[3.5 Base Class] The Death Knight [PEAR!]

[Jarian]

Death Knight


"The Lich King has given me power immeasurable, yet you dare stand in my path? Fool! This is the last mistake you will ever make!"
- Nysaqua Frostsoul, Tielfling Death Knight

Class Skills
The Death Knight's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str)
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

Alignment: Any nongood. Death Knights may try to balance the evilness of their abilities with good actions, but they are inherently tainted by evil. A neutral alignment is the best one can hope for. (If undead are not inherently evil in your campaign, consider allowing Death Knights to be good aligned.)

Hit Dice: d8

Level	BAB	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Presences, Blood Strike, Death Coil, Icy Touch, Plague Strike
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Acherus Deathcharger, Death Gate, Death Grip
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Death Strike, Pestilence, Raise Dead
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Mind Freeze, Blood Boil
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Chains of Ice, Strangulate
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Death and Decay, Obliterate, Path of Frost
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Blood Tap, Icebound Fortitude
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	Dark Command, Festering Strike
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Horn of Winter
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	Death Pact
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3	Rune Strike
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Anti-Magic Shell
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	Raise Ally
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	Empower Rune Weapon
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Army of the Dead
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	Mastery
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Outbreak
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Runic Empowerment
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Necrotic Strike
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Dark Simulacrum

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Death Knights are proficient with all simple and martial melee weapons, and with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light). Death Knights are not proficient with any types of shields.

Specialization: At 1st level, a Death Knight chooses a path in which to specialize. Each path unlocks different powerful abilities over the course of the Death Knight's career, as shown on the individual table for each path. The choice of a path is permanent, representing the Death Knight's dedication to one of the three Arts.

Blood Specialization:

Spoiler

Immediately upon specializing in the art of Blood, a Death Knight unlocks the following abilities:

Heart Strike (Ex): As an attack action, the Death Knight may perform a Heart Strike. Heart Strike deals normal damage, plus 25% for each Death Knight disease on the target. The attack also echoes out, damaging up to two enemies within 10 feet of the first, with each foe after the first taking 25% less damage.

Using Heart Strike consumes 1 Blood Rune.

Veteran of the Third War (Ex): The Death Knight receives a +2 class bonus to Constitution.

Blood Rites: Whenever the Death Knight uses a Death Strike or Obliterate attack, the consumed runes become Death Runes when they become available for use again. A Death Rune counts as either a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune. Once consumed, a Death Rune reverts to its normal type.

Vengeance (Ex): The Death Knight inflicts bonus damage with melee attacks equal to 1/10th his missing hitpoints, rounded up.


In addition, the Death Knight receives further abilities at the following levels, as seen on the table below.

Level	Ability
2	Butchery
3	Blade Barrier
4	Bladed Armor
5	Scent of Blood
6	Scarlet Fever
7	Improved Blood Tap
8	Hand of Doom
9	Bone Shield
10	Toughness
11	Abomination's Might
12	Improved Blood Presence
13	Sanguine Fortitude
14	Rune Tap
15	Will of the Necropolis
16	Vampiric Blood
17	Improved Death Strike
18	Crimson Scourge
19	Dancing Rune Weapon

Butchery: Whenever a foe that the Death Knight has personally injured at some point in the encounter is slain, he gains 20 Runic Power.

Blade Barrier: While both of the Death Knight's Blood Runes are recharging, he gains DR 2/-, stacking with any other sources of damage reduction he possesses.

Bladed Armor: The Death Knight deals bonus damage on all melee attacks equal to 1/3 the AC granted from his armor.

Scent of Blood: Whenever the Death Knight takes damage from a single target ability, his next three basic attacks (that is, attacks not augmented by any of his other abilities) generate 10 Runic Power each.

Scarlet Fever: Victims of the Death Knight's Blood Plague are also affected by the Scarlet Fever for the same duration, causing them to deal 20% less physical damage while the disease is active.

Improved Blood Tap: The Death Knight's Blood Tap ability recharges in half the normal amount of time.

Hand of Doom: The Death Knight's Strangulate ability recharges in half the normal amount of time.

Bone Shield (Su): As a swift action, the Death Knight may surround himself in a whirling vortex of quasi-real bones. The Bone Shield has three charges, and loses one charge whenever the Death Knight takes damage. While active, the Death Knight takes 20% less hitpoint damage from all sources.

Toughness: The Death Knight receives a +2 Armor bonus to AC, which stacks with all other sources of Armor bonuses.

Abomination's Might: The Death Knight's presence on the battlefield is enough to inspire others to follow in his steps. All allies within 60 feet of the Death Knight deal an additional 10% damage with all physical attacks.

Additionally, the Death Knight receives a +2 class bonus to Strength.

Improved Blood Presence: While in the Blood Presence, the Death Knight's runes recharge 1 round faster, and the Death Knight gains light fortification. If the Death Knight already had fortification of some variety, it increases in effectiveness by one step while he is in the Blood Presence.

Sanguine Fortitude: The Death Knight takes an additional 30% less damage while Icebound Fortitude is active.

Rune Tap (Ex): As a swift action, the Death Knight may expend one Blood Rune to heal himself for 10% of his maximum hitpoints. Rune Tap may be used once every 6 rounds.

Will of the Necropolis (Ex): Whenever the Death Knight is brought below 25% of his maximum hitpoints, Rune Tap automatically becomes available and does not cost a rune to activate if used before the end of the round following the activation of this ability. Additionally, the Death Knight takes 10% less damage for one round following the activation of this ability.

Will of the Necropolis cannot active more often than once every five rounds.

Vampiric Blood (Su): As a standard action, the Death Knight may grant himself temporary hitpoints equal to 20% of his full normal hitpoints and increase the amount of health gained from all sources by 20% for two rounds. At the end of this ability's duration, the Death Knight takes damage equal to 20% of his full normal hitpoints, which cannot be obviated by any means. Vampiric Blood may be used once per encounter.

Improved Death Strike: The Death Knight's Death Strike now deals an additional 20% damage, heals for 33% more, and increases the crit range of the weapon used to deliver the attack by 1.

Crimson Scourge: The Death Knight's Blood Boil now deals an additional 50% damage.

Dancing Rune Weapon (Su): As a standard action, the Death Knight may summon a quasi-real copy of his mainhand weapon which floats alongside him. Treat this second weapon as an exact copy of the weapon it mimics, except that it gains the Dancing weapon property, with some differences. The dancing rune weapon attacks when the Death Knight attacks with the real version of the copied weapon, using his same attack and damage roll. Halve any damage dealt by the dancing rune weapon, and do not apply the secondary effects of any Death Knight special attacks inflicted with the dancing rune weapon.

Four rounds after being summoned, the dancing rune weapon disappears.

Frost Specialization:

Spoiler

Immediately upon specializing in the art of Frost, a Death Knight unlocks the following abilities:

Frost Strike (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight may perform a Frost Strike. A Frost Strike deals normal damage, plus an additional point of cold damage per class level.

Frost Strike consumes 40 Runic Power when used.

Icy Talons: The Death Knight gains the speed weapon property on any melee weapon held in his main hand.

Blood of the North: Whenever the Death Knight uses Blood Strike or Pestilence, the consumed runes become Death Runes when they become available for use again. A Death Rune counts as either a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune. Once consumed, a Death Rune reverts to its normal type.

In addition, the Death Knight receives further abilities at the following levels, as seen on the table below.

Level	Ability
2	Runic Power Mastery
3	Nerves of Cold Steel
4	Icy Reach
5	On Pale Horse
6	Endless Winter
7	Annihilation
8	Lichborne
9	Merciless Combat
10	Chill of the Grave
11	Killing Machine
12	Rime
13	Improved Frost Presence
14	Improved Icy Talons
15	Pillar of Frost
16	Chilblains
17	Hungering Cold
18	Threat of Thassarian
19	Howling Blast

Runic Power Mastery: The Death Knight's maximum pool of Runic Power increases to 130.

