Dungeons and Dragons lore : Death knight 

My paladin better be careful then. She is going down the path of vengence but that's a slippery slope.

5:06 press repeatedly

DM: "Alright, you are surrounded by multiple skeletons and two Skeletal Champions. What are you doing?" Paladin: "I Turn Evil!" DM: "Sounds good. They accept your offer. You are now a 15th level Death Knight." Paladin: "What? No I meant I use the..." But it was no use.

I don't feel like 11 minutes does this justice.

Interesting that you said it would command a Lich. I run a campaign that the Death Knight is the Darth Vader to a Lich's Emperor. So the Knight is in command of the Lich's army.

I think a cool idea would be a death knight that rides a dracolich into battle like a necromanctic verson of eragon

Weren't the first death knights created by the orcish warlock Gul'dan? ....oops! Wrong universe :P

Lord Soth is best death knight, so awesome even Ravenloft couldn't hold him.

6:45 Forsaken Death Knight. Almost the worst luck in all of World of Warcraft. First, they die and become scourge, then they get their will back (debatable, some think the Banshee Queen is just the same influence as the Lich King) and then they die again but get resurrected by the Lich King (again) to serve him. He then betrays them as basic fodder to draw out Highlord Tirion Fordring.

They kind of remind me of the Nazgul.

Also, at least in my campaigns, a paladin could very well be turned into a death knight as a test of devotion. You're now an immortal undead, will you hold to the ideals of your deity, or succumb to the darkness that you've been turned into?

Okay I am running CoS I have a palidin of Tyr in the game. The PC is not coming back to the game. I want to kill him off. I want to have make him death knight of Strahd.

One of my favorite campaign ideas involved a powerful death knight who was a former paladin who was resurrected by a powerful demon. The death managed to regain his former conscious, and summoned the party to hell. The party would help the death knight and lead an unholy crusade against the demon, of with the help of the death knight and his undead army. I never did it cause it was gonna be a pain in the ass to manage all of the NPC’s and undead in combat.

On the world of Krynn a famous Death Knight,Lord Soth murdered his wife to continue an affair with an elf maiden. Interestingly I also heard that they are exeptional singers as well

So how do druids monks bards and sorcerers get their immortality? It’d be cool if there’s an evil immortality undead for every class

That overlord thumbnail pic though! What a good game,

Lord south was using “Power word kill” before it was cool 🤓

Weird. There was an advert for pushchairs halfway through the video starring a little cartoon baby, then back to the undead. Not sure which was more horrifying really. Now I'm going to dream of Death Knights robed in pink comfort blankets. Oh, the horror!

*sees thumbnail* Ahhh the all mighty overlord.

Since I was 14 (1986), I always role-played Death Knights as Paladins that fell to sophistry. They are evil narcissuses that see themselves as forces of good and justify their evil acts as being pragmatic acts for the greater good. You can chat a Death Knight to no end if you can if they let you, but you will always be the bad guy in their personal narrative if you oppose them. Some accept that they are agents of evil after a long, long time. They will still say they are a force of good but needed to sacrifice their soul, honor, and goodness for the sake of the world for a higher purpose and compromising everything is worth it now because they are close to the root of evil and will do the most good. As I said, sophistry is the bread & butter of Death Knight former Paladins. The intrigue is delicious. I almost had to force my players to have a dialog with my Death Knights because I am a role-play guy and they rarely did more than find how awesome and how virtuous a Death Knight was as a Paladin. One was Blackthorn, ruler of Brittania. I adopted the Ultima IV (maybe Ultima V?) computer game into an AD&D campaign. Blackthorn was a Death Knight that tyrannically enforced the Virtues. Don't judge. At the time, I was running an AD&D game every week... I did not have enough creativity to keep my content completely original. I kept creating hours worth of gaming every week. That was not as easy as it seemed. Another was Romance of the Soulless Overlords. It was a campaign based upon Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lich King, Nosferatu, and Lycans (yes, they were equal). Only the Lycans didn't have a Death Knight a general that commanded Death Night lt. generals. There were multiple levels of intrigue and the island (not mainland China, a land of the dead scenario)) had a powerful resist-anything rebellion of Mountain Dwarves. They would eventually become an enemy because they were ironically led by a Dwarven Death Knight. The wild card was a "werepire", a necromancer was able to create a werewolf-vampire super hybrid. The party was my veteran players, so they found that one, handled its problems, and got its leverage. The last is one I often use. When a PC Paladin loses his Paladin status, I offer the death-guaranteed option of the Paladin quick reinstating option. He must fight and defeat a Death Knight version of himself with all the same gear he is carrying applied to that Death Knight applied to positive in how it is positive to him to negative to how it is applied negatively to him. Defeat him, you are a Paladin again. Lose to him, become a Death Knight and forfeit your soul (and player character status, become an NPC Death Knight).

