Dark Knight? Death Knight? Ebony Bikini Plate Armour?

[ZER0]

Alright, so one of my players for an upcoming campaign is obsessed with WoW and would like to turn her Tauren Death Knight into a D&D character. Yes, I've looked at the Tome Death Knight, but unfortunately, it does not meet her requirements. The request is as follows:

- A class that is not undead nor has anything to do with undead; focusing more on just 'death' than 'undeath'.

- A class that uses extraordinary/supernatural abilities to directly augment martial prowess.

- Good Fort and Will saves.

- Full armour, but not necessarily shields of any kind.

- A 'Death Strike' ability somewhere.

- A 10-level PRC (levels 6-15, preferably).

So, I'd like to hear some ideas on how to make this and make it work before I crack down on writing it. Thanks in advance.

[Cielingcat]

I've only played a Death Knight for 3 levels in WoW, but I have played Death Knight characters a lot in D&D. Here are a few sample abilities off the top of my head, and in no particular order.

Death Strike (Su): You may, as a free action upon hitting an opponent with a melee attack, force them to make a Fortitude save (DC 10+1/2 level+Str bonus) or die instantly. This is a death effect. You may only do this once per five combat rounds.

Necrotic Blows (Su): Your melee attacks deal an additional 1d6 points of Negative Energy damage per 2 levels of the Death Knight class.

Bone Armor (Ex): Your bones have hardened or formed a protective exoskeleton around you or whatever. You gain DR 2/Bludgeoning per Death Knight level, to a maximum of 20. At level 5, this becomes Magic and Bludgeoning, and at level 10 it becomes Holy and Bludgeoning

Dark Shroud (Ex): You are immune to Death effects, level draining, ability draining, and damage to your physical ability scores. Maybe Poison and Disease too.

Blood Runes (Sp): You may cast the Inflict x Wounds and Symbol of Pain spells at will. You may also cast Harm once per 5 combat rounds.

Anti-Magic Shield: You gain Spell Resistance equal to your level plus 11.

Unholy Aura (Su): You are surrounded by a constant aura of evil and death, as per the Unholy Aura spell. This cannot be dispelled, but you may supress and reactivate it as a free action.

[Maxus]

The Vengeant Knight might be a good dip...

[Maxus]

Vengeant Knight

"I'll do it. You don't have to watch."

'Evil begets evil', so the priests say. And they're right. They also say that evil contains the seeds of its own destruction... and they're right about that, too.

The Vengeant Knight is a child of evil, bound to the darkness yet sworn to its defeat. He may have been born - as some creatures are - with a canker in his heart, or he may have begun as an innocent who was exposed to such horrors that his soul became blackened and twisted. To his enemies, the nature of his genesis makes little difference; not that they will have long to ponder the question.

The Vengeant Knight takes the bitterness, cruelty, and hatred from the deepest recesses of his benighted soul and embraces them. He doesn't fight for redemption, nor for glory, but for revenge against the entire world and the vicious satisfaction to be derived from crushing those whose vileness mirrors his own. He does not balk at harming the innocent in the pursuit of his foes if it is needful, yet wherever possible he stays his hand against the undeserving; only the slaying of Evil creatures grants him the dark joy that for a time slakes his burning thirst for destruction.

Alignment: A Vengeant Knight may be of any Evil alignment.

Races: Suffering is experienced by all sentient creatures, and even the best-intentioned race can produce the occasional monster; Vengeant Knights born of the pain of Good-aligned races are often the most fearsome of all.

Starting Gold: 6d4x20 gp (300 gold)

Hit Die: d12

Class Skills: The Vengeant Knight's skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Rope (Dex).

Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus

BAB: Full

Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level: Benefits

1. Aura of Evil, Embrace the Darkness, Inexorable Evil, Sense Kinship, Smite 1/day
2. Original Sin, Strength of Corruption
3. 'Been There, Done That', The Abyss Gazes Also
4. The Quality of Mercy
5. Battle Not With Monsters, Smite 2/day
6. Nowhere to Hide
7. The Enemy Within 1/day
8
9. You're Next
10 Smite 3/day
11 The Enemy Within 2/day
12 My Evil Twin
13
14
15 Smite 4/day, The Enemy Within 3/day
16
17
18
19 The Enemy Within 4/day
20 Smite 5/day

Below are described the class features of the Vengeant Knight class:

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Vengeant Knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all armour and all shields except tower shields.

Aura of Evil The power of a Vengeant Knight's aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his class level.

Embrace the Darkness (Ex): The Vengeant Knight gains damage reduction equal to his class level against attacks with the [Evil] descriptor, such as melee damage inflicted by creatures with the [Evil] subtype.

Inexorable Evil (Ex): The Vengeant Knights's melee and ranged attacks are considered to meet any alignment requirement necessary in order to overcome damage reduction.