Nerves of Cold Steel (Ex): The Death Knight may apply his full strength bonus to damage rolls made with a light offhand weapon, and may treat a one-handed weapon as a light weapon for the purpose of determining penalties for fighting with two weapons. Additionally, all penalties for fighting with two weapons are decreased by 1.

Icy Reach: Increases the range of the Death Knight's Icy Touch, Chains of Ice, and Howling blast abilities by 10 feet.

On Pale Horse (Ex and Su): The Death Knight's Acherus Deathcharger's base movement speed increases by 10 feet. In addition, the Death Knight has a 20% chance to ignore any effect that would hinder his ability to move freely (such as a Grease or Solid Fog spell, or Otto's Irresistible Dance). If the spell has multiple effects, this ability only applies to effects that would hinder movement. This ability does not apply to effects that would utterly incapacitate the Death Knight, such as the Flesh to Stone spell.

Endless Winter: The Death Knight's Mind Freeze ability no longer consumes Runic Power when used.

Annihilation: The Death Knight's Obliterate ability deals an additional 33% damage.

Lichborne (Su): As an immediate action, the Death Knight may gain many of the traits common to undead creatures. Until the end of the Death Knight's second turn after using this ability, he gains immunity to mind-affecting spells and abilities, poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, disease, death, extra damage from critical hits, nonlethal damage, death from massive damage, ability drain, energy drain, fatigue, exhaustion, damage to physical ability scores, and any effect requiring a Fortitude save unless it is harmless or affects objects. He does need not breathe, eat, or sleep. Like an undead creature, he is damaged by cure spells and healed by inflict spells. The Death Knight does not actually gain the undead type from using this ability, but is considered undead for the purpose of targeting himself with his Death Coil ability. Lichborne may be used once per encounter.

Merciless Combat: The Death Knight deals an additional 10% damage to foes below 25% of their normal maximum hitpoints.

Chill of the Grave: The Death Knight gains an additional 10 Runic Power whenever he uses his Chains of Ice, Howling Blast, Icy Touch, and Obliterate abilties.

Killing Machine (Ex): Whenever the Death Knight delivers a melee attack not augmented by one of his abilities, he has a 20% chance to make his next Frost Strike or Obliterate attack made before the end of his next turn deal damage as if from a critical hit, without the need to threaten a critical. Roll for each normal melee attack delivered in a round to determine whether this ability activates.

Rime: Whenever the Death Knight hits with an Obliterate attack, he has a 50% chance to cause his next Icy Touch or Howling Blast ability used to consume no Frost Runes.

Improved Frost Presence: While in the Frost Presence, the Death Knight inflicts an additional 5% damage with all melee attacks.

Improved Icy Talons: The Death Knight now gains the speed property on any weapon wielded in his off hand as well.

Pillar of Frost (Su): As a swift action, the Death Knight may cause great sheets of ice to hang on his body until the end of the second round in which this ability is activated. While this ability is active, the Death Knight gains a bonus equal to his class level on all checks made to resist bull rush, overrun, or trip attempts made against him. Additionally, his strength increases by 20% while this ability is active. Pillar of Frost may be used once per encounter.

Chilblains: Victims of the Death Knight's Frost Fever disease are chilled to their core, reducing their movement speed by 50%. In addition, any creature that fails its save against the Death Knight's Chains of Ice ability is Immobilized for one round.

Hungering Cold (Su): As a standard action, the Death Knight may purge the area around him of all heat for a short duration. All enemies within 20 feet of the Death Knight that fail a Fortitude save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) are encased in ice and are considered Paralyzed for two rounds. Normal immunity to paralysis does not apply to this effect, but immuity to cold damage also renders a creature immune to this ability.

Any damage taken other than from the Death Knight's diseases during this time breaks the ice and frees the trapped creature.

Hungering cold may be used once per encounter.

Threat of Thassarian (Ex): Whenever you hit with a Blood Strike, Death Strike, Frost Streike, Obliterate, Plague Strike, or Rune Strike, you deal additional damage as if you had also hit with your offhand weapon. The only modifiers that apply to this offhand weapon damage are your strength bonus, the weapon's enhancement bonus, and any damaging special properties of the weapon.

Howling Blast (Su): As an attack action, the Death Knight may call down a blast of unearthly cold wind and ice. This ability deals 1d6 cold damage per two Death Knight levels to a target within 30 feet, plus all enemies within 5 feet of the initial target. A successful Fortitude save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) halves this damage.

Howling Blast consumes 1 Frost Rune when used.

Unholy Specialization:

Spoiler

Immediately upon specializing in the art of Unholy, a Death Knight unlocks the following abilities:

Scourge Strike (Ex): As an attack action, a Death Knight may perform a Scourge Strike. A Scourge Strike deals normal damage, plus an an additional point of profane damage for every two class levels the Death Knight possesses. The total damage dealth by this attack is increased by 25% for each of the Death Knight's diseases present on the target.

Scourge Strike consumes 1 Unholy Rune when used.

Master of Ghouls: The undead creature summoned by the Death Knight's Raise Dead ability has an unlimited duration, and he has direct control over when it uses each of its special abilities. The Death Knight may not use Raise Dead again if he has a creature summoned by that ability bound to his control already.

Unholy Might: The Death Knight gains a +2 class bonus to Strength.

Reaping: Whenever the Death Knight uses Blood Strike, Festering Strike, or Pestilence, the consumed runes become Death Runes when they become available for use again. A Death Rune counts as either a Blood, Frost, or Unholy Rune. Once consumed, a Death Rune reverts to its normal type.

In addition, the Death Knight receives further abilities at the following levels, as seen on the table below.

Level	Ability
2	Unholy Command
3	Virulence
4	Epidemic
5	Desecration
6	Morbidity
7	Unholy Frenzy
8	Runic Corruption
9	Contagion
10	Shadow Infusion
11	Death's Advance
12	Magic Suppression
13	Improved Unholy Presence
14	Rage of Rivendare
15	Unholy Blight
16	Anti-Magic Zone
17	Dark Transformation
18	Ebon Plaguebringer
19	Summon Gargoyle

Unholy Command: The Death Knight's Death Grip ability recharges two rounds faster. Additionally whenever an enemy that the Death Knight has personally injured at some point in the encounter dies, his Death Grip ability immediately recharges.

Virulence: The Death Knight's diseases deal 33% more damage.

Epidemic: The Death Knight's diseases last an additional 2 rounds.

Descration (Su): Whenever the Death Knight uses a Necrotic Strike, Plague Strike, or Scourge Strike, a 10ft radius area around his target becomes defiled, doubling the amount of movement speed consumed by enemies to move through each of the affected squares.

Morbidity: The Death Knight's Death Coil ability deals an additional 15% damage, and his Death and Decay ability deals an additional 33% damage.

Unholy Frenzy (Su): As a swift action, the Death Knight may incite a killing frenzy within an ally for three rounds. An affected ally's movement speed is increased by 30 feet, and they gain an additional attack per round at their highest base attack bonus, which may be taken on either a standard or full attack action. This extra attack does not stack with the extra attack granted by the haste spell or similar abilities. At the end of each of the affected ally's turns, he takes damage equal to 1/2 his hit dice.

Unholy Frenzy may be used once per encounter.

Runic Corruption: The Death Knight's Death Coil ability consumes 10 less Runic Power when used. Additionally, whenever the Death Knight's Runic Empowerment ability triggers, it instead causes all currently recharging runes to recharge in half their remaining rounds, rounded down.

Contagion: The diseases spread by the Death Knight's Pestilence ability now deal full normal damage, rather than half.

Shadow Infusion: Whenever the Death Knight uses his Death Coil ability, his Risen Ghoul is empowered, increasing its damage dealt by 10% for 4 rounds. This ability stacks up to 5 times, refreshing the duration whenever the Death Knight uses Death Coil.

