In World of Warcraft — The War Within (Season 1), Unholy Death Knights (DK) are melee fighters who wield dark magic and runeforged weapons. They were introduced in Warcraft II and later as a hero unit in Warcraft III. Death Knights have runic mastery, allowing them to cast powerful spells, diseases, and strikes. Their mastery over runes is a testament to their connection with the unholy forces.
All DK abilities are shared between all specializations, while some are specific to one or two specializations. A death knight has 10 Paladin spells prepared, but since creature stat blocks follow the same rules as PCs for spellcasting, a death knight should have at least 10 Paladin spells prepared.
As a Very Rare Spell of the Death Realm, Death Knights may become available to any Wizard who acquires at least 3 Spellbooks. With less than 3, the spell can be used.
A complete searchable and filterable list of all Death Knight Abilities in World of Warcraft: The War Within is available. For World of Warcraft on the PC, a GameFAQs message board topic titled “How much does spell power effect Death Knight spells?” provides more information on how spell power affects Death Knight spells.
As powerful necromancers, DKs had significant ability to heal using shadow magic, often by sacrificing the life of weak or mindless undead minions to do so.
📹 A Dungeon Master’s Guide: How to Run a Death Knight Like a Chad
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📹 WoW Devs Reveal How Death Knights Were Made
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I think they’re usually second fiddle because of Vader. He’s the Death Knight everyone knows and loves. -Chosen one with grand destiny. -Powerful and well trained/respected paladin and general. -Falls to the dark side to protect his loved ones. -Gets defeated and maimed, cursed into losing his body and being sealed into a suit of armor. -Loses the one thing he tried to protect leaving him with nothing but bitterness and hatred. -Is redeemed by another chosen one though the power of love.
This has given me the incredible idea to run a campaign to build an assault on a radiant, gold clad death knight who’s gorgeous exterior disguises the rot within. The zombies aren’t desiccated or anything, they look perfectly like they did the moment they died and their bodies are filled with a living liquid gold that puppets them from within.
Honestly one of my favorite ways to run death knights is to have them act as mercenary warlord for the forces of evil. In one campaign I had a death knight who worked as the general for an insane lich who had spent centuries in finding ways to create intelligent lower undead (mainly skeletons) the created undead would happily seek out any “flesh bags” and free them from being alive and good aligned. Meanwhile the death knight just went ham on all the war crimes and hunted anyone who he considered strong to slay them personally. He killed like 3 PC’s in one session. That was great.
A fun spin on the Death Knight if you’re playing in a more Norse/Viking setting is a Draugr Jarl. Perhaps the Jarl is back because he was usurped by his most trusted warriors and his grudge compels him to raise an army and exact revenge on his traitors lands. Pillaging and burning others is a quick way to get cursed by others, maybe it’s caused a lot of people to want a greedy and bloodthirsty Jarl to suffer for his crimes. It’s mostly a thematic re-skin (less knights and castles, more Vikings and Longships) but they needn’t be mutually exclusive. Hell, I’m pretty sure you could work the theme into an Asiatic setting. A Nomadic Warlord, an ambitious General, Impirial descendents convinced of their ‘divinity’ (real or imaginary) all have Death Knight potential that only really require some setting and lore adjustments to fit the themes and backdrop.
That last segment on tactics vs spell casters got me to remember a chad evil dude I got to run a decade ago in 3.5, where in a Thanos-like introduction fight vs the 7th lvl party, 2 minions (gargoyles if I remember correctly) grappled the player wizard and the chad used transmutation magic to turn the wizard’s teeth into strings of rope that he then bound together in tight knots, because who needs silence spell anyway. This was also the moment when he delivered his mighty evil speech. They were frightened of him for the rest of the campaign and defeated him around lvl 13.
