What They Don't Tell You About Death Knights - D&D

non can win the war with death but losing the war does not mean the combatants have seen their last battle warriors who wish to fight beyond the limitations of flesh and blood can seek a forbidden way to steal their souls from fate the cost of this immortality is death but the fearless few who pay this price become debts allies indeed death bestows power upon them their fleshless bones clad in skins of armor they're brittle fingers clasping weapons with a grip of iron these Knights of death take command of their souls and their destinies when they charge from the shadowy afterlife into the lands of the living death Knights ride to wage war upon life itself right from the get-go before we do anything else let's first go over and read what the monster manual for 5th edition tells us about death Knights it says here that when a paladin that falls from grace dies without seeking atonement dark powers can transform the once mortal Knight into a hateful undead creature a death knight is a skeletal warrior clad in plate armor beneath its helmet one can see the Knights skull with malevolent pinpoints of light burning in his eye sockets now the important part here to take note of is the fact that death Knights are skeletons not zombies if there is rutting flashed and there's only a little bit there's an important reason for this and we will go over it in a bit but I just wanted to point that out real quick now it says here that the death Knights retained the ability to cast divine spells but no death knight can ever use its magic to heal it also attracts in commands lesser on dead although death Knights that serve powerful fiends might have fiendish followers instead death Knights often use warhorse skeletons and nightmares as mounds now the interesting bit here is the illusion that one can become a death knight by following more than just a good god as mentioned here that the death knight can indeed follow fiends and then lastly we're told that a death knight can arise anew even after it has been destroyed only when it atones for a life of wickedness or finds Redemption can it finally escape its undead purgatory and we perish now here we have the character sheet for the death knight which is surprisingly simple considering the power of the creature and the extremely high challenge rating that it has we know that the developers of the noose and Dragons struggle for a while to find a place for the death knight since they attempted to differentiate it it as much as possible from the Lich without much success early on in the first editions but yeah this is very simplistic here we have traditional high level undead mechanics like the resistances to poison and necrotic damage and then the magical resistance this particular death knight as you can see here clearly was a high-level paladin in the past and so it has kept all of his powers and spells we can also see here that it's long sword strikes deal necrotic damage now and there's actually a really good reason for that and it's not just because the creature is evil or because it has been enchanted that way though again we will cover that in just a bit lastly we have the Hellfire orb a massive ball of fire that deals an average of 17 points of damage now this might look a little bit odd for a myriad of reasons first that is 100% not a paladin ability second it seems out of place when compared to the rest of the arsenal of the death knight and third why would a death knight have an affinity with fire why can it cast a massive ball of fire it just seems random well the reason for that is actually very simple back in the day during the early days of D&D the death Knights used to be really powerful spell casters and they actually have always been it's actually just in fifth edition when they were simplified into being basically just a melee creature but more specifically and this is a brought back to the infamous ability of the original death Knights to be able to cast what we used to call the fabled 20 die fireball yeah originally death Knights of 1st and 2nd edition used to be able to cast a fireball with 20 dies of damage and this is what the hell fire orb is supposed to represent 10 dies of fire damage and 10 dies of necrotic damage for a total of 20 dies of damage welcome back to old-school D&D baby anyways now that we have gone over the fifth edition injure page let's talk about what the master manual does tell you about death Knights first and foremost the important thing to know here is that there are two types of death Knights there are actually not very different from each other but distinction is important specifically when it comes to how they came to be death Knights on one side you have the Fallen paladin's who were cursed by their own gods in order to basically force them to suffer until they redeemed themselves at which point they will be allowed to finally die on the other hand we have those who sought out power from the get-go and chose to become death Knights in order to accomplish something great like a massive feat of revenge or they sought immortality simply to never pass away the fifth edition entry only covers the paladin version of events but the demon Lords Orcas and emo Gorgon have actually been transforming night into death Knights for a very long time because of this the word death Knight is used very broadly to encompass a very large number of undead Knights so the question is and this is the key to this video what is the difference between a really powerful on the knight or a really powerful white or a really powerful vampire with played armor versus a death knight what makes a death knight a death knight why is this particular undead stronger than other kinds of undead see it all has to do with the ritual that turns these mortals into these undead warriors if you are to be a fallen paladin and your god is turning you into a death knight then the god will take care of most of the ritual in this particular regard if you're seeking to become a death knight yourself then it'll be up to you to perform the necessary right to make it happen the important thing here is to commit an act of great evil this is very similar to what the Dark Powers will have you go through in order to grow for yourself a dread domain in the shadow fail and become a dread Lord like what Strad had to go through in curses trad or what Lord saw had to go through in order to become a death knight the story of Lord saw is right here if you want to pause the video and read it now the only thing described to us for this particular heinous act of evil is that it has to be so evil that actually most cult is that follow the worst kinds of gods would refuse to do it like it has to be really really bad typically it might entail things like killing the family you love or betraying an order of knights that you have sworn to protect or a backstabbing your best friend in normal murder just wouldn't cut it for this ritual it has to be really really bad whatever heinous act you commit it has to be done with your blade and the sword that has marked you so far as a warrior or as a knight your emblem of office so to speak the tool that makes you who you are this tool this sword will become everything to you and you will lose everything else at the end of the ritual you will be burned in unholy green flames that will scorch and mark your armor the cursed Hellfire will cinch off and burn your flesh leaving nothing but black in the bone and the soul tearing fire will cast your soul out of your body and then bind it into the weapon that you used for the ritual quote from that conflagration rise the