Okay so here is an idea.Lets say there was this young warrior who everyone thinks of as a beloved hero.There are statues of him and songs are still sung about how he slew the black dragon of the marsh and it's evil minions all scattered in fear when he did so.But he died in the process.At least that's what people think.But what if he was corrupted.What if the evil coven of hags that once served the dragon now use that knight as their muscle to enforce their will in the night.What if their leader is a powerful necromancer.

I've always seen Death Knights more as a "class" than an actual undead being, tbh. Mostly due to me being exposed to them via Warcraft but even then, I see them as being able to be a class for living beings but are much more rare and far weaker than undead beings who are trained in the ways of the death knight, in many ways I'd see "living death knights" to be fake/false death knights tbh.

My game has 4 level 16 characters. One of which is a life cleric. My DM is starting to run out of things to throw at us that are a challenge without being an instant TPK. The death knights are now impromptu mini bosses.

Is Pride and ego the only emotion to turn a paladin into a Death Knight? I'm a big fan of guilt as a motivator. It's the torturer that never sleeps.

I have used Death Knights as "boss monsters" in my campaigns, my veteran players learned to focus on taking the Death Knight down ASAP when known. That being said, I haven't gamed in a long LONG time. From what you covered here, the elite super Death Knight Lord Soth is now almost a default Death Night? God help our players... at least they cannot Shadowalk by default, but they can if they pick the spell... ouchie. Yep, lich level scary on the fighter side.

I thought the first death knight was Lord Soth ? If used the death knight that inhabits the realm of dread he comes from the dragonlance setting

I dont understand how they can wield hellfire yet originate from the Abyss? Why would demogorgan create death knights and not Orcus?

quite enjoyed the fact that soth was cursed to still follow the law of chivaly, i.e dismount if opponent has/nomount or face them in single combat.

My homebrew tip for death knights is make them lv 20 oathbreakers, complete with all their abilities.

Funny enough I had a wandering death knight on my random encounter table. He was the leader of a knightly order in direct service of a king who was murdered and later raised as an undead. The would be death knight fell protecting his kings body and when the king rose as an undead being he raised his former knights as undead. When the undead king was later slain the death knight was slain alongside him. Then the world ended and some servants took the body of the desthknight to the world to which people fled. There the deathknight rose (As death knights do) and was horrified that he had been removed from the world of his master and now he wanders alone seeking to return so he can stand guard over the tomb of his fallen master for all eternity.

I was made into a death knight by asmodeus and still have my body character classes and race abilities. My question is can I heal unlike other Death Knights I was given was given the power by Primordial God that turned me into one?

The first time I ever fought a death knight I got lucky because I rolled a nat 20 with a vorpal sword. I wound up pushing my luck fighting his friend.

Follow up: The Deathknights of the Forgotten Realms. I think there were a half dozen or so.

I always wanted to turn my father Bart Into one of those a dead Knight But I was gonna make him be once a king who died and came back as a Knight

I always found it funny, the idea of a Good Deity punishing a Paladin/Knight by making him even more powerful which he then uses to spread even more Evil in the world. If he was imprisoned in one specific area to guard an important/dangerous artifact, then that would make more sense, but to be able to roam freely across the land to do as he pleases, that does not. Now a Good Paladin/Knight entering into a bargain with a Demon, and cursed with powers and servitude, would make more sense for that.