I once had a bonus BBEG (a BBEG the party chose to make enemies of) as a beefed up death knight who styled herself the Queen of the Underdark She was an elven paladin sworn to a dwarven lord to defend his kingdom, when the kingdom was overrun by drow and all hope was lost she made a deal with the Archdevil Mephistopheles to protect the kingdom. She was unwise to trust that the devil would not follow the literal interpretation of the land… She now stands as the eternal guardian leading an army of undead dwarves and drow The party got into conflict with her when one of them demanded that she become a subject to him and his emperor (he was a changeling posing as a lord). She pretty much just laughed it off and said this land was under her protection, and that the hells themselves defended it…. At that point the barbarian in the party decided it would be a good idea to steal from her when she was distracted, and bumbled the stealth check. Because he was an emissary of a foreign delegation (so she thought) he was under diplomatic protection and could not be executed, however she also wasn’t going to let a crime go unpunished and proceeded to use suggestion on him to give her all he had on his person except his loincloth… So the party spent the next like 50 sessions trying to get revenge on this “Queen of the Underdark” I should clarify that wasn’t all they were doing in those sessions, and the last 7 of them included a trip to Cania itself to renegotiate her contract with Mephistopheles, but revenge on her was always one of the party’s main goals throughout the campaign
Okay. Idea based on the “siege” thoughts. Now, depending in whether you’re going for “realistic” villain or classical villain this may not be feasible, BUT, a fun idea could be that the party breaches the innermost sanctum of the keep. They fight the big bad to find its surprisingly easy….. as they return outside, a bloody swathe is being cut through their armies chaff as the true Death Knight leads his order in a carefully hidden counter offensive timed for when the players would be in the keep itself, the fight they just had being with his loyal second in command instead. Would give a good sense of horror that the bad guy wasn’t just going to wait for them to come kill him, and that he’s not above going around the players to kill their lesser minions. Imagine the backdrop of the players standing on the roof the keep, ready to announce victory against the foe and to tell their subordinates to start killing the lesser undead to see this; the fields below are covered by the armies of order, yet seemingly faith does not drive them as it once did. Panic and fear set in as sections of the army route and flee, and the parties gaze finally turns to the center. While at this distance details aren’t visible, a force of warriors garbed in black, red and grey mounted on dark steeds are pushing through the warriors ranks at a frightening pace. The Frontline buckles and breaks, as the militia and men at arms try to escape the force effortlessly cutting down dozens of men per second. With the chaff dying in droves and fleeing into the desolate, cursed wastelands, the command structure of the army becomes vulnerable, and the players can either race against time to save the core leadership of their army, likely having NPC friends among them or, narrative direction dependent, watch helplessly from the keep as the dark force reaches their command structure and shatters the entire armies morale and leadership.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar has an incredible inspiration for the Death Knight. Ushoran the Summer King, Vampire Lord of Madness, has a contagious delusion that makes his people believe themselves to be noble knights when they are nothing but slavering ghouls. The delusion can spread to the adventurers, making them see a glorious feast instead of a pile of carrion; a Pegasus knight instead of a bat winged beast.
In my campaign, I have a Lich-like character for every class as a group, but I’m having trouble coming up for ideas for some of them (these are along the same vein as Pointy Hat’s ‘Which Lich?’ series, but I’ve had the idea for longer, although I am using the ones he designs). Any thoughts on how a group of 13 undead would mesh together? Of course there’d be a Lich and Death Knight as their Wizard and Paladin, but they’d be a full team of endgame BBEG-level baddies with their own stories and characters, but I’ve kept their motives and characters mysterious because I don’t have them all designed yet and I don’t know what their goal as a group is.
I can see an easy way to make them the big bad. I would argue the most threatening part is, like you mentioned, they’re cursed to unlife until they redeem themselves. Not needing a phylactery for immortality, and thus being impossible to ever put down, is a big enough threat due to always being able to return and threaten the party. Because they are cursed to life by the gods, you can use that as a lore reason that things like wish spells cannot change their fate. If it were me, I’d make it so that even if the party where to “kill” him, and destroy his remains and equipment, he would be reformed with all his gear in the area he is bound. You cannot destroy his location, as it is also cursed. A constant reminder of his folly. It’s as though the things tied to his downfall are preserved in time, yet in a state of deterioration. “I tried to burn down her home. I do it every day in hopes of burning away the memory. The next day it always returns with blood stained curtains, as if the gods were mocking me. If I listen closely, I can still hear the screams too.” Thus, I think the best way to write them would be to have the campaign centered around the party investigating his past. Visiting the various locations to find clues and hints to unravel his story, and find a way to help him reach peace. The death knight provides a constant threat, as he uses his undead to ward away people so they don’t find out about his past and remind him of how far gone he is. This is where the “party might kill him” can come into play.
AC20 means a relatively unoptimized 5e character (end of 2023) will hit them at level 5 on a natural 13. Missing them, at the level they’re supposed to be fought at (i.e. very much not 5 xD) will be functionally Impossible, so giving them a good few resistances, parry-like damage reduction, regeneration ir the like could help in conveying the idea that they’re walking tanks. And, indeed, lairs! Lean into the cold, the unholy, the blood (hey, Darion!), the roaming patrols, the curses and even the cults ^^
Followed you after the first article. I’m another try-hard DM that thinks any enemy worth running is worth spending months optimizing. Also if you’re in need of (or just taking) recommendations, I’m currently prepping a Mummy Lord and they are SO fucking sick yet underrated, they’d give you a lot to dig into. Great content, bro, keep it up.
One thing that is missed and was touched on in this article sadly, is the OG Deathknights like Lord Soth are completely unkillable. Even though a Death Knights soul is bound into their weapon, they cant reconsitute from even dust. So you can kill a Lich permanently by destroying its phylactery, the same is NOT true on Death knights. They cannot be killed, they must repent for the sin that cursed them. Its the only way to stop them, originally. It is rather sad that that part was removed from the 5E version of the Death Knight. It added a ton of flavor to them that makes them unique.