Death's Advance: While both of the Death Knight's Unholy Runes are recharging, he may ignore any effect which impairs his movement speed. If the ability impairing him has multiple effects (such as a spell that damages and lowers movement speed) he only ignores the movement speed impairing effect. This ability does not apply to effects that would utterly incapacitate the Death Knight, such as the Flesh to Stone spell.

Magic Suppression: The Death Knight's Anti-Magic Shell ability now absorbs 100% of any magical damage inflicted upon him, and converts this damage to Runic Power at a rate of 1 Runic Power per 2 damage absorbed.

Improved Unholy Presence: While the Death Knight is in the Unholy Presence, he gains an additional 10 foot bonus to his movement speed.

Rage of Rivendare: The Death Knight deals an additional 33% damage with his Festering Strike, Plague Strike, and Scourge Strike abilities.

Unholy Blight: Enemies struck by the Death Knight's Death Coil ability take 10% of the total inflicted damage at the start of his next turn. Until this secondary damage occurs, the target cannot be purged of the Death Knight's diseases.

Anti-Magic Zone (Su): As a standard action, the Death Knight may create a 20 foot radius area of swirling purple and black motes. Allies in this area take no damage from magical sources for the duration of the effect. The Anti-Magic Zone can absorb up to twice the Death Knight's normal maximum hitpoints before collapsing.

An Anti-Magic Zone lasts for three rounds or until it collapses. Anti-Magic Zone may be used once per encounter.

Dark Transformation (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight may remove 5 charges of Shadow Infusion from his Risen Ghoul to empower it for 3 rounds. While empowered, the Risen Ghoul inflicts double normal damage, and its skills are altered, as follows:

Sweeping Claw: The Risen Ghoul makes a sweeping attack with its deformed claws, dealing damage to all squares around it.

Gnaw: The Risen Ghoul voraciously tears into its foe, stunning for two rounds and dealing bite damage.

Leap: The Risen Ghoul collides with its target, knocking it off balance and Immobilizing it for one round.

Ebon Plaguebringer: The Death Knight's Chains of Ice, Icy Touch, Outbreak and Plague Strike abilities also infect their target with the Ebon Plague, which increases damage taken from the Death Knight's diseases by an additional 33%, and increases all damage taken from magical sources by 10%.

Summon Gargoyle (Su): As a standard action, a Death Knight may call a Risen Gargoyle to serve him. This ability may be used once per encounter.

Presences (Su): All Death Knights have access to the three Presences: Blood, Frost, and Unholy. Though each of these Presences are improved with access to the appropriate specialization, any Death Knight may use any of the Presences. Assuming a new Presence is a swift action that consumes any Runic Power the Death Knight may have. A Presence lasts until the Death Knight assumes a new Presence or dismisses his current Presence, a free action.

Blood Presence: While in the Blood Presence, a Death Knight increases Armor bonuses to AC by 30%, takes 10% less damage from all sources, and gains 1 hitpoint per class level.

Frost Presence: While in the Frost Presence, a Death Knight deals 10% more damage with all of his class abilities, and generates 10% more Runic Power from all sources.

Unholy Presence: While in the Unholy Presence, a Death Knight gains a +10' class bonus to his base movement speed and generates 10% more runic power from all sources.

Runes: A Death Knight's primary method of powering his abilities is through his runes, which he engraves into his weapons. The runes need not be elegant, and can quickly be scratched into any weapon the Death Knight happens to acquire. However, it is customary to have each of the six runes engraved in as much detail as possible when time permits; a DC 15 Craft: Caligraphy and Craft: Metalworking or Woodworking, depending on the weapon, is sufficient to inscribe masterful runes into a given weapon. A Death Knight suffers no penalty for having makeshift runes on a weapon, but other Death Knights may react with disdain if he intentionally ignores the custom.

A Death Knight channels his abilities through two Blood runes, two Frost runes, and two Unholy runes. When a given rune is tapped for its abilities, its power becomes unavailable for 4 rounds, at which point the Death Knight may draw upon it again.

Unless otherwise noted, any ability that requires runes requires a melee weapon to use.

Runic Power: Whenever a Death Knight taps a rune, his weapon resonates with the power. Should he damage a foe with the ability that tapped the rune, he gains an amount of Runic Power based on the number of runes tapped. Runic Power functions similarly to the Death Knight's runes, in that it powers several of his abilities, but it does not recharge on its own. A Death Knight can store up to 100 points of Runic Power at a time. If he does not gain or use Runic Power for 4 rounds, his stored Runic power begins to drain away at a rate of 5 points per round.

An ability that consumes 1 rune will generate 10 points of Runic Power if it damages an enemy. An ability that consumes 2 runes will generate 15 points of Runic Power. An ability that consumes 3 runes will generate 20 points of Runic Power.

Blood Strike (Ex): As an attack action, a Death Knight may perform a Blood Strike. A Blood Strike deals normal damage, plus an additional 15% for each of the Death Knight's diseases on the target.

Using Blood Strike consumes 1 Blood Rune.

Death Coil (Su): As an an attack action, a Death Knight may hurl an orb of roiling shadows at a target within 40 feet. This orb deals 1d6 profane damage per two levels, rounded up.

If used on a Risen Ghoul or the Death Knight when under the effect of Lichborne, Death Coil instead heals for this amount.

Death Coil consumes 40 Runic Power when used.

Unlike most supernatural abilities, Death Coil is subject to spell resistance.

Icy Touch (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight may call down a torrent of icy shards on an opponent within 20 feet. These shards deal 1d4 cold damage per class level and infect the target with Frost Fever if it takes damage. A successful Fortitude save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) halves the cold damage, but does not negate the application of Frost Fever unless the target fails to take any damage.

Using Icy Touch consumes 1 Frost Rune.

Unlike most supernatural abilities, Icy Touch is subject to spell resistance.

Frost Fever: Supernatural disease - application varies, no save to resist effects after initial application. Incubation period 1 round, damage repeats at beginning of each round thereafter, lasting 5 rounds or until dispelled. Damage 1 cold damage per Death Knight level. Secondary effect: reduces target's physical damage dealt by 20% for duration of the effect.

Plague Strike (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight may perform a Plague Strike. A Plague Strike deals normal damage and infects the target with the Blood Plague if it hits.

Using Plague Strike consumes 1 Unholy Rune.
Blood Plague: Supernatural disease - application varies, no save to resist effects after initial application. Incubation period 1 round, damage repeats at beginning of each round thereafter, lasting 5 rounds or until dispelled. Damage 1d2 profane damage per Death Knight level.

Acherus Deathcharger (Sp): As a standard action, a Death Knight of 2nd level or higher may summon the Acherus Deathcharger, a steed of bone and unearthly blue flame, resembling a warhorse (or warpony, in the case of a Small death knight).

An Acherus Deathcharger has 1 HD for every two Death Knight levels. Should the Deathcharger be reduced to 0HP or lower it immediately disappears in an explosion of flame and bone. The Death Knight may resummon a slain Deathcharger as normal.

Acherus Deathcharger:

Spoiler

The following Acherus Deathcharger was summoned by a 2nd level Death Knight.

Size/Type: Large Undead
Hit Dice: 1d12 (6 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 50 ft. (10 squares)
Armor Class: 14 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +4 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +0/+8
Attack: Hoof +4 melee (1d6+4)
Full Attack: 2 hooves +4 melee (1d6+4) and bite -1 melee (1d4+2)
Space/Reach: 10 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: --
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +2
Immunities: Undead immunities
Abilities: Str 18, Dex 13, Con --, Int --, Wis 13, Cha 6
Skills: --
Feats: Run^B

Death Gate (Sp): Whenever a Death Knight spends at least a week in an area, he may attune himself to that place. Thereafter, he may open a portal of swirling purple mist to that area by spending ten consecutive rounds casting this ability. The portal is large enough for the Death Knight to ride through on his Deathcharger, but may not be entered by other creatures. Enemies and allies alike can see the gate, which remains open for up to eight hours after being cast, and can walk through it without interference, but doing so does nothing except leave them with a vague feeling of unease.

