The first episodes of the new D&D Dungeon Masters series actual play show have aired, and fans are getting their first glimpse of the many new features coming in the upcoming World of Warcraft crossover book. That includes the undead Death Knight – ably played in the series by goth fave Neil Newbon – a new ‘hero class’ that turns the Paladin on its head.
Influencers with early access to the book have been providing the information in a condensed format, and this article is indebted to the YouTuber Insight Check – you can find his coverage in the video below if you prefer listening to reading.
Surprisingly, it looks like the new WoW supplement is going to take the most innovative approach to DnD classes of any 5.5 book to date.
To play a Death Knight, you’ll field a Paladin with the new Oath of the Ebon Blade subclass. Unusually, this subclass rewrites level one and level two class features from the base Paladin. If you have DM permission – and agree to be bound by your choice of subclass from level one – you can actually create a level one Death Knight.
It’s one of three ‘hero classes’ in the new book, along with the Demon Hunter and Evoker. In WoW selecting one of these classes will see you start the game at a higher level. The Demon Hunter is a Ranger subclass which also alters its base class, while the Evoker is a little less intrusive, modifying the Sorcerer’s Draconic Sorcery subclass.
Death Knight Class Features
Death Knights are Undead, and no matter what your creature type was to start with, once you pledge to the Ebon Blade, you swap it out. This means losing the Humanoid subtype, making you immune to Hold Person – yay! – but also immune to Cure Wounds and Raise Dead – boo.
All Death Knights get the Runeforging feature, letting them inscribe magical runes onto their weapon, picking from three specializations – Blood, Frost, or Unholy. These don’t have any direct mechanical effect, but they’re basically cosmetic – other subclass features might key off them.
Death Knights replace the Paladin’s Level 1 ability Lay On Hands with Death Coil. Instead of a pool of dice for healing, you get a pool of negative energy d8s for draining life – a number equals to one plus your Charisma modifier, which refreshes each long rest. Using these dice is a bonus action, which allows you to spend up to your Charisma modifier in dice, roll them, and force a target you can see within 60 feet to make a Constitution save. They’ll take the full dice roll if they fail, or half damage on a success. You can choose to heal undead targets, which includes yourself.
At level 2, Runic Smite replaces the regular Paladin’s Smite. It’s basically a reskin, replacing the spell Divine Smite with Rune Strike, which functions exactly the same, except that it deals Necrotic damage rather than Radiant damage, and deals bonus damage to Celestial targets instead of the Undead. According to Insight Check, the majority of spells in the book aren’t just reskins – but a few are.
Forsaken Species
The other part of Newbon’s new character, Glaive, is the new Forsaken DnD species. It’s not a mandatory requirement for becoming a Deathknight, but it does synergise well. The Forsaken are Undead with souls loosely tethered to their bodies, and accordingly their Creature Type is Undead. This doesn’t just affect spell targeting – they have a suite of immunities and resistances to go along with it.
Specifically, they’re resistant to Necrotic damage, have advantage on saving throws to avoid or end the Charmed or Frightened conditions, and can’t gain Exhaustion levels from dehydration, malnutrition, or suffocation. They don’t need to sleep, can’t be magically put to sleep, and can finish a Long Rest in four hours of conscious inactivity – presumably this is indistinguishable from rigor mortis, and is quite alarming for any elves attempting to meditate.
The Forsaken get Darkvision up to 60 feet – who doesn’t? – and then a handy little combat trick called Touch of the Grave. This is a once per long rest ability that can be used when dealing damage to a creature. This lets the Forsaken roll a number of d4 equal to their Proficiency Bonus, dealing that much extra Necrotic damage. However much damage the target actually suffers (after resistance), the Forsaken gets to heal.
The additional healing and minor melee damage burst seems like a great synergy for the Death Knight. My thoughts are immediately drawn to a Forsaken Rogue whose cons take advantage of not needing to eat or breathe. What do you think of these new undead character building options? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
