So true bestie

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

The Legend strikes again

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.

@amogus1415

7 ай бұрын

Tbf palpatine is a goated lich

@aloneremote6601

7 ай бұрын

Comment for the algorithm.

@bigmonkey1254

7 ай бұрын

Definitely. Usually, I try to make death knights "marauders". They got cursed by someone but they might just wander off to cause destruction, and the one who made them doesn't really care about the specifics of what they do. Or I make them blinded by pride to the point that they somehow ignore or justify serving an evil power by proxy.

@Busterzuzu4398

7 ай бұрын

Arthas Menethil

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.

@The_Murder_Party

7 ай бұрын

Slaaneshi death knights (pride/vanity) are a hell of a vibe

@FletcherGaddy

7 ай бұрын

@@The_Murder_Party funny enough I was gonna take the Fulgrim road for the fall to darkness but I’m still figuring it out

@ardabaser1349

7 ай бұрын

@@FletcherGaddy Cursed sword is a classic for the fallen paladin archetype.

@Bleilock1

7 ай бұрын

Well if thats the case might as well add the living to the fodder, foolish cultists that would fall for the shinning exterior ans false promises Something like easterlings in lotr fighting for the forces of mordor

@bomba3626

7 ай бұрын

You just described eldlich, a yugioh archetype

*Slowly slips a death knight into a planned quest line* Hehehe. Thanks for the terrible ideas.

I think you just inspired me to create a campaign that could best be described as "what if King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, but they're all Death Knights and the Camelot analogue is a horrible forsaken land the party might be able to save... eventually."

@The_Archlich

6 ай бұрын

Really cool premise.

@Whightknight16

4 ай бұрын

That's so dope

How many war crimes does it for a paladin to become a death knight? Your party may never know... (until they fuck around and find out unexpectedly in the middle of a campaign!)

@SpiritStoneWarrior94-yx3gs

4 ай бұрын

So just a regular old Tuesday for most D&D players 😂

@DKdrop

3 ай бұрын

That actually could be a really interesting idea, if your paladin player is up for it. One of the party members slowly becoming more and more corrupted until the rest of the party has to put down their now super powered evil paladin with some fun pvp.

@acemanner

3 ай бұрын

Is only a way crime if your side loses

An excellent addition to the collection. Now for a vampire lord, Mummy lord, or some kind of corrupted druid

You can say seriously or jokingly that "I'm making the enemy harder because I'm mean" but if your goal is player enrichment, it's the opposite. You sound like a fun DM, not a mean one

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Don't reveal my secrets to the masses. Can't have them think I'm going soft lmao.

Nightmare Shepherds are super thematic generals for Death Knights to have and their nightmare aura would mostly make up for not giving the DK the belt of giant strength. It at least would be an appropriate fiend for them to summon and have around the castle.

I'm so glad that this video recognizes how poorly death knight was treated in the new edition. I hope you keep making more

@bigmonkey1254

7 ай бұрын

I think 5e often expects the DM to kit out monsters with a lair, minions, and magic gear so they can make it their way and scale it how they like. I noticed this is especially the case with undead. Which makes sense. They're often at least somewhat relatable to a human (a very evil one) so it's not too hard to figure out what to give them. That being said, I wouldn't argue with a death knight have a dread aura since oathbreaker paladins get that!

i was watching the legendary sword bit and said to myself “ i would just give him a reversed holy avenger that deals necrotic rather than radiant” and when archie said generally the same thing, i was excited that i had called it

@burgertime6372

3 ай бұрын

Thats what they do in wotr

@genghiskhan6809

21 сағат бұрын

Same

I love the cheeky reference to @SsethTzeentach

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Hey hey, people.

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.

I don’t even play d&d but your video style is so entertaining i watch from start to finish

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you! I fell asleep reviewing the Elder Brain video so it's good for sleeping too lmao.

@ShoKasai

7 ай бұрын

Same! Don’t play D&D but love these videos as my friends RP in a game to create stories and these give me a lot of ideas for hopefully memorable enemies

@irgendeineperson5350

7 ай бұрын

Same. Love these.

@VeteranDecanus86

5 ай бұрын

@@The_ArchlichHow does a lich sleep without eyelids? 🤔

@SpiritStoneWarrior94-yx3gs

4 ай бұрын

​@VeteranDecanus86 he cuts the foreskins off his defeated enemies, and stitches them on himself 😂

I’m going to have a Tucker’s Kolbolds type army lead by a death knight now

My new favorite DND series for sure. Love the mix of gameplay pragmatism mixed with passion for the lore of the game

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you! I appreciate the kind words.

@williamm9435

7 ай бұрын

Agreed!