An identical portal appears at the Death Knight's destination. If he steps through this second gateway before eight hours elapse, he returns to the location of the first gate and the gates disappear. Even if he doesn't use the second gate again, both gates disappear after eight hours.

Treat this ability as the result of a 1st level Conjuration (Teleportation) spell for adjudicating effects.
Death Grip (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight may harness the energy that surrounds and binds all matter to pull a creature up to four size categories larger than himself and no more than 60 feet away adjacent to himself. Using Death Grip does not break stealth or invisibility effects. Death Grip may be used every five rounds.

Unlike most supernatural abilities, Death Grip is subject to spell resistance.

Death Strike (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 3rd level or higher may perform a Death Strike. A Death Strike deals normal damage plus 1 bonus damage per two class levels. If the Death Knight hits with a Death Strike, he is healed for 25% of the damage taken in the last round, minimum of 7% of his full normal hitpoints.

Using Death Strike consumes 1 Frost and 1 Unholy Rune.

Pestilence (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 3rd level or higher may spread diseases from one target to all nearby foes. When using this ability, the Death Knight selects one target within 30 feet; all diseases on that target are spread to all enemies within 10 feet of the target, with the same duration as the original. Diseases spread in this way deal 50% normal damage.

Unlike most supernatural abilities, Pestilence is subject to spell resistance.

Raise Dead (Sp): Once per encounter as a standard action, a Death Knight of 3rd level or higher may call an undead servant from the beyond. The resulting creature claws its way free of the ground in a square adjacent to the Death Knight at the start of his next turn, and acts on his initiative for the next four rounds, at which point the magic holding its body together fails and it falls apart in a heap of bones.

An undead creature created by this ability has hit dice equal to the Death Knight's class level -1.

Risen Ghoul:

Spoiler

The following Risen Ghoul was created by a 3rd level Death Knight. Despite the similarity in names, Risen Ghouls are simply creatures created by magic holding together bits of bone and flesh; they have no relation to true ghouls.

"Ratface", Risen Ghoul
Size/Type: Medium Undead
Hit Dice: 2d12 (13 hp)
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 14 (+2 Dex, +2 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+2
Attack: Claw +4 melee (1d6+4)
Full Attack: Two claws +4 melee (1d6+4) and bite +2 melee (1d3+3)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Sweeping Claw, Leap, Gnaw
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft., undead traits
Saves: Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +5
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 15, Con --, Int --, Wis 14, Cha 12
Skills: --
Feats: Multiattack B

A Risen Ghoul has natural armor equal to its hit dice.

Note: Unless the Death Knight took the Unholy Specialization path, he has no direct control over which ability a Risen Ghoul uses at a given time. The Ghoul will attack to the best of its ability, using its Leap ability to close large distances. It uses its Sweeping Claw and Gnaw abilities at random; roll 1d3 each round. A result of 1 indicates that the Ghoul uses its Sweeping Claw ability, 2 indicates that the Ghoul uses its Gnaw ability, and 3 indicates that it attacks normally.
Sweeping Claw: The Risen Ghoul deals double normal claw damage to two continguous squares adjacent to it. A successful Reflex save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) halves this damage.

Gnaw: The Risen Ghoul latches on to an adjacent foe, biting at it viciously. If the target fails a Fortitude save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) it is Immobilized for one round and takes automatic double bite damage.

Leap: The Risen Ghoul makes a Jump check with a +20 modifier as a free action and immediately jumps toward its target, landing adjacent if possible, or else jumping as close to its target as possible with the jump result.

Mind Freeze (Su): As an immediate action, a Death Knight of 4th level or higher may attempt to counter a spell being cast within 20 feet of himself. The Death Knight makes a dispel check, as if casting greater dispel magic, with his class level in place of the caster level. If successful, the spell is counterspelled and the target cannot cast any spells from the same school of magic for two rounds. Mind Freeze may be used every 2 rounds.

Using Mind Freeze consumes 20 Runic Power.

Blood Boil (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 4th level or higher may release waves of energy, boiling the blood of all enemies within 10 feet of himself. All affected enemies that fail a Fortitude save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) take 1d3 damage per class level. The damage dice for this ability increase by one step for each of the Death Knight's diseases affecting a given enemy, to a maximum of d6.

Using Blood Boil consumes 1 Blood rune.

Chains of Ice (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 5th level or higher may summon chains of ice around the legs of an enemy within 20 feet. A moment after being summoned, the chains snap together, biting into the enemy's flesh. If the target fails a Reflex save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) its movement speed is slowed by 50% for 3 rounds, and it is infected with Frost Fever.

Using Chains of Ice consumes 1 Frost rune.

Strangulate (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 5th level or higher may cause the blood surrounding creature's windpipe or other means of producing intelligible sounds to crush together, rendering the target unable to speak or make intelligible sounds, provided the creature is within 60 feet of you. If the target fails a Fortitude save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) it is rendered essentially mute for one round, unable to talk or cast spells with verbal components.

Strangulate may be used once per minute.

Using Strangulate consumes 1 Blood rune.

Death and Decay (Su): As a standard action, a Death Knight of 6th level or higher may create a 40 foot radius area of torment, the very ground and air twisting, warping, bubbles of reality boiling up from the earth only to burst and fall back to the ground in a spray.

At the start of each of the Death Knight's turns, all creatures except the Death Knight within the area of Death and Decay take 1d4 profane damage per class level.

Death and Decay lasts for 5 rounds. Only one Death and Decay effect may be active at one time.

Using Death and Decay consumes 1 Unholy rune.

Obliterate (Ex): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 6th level or higher may deliver a vicious blow with his weapon. Using Obliterate doubles the base damage of the weapon and deals an additional point of damage per class level. The total damage dealt is increased by 25% for each disease present on the target.

Using Obliterate consumes 1 Frost and 1 Unholy rune.

Path of Frost (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 6th level or higher may surround his feet in a swirling aura of unearthly cold for up to ten minutes. This aura instantly freezes any liquid the Death Knight steps on, but deals no damage. The Death Knight may thus move across bodies of water or even molten lava with no hinderance, save for the natural dangers of the area. The frozen path created by this ability persists for three rounds before melting away, regardless of the temperature of the surrounding area.

If the Death Knight is mounted on his Acherus Deathcharger, the Deathcharger's hooves are also surrounded by the aura of cold.

Using Path of Frost consumes 1 Frost rune, but generates no Runic Power.

Blood Tap (Su): As a free action, a Death Knight of 7th level or higher may voluntarily take 1 damage for every hit die he possesses to instantly refresh a recharging Blood rune. Blood Tap may be used once every minute.

Icebound Fortitude (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 7th level or higher may freeze his blood for two rounds. While this ability is active, the Death Knight takes 20% less damage from all sources and is immune to stunning and paralyzation effects, and poison and disease effects do not advance the count toward their next damaging step.

Icebound Fortitude may be used once per encounter.

Using Icebound Fortitude consumes 20 Runic Power.

Dark Command (Su): As a standard action, a Death Knight of 8th level or higher may speak a command in the true language of things, compelling a creature to attack him above all others. If the target fails a Will save, DC (10+1/2 HD+Str modifier) it is subjected to the effects of the Goad feat, except that this effect restricts all forms of attack, including those normally excluded by the feat.

Festering Strike (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 8th level or higher may lash out with a vile attack, extending the duration of his diseases on his target. Festering Strike increases the base damage of his weapon by one step and deals one point of profane damage per two class levels. If it hits, the duration of each of the Death Knight's diseases on the target is lengthened by one round.

Using Festering Strike consumes 1 Frost rune.