Oh these guys! A party I’m a part of curb stomped like four of ’em, one at 8th level, and three more at 9th level. The first one was all alone, the second had a huge thing that I kinda just corner-peeked (Sharpshooter lol), and the third and fourth were supported by a pair of slaads with counterspell, the other death knight, and a high level PC. I actually offed one in a duel.
PSA: Every DM should look at MCDM’s “Flee Mortals” if only for the minion rules. Basically Minions die in one hit regardless of their HP, share a turn, attack in groups (roll for the whole group and deal a flat amount of damage based on group size), and damage to a minion from a weapon can spill over to another minion in range if the total damage is higher than the max HP of the minion, potentially cleaving through waves of minions. The Action oriented villains are amazing too, overall even if you dont use the stat block, it can give you lots of tools to make your own and build good encounters. Plus the stat blocks are more legible and each stat block is catagorized into different types (skirnisher, brute, etc). Overall its a great resource and I will simp for MCDM all day.
To me, Death Knights feel like a natural end-point for any legendarily powerful Oathbreaker Palalock character who never found redemption or repentance in life. No doubt such a being would have songs, tales, tomes and poems dedicated to their tragic fate. Such a legend could become a cautionary tale for any PC starting down the Palalock path…or an end goal to some, whatever, I don’t know your players. It’s entirely possible to use that background to disguise your Big Bad Death Knight as a high level npc to the players, should your narrative demand/allow revealing it before the end-game. Maybe it has a reason for not immediately blasting the PCs? Maybe it has a use for the PCs in its own designs? I suppose those Death Knight qualities would come as a rude surprise to any party that wasn’t paying attention to the hints you were dropping all campaign about this guy’s true nature. Or maybe your players (or their characters) are being too cocky, and adding additional warlock’s kit to this monster might send the appropriate message, idk.
It took me 7 ghatdamned months to get as close as I have, because I’m absolutely no genius. Won’t see me become a Lich, I’m that dumbass minion that gets fried after one too many failures… But this is the Death Knight I came up with, name and backstory at the bottom. Weapon – Felgierr: The legendary, yet cursed, halberd used by Aleriah to destroy a great, but long forgotten, evil. Yet, those dark energies corrupted the weapon, and by extension, Aleriah. It is a beautiful, golden halberd topped with a crimson gemstone. Its fine edge deals a solid 1d10+2 Slashing, Piercing, or Bludgeoning Damage, plus 3d8 Necrotic and Flame damage. A woman of great will, she sacrificed everything to obtain victory. Bittersweet thought it was, she would eventually come to regret all that came to pass, eventually coming under the command of the legendary Necromancer-turned-Lich, Gregory Stormbreaker. One great evil, replaced by another. A lesson for all time. Do not sacrifice so much as to become unrecognizable to yourself. Stare too long into the abyss, and it shall stare back. Continue to stare, and it might reach out and drag you screaming into its dark, crushing embrace… Equipment – +2 Adamantine Plate Armor +2 Animated Shield Cloak of Displacement Runestone of Returning (Homebrew Item, see below) Basically, copied the lecture, but brought both AC items down a single point because the party is only Level 11-12, and they’re fighting this lady solo. Until the Phase 2 Boss Fight starts up, and she summons her Spectral Dragon when she has about 30%-40% HP left.
Cool to see this article come along, cuz I thought the same thing when viewing the death knights 5e statblock! The coolest addition I gave to a campaign specific homebrew death knight I created was a magical sword that sapped strength and dex from characters on hit, to really show the death knights ability to sap the strength and vitality from their foes, but I thought it was a little brutal with 3 attacks/turn so I chopped it down to 2. What do you guys think? Is the homebrewed death knight with the “Blade of Atrophy”, legendary actions and legendary resistances too strong? Or just right for an evil undead overlord?
Thank you so much for this article! I am a new DM and wanted to center my campaign around a Death Knight! But I’m not entirely sure if we will get to level 20 or even level 15. Do you think it’d be a good idea to do a campaign like this from level 1 to 10, and how should I take your load out for the Death Knight and nerf him
My current campaign is a dark world the party, is actually probably the bad guys, are fighting mostly undead atm. My first ‘big baddie’ is a wizard just finishing his transformation into a lich I loved your lich article too very helpful! but damn this death knight is so cool…but I can’t lose the lich it’s already set! Maybe next time lol
If y’all wanna play with the army of undead mechanically. Give the order of knights mentioned, the elite lieutenants, command of wight sergeants. Each wight can control up to 12 zombies. (I had a necromancer plantation owner use about four to five wights as overseers and the workforce was zombies. Leaning into the Haitian roots of the zombie.)