Sense Kinship (Su): Evil calls to its own; a Vengeant Knight is considered to have the effects of a detect evil spell on his person at all times, except that he need not take any actions to gain the information, the range is 30ft and he can only discern the auras of creatures or objects within his line of sight. Any method that foils the detect evil spell will also foil this ability.

Smite (Ex): Once per day, as a standard action, a Vengeant Knight may attempt to smite a nongood sentient creature with a melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per Vengeant Knight level. All of the damage inflicted by this attack is Vile damage. If the Knight accidentally smites a creature that is mindless or good-aligned, the smite has no effect but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the Vengeant Knight may smite one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

Original Sin (Ex): As a swift action, a Vengeant Knight can sacrifice up to his class level in hit points. He then gains the number of hit points sacrificed as a morale bonus to damage on all attacks made against evil creatures until the start of his next turn. The extra damage thus inflicted is Vile damage. If this ability is activated immediately prior to a Smite attack, the Smite gains two additional points of damage per hit point sacrificed, but no attacks other than the Smite gain the bonus damage from this use of the ability.

Strength of Corruption (Ex): At 2nd level, a Vengeant Knight gains a morale bonus equal to his Charisma bonus (at least +1) on all saving throws.

'Been There, Done That' (Ex): When you've embraced the worst that lies within yourself, what else is there to be afraid of? A Vengeant Knight of 3rd level or higher is immune to fear effects.

The Abyss Gazes Also (Su): Looking too long into the eyes of one who has caused or witnessed horrors can itself be dangerous. As a standard action, a Vengeant Knight can make a gaze attack against any creature within 60', causing traumatic memories and dark imaginings to spew forth from their subconscious and root them to the spot with fear. A targeted creature who fails a Will save (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus) can take no actions - including movement - other than the 'total defense' action until the end of the Vengeant Knight's next turn.

This is a supernatural, mind-affecting, fear effect.

The Quality of Mercy (Ex): If a melee attack carried out by a Vengeant Knight would reduce an opponent to 0 hit points or lower, he may, at his option, choose to instead inflict a dreadful wound that leaves his opponent with 1 hit point, but racked with agonising pain. On subsequent turns, the Vengeant Knight can spend a full-round action to put his enemy to the question. The creature thus afflicted must make a Fortitude save every round (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus) or be forced to answer the Knight's question fully and truthfully to the best of their ability. The Knight and the subject of this ability must share a common language in order for the questions and answers to be understood. Asking a single question (and receiving an answer, if any) takes one round, after which the Vengeant Knight must spend another full-round action to question his enemy further.

The Vengeant Knight can maintain his victim in this state for a maximum of one round per class level. At the end of this period, or if the Vengeant Knight discontinues his interrogation for any reason, the pain ends and the victim either dies (-10hp) or is left with 1 hit point, at the Knight's option.

A creature prepared to face death rather than talk can attempt a Will save (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus). If successful, the victim dies immediately. This ability does not function on undead, constructs or creatures otherwise immune to pain.

Battle Not With Monsters (Su): At 5th level, the Vengeant Knight's gaze attack becomes more potent. At his option, the victim is afflicted with violent rage instead of being rooted to the spot. This ability functions in all respects like the confusion spell, except that a target who fails the Will save (DC = 10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus) always attacks the nearest creature, and the duration of this effect is 3 rounds.

This is a supernatural, mind-affecting ability.

Nowhere to Hide (Su): A creature marked for death by a Vengeant Knight is surely doomed. As a standard action, the Vengeant Knight can concentrate to discern the location of any opponent upon whom he has inflicted Vile damage with any of his class abilities. The ability functions in all ways as per the locate creature spell, except that it is not blocked by running water, is not fooled by polymorph-like abilities so long as the target retains their original personality and has a duration of 'concentration'.

The Vengeant Knight can only discern the location of one creature at a time with this power, although he can switch to a different viable target with another standard action. The Vengeant Knight can continue to use this ability until such time as his opponent has managed to heal the Vile damage he has inflicted. Vile damage inflicted by means other than the Vengeant Knight's class abilities - such as a Vile weapon, or spells gained from another class - does not count for the purpose of determining whether the Knight can locate a creature in this fashion.

The Enemy Within (Su): At 7th level, the Vengeant Knight can make the evil in a creature's soul rise up against them. Once per day, as a standard action, a Vengeant Knight can make a gaze attack against any sentient nongood creature within 60'. This attack functions in all ways as a phantasmal killer spell, except that the phantasm cannot be turned back upon the Vengeant Knight by the use of a helm of telepathy, and a successful Fortitude save results in 1d6 points of damage per class level of the Knight. The DC of both saves is (10 + Vengeant Knight's class level + Chr bonus). The Vengeant Knight gains a further use of this ability per day at 11th level, and again at 15th and 19th level.