Horn of Winter (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 9th level or higher may raise a conjured horn of bloody ice to his lips and play it. All allies that can hear the horn played gain a profane bonus to strength and dexterity equal to 1/4 their HD for 5 rounds.

Playing the Horn of Winter also generates 10 Runic Power.

The Horn of Winter may be played every 3 rounds.

Death Pact (Su): As a free action, a Death Knight of 10th level or higher may sacrifice a Risen Ghoul or all Risen Minions bound to him to heal himself for 25% of his maximum health. The sacrificed undead creature is immediately destroyed, reduced to a pile of dust and bones.

Using Death Pact consumes 40 Runic Power.

Rune Strike (Ex): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 11th level or higher may make a melee touch attack against a target within range, ignoring all cover and concealment less than total and all miss chances. If it hits, the target takes automatic weapon damage. The only modifiers that are applied to this automatic damage are the Death Knight's strength, the weapon's enhancement bonus, and any damaging enchantments on the weapon.

Rune Strike may only be used after an attack made against the Death Knight fails to strike him, or if he is in the Blood Presence.

Using Rune Strike consumes 30 Runic Power.

Anti-Magic Shell (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 12th level or higher may surround himself in a glowing shell of antimagic. This shell absorbs 75% of all damage from magical sources, up to a maxiumum of 50% of the Death Knight's full normal hitpoints. The shell lasts for two rounds, or until the full amount has been absorbed. While the shell is active, the Death Knight is immune to any negative effects from magical sources.

Anti-Magic Shell may be used once per minute.

Raise Ally (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 13th level or higher may summon a temporary shell for an ally that has fallen in combat. This ability functions as the Death Knight's Raise Dead ability, except that the Risen Ghoul has hit dice equal to the dead ally's hit dice he had in life, and the Risen Ghoul is under the control of the character whose soul is inhabiting the shell. Raise Ally must be used within one round of the death, and has a range of 100 feet. If the ally is unwilling to inhabit the summoned shell, it collapses one round later. Otherwise, it lasts for the full normal duration of the Death Knight's Raise Dead ability, then releases the ally's soul as normal for death.

Raise Ally may be used once per day.

Empower Rune Weapon (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 14th level or higher may call upon a burst of power, instantly refreshing all of his consumed runes and generating 25 Runic Power.

Empower Rune Weapon may be used twice per day, but no more than once per enounter.

Army of the Dead (Su): As a full-round action, a Death Knight of 15th level or higher may call forth a small army of minions; these minions are virtually useless in combat, but interpose themselves between enemies and allies, drawing attacks toward themselves. Army of the Dead summons six Risen Minions, which appear in squares adjacent to the Death Knight and act immediately upon completion of the action used to summon them. Risen Minions last for two rounds before the magic holding them together fails.

Risen Minion:

Spoiler

Risen Minion
Size/Type: Medium Undead
Hit Dice: 10d12 (70 hp)
Speed: 30 ft.
Armor Class: 22 (+2 Dex, +10 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 20
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+7
Attack: Taunting Blow
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Taunting Blow
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60ft., undead traits
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +9
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 15, Con --, Int --, Wis 14, Cha 12
Skills: --
Feats: --

Taunting Blow: Each round, a Risen Minion swipes a claw at the nearest enemy of the Death Knight, distracting or otherwise disrupting its foe's normal actions. The creature must succeed on a DC 20 Will save or be enraged to the point that it attacks only the Risen Minion for one round, using all resources at its disposal.

Mastery: At 16th level, a Death Knight gains a potent increase to its abilities. The exact nature of this increase depends on the Death Knight's specialization.

Blood Specialization: Whenever the Death Knight uses Death Strike, he gains 75% of the health gained from the attack as temporary hitpoints, stacking up to his full normal hitpoints. These temporary hitpoints last for one minute or until consumed.

Frost Specialization: All cold damage inflicted by the Death Knight or his diseases is increased by 25%.

Unholy Specialization: All profane damage inflicted and all disease damage inflicted by the Death Knight is increased by 33%.

Outbreak (Su): As a swift action, a Death Knight of 17th level or higher may immediately bestow the Blood Plague and Frost Fever diseases upon an enemy within 60 feet.

Outbreak is usuable once every minute.

Runic Empowerment (Su): Whenever a Death Knight of 18th level or higher hits with Death Coil, Frost Strike, or Rune Strike, he has a 45% chance to activate a random recharging rune.

Necrotic Strike (Su): As an attack action, a Death Knight of 19th level or higher may perform a Necrotic Strike. A Necrotic Strike deals normal damage, and absorbs the next (3 x Death Knight level) points of healing the target would receive in the next 3 rounds. For three rounds, or until the full amount of healing is absorbed, the cast time of all of the target's spells and spell-like abilities is increased by one step.

Necrotic Strike consumes 1 Unholy rune when used.

Dark Simulacrum (Su): A Death Knight of 20th level may place a mark upon an enemy within 60 feet as a swift action, absorbing the next spell cast by that target and allowing the Death Knight to cast that spell himself. If the target attempts to cast a spell while the mark is active, the spell automatically fails and the spell is wasted, and the Death Knight may cast the spell within a miniute of copying it, without components. He is treated in all respects as if he were the original caster of the spell, including caster level and save DC, if any. The mark of Dark Simulacrum lasts for two rounds or until triggered.

Dark Simulacrum may be used once per minute.

Dark Simulacrum consumes 20 Runic Power when used.

[super dark33]

may i ask what are the PEACHES and PEARS are?

Oh and you should give it a limited spell list of clerics

[Jarian]

A note on "attack action" abilities:

Spoiler

In general, many of a Death Knight's abilities take an attack action to use; that is, they may be used as many times during a full attack action as the Death Knight has iteratives due to base attack bonus, and they may be used for attacks of opportunity. Such attacks cannot be made as bonus attacks granted by haste or the Two-Weapon Fighting line of feats, for example.

Immobilized:

Spoiler

Introduced in Tome of Magic, the immobilized condition prevents a creature from moving from the space in which it starts its turn. An immobilized creature can attack and cast spells, and it keeps its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class. Flying creatures that become immobilized when aloft can control their descent so they don’t take falling damage, but they are incapable of moving from their current space until the condition ends, descending at a rate of 20 feet per round. If an immobilized flying creature can hover, it can maintain its altitude, but it still can’t move from its space until the condition ends.

A note on percentages:

Spoiler

Percentages for the Death Knight are additive, rather than multiplicative. This provides both an increase in power and in simplicity. If the percentages slow your game down too much, consider removing them for flat bonuses - but try bringing a calculator first. The Death Knight is meant to scale well, and flat bonuses often do not.

So, since PEACH is so commonly used, let's go with PEAR for this one. Please Examine and Reply, guys.

I realize I haven't finished some of the stuff in the Unholy Specialization yet. Haven't got around to it, will finish soon. No need to point it out.

[unosarta]

As someone who plays a Deathknight in WoW, I love you. As a game designer, I love you.

Did I mention that I love you?

Seriously, a very good port from WoW. Why exactly must one be a non-good Deathknight, may I ask? I would love to play a good Deathknight who tries to do the best he can to do good while trying to fight his natural thirst for blood.

[Edit]: You might want to think about converting the percentages to easier to use dice. For instance, instead of an increase of 10% of damage to targets at 25% of their health, you could make it and extra 2d4 damage when attacking enemies at 25% of their health. It would make it easier and a whole lot less number crunchy to play a Deathknight, especially on a PbP game, where you would have to roll the dice, and then edit your post afterwards with the math every. Single. Roll.

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by super dark33

may i ask what are the PEACHES and PEARS are?

PEACH = Please Examine and Critique Honestly.

PEAR = My sad attempt at humor. Please Examine and Reply.

Oh and you should give it a limited spell list of clerics

I disagree, as I've represented each of the abilities granted by the Death Knight class here. Clerical casting would require me to nerf the melee capabilities of the class, and that's something I don't want to do.