The starwars reference is IMO quite fitting as personally Ij feel like the DK and Lich rather equal but on different levels. Darth Sidious is more of a Spider in its net controlling and manipulating strings. His power although undenieably formidable was fairly dependant on Darth Vader. Vaders sheer wrath and hatred is on a whole ‘nother level but lacks focus and direction. Both are quite evil mind you but different.
My first thought was Crit Fishing w/a Vorpal Sword ):) Vorpal Sword (&Board), Cloak of Invisibility, Mithril Plate, Boots of Elvenkind. The DK just runs around, pops out of nowhere Invisibly, then drops 6d20 — w/any nat 20 = Decapitation. If my math is right, that’s a coin flip chance of a Decap every two rounds. No Healing Word to put up the Meat Shield w/1d4 HP. Maybe not mathematically the most effective in terms of DPS & Kills, but it should be psychologically punishing to play against.
A important thing to remember when dealing with the adds is formation. Ordinarily undead would behave sloppily with more often than not no formation and tattered armor using half a broken bow as a club but with DeathKnight(s) leading them they would have at least actual weapons, use formations AND tactics to take on the party. Simply having a group of 2 skele archers with a phalanx of skeletal and zombie guard waiting for opportunity attacks already causes the party 2 problems #1 slow chip dmg from skele archers (u can definitely have more than 2) #2 dealing with skele archers cant be done fast without useing precious spell slots or taking decent dmg/ debuffs Skeleies are pierce resistant if my memory serves and the phalanx guard would provide cover making them harder to hit in the first place. Undead debuffs are also no joke and this is all just basic TRASH mobs in a formation not even mentioning the BBEG standing in front of you ready to throw hands.
An alternative to his Kingslayer could be Blackrazor. It would make the fight even scarier since Blackrazor devours the soul of whoever it kills and they can only be resurrected by Wish, he’d gain temporary hit points equal to the killed targets maximum hit points, and since its drawback is that it inflicts self-necrotic for attacking undead he really wouldn’t have that problem and would only make him scarier to deal with since this solves his just “okay” health pool so long as he’s killing enemies.
I think it could also be interesting to add a Sekiro-esque mechanic to the parry. If the DK parries a melee attack, the creature who got parried has their AC halved until their next turn. In exchange for this, I’d make it so that the DK can parry any attack, including range and magic. That way, your players have to carefully wear it down from a distance before they can go for a physical attack. It goes well with the magic buffed melee fighting style of the DK too. Might need some play testing, but I like the idea that even this bosses parry is something the party needs to be wary of.
In fact, i once ran a party where one of the players (who was a bit of a murder hobo) was playing an evil paladin. Over the course of the adventure, he had gotten a legendary sword of his own design and a pet displacer beast. Eventually, that player left our group and we moved on from that campaign. However, that character seemed perfect as a bbeg. So i turned him into one. I made him into a death knight. The fact that you recommended a legendary sword and a cloak of displacement was very fitting to me, as he had naturally gained all the materials for both. I had, obviously, equipped him with both. Hopefully i will get to run him one day. I put a lot of effort inot his stat sheet.
Hell yeah, death knights don’t get nearly enough love. I’ve got a death knight minor BBEG in my dark fantasy campaign whose stat block I’ve been tweaking. As of commenting right now, I’m at the Legendary Actions section of the article, and one piece of feedback is that you should always give boss monsters a movement legendary action. Either to move without provoking opportunity attacks, or to just teleport, usually at the cost of one LA. This is to stop a party from just surrounding and wailing on the boss, although there might be something later in the article you talk about that prevents this. That’s just my two cents, I always give my bosses extra movement just in case it’s needed.
Im working on a book where the big bad is this man who needs the blood of Heros. In order to do this he “makes” heros by dying to them, as he is the ultimate evil in the land this essentially makes the person a legend. He later gets being reserected and kills them. Initially, I had planned for him to be more of a Lich style, but after this article I am strongly considering changing that last part. Well done!
See, a base Death Knight being a punk is no exaggeration. My level 4 Oath of the Ancients Paladin was single-handedly dueling one in a wildmont campaign I was in years ago…and WINNING. The only reason he had to retreat was the rest of the party got nearly merced by that Hellfire Orb and the place was starting to burn down…the rest of the party were horrified but I just shrugged and literally said, “We’ll finish this later!”, and left to pick up what remained of the party. Nothing at level 4, should be making a Death Knight look like a babyback bitch.