Deffknights will always be green truncheon sporting undead human knights wielding the power of slain necrolytes or a prestige class of fallen princes and peeps slain at the world tree.... :3 i remembe when death n decay sounded like eggs cooking on a skillet XD

Wasn't there a Death Knight featured in the D&D cartoon from the 80s? Two in fact as I seem to remember. Warduke and a skeleton warrior who was turned into one who had a legendary sword and could cast...

The ultimate badass bad guy

And once again your videos are revolutionizing my campaign world. Thank you, AJ. Hope your muscle strain is healing well

Man, I really wanted to hear what you say AJ, but all the garbage 5E mechanics talk just completely cringed me out, so I had to cut out midway as they say- if you don't like what's being said go away well I'll catch you on the next one of your casts - I do overall like your portfolio of work AJ.

All hale lord sloth

There's also a death knight in _Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus_ - but this one wants nothing more than to pass on to the afterlife, except his boss, Zariel, won't let him.

So i would totally write you a deep dive of the god Murlynd.

Could you give a Deathnight ice powers instead to make it like Arthas from Warcraft? He is called the Lich King. Or, make one an Archer like Sylvanas?

Small question: why do death knights not have legendary actions or lair effects and actions?

After the story of Warcraft 3 this is very interesting. Didn't know D&D had Deathknights. I think I heard the mention of Dreadlords in an other D&D deathknight video. They have them in Warcraft also but don't known how similar they are.

Just wondering if giants can become death knights, just wanted to add some flavor.

I've been toying with a Death Knight empowered by Juiblex. replacing much of his negative energy attacks with acid, have his full plate armor sloshing because its full of ooze, can command oozes instead of undead, and mixed up his spells a bit. A death knight who can use Rusting Grasp and radiates an aura of hopelessness? Oof. Only problem is: why would Juiblex care enough to make a creature like this?

How do Death Knight's interact with a Lich? Is there a pecking order? Can they come into conflict or are they much more likely to come to a mutual agreement on a certain goal.

Why is a death knight chaotic evil? Shouldn't they be lawful evil?

Is it possible for a vampire to become a death knight, say a paladin is infected with vampirism and ended up being cast out of his order and decided to take revenge on them by making a pact with dark powers?

I once used one a deathknigt against a low level party of good characters. Sucker showed up at their home turf and basically told them "your gonna do this thing for me or me and my undead army are going to wipe your town and all the surounding country side out and add them to my army" got the idea from another D&D channel on youtube, they make a great villian and are masters of manipulation.

Love Death Knights.

Hell yeah.

I was hoping you were going to go into the lore behind Lord Soth and the creation of Ravenloft.

I really do wish that Death Knights had Legendary and Lair Actions; they are on the level of Liches, but I sometimes feel that they come up short being "just martial". And I know they aren't; theyvDO havecsome spells, and I'm just not as up to date on Paladin spells as others, but other than just dumping in undead hordes, I feel like once they have to close with the party; being primarily melee, they will simply get crushed by the action economy, like every other single, tough enemy encounter, in 5e. This is why I've often considered making sure that one I'd use is riding a nightmare, so it can spend parts of rounds in a location most players can't blast them in. Still, whine though I might, I can imagine a cool, staggered undead brawl, with this at the top. Maybe a banshee, and a skeletal mage, or an arcanaloth, and some other troops who died prior.

I planned to place a whole order of Death Knights in Waterdeep, albeit a small order, all of them having barely survived the attack of an ancient Green Dragon. The entire Order, bare about 100 of them, were killed in the attack, and they failed in protecting the city. So, on the verge of dying, with the shame of their failure in their mind, those few remaining chose undeath as their way of attonement, turning into Death Knights as eternal Guardians of the City. "For even in Death I shall serve"

I play the Neverwinter MMO wonder if they will eventually add this monster as a boss in a future update.