Originally Posted by unosarta

As someone who plays a Deathknight in WoW, I love you. As a game designer, I love you.

Did I mention that I love you?

Whythankyou.

Seriously, a very good port from WoW. Why exactly must one be a non-good Deathknight, may I ask? I would love to play a good Deathknight who tries to do the best he can to do good while trying to fight his natural thirst for blood.

Blech. It's just in keeping with the standard D&D theme that Profane damage and undead are evil. It's noted in the alignment line that DMs can choose to allow good Death Knights if they want to.

[unosarta]

Originally Posted by Jarian

Blech. It's just in keeping with the standard D&D theme that Profane damage and undead are evil. It's noted in the alignment line that DMs can choose to allow good Death Knights if they want to.

Meh.

Also, see my above edit. It would make the person who uses this classes' life so much easier.

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by unosarta

[Edit]: You might want to think about converting the percentages to easier to use dice. For instance, instead of an increase of 10% of damage to targets at 25% of their health, you could make it and extra 2d4 damage when attacking enemies at 25% of their health. It would make it easier and a whole lot less number crunchy to play a Deathknight, especially on a PbP game, where you would have to roll the dice, and then edit your post afterwards with the math every. Single. Roll.

It's intended for ease of use in a real time game, where adding percentages of total damage done doesn't require you to roll extra dice. It was one or the other, and I chose to make it simpler for people that don't have all the time in the world to edit a post with total damage dealt.

[unosarta]

Originally Posted by Jarian

It's intended for ease of use in a real time game, where adding percentages of total damage done doesn't require you to roll extra dice. It was one or the other, and I chose to make it simpler for people that don't have all the time in the world to edit a post with total damage dealt.

No, but it still requires you to carry a calculator and do a lot more math than some people would be willing to do. I personally would play it anyway, but it would be a turn off for many, and would seriously slow combat down.

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by unosarta

No, but it still requires you to carry a calculator and do a lot more math than some people would be willing to do. I personally would play it anyway, but it would be a turn off for many, and would seriously slow combat down.

"I hit for 17, so... 25% bonus... 4. 21 damage!"

I'm sorry, I just don't see the extra time being spent vs having to roll another handful of dice and add it all up. Potential players are free to bring up possible alternatives with their DMs if adding percentages slows their game down too much.

[unosarta]

Originally Posted by Jarian

"I hit for 17, so... 25% bonus... 4. 21 damage!"

I'm sorry, I just don't see the extra time being spent vs having to roll another handful of dice and add it all up. Potential players are free to bring up possible alternatives with their DMs if adding percentages slows their game down too much.

"So I use Heart Strike. I am in Frost Presence, one opponent has 25% health, the other doesn't. One, I applied two diseases to, the other only has one since I only have so many actions per round. So, 50% bonus to one enemy, 25% to the other. 10% overall, I have 15 hit points missing, so that is an extra 1 damage. So, how much bonus damage is that?"

[Hawk7915]

The Good: Incredibly faithful translation of the World of Warcraft class, and managed to be a very interesting and very powerful melee class that doesn't use initiator levels or Tome of Battle mechanics.

The Bad:
Really, really complicated class; arguably the most complicated class I've ever seen. Tons of abilities to keep track of, multiple resources to monitor (Runic Power pool, runes on cooldown, conversion to Death Runes, a mount, potentially a companion)...it all make this class very book-keeping heavy. This by itself isn't bad (Wildshape Ranger/Master of Many Forms is bookkeeping heavy too). But if there's a way to keep the flavor while losing some of the options, abilities, or resources that might be best.

The real kicker for me is all the percentages. I have to agree; a percentage-based class seems like it's going to be really frustrating. I'd much rather see "DR 10/-" or "+2 damage" or "inflict 1d6 additional damage" then have to punch everything into a calculator. I know this is a carry-over from WoW, but I just feel it really doesn't fit well in a d20-based Pen and Paper system. It also leads to confusion, as an additional example to expand on unosartas...

I'm a Blood Death Knight in Blood Presence with Blood Barrier and Bone Shield active. I nail an opponent with Icy Touch. He attacks me back for 20 damage. How much damage do I take? 8 damage (50%, -2)? Do I take 10 (10%, 20%, 20%, -2)? 9 damage (20, -2, 50%)? The difference here is all just 1 point, but at higher levels it could make a bigger difference. And lord forbid the maths involved if, instead of getting walloped for 100, I get hit five times for 24, 23, 21, 19, 13.

There are also individual abilities that seem a tad too strong for their level, such as...

- Frost Specialization basically gives you a penalty-free Flurry of Blows at 1st level which is unheard of in D&D.

- The above DR gets pretty excessive pretty fast for a Blood Death Knight. True they always take some damage (as opposed to say a flat DR 20/- which can utterly negate small chain attackers), but no class in the game can so easily find a way to take only 38 damage from a Titan's 100 damage power attack.

[Amnestic]

To echo unosarta: I love you. A Death Knight base class (and a faithful translation of the WoW one at that!) is awesome to see. I'd love to take this for a spin in the future (likely Frost, since Frost>All ) Consider this bookmarked.

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by unosarta

"So I use Heart Strike. I am in Frost Presence, one opponent has 25% health, the other doesn't. One, I applied two diseases to, the other only has one since I only have so many actions per round. So, 50% bonus to one enemy, 25% to the other. 10% overall, I have 15 hit points missing, so that is an extra 1 damage. So, how much bonus damage is that?"

As I said, if the percentages become too time-consuming for your group, you are free to tweak the class to use base damage amounts.

Originally Posted by Hawk7915

The Good: Incredibly faithful translation of the World of Warcraft class, and managed to be a very interesting and very powerful melee class that doesn't use initiator levels or Tome of Battle mechanics.

Thank you.

The Bad:
Really, really complicated class; arguably the most complicated class I've ever seen. Tons of abilities to keep track of, multiple resources to monitor (Runic Power pool, runes on cooldown, conversion to Death Runes, a mount, potentially a companion)...it all make this class very book-keeping heavy.

The real kicker for me is all the percentages. I have to agree; a percentage-based class seems like it's going to be really frustrating. I'd much rather see "DR 10/-" or "+2 damage" or "inflict 1d6 additional damage" then have to punch everything into a calculator.

[...etc]

I understand, but percentage increases scale with optimization, while flat bonuses do not. This is, ideally, intended to be a melee class that can adventure with wizards and druids and not cry himself to sleep every night, or play with his friend the Duskblade and not outshine him.

- Frost Specialization basically gives you a penalty-free Flurry of Blows at 1st level which is unheard of in D&D.

Flurry of Blows sucks anyway, and Frost Death Knights are supposed to be killing machines.

- The above DR gets pretty excessive pretty fast for a Blood Death Knight. True they always take some damage (as opposed to say a flat DR 20/- which can utterly negate small chain attackers), but no class in the game can so easily find a way to take only 38 damage from a Titan's 100 damage power attack.

That's intentional. Coupled with Dark Command and Death Grip, Blood Death Knights are supposed to be able to be functional tanks for short periods, rather than walls of hitpoints that enemies can walk over or around.

Originally Posted by Amnestic

To echo unosarta: I love you. A Death Knight base class (and a faithful translation of the WoW one at that!) is awesome to see. I'd love to take this for a spin in the future (likely Frost, since Frost>All ) Consider this bookmarked.

Thank you.

[PAZelos]

Hey, i just registered to the forum to post a comment on your homebrew, you should feel honored

I like the idea very much as i play a death knight too. Very nice port of the class, i especially liked the fact that the abilities can be used as attack actions. I think i'd prefer mechanics such as this over the ones introduced in Tome of battle (i've been desperate to create/find/play a melee class that can perform as good as spellcasters in the long run...ToB didnt quite give me what i was looking for).

