoa.
Naturally, I had to upgrade that prestige class for use in my own campaign (there might be an NPC with this background or another).
All said and done, you can just stick with what's there and translate any references to Turn Undead and so on into Channeling stuff. Toss in a few more uses of Fill the Ranks and you're done.
To business:
The class' abilities stack with paladin class stuff and it loses only one level of spellcasting. Min-Maxing that, you should build a Bone Knight as a lvl 3 Paladin/lvl 2 Cleric to make the most of it. That way, you increase all your coming paladin class features because of the prestige class' class abilities and all of your spellcasting abilities because of the "+1 level of divine spellcasting class" for all levels except 1st.
There's not much else to be done with the class, as you'll be having access to the cleric's spell list and you'll be a negative energy channeler - spamming AoEs was never easier than simply holding up your (un)holy symbol and spending a nondisruptable standard action to deal 1/2 your character level in d6s to each and every living creature within 30 ft.
Also, you will most likely have a horde of undead at your command (granted, they're low level, but still) in addition to your faithful skeletal mount, which will be quite intelligent and able to fight alongside you (since it will gain all abilities a paladin's mount gets). Okay, it looks more like a horse than like a ghoul, but the net effect is the same AND you can also ride it.
Oh yes, don't forget to always wear that bonecraft armour you spent so much time on crafting. It will become your exoskeleton of undeath, making you immune to all sorts of nasty things.
The rest is feat/skill selection (apart from your spells) and roleplaying.
Just my opinion.
P.S.:
With the cleric spell list, you're able to toss around diseases (contagion), poisons and curses. Just look at the darn list for a while. ;-)
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Hmm... The Bone Knight is a good starting point...
Let's take a few of the Death Knight's very core concepts and then see what we can do about them.
Runeblade (Weapon)
Diseases
Ghoul (Pet)
Deathcharger (Mount)
Let's just assume a blank class template and see how we can work statting them.
I figure we could treat the Ghoul similar to an Animal Companion, as with the Deathcharger.
Runeblades I feel would work well with the Paladin's weapon bond.
Diseases need to be important, but I'm not sure how to implement them properly, or whether to just stat Blood Plague, Ebon Plague, and Frost Fever.
I'm liking this! Any updates?
Why not use the Charnel Touch ability from the Dread Necromancer to account for the diseases. Also replace the Smite Good/Evil with death grip.
Something like this (this is just off the top of my head):
Death Grip (Su): During combat the death knight grips the cords of life or undeath on the foe to pull him closer. As a swift action the death knight can make a range touch attack (30ft range) and pull the foe to square adjacent to him. This ability can be used a number of rounds per day equal to (ability score modifier used) + 3. This can only be used every other round.
Not sure if this helps or not.
There was a Death Knight prestige class in World of Warcraft: Dark Factions from Sword & Sorcery. He had a Vampiric Runeblade that scaled with level, Unholy Strike (which was a smite attack against all alignments, however alignment wasn't that important in the WoW RPG), he got natural armor enhancement (Alabaster Skin), an equivalent to Divine Grace (Dark Grace), immunity against death spells and magical death effects and being healed by negative energy and damaged by positive (Undying, if he was undead he got a feat I'd have to look up instead). And he got a bunch of spell-like abilities Animate Dead or Create Undead 1/day (chosen on use), (Greater) Death Coil up to 3/day and Death Pact at-will, range increase to 30 feet 3/day on level 10.
I too had created a Death Knight, but for me, it was a Prestige Class, as even in WOW you had to be 55th Level to start one. I used the Eldritch Knight as a Base and modeled it off of the Dragon Disciple, only for the Undead Bloodline for Sorcerers. Came out OK, IMO.