So I have a retired character from an old group that I want to convert to an NPC only drastically change the current build (with keeping the history).
The character was a Drow (greater drow noble via feats) Antipaladin that help take over/run a surface city with a neutral/evil party (2 CN players, rest were on the evil plane L-C) well at the last two levels he did the “epic 2 quest” and became a graveknight. Then we did one level 20 game before retiring those characters and starting anew in a different geographical area on this custom world.
What I want to do with this Graveknight Antipaladin is redeem him. His history to fill in players included spreads disease and plagues passively throughout every town he would go to, using his ridiculous bluff to manipulate, practicing the dark speech (we were allowed 3.5 feats) , using his vile leadership to have his own crime organization which established/replacec the city guard and of course mass genocide on his quest to become a graveknight.
So with the redemption I had the crazy idea of what if said Level 20 Graveknight killed a paladin of Apsu and took his sword as a trophy seeing it was magic only to learn after grabbing it, it was an intelligent sword that that easily beat him in a battle of ego, a character flaw I gave him was a low wisdom/will save and played that off as him being impulsive.
With this sword (actual abilities irrelevant at this time) possessing the soul of an ancient Paladin of Apsu, instead of trying to destroy the graveknight begins to redeem him. He would lose his class abilities of an Antipaladin and slowly becoming lawful good while still being a graveknight.
I don’t know if I want to go true restoration to bring him back to life, change vile leadership to regular and give him a young gold dragon cohort that keeps an eye on him (keep dark speech but never uses it as now he is good) , before his redemption would actually convert him to a Paladin
Or keep him the full graveknight Antipaladin (just cannot use his AP powers) that is forced to be lawful good due to sword. I can run with both scenarios
The reason is I want to use this NPC as a Target for my evil party. They know he the last surviving “mortal” with knowledge of the dark speech” and they want access to it either for themselves or for their quest giver.
i don't think he losses his powers if he's been possessed. while being possessed maybe.
Antipaladins lose there powers the moment they stop being chaotic evil or do good deeds for non self serving reasons
So we have a couple of things going on here.
Without touching on the backstory side, I think it could be cool if you changed the class to a Cavalier with the Ghost Rider archetype and replaced the Grave Knight template to Broken Soul, which doesn't have any hard alignment requirements, and would represent your penance for wrongdoing.
That is a cool idea and as a cavalier can take the title of Paladin/knight without being one.
Id work the story to true resurrection but penance as a broken soul as he does good deeds.
I like the Broken Soul / Ghost Rider combo because they both get features based on gaze!