need to make a round table of deathknights now. maybe have the players focus on trying to find ways to redeem them, or at least provide a path to do it. Have them run into the weakest of them to kick it off as a plotline and then just powerscale from there until they run into big-daddy-dk like the one you’ve written here
Welp seeing that everyone is positing their ideas and inspirations from this lovely article heres mine. Instead of the typically landbound death knight, having a viking style death knight with a massive ironclad fortress piercing the waves, in search of the battle that finally ends his existence. You could also translate this to spelljammer quite easily and have it be an undead version of mandalorians that sail through the stars, conquering and reanimating until a perfect death claims them
This is the template i add to the DK in all my campaigns + a Nine Lives Stealer as his main weapon. Frightful Presence. Each creature that is within 120 feet of it must succeed on a DC 18 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours. and the following spell list Cantrips (at will): minor illusion 1st level (4 slots): command, fog cloud, ray of sickness, shield 2nd level (4 slots): invisibility, hold person, dragon breath(poison only), rime’s binding ice 3rd level (3 slots): dispel magic, spirit shroud, fear, Elemental Weapon(fire only) 4th level (3 slots): dimension door, shadow of moil 5th level (2 slots): telekinesis, negative energy flood 6th level (1 slot): wall of ice, create undead 7th level (1 slot): power word pain, finger of death 8th level (1 slot): power word stun 9th level (1 slot): psychic scream It also uses a Morgul Blade. Morgul Blade Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 5) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be cursed. The cursed target can’t regain hit points, and its hit point maximum decreases by 10 (3d6) for every 1 hours that elapse. If the curse reduces the target’s hit point maximum to 0, the target rises as a wraith.
Random shitty campaign idea since I’m bored: So there was once a great paladin known as big pete, big pete just went straight off the radar when a new great evil arose so now the players have to find big pete and slay the big evil who now lives at big petes crib as they fight through undead legions and meet the big bad a few times until they finally find big pete, unfortunately for the players big pete is the big bad and now they have to throw hands with a super powerful death knight with the odds stacked against them, maybe throw in a few logs hinting that big pete is now the big bad
I rather like Pathfinder’s equivalent the Graveknights they act the same in most aspects but they are the martial counterparts to liches and their phylacteries are their suits of armor image slaying one of them the fighter decides to take the armor only to be possessed by the knight later on now it’s round two without one of the party’s heavy hitters as the vessel for the enemy.
I think an interesting grounds for a death knight would be a very wide battlefield, now long abandoned. Maybe its a no mans land of absolute nothing. Trenches and trenches of what wqs once mud but now dry dirt. Crumbling encampments and old burned down areas. A land so war torn that the very dirt is so corrupted nothing could ever grow. The death knights base could be some castle beaieged so long that the mice starved after gourging on the dead soldiers within. Or maybe the complete. Not barren of life but a jungle of inhospitablity, the undead soldiers overcome with roots. Rain ever pouring but trees so thick its hard to collect. If you’ve played darkest dungeon 2, something akin to the Tangle. The death knights lair could be just a series of trenches and tunnles filled with roots and barely accesible. I dunno im just spitballing here. Great article, by the way, Archlich, if you see this.
Another cool way to run a Death Knight as a BBEG is to actually have the party start pursuing them shortly after they cast off their oaths and stay ever just that bit behind them so they’re left to deal with the escalating consequences of the one-time Paladin’s continued fall. This completely changes the dynamic of the final encounter, as well as the types and numbers of allies the Death Knight will have. Just a fun idea to have this villain more constantly present and influential in the campaign and offer some flavor beyond the standard “assault the overlord in their castle”.
Perhaps it’s just because I’ve been preparing a pirate campaign for me chums, but perusal this made me realize: Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is a death knight. He started out chosen by the goddess calypso He fell from grace, and was cursed for it He commands undead There’s certainly many differences, too. I mean, there were no shields or plate armor as far as I could see, but they’ve got some similar vibes going.
The “fall” isnt necessary. I used to play an Anti-Palidin who aspired to become a Death Knight, and achieved it…at level 22. There was no fall, it was an elevation. +5 2-handed Unholy Avenger, Plate mail of etherealnrss +3, several rings and many trinkets. Plus the spell casting ability of a 16th level cleric. Its leftover from second edition and have no clue how he’d scale into 5th but he was broken OP.
One of my most favorite campaigns was one in which a Lich, Death Knight, and Elder Brain ruled their own territories, which they had separated from the rest of the world by force. Each had decided to go to war with each other over the rights to the humanoids in the region, the conflict of the campaign. The Lich and Death Knight both wanted to put them into their respective Undead armies, while the Illithids wanted to keep them in human farms, leaving the Adventurers and poor, poor human armies to lead a desperate war for their survival. It was a super gritty, zero-to-hero style of campaign, where the party had to fight tooth and claw just to survive, hitting wall after wall in their progression until they finally broke through to their high-level abilities. The war with the Illithids came first, as they could use even minor forces like Cranium Rats and Intellect Devourers to quietly scourge an entire town without word getting out. Next, the Lich, proving a very troublesome foe due to his centuries of planning and countless Magic Items (as well as his literal army of skeletons). And finally… the Death Knight, a nigh-invincible Paladin who tirelessly marched against the mortal races. Because he was so ridiculously powerful as a result of what I gave him, the party had to intentionally and strategically sacrifice places in order to keep his armies from swelling too high, until their massive confrontation at max-level, the end of the campaign. The super-optimal spells I gave him, along with the almost comedically OP Magic Items (the same as in this article) made the fight into an already-hard battle, but I increased his HP a fair bit as well, drawing it out to proportions that made it feel like a battle of attrition towards the end.