That being said, i think the class as it is now it would be very problematic to play. Hawk and Unosarta said most of the things i wanted to say as i was reading. The percentages and multiple resources kinda put me off, although i could live with both of them as they're kinda what makes a death knight different from a fighter that would use cleaves, power attacks, trips etc. etc. but what mostly puts me off is how many abilities the class has right now.

Its all good when a computer calculates all that data through scripts etc. but it would be a huge bother having to keep track of all these things yourself.

leaving the percentages and the resources aside, if i were you i'd super-simplify things by keeping just the offensive and some of the most important abilities, and just some special abilities for each specialisation that would do exactly what each Death Knight type is supposed to do: Blood as a really badass dude in plates that the harder you strike him the harder he strikes back, frost as a frenzied killing machine that sends chills down your spine (literally too) and Unholy as an evil bastard that corrupts everything in his path and watches as his minions finish off his weakened foes, occasionaly striking some final blows himself when he's not feeling all that lazy (dont misunderstand i like unholy too).

An example would be for unholy to get faster rune cooldowns (3 rounds instead of 4), stronger diseases, extra Profane damage (or negative energy damage in my opinion) and just Scourge Strike. Oh, and the gargoyle as a final ability (although not sure if i would have that as a perma pet or a summon for a small duration)

You dont really need all the abilities the class has in wow to give the feel of a death knight in a pnp rpg, but then again it depends on what you want to do, its your homebrew anyway

:EDIT:
Also, thinking about it now, we dont really know how a death knight would look like when starting out...You could possibly move the specialisation thing higher in the level list so that the player can get used to its its simpler abilities first - you're practically creating a rotation system in 3.5, its the first time i see a class using one so i think at least i would be confused

:EDIT 2: nerf howling blast

[Temotei]

Originally Posted by Jarian

Please Examine and Reply, guys.

Dang. I thought it was PEARespect.

Saying that out loud makes it sound like a threat. PEARespect...or the death knight will come for you.

[Hawk7915]

Fair enough. I think you've certainly succeeded in creating a high T3-low T2 melee class. As you won't be dissuaded from the percentage schematic (which I can respect, as it makes it more faithful and makes it scale better), here's some more specific comments...

- You might want to clarify; do you round up or down? Are multiple percentages multiplicative, additive, or do they happen in order? Using my previous example: Do you reduce all damage from that enemy by 50%? All damage by 27%? All damage by 10%, and then by 20%, and then by 20% again? Additive is stronger but also simpler. You'd need to double check that you can't get 100% damage reduction though.

- Heart Strike uses a blood rune, yes?

- I know it's flavorful but I might drop Death Runes entirely. It's going to be hard to even spend runes fast enough in a standard 5-round combat, meaning that even at the highest levels it will rarely be significant. It's a whole lot of extra text for not a lot of effect. Alternatively, you could add even MOAR text and have attacks made with Death runes get an attack bonus, generate more runic power, or auto-confirm crits. Something to actually make them useful in a D&D format that's a lot slower than WoW.

- How long does Horn of Winter last?

- One ability that doesn't need percentages is probably "Toughness" in the blood tree, as it will almost never grant more than a +1 armor bonus per item (if you have +5 Mountain Plate, or some obscure clockwork armor, it might grant +2 if you round up). I'd just make it "While wearing armor, gain +2 additional armor bonus" and call it a day.

- I wouldn't mind seeing an anti-multiclassing clause for the DK; right now it seems a bit too attractive for a one-level dip to gain either a +4 Con or auto-hasted weapons in addition to a plethora of other minor abilities and bonuses. Other than the lack of shield proficiency, best Gish dip ever?

[Amnestic]

Pestilence-

As a swift action, a Death Knight of 3rd level or higher may spread diseases from one target to all nearby foes. When using this ability, the Death Knight selects one target within 30 feet; all diseases on that target are transfered to all enemies within 10 feet of the target, with the same duration as the original. Diseases transfered in this way deal 50% normal damage.

The wording on this is a bit...iffy. "Spread" implies that the diseases end up on both the original target and the newly hit ones, while "transferred" could imply that the diseases end up being removed from the original target and only affect the newly hit ones. Could clean it up, or just a "Diseases are not removed from the original target" line could remove any ambiguities I read into it.

I know how it's meant to work of course, just that the language isn't perfectly clear.

And yeah, I think the anti-multiclassing clause might be a good idea.

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by PAZelos

Hey, i just registered to the forum to post a comment on your homebrew, you should feel honored

Thank you.

Originally Posted by PAZelos

That being said, i think the class as it is now it would be very problematic to play. Hawk and Unosarta said most of the things i wanted to say as i was reading. The percentages and multiple resources kinda put me off, although i could live with both of them as they're kinda what makes a death knight different from a fighter that would use cleaves, power attacks, trips etc. etc. but what mostly puts me off is how many abilities the class has right now.

If you think of the abilities as spells as a Wizard's disposal, he really doesn't have very many. It's complicated when compared to a Fighter, sure, but even a Warblade has just as many options, albeit as standard actions. The Death Knight just doesn't have to pick his options from a list of hundreds.

Originally Posted by PAZelos

An example would be for unholy to get faster rune cooldowns (3 rounds instead of 4), stronger diseases, extra Profane damage (or negative energy damage in my opinion) and just Scourge Strike. Oh, and the gargoyle as a final ability (although not sure if i would have that as a perma pet or a summon for a small duration)

That removes too many of a Death Knight's options, in my opinion. Also, dealing negative energy damage would make them worse than useless against undead. They'd actually heal them.

Originally Posted by PAZelos

:EDIT:
Also, thinking about it now, we dont really know how a death knight would look like when starting out...You could possibly move the specialisation thing higher in the level list so that the player can get used to its its simpler abilities first - you're practically creating a rotation system in 3.5, its the first time i see a class using one so i think at least i would be confused

A Blood Death Knight has:

• +2 hitpoints
• +1 Fortitude
• A small AoE attack
• The equivalent of one 1st level spell usable at will
• The equivalent of one 1st level spell that he can "charge up"

It's like picking a Warblade out of all the melee classes and saying it's confusing because it gets a stance and three different attacks. At first glance, maybe it is. But if you sit down with it for five minutes, it's going to be intuitive.

Originally Posted by PAZelos

:EDIT 2: nerf howling blast

Nerf Meteor Swarm, possibly the worst 9th level spell out there, which a Wizard can use two levels earlier than Howling Blast.

---

Originally Posted by Hawk7915

- You might want to clarify; do you round up or down?

D&D rounds down by default. The only exceptions to that would be where I've specified that it rounds up.

Originally Posted by Hawk7915

Are multiple percentages multiplicative, additive, or do they happen in order? Using my previous example: Do you reduce all damage from that enemy by 50%? All damage by 27%? All damage by 10%, and then by 20%, and then by 20% again? Additive is stronger but also simpler. You'd need to double check that you can't get 100% damage reduction though.

Additive. Will clarify. 100% reduction isn't possible outside of Anti-Magic Shell. The best you can get is 70% hitpoint damage reduction, plus 40% reduction of physical damage dealt by your opponent.

Originally Posted by Hawk7915

- Heart Strike uses a blood rune, yes?

Originally Posted by Hawk7915

- I know it's flavorful but I might drop Death Runes entirely. It's going to be hard to even spend runes fast enough in a standard 5-round combat, meaning that even at the highest levels it will rarely be significant. It's a whole lot of extra text for not a lot of effect. Alternatively, you could add even MOAR text and have attacks made with Death runes get an attack bonus, generate more runic power, or auto-confirm crits. Something to actually make them useful in a D&D format that's a lot slower than WoW.

I was considering dropping them already. It's another resource to track that has very little actual use. We'll see how it turns out.

- How long does Horn of Winter last?

Fixed duration, lowered recharge to make it more in line with the actual recharge in WoW.