soulless bones of the living person guided by an evil intelligence that no longer needs a brain for its vile thoughts and an endless hatred that no longer requires a heart to drive its dark passion a soul weapon is similar to a liches phylactery in that the death Knights soul recites there instead of in his body but in most other ways the soul weapon is the opposite of a phylactery for a lich its phylactery is a weakness that allows its permanent destruction but the soul weapon is the death Knights greatest strength a death knight literally wield its soul as a weapon end quote this is the answer to the question of why are death Knights so special and maybe less so why does it deal a huge amount of necrotic damage upon strike with his long sword quote a soul weapon strikes burn with death end quote this is also why death Knights are skeletons and not fleshy Undead and why they are always described as having charred armor as if they had just survived a fire now the soul weapon that the Knights wield is its most import and possession since its sole it's literally in it unfortunately though for those of you who would seek to stop a death knight by destroying the weapon it actually does nothing to hinder the presence of the monster a death knight can actually restore the weapon to completeness with a mere touch if it were ever destroyed it however does become weakened when the sword is not in his person quote a death knight needed never fear its sole weapons destruction for with a thought the knight can restore the weapon to wholeness and unwholesome power if the weapon is taken a death knight becomes weakened and distracted this straw by the loss of its soul and consumed by the need to recover it however no other creature can wield a death Knights soul weapon without feeling despair so few can withhold a soul weapon from a death knight indefinitely end quote it is however very interesting that one incredible power that death Knights attained by attaching their soul to their weapon is the ability to turn their weapon momentarily immaterial and perform a ghostly strike where the weapon can actually pass through armor and shields in order to strike at its foes unprotected flesh now in order to kill a death knight you will have to do it the traditional way by simply tearing away at the body of the creature once the body of the death knight has been destroyed then the weapon will break and the soul will move on into the afterlife at which point it is then up to either the gods or the fiendish lords to see what actually happens from there if the gods wish for the Fallen paladin to be punished further then he or she shall be sent back to the mortal realm to continue its own death life on the other hand any of the demon Lords or devil princesses may wish to seduce the soul of the great warrior for whatever evil purposes they might have which might entail a second undead life on the mortal realm this is why the fifth edition Monster Manual says that death Knights are so particularly difficult to destroy they always keep coming back now like I said before death Knights are very broad in personality mannerisms and power because whatever abilities they have depend largely on the gods they used to follow or the evil forces that have helped them be transformed in this fashion so we can't really talk about further abilities because they all vary a death knight is simply unique they for the most part share the intelligence and personalities that they had in life but with a few changes quote whatever their personalities in life death Knights become brooding and wrathful in death they carry their souls in their bony hands a constant reminder of a bargain that cannot be undone for power to accomplish a single goal death Knights forego all other joys that choice waits upon its every immortal moment if a death knight makes any long-term connection with any creature it is most likely to be with a favored mount few horses can stand to carry such a horror but evil beasts such as nightmares and undead mounts willingly carry a death knight into battle the teamwork necessary for writer and mount to act as one it's often a death Knights only source of lasting pleasure and quote specifically for fallen paladin's we're told that they grow to despise life in general even though there is always a chance for redemption a death knight who chooses to spend its own life doing good and performing heroics can actually be granted a new mortal life for a second chance see the transformation into on death tends to open the floodgates so to speak into different points of view specifically eat unrestrained morality for the night if the knight was capable of wickedness in life but stayed back because of fear well then fear will no longer be there and the knight will show its true colors now and on death so in essence being turned into a death knight is kind of a trial for the knight in order for the God to see the true colors of the would-be champion what actually does stay though is the honor that they once had in life fallen paladin's now turned into death Knights actually fight honorably they never ambush opponents from behind nor do they attack before an opponent has had an opportunity to ready his weapon even if their hearts are now evil they still retain their honor furthermore fallen paladin's now death Knights are cursed to remain in their former domains usually in the castles they used to protect or in the domain that they dwelled in life and lastly and by the way this is the coolest part about fallen paladin's that the master mighdal does not tell you and it pertains to the crime that they committed that turned them into this monster is that they actually further condemned to remember that crime in song on any night when the moon is full few sounds are as terrifying as a death Knights chilling melody echoing through the moonlit countryside death Knights are likely to attack any creature that interrupts their song thank you guys so much for watching I would like to personally thank my patrons of borders Walker motley sack babble ricotta fan berry mask and 5e magic shop Daniel Umar Rostov reign Morgan Johnson biotech no frog Daniel Luna doc feeder brat Salazar the great Cody knee Terry Kolb Baraka slaw Omega scales Caracas de bulwark Ozel sound techs Siri Alex Cookson square chicken ariel nelson benjamin busters io is awesome fall key 951 jacob krasin griffin pierce and ziran king for supporting me on patreon at the $25 level if you would like to support me as well then please head on over to patreon dot-com slash mr. Rex to support guys thank you so much for watching as you have probably seen we're going to be uploading a lot of videos for this month I'm thinking of making just an average of about three videos a week I'm just about tripling my output for the channel for this month and we'll see how that works we'll see how I feel about the month is over I'm definitely already exhausted I've been kind of working myself out to death just to do this so hopefully you guys appreciate it let me know if you do I mean I would imagine you guys do I don't know why's that stupid question for me to ask but I just let me know what kind of monsters you actually would like to hear me talk about any suggestions that you guys might have let me know and I'll check it out and probably even do it because we'll be doing a lot of videos for this month so I I need your guidance guys anyways thank you all so much for watching for a third time and I'll see you all next bye-bye

Channel: MrRhexx

Views: 526,512

Keywords:

Id: oyQ7QvwnaFc

Length: 15min 27sec (927 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020