I’ve had this death knight in my head for a long time, but I’ve never had the chance to actually give him justice. A few of my players only met a very powered down version of him once during a brief adventure, but I’m proud to say that he, and especially his sword, made quite the impact. His name is Lord Volkmar, and he used to be the right hand of Kyrlos the Great, First Emperor of the West. He was known as an honorable and just warrior, loyal to his lord and his people, always willing to sacrifice himself for the good of the many. However, he also had a somewhat somber side: he was quiet and melancholic, and never smiled nor showed any sign of happyness or satisfaction for anything he did. He actively avoided fame and glory, to the point that he never took off his helmet in public. It is said that the only thing driving him forward was his sheer sense of duty. He carried with him the most fearsome weapon the world had ever seen: Heartbreaker. No-one knows exactly how and why he obtained it, but according to the most common version it belonged to a warlord from the northern parts of the continent, who had conquered and enslaved the entire region. Some say that the warlord gave the sword it’s name because of all of the widows and orphans he created with it. Volkmar himself led the army tasked with liberating the warlord’s subjects and bringing them into the empire, and slew him in single combat. Since then, he used the sword to protect the innocent and punish the wicked, using it’s terrible powers to accomplish good and noble deeds.
I might yoink those ideas for one of my side baddies. A conquest paladin tasked with pacifying the marches of the empire. Except the news of the attrocities he commits reach the players who will likely go and try to sort it out. I also plan on giving him a bit of a show before his task, so the players can get foreshadowed what theyll be dealing with when he paints walls with some wannabe assassin.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll personally be using the candle of invocation (reflavored as the torch he’s wielding) for my death knight baddie. It’s fitting of a general to bolster his army within the torchlight and the gate spell can be a fun hail mary to summon even more undead reinforcements from another plane.
Make the Death Knight an actual knight in life. Not a paladin. A level 18 fighter with Champion gives him a 5+ con modifier hp regen. And 18-20 to crit. Insane boost. The Death Knight made a pact with a devil to do something desperate in life. And so the champion fell. And over the centuries the champion did evil deeds for the fiend that earned him the corrupted paladin powers he’s got as well
Really you don’t need to modify a ”Death Knight”. Cast elemental weapon to get a (+3 and the extra damage increases to 3d4) to your long sword. You can do (3d8 or 3d10)+ 15 ‘mod’ +9d4+3) =54 or 57 average damage & still have 14 of your 15 slots to cast. Only Items I tend to consider giving a Death night are Wand of Fear & resistance rings against 1 fire & 2 cold. If you really want to make the fight harder & scary place permanent (Sickening Radiance) emanating from the Death knight. Then your player with low constitution will run if they can! I use death knights as the sort creature mid or low level players should run from as it comes for them as they crossing a bridge, approach a castle or similar. If you give the Death knight a surprise round against a higher level NPC with the party from previous encounters then one shot with a smite no slot used as thematic flare. Next tell party to roll a con save for 1 will fail giving them level 1 exhaustion & show them the rules they run 90% of the time! 1\tDisadvantage on ability checks 2\tSpeed halved 3\tDisadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws 4\tHit point maximum halved 5\tSpeed reduced to 0 6\tDeath Wand of Fear is to sink home maybe they don’t want to fight this (sickening radiance) & (fear) enduing creature. If one PC casts fireball or similar tell them it appears to do little damage! Never tell them this is death knight but a man glad in ancient armour with a presence that emanates decay or the like! Language & presentation is how you scare a party!
Building on the idea of the Lich who makes his Phylactery a powerful “lawful good” religious relic… The Death Knight is a Paladin of that church cursed into undeath by the Lich itself for discovering the truth. Before undoing the Lich you must win such a Death Knight to your cause…since though they wander the Planes confused and angry and evil theres still good in such a Death Knight when you remind them they were misled. And their distant relatives are still alive. And theres good in this world still worth dying for. A prospect such a Death Knight would relish. To not understand this would cause the party to have one hell of a boss fight. And deprive themselves of a necessary ally in the campaign against the Lich
Finally, some recognition that blood was a great DPS spec in WotLK. Might just be my experience but seems like most people retrospectively consider Blood as just for tanking. SM + full ArP gear was crazy good. I mained Unholy up until I got SM and really wanted to make use of the ArP on it, absolutely loved it
I wish they would release DK’s how they were on release of WotLK. Just for a week or two. lmao. They were so OP at launch. You could be a Blood DPS DK and just run around gathering mobs and kill all of them and have full health because you were healing yourself the whole time without trying just by doing damage.
