So, the mighty death knight, back even in the
days of the Fiend Folio, this was a fearsome opponent, likely the ultimate
villain that culminates an RPG campaign (either by vanquishing him, or through
a TPK). Between Greyhawk and Dragonlance,
Kargoth and Soth came along and gave the death knight personality, and various subsequent
editions of D&D have created their own take on it.
Now, with DCC, it’s easy enough to convert a
death knight on the fly from AD&D or
LL or any other OSR – but DCC is about being a love letter to Appendix N, not
just straight up being the game we remember of yore. Running into a death knight should evoke the
terror we would have felt in 1977. This should be as close to an end-game monster
as you could get from the days of the old Monster Manual, so it’s got to be in
the top 5 monsters in your campaign of unstoppableness.
In creating my own death knight monster entry,
I thought about a few things – one is creating fear in players, another is
creating a monster that’s easy to run for the Judge, and lastly making
something with verisimilitude to the existing DCC rules.
So, let’s assume a death knight is a fearsome
warrior – it needs to have the 10 HD from the Fiend Folio, but, arguably, if this
monster is a fallen paladin, shouldn’t he have a Mighty Deed die? Likely only against Lawful creatures and call
it an unholy smite ability, but against his shining and good nemeses, the Judge
gets to disarm, blind, trip, fold, spindle, mutilate, and other fantastic maneuvers making the death
knight a formidable foe. As well, the
original death knight had spell-like abilities, so it’s easy enough to treat
him like a simplified cleric with idol magic.
Giving the death knight clerical spell abilities
would make sense, but looking over the spell list choices, they aren’t very
appropriate to a fallen paladin, or are non-combat spells like desecrate that
make a poor monster. So I dipped into
the wizard spell list, as they are just better suited to the style of mayhem we
are seeking, but if anyone asks, they are definitely powered by an unholy god. I gave them animate dead and desecrate
anyway, for skeletal steeds and creepy haunted lairs.
Lastly, I added magic resistance like the
original, but made it less than 75% -- a dragon in the DCC Core Rulebook has
50% resistance, so I changed the death knight to slightly less, 40%.
Last but not least, some flavour text and some
gonzo rules to make him scary and unpredictable! Critical
hit against a death knight? Not so fast, not only does it have no extra effect on the creature, the attacker suffers the results of a roll on the clerical disfavour table!
What’s that, you need a quest to lift the disfavour of a evil god? Serves you right for scuffing their champion’s
armor.
Below is my death knight, I hope he brings
ruin and suffering on many high level characters!
Death Knight
There
are only eight of these horrible, cursed warriors that fell from the grace and
power of being champions of Law to serve the unholy powers of Chaos in
undeath. They wear the pitted, rusting
trappings of their former life, and often summon to themselves undead steeds to
carry them into battle, and whatever crumbling ruin or tomb they call home is
dedicated to evil.
Death Knight: Init +1; Atk greatsword +5 melee (1d10 +
4) or unholy smite lawful characters +4+1d10 melee (1d10+1d10+4); AC 18 (plate armor);
HD 10d12+10 (hp 75); MV 20’; Act 2d20; SP immune to non-magical weapons, aura
of fear, magic resistance, true sight, unholy spells (+12 spell check, animate
dead, desecrate, dispel magic, righteous fire, word of command), favored by
the dark powers, un-dead traits; SV Fort +6, Ref +5, Will +8; AL C.
Death knights typically wear blackened full
plate and wield vicious greatswords, although their arms and armor may vary,
and potentially could be enchanted, changing the characteristics listed above.
A blow from a death knight can be an
unholy smite against Lawful foes, carrying an extra +1d10 to hit and +1d10 to
damage, and having the same descriptive effect as a mighty deed die roll of 3+
as a warrior of a similar level. Against
Neutral or Chaotic foes, the blows are a mere +4 to hit and damage from the
death knight’s fearsome strength.
The miasma of cold and unholy power
emanating from a death knight causes many mortals to quail in fear when they
are approached. Any foes within 30’ must
make a DC 16 Will save or they can do naught but quake in fear, or flee from
the death knight for the next hour. Should
a foe be cornered and forced to fight, they may do so with a -4 penalty to hit.
All spells cast directly against a death
knight are subject to a 40% change of failure, even before any saves are
rolled.
A death knight is gifted with unholy
sight, and they are able to see invisible and ethereal creatures, and are never
fooled by illusions.
Fueled by unholy power, death knights may
cast spells as if they were an 8th level cleric, with spell checks
of +12. Any roll of 1 causes disfavour to the death knight who suffers 1d6 points of damage from their unkind gods.
Because a death knight is the favored
champion of unholy gods, those that bring harm to their agents shall suffer
their wrath. If anyone strikes a death
knight with a critical hit of a natural 20, the attacker suffers disfavour as a chaotic
cleric might when rolling a 1 to cast a spell, rolling 1d4 the first critical hit, then 2d4, then 3d4, etc. Any disfavour requiring atonement, quests or
prayer must be given to a lawful god to offset the evil misfortunes they
suffer.
Like all other forms of undead, they can
be turned by Lawful clerics. They do not eat, drink, or breathe, and
are immune to critical hits, disease, and poison. They are immune to sleep, charm, and hold spells, as well as other mental effects and cold damage.
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