there's a reason why they are not common...the dead paladin cannot simply be turned into a death knight. like a cleric, they are symbols of good used by the powers of good. sure, some fail, die early, or convert to non good but the number that actually become evil should be fairly low in a regular campaign. to even become a paladin or cleric one is assumed to be virtuous and its not an easy thing! to be a death knight one needs to be fractured from the beginning bc they need to reach a certain level of piety before they turn. that means they were almost destined from the get go. one in dnd always seems to think that falling to evil is a common or simple thing..well maybe, but then again I believe in the yin and yang. if that is true, there must also be soo many evil creatures becoming good. and of course, there are not many tales of that happening. someone who murders and rapes and tortures innocent beings being suddenly revered for not eating live babies?! I doubt it. would your good god in dnd allow someone from like, the august underground movies to suddenly become a priest who condemns those who perform evil and gets access to your healing powers without a long and arduous and possibly impossible set of tasks before them b4 they are even allowed in a place of worship? so, in essence, they are powerful and few exist, but in a campaign they should not be so numerous that they are well known, documented or even grouped together in armies bc it seems a bit silly to me, but for each their own...

Death comes to all and cruel vengeance will be exacted on those who waste their lives on the petty concerns of this existence. True power comes only from the unquestioning servitude of the once-dead, mastery over death, and the eventual earned stature of one of the ever-living in death. Hunt, slay and animate those who scorn the Revenancer's power, and answer any slight a thousandfold, so that all may know the coming power of Kiaransalee.

When I grow up, I wanna be a Death Kinght!

You should make vids about characters. Like aoth fezim or bareris anskuld. Maybe even brimstone the vampire smoke drake that saved dragons during the dracorage brought on by sammaster.

Immune to death magic!

You'd think that the first Death Knight would have been created by Orcus being that he is Demon Lord of the Undead, and because he hates everything

they are like jedi and sith ahah

Lord Soth ravenloft grate books awesome character.

Paladin doesn't get their power from gods, they get their power from their Will power directed by their oath

I see Death Knights being more of a Frost Caster, like drawing on the cold of Stygia

AJ in the undead hierarchy what ranks higher a death knight or a lich? Thanks AJ you make the best videos

I'm working on a death knight druid. I hadn't expected to do a death knight, but I was revived by a chaos god and carry the undead effect with me. I don't know how to do what I'm doing any suggestions?

1st one written was written in dragonlance that other one came later

Death knights could have much cooler flavor than "duped by a bigger evil dude". If you really wanted the Death Knight to take on the same magnitude as a lich, then perhaps where the lich mentally and magically cast off the "shackles" of the gods, the death knight boldly refutes divine law through willpower and battle prowess (a little like Guts from Berserk). As Vivec from the Elder Scrolls series would put it, their final goal is to "reach heaven through violence" - rip the gods down from their perch and claim their thrones both physically and metaphysically, leaving them as broken bodies and forgotten ideas. And honestly the easiest way to do that in game would be to add legendary actions, regional effects, and lair actions. Even a single legendary action sword attack on this thing would cause its CR to skyrocket. This dude is already a beast.

Could you make a ecology video for the winter wolves

nice! another deadly enemy to throw at em.

I wouldn't exacly call them a warrior lich. More like a mummy lord imo. Idea of lichdom is to be free, being knight not so much.

It's interesting that they only get 3 attacks per round, being a high level martial class and all.

The way I would handle lore, is to just have Death Knights be warriors who were turned into a Lich by another being. So like, a powerful Wizard turns a warrior into a Lich and keeps the Phylactery to gain control over them. Maybe even turn themselves into the phylactery. Why a warrior? Well if you do it to another mage, they might find a way to take back control.

The 5e version of Undermountain has not one, but TWO death knights lurking on the next-to-lowest level. The scary part about this particular pair is that they became death knights due to working with the Far Realm - and the book explicitly says they are too corrupted by the Far Realm to be redeemed...and since the only way to destroy a death knight forever is to make it redeem itself, they're more immortal that Halaster himself...

They're basically just a bunch of darth vaders

I know you've already done a video on Goblinoids in general, but could you go back and do videos on Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Bugbears that are a little more in-depth like you did with Kobolds?