I was pretty young when I played wc3, early teens for vanilla, tbc and wrath. When wrath was announced and Death Knights were confirmed, I was 100% certain it would be Alliance Vs Horde Vs Scourge, as in, scourge is an entire third major faction. My child brain; “First some default undead classes like Warrior, Mage, Warlock and Deathknight, perhaps a later patch could add true necromancers and the like :D” I was majorly disappointed when it was a continuation of Alliance vs Horde, but the expansion in itself was a lot of fun despite my extreme overhype haha.
I think in the future, if they come out with different subs, specializations of each class that kind of give them a more varied thematic field then you might see that nights with mounted combat, and the ability to use staves and be more spell oriented. I think if you really think about each class you could envision something like this, but it would be a lot of work and who knows when we would see it
Blizzard. Bring back rune types for ability spenders for Death Knights, unholy, blood, frost and also death runes. New 1 type runes feels boring and trash, it is more like energy or even gcd. Why delete auras instead of enhancing it? Bring back more interesting hybrid chooses instead of removing baseline spells and putting it as a “talent” In a tree… Frost ghouls, blood ghouls, summoning liches or even becoming lich yourself… MORE WEAPON CHOICES AND RUNE CHOICES. There is so much potential, it is sad to see my favorite class in such bad and ugly state on alpha and retail game… This is why I stopped playing from legion and deleted game first week from BFA…
The deathknight starting zone.levelling experience has to be the best in the game. The starting zone is you just being a weapon of mass destruction and killing the puny humans. Then afterwards, you’re level 58/59 full blue gear, and absolutely destroy every mob in the open world, and players in BGs. Levelling is so fast, because the class is so fun to play and deals so much damage and has a lot of healing.. So get yourself a DK!
Gul’dan didn’t come up with the first death knights until in between the first and second war. The figures on the original dark portal construction would have been inspired by either Eredar or Medivh himself, who appeared to Gul’dan while being controlled by Sargaras and told him of Azeroth in the first place and how to build the Dark Portal.
10:45 I loved and mained prot warrior in TBC specifically because of the way threat worked. I felt very impactful when I could hold aggro on many mobs without much wait-time; taunt instantly before it was an issue… your performance affects the gameplay of the entire group so when I was that rare player that could maximize that I felt super special.
I wished they would have made you level a warrior or a paladin and that character could have done a scenario that they died in battle and are raised as deathknights. You would lose that warrior or paladin but it would feel more impactful and more lore based. Also think they should have done the same for DHs
Everyone misses the underlying tank problem. 25 man takes 2, maybe 3 tanks for a few encounters. Even 40 man was 2 tanks mostly. You have 5 groups in a 25 man only 2 of which have raid geared tanks….the off spec guys are a tier behind and no-one has the patience to heal that or slow dps to accommodate, so yeah 3 out of 5 tanks had a sh1t time.
before sl: they are the fearless fighters who give their life tried to save their race and the world but failed and turned into the monster they fought, now they break free and try to take revenge on who caused their pain… and try to avoid anyone to have the same fate as theirs after sl: they are the dumbass who slide into boss’s sword and cause them and their race to pay the price, they might looked like they have free will but nope, they all being controlled by a gaint bald guy with a hole in his chest, they are npcs, have no pity on them
11:20 Oh you’re absolutely right about the competitive damage, no need to correct yourself, you’re remembering it correctly. Arms-Prot Warriors can easily end up doing close to 60-70% of a Dungeon run’s total damage. For raids, a more pure Prot oriented build is better, but the AoE you can deal with Arms-Prot is just ridiculous. Unrelenting Assault reducing Revenge to 1 sec and increasing damage by 20%, Improved Revenge increasing its damage by another 60% and dealing 100% of the damage to a nearby target. Sweeping Strikes providing you with ridiculous AoE, and add the Sweeping Strikes Glypth with the Revenge glyph and you just have damage for days!
Hahahah sooo American 🤥 My mannn was wearing soo fake hair that I almost didn’t hear his lies. (Explanations) Sorry to say this, but even with the thought you’re offspring of us (Europeans). With all the colonizing we did together, in all those years you didn’t develop culture, or was just coping it. No hasrch feelings, just think about it 🙂 One love 💟
Technically…. the dark portal did not have death knights because it was horde….. but rather, because the building in warcraft single player games where the hero unit was resurrected; i.e. the Altar of Storms…. had those models. This was repeated when they created World of Warcraft and finally built several altar of storms places in the world….notably in Burning Steppes, and Blasted Lands, and Twilight Highlands. As such, the actual figures carved in the stone are not death knights, those were the warlocks of the original evil horde…..who only became death knights “after” they were killed by Doomhammer and put in the dead corpses of human soldiers. In other words, those statues existed on the altars before the horde had death knights of any kind.
