Graveknight Clarification

[McDaygo]

Per the Book:

Graveknight Armor

"In death, the graveknight's life force lingers on in its armor, not its corpse, in much the same way that a lich's essence is bound within a phylactery. Unless every part of a graveknight's armor is ruined along with its body, a graveknight can rejuvenate after it is destroyed. A typical suit of full plate graveknight armor has hardness 10 and 45 hit points, though armor with enhancements or made of special materials proves more difficult to destroy. Merely breaking a graveknight's armor does not destroy it; it must be ruined, such as by being disintegrated, taken to the Positive Energy Plane, or thrown into the heart of a volcano."

My question for clarification is this; In situations where not every part of the armor is destroyed what happens to the Graveknight? My opinion was the armor will regrow via the dark magic that makes a Graveknight while the rest of the group is only the body grows back with the remaining portion. Any clarification on this would be great.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

It operates just like the lich phylactory, the GM picks a regneration spot and all of the gravenight resurrects there and any loose pieces of the armor simply fade away.

[McDaygo]

That doesn't sound right as anyone wearing the armor has a chance of being taken over.

[McDaygo]

Parasitic Armor
Anyone who treats a graveknight’s armor as simply battle
spoils risks both body and soul. Graveknights rejuvenate
when destroyed. Their bodies literally grow back, with
tendrils of undead flesh coiling out from recesses in their
armor like gruesome creepers, unless opponents take
pains to also obliterate the armor. These unholy strands
have no objection to infesting a living host instead of
producing a new body for their master.
People who claim a graveknight’s armor rarely recognize
the threat until too late, as part of the magic of the
rejuvenation makes wearers oblivious to the invasion of
their own bodies. When they take the armor off to sleep,
they overlook the puncture marks and deep fissures upon
their skin. Some sinister instinct also causes them to conceal
these wounds from their companions. Only the particularly
observant (and a DC 25 Perception check) perceive the peril
in time help their friend cast aside the armor.
Once the rejuvenation period ends 1d10 days later, the
wearer must make a Will save (DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the
graveknight’s HD + the graveknight’s Cha modifier) each
day to avoid transforming into the original graveknight. This
transformation consumes mind as well as body, immediately
slaying the victim and utterly destroying the body.
To wear graveknight armor safely, its new owner must
cleanse it of evil and forever sever its connection to its undead
master. This cleansing requires the casting of three different
spells in rapid succession. Two are always break enchantment
and holy word. The third varies with each graveknight and
relates back to the unique circumstances surrounding its
first death and return. Figuring out the correct spell usually
entails a great deal of research and careful thought. And of
course, while this detective work is happening, the armor
continues to steadily regenerate the graveknight.

[John Compton]

Consider this the insights of someone who's written an article about graveknights and included them in adventures, not necessarily a design team clarification.

Graveknight armor broken into a bunch of pieces is going to rejuvenate in the most suitable place, typically wherever the biggest piece is unless there are circumstances that make such less ideal (e.g. submerged in acid) or make another place more ideal (e.g. a vambrace being worn by an unsuspecting future host). Much as cutting up a troll into lots of pieces won't result in each gobbet of flesh forming a new troll, breaking the armor into lots of pieces won't create multiple graveknights. Only one of the regrowing pieces becomes the rebuilt creature. The others rot or crumble away once their redundancy is apparent.

That means that if you're using the piecemeal armor system from Ultimate Combat, the PCs couldn't just keep destroying the graveknight, letting it regrow from the torso armor, and selling off the leftover enchanted leg and arm pieces. That is, unless you want that to be a thing, in which case I encourage you to make it backfire in a really fun way later (such as everyone wearing greaves made by Grave Corps, Inc. suddenly becoming thralls to the graveknight).

[KainPen]

I am confused by your question, if the armor is busted up and broken to the point of it not be wearing able. no one is going to be wearing it to be hit by the parasitic armor effect. there no point to even reference that. if someone is wearing the armor in repaired or broken condition use parasitic armor rules, if not see below.

This entire bit is GM call territory there are not going to be any hard rules on it. See destroying equipment rules in core rule book,you find there is a rule that says only GM decide if item actual gets destroyed. a GM can leave an item with one HP and broken status no matter what happens to it. to Destroy the Graveknight Armor, suggestions are given to gm to show how difficult it should be, just breaking it a part in to 1,000 small chucks should not be enough, but a GM could certainly rule that it is.

If it is busted up and parts of it are scatter all over the world, GM rules that is not enough for it to be destroyed, the gm picks a spot where the largest portion (similar how trolls regen to be fair on location) of the armor and grave knight is reformed in that location. Armor rebuilt in all, any remain chunks either fade way as stated by Drahliana Moonrunner or they become inactive as the armor reforms it self and the knight else where so that energy is in the new location. This could be what leads to the investigate the grave knight and how to true destroy it. By maybe the pc's having a chunk of it left with the knights banner or mark on it. This allows them to do the detective work as mention Parasitic Armor.

Also note that the rules on the GraveKnight are in two different books, one a basic monster book, and the other optional and expanded add on supplement for undead.

[McDaygo]

My question was for clarification lets say only the gauntlets survive. Would a full new set of armor grow along with the knight.

[John Compton]

McDaygo wrote:

My question was for clarification lets say only the gauntlets survive. Would a full new set of armor grow along with the knight.

With the caveats above, my strong inclination would be "yes." Permanent destruction of a graveknight relies on obliterating its armor in its entirety. I think there's a really strong case to say obliterating all but a few tiny fragments would still count as destroying the armor. PCs shouldn't have to perform a crime scene investigation to recover every square inch of metal. A good rule of thumb would be that if there's a functional piece of the armor left (like a gauntlet, helmet, or pauldron), it's enough for the graveknight to regrow. Remember that for treasure purposes, it's probably best if only the armor's cursed; the graveknight's gauntlets of ogre-punching probably aren't part of the equation, even though they're rather armor-like.

That's my take. You should absolutely do what's right for the story you want to tell. I had a great GM allow a PC (a master smith) to forge a graveknight's armor into a pair of consecrated weapons, which allowed that PC's background to shine while providing us a few pieces of equipment with great backstories. You might decide that a ritual could cleanse the gauntlets, allowing the PCs to destroy the graveknight but keep the gauntlets.

[McDaygo]

Thanks John that helped a lot.