You're Next (Ex): From 9th level onward, any creature of the Vengeant Knight's CR-2 or less that witnesses a Smite or Quality of Mercy attack is automatically shaken for the duration of the encounter. Witnessing further such attacks will cause affected creatures to become frightened and then panicked as usual. There is no saving throw against this effect, but mindless creatures and creatures otherwise immune to fear are unaffected.

My Evil Twin (Su): When targeted by, or in the area of, a spell or spell-like ability that allows a saving throw and that would normally not affect (or have a reduced effect upon) the Vengeant Knight because of his evil alignment, he can choose as an immediate action for the spell or effect to function as though he were of the alignment targeted. If he succeeds in his saving throw, the caster or originator of the effect suffers the result of the attack as though they were in the area and of an alignment that would normally suffer the attack's full effects. The Vengeant Knight need not be able to see the caster for this ability to function, but he must have line of effect. If the caster would normally be immune to the effects of the spell for reasons other than alignment, they are not otherwise rendered vulnerable.

If the Vengeant Knight fails his initial saving throw, he is affected normally by the spell as though he were of a targeted alignment and the caster is unaffected by the attempt.

There we go.

Also, I worked on this a bit, too. There's a couple of abilities which serve well for dumpster-diving.

True Terror: The Vengeant Knight is such a terrifying figure that any fear effect he generates bypasses both immunity to fear and immunity to mind-affecting effects. Furthermore, he can even put the fear of…well…himself into the undead and mindless living creatures. Undead do not gain their usual bonuses against mind-affecting and fear effects, and mindless living creatures flee before him.

Aura of the Nemesis: The Vengeant Knight walks around knowing he’s one bad dude. This gives him a morale bonus equal to half-class level, to Bluff, Intimidate, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy.

Dreadful Aura: No one's at their best when they're confronted by a terrible threat. All enemies in 60 feet gain -3 to saves. The Vengeant Knight may have one aura, other than his Aura of Evil, active at a time, and may change auras as a swift action.

Poisonous Fear: The Vengeant Knight can scare the strength from a Barbarian and the wits from a Wizard. Choose a poison with a DC equal to 10 + ½ character level + Charisma or less, and which does only ability damage. When you use Intimidate to successfully demoralize someone, they must make a successful save (their choice of Fortitude or Willpower), DC 10 + ½ character level + Charisma, or take ability damage as if affected by that poison. The Poisonous Fear is a supernatural, mind-affecting, fear effect, not an actual poison. Each time you gain this ability, choose a new type of poison for your scariness to mimic. It lasts for as long as they are demoralized.

Aura of Poisonous Fear: Select a type of your Poisonous Fear. All enemies within 60 feat of you are affected by this type when

Implacable Aura: There is very little that can stop a Vengeant Knight from getting where he wants to go. He’s under the effects of a Freedom of Movement while this aura is up, and gains his class level to Str checks to break or move objects in his way.

My Mind is My Own: The Vengeant knight is quite aware that all that he is, is because he's decided to be so. This profound self-acceptance renders him immune to mind-affecting effects and diplomacy.

Dies Irae: Once a day, as a swift action a Vengeant Knight may stop holding himself back and allow the full strength of his hatred to power him to incredible feats. He may have two auras active in addition to his Aura of Fear, and he gains one-half of his character level as a bonus to one of the following:

-AC
-Attack bonuses
-Strength
-Constitution
-Skill Checks
-Saves
-Base speed (Treat each point of bonus as 5’ of speed).
-Hit points (Treat each point of bonus as 2 temporary hit points per character level).

This lasts for 1 minute/level.

Improved Wrath: At levels 9, 12, 15, and 18, the Vengeant Knight gains another category which improves during Dies Irae.

Vita Irae: The Vengeant Knight’s wrath knows no bounds, and upon reaching level 20 he need never leave the state of Dies Irae.

Not a Very Nice Person At All: Looking into the mind of a Vengeant Knight is like getting a glimpse of fifth circle of Hell. Anyone who attempts to get inside his head will get a profound shock as he realizes just how much hate is in this person. Anyone who succeeds on a Sense Motive--even one trying to discern something else--check (opposed by the Vengeant Knight’s Bluff) is shaken unless he passes a will save (usual DC); this can happen in the course of a normal Sense Motive. Anyone who tries a magical or psionic means of connecting minds with the Vengeant Knight (such as by means of dominate, detect thoughts, Probe Mind, etc.) gets a painful shock as the Vengeant Knight’s psyche recoils against the invasion. See the Inflict Pain Psionic Power for the effect. Furthermore, the attempt to connect with or control the Vengeant Knight fails. The Vengeant Knight can suppress this if he wants to, but they usually won’t bother to hide their vicious intent.

[Bigode]

Vengeant.
Dark.

The latter isn't in itself as simple as requested, but has interesting abilities. Also, please make the class in this thread.

[Judging__Eagle]

She wants to recreate her actual character. Meaning you have to look up what the original is, anything else won't jive at all.

I've posted a sketch of something up now.