You right about mirroring death for death knights but as blood elf class have hold on death.😮 But Which is why I run alliance dk I hate blood elves lol I like playing in my mind that my dk will soon break that hold. Which Sylvanas wanted to steal eventually but the power of death took us into the maw. Very fun nonetheless dk is my main wyk
If blizzard has a tiny bit of brain left in the company they will create a brand new expansion after wrath of the lich king classic and restart wow from there with the true fans in mind, surely they wouldnt miss their last chance to restart one of the greatest mmorpgs of all time and get rid of all their past mistakes for short time profit by just releasing cataclysm classic right? R-right?
18:07 17 been playing classic since launch at 14. Fucking excited for wrath loved classic did so much world dragon shit during lockdowns not played tbc as much but cleared all the content have swp on farm. Started wow at the age of 5 at the very very very end of wrath I think days before cata pre patch.
WOTLK classic will be a shitshow big time. No RDF, every dungeon you want to run will have bare minimum 15-20 extra minutes spent getting to dungeon. Bugs/glitches that have been in the game since TBC prepatch they never fixed. Servers will be massively unbalanced. I saw tons of horde guilds recruiting on forums and only 2 alliance guys, the horde had one guy that had 3 out of 5 25 man raid teams filled already and one of the only 2 alliance recruiters only had 1 response to his post which was himself bumping his post. I am not interested in ever giving them money again when private servers legitimately have less glitches/bugs and admins that aren’t asinine jerks like the devs on blizz forums, you have to pay them to play their broke ass version of the game that doesn’t work while they thumb their nose at you and treat you like you don’t deserve to get to have a functional game to play even though you paid for it. If they can’t afford to fix the problems with the game on 15$ a month then why are we paying them 15$ a month? Not only do they not fix the stuff that is broken, they are going out of their way to destroy stuff that wasn’t broken quality of life mechanics like removing RDF and going to be changing stats on items now that is untrue to original WOTLK. It was never a fav expansion of mine anyway, I am more partial to MOP and WOD but even if it were those expansions instead i still wouldn’t be able to bring myself to pay blizzard for a handicapped version of those expansions.
I started in Wrath. I had a Tauren shaman RAF who I left mostly alone until LFD came out, an undead lock who was my 1st 80, and a blood DK tank. Before LFD everyone wanted me to tank even before I got to max level, which was OK. I really believed you didn’t roll need unless no one wanted a dps weapon, so I delayed playing PvP.Thing I loved was los pulls; grab the dangerous mob and beat them up around the corner then AoE their friends. I’d done a couple of WGs as unholy, once I got a dps weapon I ran BGs. I think it was my 1st or 2nd BG, it was tough battles but we pushed from farm to lumber mill to stables and the 2 other survivors ran on to gold mine leaving me at stables. I saw him coming out of the starting area, a lock in full wrathful gear. I called INC several times but no one responded. I only had a couple of honor pieces, a couple of crafted pieces, and the rest was tank gear. I had a plan; yank the casters and interrupt through strangulate/mind freeze. It wasn’t even close, I dusted him. He was probably as confused as I, he comes in again and the same thing happened. Third time he dropped a port and tried to run from it but I went to the port and yanked him. Next he tried to sneak to the LM and I squashed him, next time he brought someone and I finally died but my team showed up right when I died so we never lost the stables. A little OP…
tbc and vanilla had the best tanking mechanics. Idk about wotlk because I never played it. tbc wallpulling was the best thing as a tank but I didn’t like paladin AoE tanking I thought it was too easy for a tanks to hold agrro and took away a challenge part from tanks to hold agrro and was a skill to hold agrro and with tbc paladins it was soo easy to tank and hold agrro.
Yeah dks were such a cool concept and then got immediately put aside by blizzard. The balancing team Immediately got tired of them turned blood into a tank spec so it wasnt a problem anymore, made frost unplayable so that they only needed to focus and balance unholy the easiest one of them to balance of course cause it was the only one that was based on little constant dot damage with deseases and pets. Only thing they needed to do every expanction was just to adjust the dot damage and it was done. Compeltly forgottwn class by the later expansions. They were more focused each expansion on making mages rogue and warlock more op than they already were while having all 3 specs of each class at the top of the game since vanilla. Embarassing.
I made a DK my main in SL and it was a great experience. I’ve avoided them since LK. I’ve tried them but could never get over the hump of their runes and resource bar but at the end of BFA I said I’m going to try something I’ve never tried and I bit the bullet with the DK and I actually mained the DK and I loved it. Took a break before SL sucked but I’m contemplating using a DK for the next xpac. Toss up from my old main Monk or DK now. Choices choices
Lol Zack’s understanding of DKs just “doing what you want” is based off of him never touching Wrath since Wrath and no one understanding or refining the class in it’s original release. If you want to tank you’re 2H Blood. If you dps you’re DW Frost or 2H Unholy. The end. This will be proven starting today.