Dungeons and Dragons lore : Death knight

hello everybody today I'm going to be covering on the tmd channel the death knight thank you for this wonderful session I did a little bit of research on the death knight and there's lots of really great stories including a really good dragon magazine article talking about the origins of the first death knight in gray Hawk that is sukar Gough and his deal with armoire Niebuhr otherwise known as the similars sibilant East otherwise none more probably is dead no Gorgon where he was in line with being promoted to the head of his nightly order but was denied for the the role instead a younger man got it he challenged into a duel they fought all way to the end of the day and came to a standstill and since he was the Challenger and had invested him and the time allotted sukar growth was denied his victory and was you know well you just basically wandered off and discussed and he found an old temple camp there for the night and dimmer Gordon tempted him with power and he was easy to persuade and agreed to all sorts of horrible things and then some tentacles shot out of the ground and ripped his eyes out of his socket to be replaced with a pinprick glowing orbs that are kind of synonymous with a dead night and yeah from that day forth he was an undead champion of evil so what is the death knight it's a high-level challenge rating seventeen opponent and they are the the basically the other martial version of a Ledge in a way so they're they they're able to marshal the undead and lead undead armies and they're really good at that may attract undead because under it become bolstered by the presence of the will of the death knight so that unless the death Knights incapacitated or destroyed any undead creatures of its choice within 60 feet of it have advantage on all seven throws against being turned which is very potent against clerics and paladin's it has magic resistance that self they were advantage on seventh Rosie it's all spells spell like effects and magical effects and they are potent spell casters as they were mature were very high level paladin's typically before they fell although death Knights can come from the ranks of barbarians fighters even yeah other other fighters clearance but mostly peloton's in the peloton is represented here by the spell casting list cast is a Knightly 19th level spell casters save DC is 18 plus 10 to hit with its spell attacks casting uses charisma and the prepared spells are command compelled jewel searing smite hold person magic weapon dispel magic elemental weapon banishment staggering smite and the potent destructive wave and it's noted here that they always use necrotic energy in network if you're not familiar with describe destructive wave basically the the death knight will take an action slammer the it's football fest towards hill towards weapon down on the ground and a 30 foot radius blast of 5d6 thunder damage and five-year center crossing damage power is out around it hits everybody that it chooses within 30 feet and if they fail this open throat they take that full damage and get knocked prone otherwise they take half damage so that's pretty nasty they use a long sword they make three long sword attacks in a turn they can use it single handed or double handed and they are plus 11 to hit do either nine single hand or ten double handed slashing damage plus 18 necrotic damage which is pretty wicked and also that sort of implies that they can use a shield or some other weapon as well typically they will use a Hellfire orb death knight kills a magical ball of fire that explodes at a point you can see within 120 feet of it each creature and a 20-foot radius sphere centered on that point must make a DC 1867 throw otherwise it spreads out and and blasts everybody for 35 points of fire damage and that reaches around corners it fills that sphere with fire yeah so 35 points of fire damage and 35 necrotic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one doesn't often prono so they basically get to blast everybody with with Hellfire all the time they also have a reaction parry attack parry any attack with their long sword and it adds six to its AC against one melee attack that would hit it as long as it can see the attack coming so that basically is testament to the consummate martial skill that they can just what thinned off an attack each round as reaction that's on anybody's tomb so yeah most the other notes about death Knights concentrate on their origin stories so in the case of sukar Gough he was as his ego basically turned them to evil and it's the the ability of a paladin to be entrusted with the power of justice that that power corrupts them and many other stories including the one listed in the book here at Ward's off we're essentially they've the ego has gotten in the way of their piety their their sense of I am right and my way as the law gets in the way of I am a servant of good and it can lead them to doing evil things their single-minded pursuit their will power in the pursuit of justice will lead them to do things which are evil such as using assassination techniques against somebody or using poison something which their God frowns upon and it leads to them basically being shunned by the God afflicted with the curse of undeath until they at home or they turn to evil and are basically recruited by a demon or a devil or some of the evil power evil God which gives them infuses than the power of demonic fire Hellfire and other abilities in the past editions of the game the death Knights also had a fear aura that they could pump out around them and that was quite a potent effect as well so you had to get past the fear of even approaching them before they would you could lock battle with them and of course they'd be blasting you with Hellfire before your meeting we near them and of course wave of a wave of undead which are throwing themselves at you without any fear of divine retribution and of course they'll target anything of good that they can see because the one thing I did Matt doesn't want to face up to is the fact that it's evil that it's wrong that it needs to atone for its evil way so it needs to humble itself before the gods because they've never accepted the fact that they're wrong they've never accepted the fact that they're their own actions have livened the sorry fate and they are now infused with the power that they they always wielded in life as something which was given to them by the people there's now something that they could fate they inherently possess and can unleash that power on anyone they choose without fear of constraint without fear of reprimand and the respect that people had for them is now replaced with fear so they have everything that the ego craved in the beginning or became addicted to and has led them become a very dark path to an ultimate conclusion where they are a force of evil and there are potent work so how to use death Knights in your game there are high level threats and they are normally a part of a larger play of evil going on that involves undeath or demonic powers or all the actions of Devils in your campaign world or Dark Gods they're the martial arm of at the head but the very top of a cult but bear in mind that the ego of a death knight doesn't lend it to being a lackey to anyone they are commanders they were formal heads of orders they are fabled and story legendary motors was not my microphone off legendary leaders they have quite a lot of renown and they'll be well known and less than traveled halfway around the world beyond the edges of their reputation everyone will know who they are so yeah there's that they've got that reputation going for them and of course you've got to contend with the fact that the devil Lord or evil deity that created them has a vested interest in and their survival and not turning back to good so they'll most certainly go to extraordinary lengths to target anyone who's going directly against the death knight to bring them low so that will bolster and send evil reinforcements from all corners of the globe to protect their investment and that can be very very bad indeed they typically lair in fortified old castles crypts towers mausoleums necropolis places of evil but typically big impressive martial environments that are resistant to armies in front against them so you'll be most likely finding them if you're an adventurer either as part of a large organized force or army that you're and part of the vanguard of or you'll be infiltrating their fortress and going up against the the death knight by circumventing all the forces that are around them now on basically a mission other assassination and going a small group against the sky is going to be very hard particularly because the death knight will have liches and van cheese wraiths and all sorts of horrible things including tons and tons of skeletons and ghouls and demon said it's back and cool and yeah we'll be studying other magic and things like that and increasing its power seeking magical items that can add and bolster it so it will have magical armor to health fabled weapons it'll have some sort of mount which is well-known as well they'll ride around on helm ears or undead dragons and all sorts of ass stuff yes so very very much a potent force and it's the things that you add to them storing in the location and the environmental effects that they have at their beck and call the items and artifacts that they have at their disposal that increase that difficulty and facing down one you never really just kind of run across a random wandering death knight as it's listed in the book here they really do lend themselves to a lot of customization for your game so yeah that's death Knights for you enjoy and I'll have another video for you shortly

Channel: AJ Pickett

Views: 100,985

Keywords: Monster ecology, lord soth, AJ Pickett, death knight, The Mighty Gluestick, TMG, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, RPG's, D&D 5E, Role Playing Game, Dungeon Mastery, Tabletop, undead, Death, doom guard, doom knight, kargoth, Demogorgon, demon, hell, curse, Strahd, vampire, wraith, banshee, wight, skeleton, ghoul, lich, evil, 5th edition, dungeon master, monster manual, dungeons & dragons, death knight lore

Id: lx_p9jZWUao

Length: 11min 46sec (706 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 06 2016