Love your videos but theres way too many ads

I'm glad i looked into this. I was wanting to make up a necropolis in my madness game and i was wanting to play this in that a d even have one that is trying to find redemption. Have you got anything on something like a hell touched? I think that is what it was called. One of my buddies played it in 3rd ed. And i was wanting something like that helping my party along the way.

Do Death Knights Rejuvenate, or do they need to be re-raised by that patron of theirs, hence the lengths the latter goes for them?

Would a paladin of an evil god have a shot at becoming a death knight, or does it need to be a good paladin that has fallen?

Equemortis sinisterii

so he's sorta an undead Thor.

11:20 "You're never really gonna run across a random wandering Death Knight..." Funny you should say that. It's on the random encounter table for the deepest part of the woods in 5e Ghosts of Saltmarsh. It's not explained, but one might expect that they serve the extremely powerful Night Hag who reigns over that forest.

I am currently running a Teifling Paladin of Conquest who is leaning fully into her Infernal blood by (quietly) serving Asmodeus. She is a social/political manipulator who is taking mental notes on what drives the other party members. She would definitely take the offer of becoming a Death Knight because her driving belief is this: "The world is messed up, torn apart by chaos . . . so I need to rule it."

In WarCraft, the great game before World of Warcraft became a thing and forever ruined a great game by discontinuing the creation of new ones, Arthas was the best non-AD&D Death Knight.

If a death knight came up against a lich in the same area of effect would he be able to take the liches zombies and stuff from him or would it be the reverse that the Lich would be able to affect the death Knights Army of Undead?

in other words dont fight em !! lol great vid keep it up my friend !

Man, Overlord was a good series wish Overlord 3 would be announced

4:47 fire 5:17 supreme 6:57 Lightning

that undead sounds alot like a feminist i know !

My paladin will start worshipping orkus

Awesome video!!! I like your D&D creature lores because, now that I've retired from playing/DMing the game, I still love knowledge of its creatures. One of my favorite PCs was my death knight, Darth Iguantus. He's a four-armed swamp zard (aka, lizardfolk) who rose through the ranks of paladinhood, only to "fall from grace" by betrayal from the royal family he was serving out of fear of his mutation. Having four arms served him well (being stronger and dealing four attacks per round). But it struck fear and jealousy among his peers and those he serve to protect. After becoming fatally wounded in battle and demoralizing his pride (a lose of his lower right arm will do that), he was betrayed by his second-in-command and was abandoned in the middle of a battle against a powerful human arny by the zard lord in order to escape. In the aftermath, Sir Iguantus was left for dead among the other corpses from the battle. As he was dying, a powerful Demon Lord (another PC) named Legend, witness Iguantus' fate at the hands of his own people, and resurrected him as an undead death knight to serve him. As a challenge (Legend loves to powerhouse his "allies" from time to time), he forced Iguantus into servitude until he became powerful to retain his lost limb from Legend's grasp and be promoted to Death Lord status. Years later, Iguantus reached that goal, became a Death Lord on his own and titled himself as Darth Iguantus and successfully regained his lost arm. Iguantus and Legend went on their separate ways, reuniting from time to time on extra-planar missions to save their world from very powerful entities like Unlife (my DM's version of Galactus) or defeating the Norse gods to gain more power. Darth Iguantus became a legend in the D&D world I played in and even created offspring in an undead ritual as an experiment in creating a superzard warrior to pass on his undead legacy. He achieved demigod status when he became too powerful for me to play and "retired" as a NPC by my DM. To this day, Death Iguantus was my second most favorite PC. Watching this video reminded me of some of the best times in my life and why I loved playing D&D with my friends. Thank you for the sweet memories and keep up with the great work you always do!!!!

Great video AJ. Given the nature of the Death Knight before it's transformation, how do you feel about giving it class abilities? ie: A former fighter could have action surge, archetype champion improved critical, etc.

Is this a 5e build for this monster?

could you possibly do a video about the shades?

Okay why has no one asked. Who wins in a fight between a Lich and a Deathknight?