- One ability that doesn't need percentages is probably "Toughness" in the blood tree, as it will almost never grant more than a +1 armor bonus per item (if you have +5 Mountain Plate, or some obscure clockwork armor, it might grant +2 if you round up). I'd just make it "While wearing armor, gain +2 additional armor bonus" and call it a day.

Fixed.

- I wouldn't mind seeing an anti-multiclassing clause for the DK; right now it seems a bit too attractive for a one-level dip to gain either a +4 Con or auto-hasted weapons in addition to a plethora of other minor abilities and bonuses. Other than the lack of shield proficiency, best Gish dip ever?

Blood Presence now gives +1 hp/DK level. If a gish can't use Haste or similar, he's not a very good gish, so I'm not too worried about the single-weapon Speed enchantment.

---

Originally Posted by Amnestic

Pestilence- The wording on this is a bit...iffy. "Spread" implies that the diseases end up on both the original target and the newly hit ones, while "transferred" could imply that the diseases end up being removed from the original target and only affect the newly hit ones. Could clean it up, or just a "Diseases are not removed from the original target" line could remove any ambiguities I read into it.

I know how it's meant to work of course, just that the language isn't perfectly clear.

Fixed.

[Calmar]

Originally Posted by Jarian

So, since PEACH is so commonly used, let's go with PEAR for this one. Please Examine and Reply, guys.

Ah, I was wondering. I thought it might mean "Please Examine And Review".

[PAZelos]

hmm...reading howling blast again, its damage and area are ok i guess, but why would a fortitude negate the damage instead of halving it? Its not like the target can avoid having his skin frozen alltogether with a successful save, he just kinda...shrugs off most of the pain involved.

[Moose Man]

Run B? what kind of a feat is that?
in acherus deathcharger

[Jarian]

Supertext B's in printed books indicate bonus feats inherent to the creature. Since I can't create supertext here (at least, I don't think I can) you have to settle for a size 1 capital B, which is as close as I can manage.

[unosarta]

Originally Posted by Jarian

Supertext B's in printed books indicate bonus feats inherent to the creature. Since I can't create supertext here (at least, I don't think I can) you have to settle for a size 1 capital B, which is as close as I can manage.

Run^B.

Spoiler

Run[sup]B[/sup].

[Jarian]

[Hawk7915]

Originally Posted by PAZelos

hmm...reading howling blast again, its damage and area are ok i guess, but why would a fortitude negate the damage instead of halving it? Its not like the target can avoid having his skin frozen alltogether with a successful save, he just kinda...shrugs off most of the pain involved.

I concur; the class has a lot of things that need testing because they feel pretty powerful compared to what exists now, but Howling Blast isn't one of those abilities. If anything it's actually pretty awful at the level you get it (compared to a 9th level maneuver of spell) so the least I would do is make it Fort for 1/2 instead of Fort negates. Even the ability to spam it as much as four times in a single turn doesn't make it too exciting (you have to work awfully hard to do such a thing, anyhow).

========
As an additional note, it seems as if right now Death and Decay can deal damage to you while the other AoE abilities cannot; might want to change the wording one way or the other (leaning towards "no self-damage" although DnD is pretty strong).

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by Hawk7915

If anything it's actually pretty awful at the level you get it (compared to a 9th level maneuver of spell) so the least I would do is make it Fort for 1/2 instead of Fort negates.

I don't know what you guys are talking about. It's always been fort halves.

It's "Fort Halves" in my saved notes. I have no idea how that "Fort Negates" got into the finished version.

As an additional note, it seems as if right now Death and Decay can deal damage to you while the other AoE abilities cannot; might want to change the wording one way or the other (leaning towards "no self-damage" although DnD is pretty strong).

Will look into this.

[Saint GoH]

OMG OMG OMG.

/girly squeal.

I love it. Petitioning DM to allow me to use it in a game. I have been using the Death Knight PrC from WoW's Dark Factions book (WoW had a brief stint in teh d20 world, most of it was bleh) but that particular class didn't really capture the "feel" of a DK, but it did give a Vampiric Rune Weapon which was pretty awesome. This is, to a T, a Death Knight.

Which also borders my issue with it. It has been mentioned before but this is a particularly bookkeeping-heavy class. I personally don't mind having multiple resource management, because I did that when playing WoW anyhow. What does get me is the overabundance of abilities. I know you statted each ability directly, which is awesome, but the sheer amount of abilities these characters have confuses even the mightiest of players.

Im not sure what you should remove, but it seems like having 3 different types of "Raise X" (whether it be ally, dead, or Army) and a lot of Strikes (I understand Icy Touch and Plague Strike, Oblit and Death Strike, but are frost strike, rune strike blood strike, festering strike or even necrotic strike necessary?) just makes for an overly complex class.

I think simplified abilities would go a long way to improving this class, plus it would make it easier to convince a DM to let you play it if he didnt have to spend 45 minutes reviewing each ability

[Jarian]

Originally Posted by Saint GoH

Im not sure what you should remove, but it seems like having 3 different types of "Raise X" (whether it be ally, dead, or Army)

Be fair, those all do completely different things. One gives you a minion, one gives an ally a brief shot at life after dying, and one taunts stuff off of your casters.

and a lot of Strikes (I understand Icy Touch and Plague Strike, Oblit and Death Strike, but are frost strike, rune strike blood strike, festering strike or even necrotic strike necessary?) just makes for an overly complex class.

Frost Strike is runic power and frost damage - what else is the Frost DK going to do with all his runic power?

Rune Strike is something nothing else even comes close to doing.

Festering Strike is eh. It's not critical, but what's the point of removing just this one thing, thereby nerfing Unholy DKs?

Necrotic Strike is your "No, actually, that's a full-round action for you, Mr. Caster" ability. It's pretty integral to the DK being able to at least have a prayer for competing at higher levels.

I think simplified abilities would go a long way to improving this class, plus it would make it easier to convince a DM to let you play it if he didnt have to spend 45 minutes reviewing each ability

If you took twenty random maneuvers out of ToB and called them class features, you'd have just as much complexity. I don't like this argument, and anyone who dismisses the class just for actually having class features probably wouldn't allow you to play anything competitive with casters anyway.

But having a spell list half a mile long is just fine by most people. Ugh, hypocrisy.

[Amnestic]

Originally Posted by Saint GoH

Im not sure what you should remove, but it seems like having 3 different types of "Raise X" (whether it be ally, dead, or Army) and a lot of Strikes (I understand Icy Touch and Plague Strike, Oblit and Death Strike, but are frost strike, rune strike blood strike, festering strike or even necrotic strike necessary?) just makes for an overly complex class.

You're never going to be using every one of these abilities in a single fight. Some, I would wager, will be rare picks which you only use once or twice, alongside your base 'set' of abilities (likely consisting of Icy Touch, Plague Strke and some sort of big hitter).

Compare the amount of abilities to the amount of spells any of the spellcasters - even the spontaneous ones like a Sorcerer who will usually have smaller portfolios - will have on hand by level 20 (assuming we're including all the abilities). I'm quite sure that - especially in the case of Clerics and Druids - the numbers don't even compare.

Originally Posted by Saint GoH

I think simplified abilities would go a long way to improving this class, plus it would make it easier to convince a DM to let you play it if he didnt have to spend 45 minutes reviewing each ability

While I do agree that it might be a bit of an arse for a DM to have to look over all the abilities, I also think it's far too cool a class to dismiss out of hand because of it, especially when the core classes have drastically more 'abilities' available to them. Orisons+1st level Cleric spells in PHB number 37 in total, not including domains. That's how much they have available at 1st level!

Edit: Kinda Swordsage'd, point still stands though

[Eurus]

Something I just noticed - this guy doesn't seem to gain any direct benefits from mental ability scores at all. Or dexterity, for that matter. That's not necessarily a bad thing (it's kind of nice to see a melee class that's less MAD than normal), it's just unusual and I'm curious as to whether it was an intentional design choice.