2e Death Knight [Archive] - Wizards Community

2e Death Knight [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sjiggie
03-30-06, 06:55 AM I was looking in my 2e Monster Manual and I came across the death knight I could use this monster in my current 3.5e campaign but I can't find it statistics can someone please tell where I can find it? Thanks
Kilamar
03-30-06, 07:53 AM You can find a Version in the Monster Manual II.

Kilamar
DungeonMaster
03-30-06, 08:11 AM The 2E deathknight is much, much better than the 3rd edition version. I suggest retrofitting the spell like abilities of the 2E death knight.
I think the 3.5 dragonlance books have their own version though I can't attest to it being "good" because I havn't looked at it in detail.
The Abominable Darkling
03-30-06, 10:57 AM The Dragonlance version is even worse than the Monster Manual II version. It restores some of the death knight's high level spell-like abilities, but at the cost of ever increasing CR. The fundamental problem with both templates is that they give massive CR increases to NPCs, which are weak to begin with. As you might imagine, the end result is incredibly crappy for its CR.

As it happens, I was thinking about death knights just the other day. The question that has always plagued me is "just what is a death knight anyway?" I finally realised that a death knight is nothing more or less than an undead sorcerer who casts spells in full plate. While the 2e version (and the 1e version, I imagine) gives the impression of a martial opponent, this isn't actually the case. If you sent a death knight against a party of level such that the death knight was a good martial opponent, then its spell-like abilities would be overpowering.

Anyway, this leads to many ways you might create a "death knight" without resorting two one of the two abysmal official templates. Simply start with your favorite fighter/sorcerer build, give him a suit of black full plate, and apply your choice of undead template. Lich, vampire, revenant (Monsters of Faerun), and necropolitan (Libris Mortis) work well. You might also start with a low-CR undead base creature and add class levels. A ghoul would make an excellent death knight (though it would suffer in the hit point department, so you might want to advance it by giving it the Unholy Toughness special quality).

Finally, remember that Still Spell is your friend. :)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sjiggie 03-30-06, 06:55 AM	I was looking in my 2e Monster Manual and I came across the death knight I could use this monster in my current 3.5e campaign but I can't find it statistics can someone please tell where I can find it? Thanks
Kilamar 03-30-06, 07:53 AM	You can find a Version in the Monster Manual II. Kilamar
DungeonMaster 03-30-06, 08:11 AM	The 2E deathknight is much, much better than the 3rd edition version. I suggest retrofitting the spell like abilities of the 2E death knight. I think the 3.5 dragonlance books have their own version though I can't attest to it being "good" because I havn't looked at it in detail.
The Abominable Darkling 03-30-06, 10:57 AM	The Dragonlance version is even worse than the Monster Manual II version. It restores some of the death knight's high level spell-like abilities, but at the cost of ever increasing CR. The fundamental problem with both templates is that they give massive CR increases to NPCs, which are weak to begin with. As you might imagine, the end result is incredibly crappy for its CR. As it happens, I was thinking about death knights just the other day. The question that has always plagued me is "just what is a death knight anyway?" I finally realised that a death knight is nothing more or less than an undead sorcerer who casts spells in full plate. While the 2e version (and the 1e version, I imagine) gives the impression of a martial opponent, this isn't actually the case. If you sent a death knight against a party of level such that the death knight was a good martial opponent, then its spell-like abilities would be overpowering. Anyway, this leads to many ways you might create a "death knight" without resorting two one of the two abysmal official templates. Simply start with your favorite fighter/sorcerer build, give him a suit of black full plate, and apply your choice of undead template. Lich, vampire, revenant (Monsters of Faerun), and necropolitan (Libris Mortis) work well. You might also start with a low-CR undead base creature and add class levels. A ghoul would make an excellent death knight (though it would suffer in the hit point department, so you might want to advance it by giving it the Unholy Toughness special quality). Finally, remember that Still Spell is your friend. :)