I love this videos, Death Knights aren’t just BBGs - they are like geographic features that exist in the campaign irregardless of what campaign arc is going on. I love your modifications, I felt the 5e DK was overly nerfed.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Yeah I have no idea why they decided to do them so dirty in the new edition. They were originally more powerful than most liches were.

@koboldman999

7 ай бұрын

​@The_Archlich like how the elder brain is to its residents of its little cove in the underdark, the lich is to death knights. While I agree that death knights are outright more strong, I think that the lich is still the moving force behind most undead in a region.

@johnsikking4891

7 ай бұрын

When I think of the Chad-ist Death Knight, I think of the Witch King of Angmar@@koboldman999. Now he was second fiddle to Sauron, but come on he changed the entire weather system in Middle Earth and plunged it into a crazy winter.

@koboldman999

7 ай бұрын

@johnsikking4891 that's what came to mind for me too. Although liches may not fall into the same level of outright strength of Sauron, I believe a fully decked out lich has the potential to be outright more bullshit magically in every way

@ExileTwilight

5 ай бұрын

How about a Lich who put his phylactery in the chest of a Death Knight? :p

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.

Death knights are my favorite monster in dnd. It seems every non-canon fodder enemy in the game is either a big monster or a mage, I feel like is so rare that we actually get a high level monster that just throws down in melee combat.

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.

Everyone's gangsta until the skeletons start loading and aiming cannons.

KZread algorithm decided to grace me with discovering your channel finally

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Glad it did! Welcome.

The Knight of the Black Rose (Lord Soth) is one of my favorite characters in Dragonlance.

Vecna wishes he could be as cool and knowledgeable as Archlich

Me running Shadow of the Dragon Queen: **frantically scribbling notes for Lord Soth**

Our great overlord has arrived, praise be.

was planning to run a death knight as a bodyguard of sorts for the former sorcerer of his adventuring party, but this video has convinced me to have him do his own thing

@giovannirocket9954

7 ай бұрын

Dig this, the death knight is just moonlighting as the bodyguard here and there and the party going after the sorcerer happens to align when it's working for the caster

The best D&D youtuber ever. All hail Archlich

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you for the kind words.

currently running an undead centric campaign for my players and a death knight is obviously gonna be one of the big bads, so, this was really helpful, great content as always

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you.

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

babe wake up new archie video just dropped

17:48 sounds just like the place I live in for the autumn-winter part of the year

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

My lair is similar in climate and ambience.

I honestly didn't know dnd had such in depth death knight lore because I always thought Death Knights were from world of warcraft

I can’t wait till the videos about running Archdevils and Demon Lords

17:37 "the palpable atmosphere of dread that hangs over the lands" > shows The Backrooms I kek'd

Merchant Guild reference was very funny lol, love these vids dont stop

Well glad I clicked on a random KZread recommendation, you've helped me a bit in designing my first campaign and to give a hint, "In place of a dark vampire lord you would have a Queen!! All shall love her and despair!"

Loving the continuity between some of these thumbnails. Yeah, they would soy face at a death Knight or big brain thang that's what they ddo

As someone who's finished a massive 2 year long campaign with a Death Knight as the main villain, all of this is great.

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".

Well, thanks to you I have decided to run a lich as the bbeg for my current campaign, but I'm stealing this for the next campaign I play.

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 video, by the way, Archlich, if you see this.

Deathknights are awesome, I'm glad I can run one in a fun way for both me and the party

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. In the less important areas he may or may not show up to summon his undead, and half heartedly fight. After all, He knows he can never truly die. He doesn't particularly want to kill anyone, but he does want them to leave. He won't hesitate if they fight back. However, in the key areas that are emotionally important to him, he can be blinded by rage and this is where the party learns they are no match for him in the slightest. As you investigate, you might find inconsistencies. Someone close to him began acting strange, his closest friend began manipulating him, making him suspicious of everyone. As the story unravels, literal ghosts of the past reenacting events, you find out this friend was possessed by a demon. The demon manipulated the paladin because he wanted to collect the souls of people killed by the created death knight. You force the death knight to see his past, and make him see what happened. The death knight kills the demon, and redeems himself by putting his trust in others once again.

@strikermodel

7 ай бұрын

In order to keep him as the big threat and not the demon, he's stronger than the demon itself. He might not believe the party at first, so the party must kill the demon, or capture him, to show the death knight. The death knight could watch the party through magical means and, seeing the party being selfless and trying to fight his demon, he comes to their aid, and saves them.

I think the biggest lesson of this is to read content from 3.5e and previous edition, 5e is notoriously light on fine details.

@The_Archlich

5 ай бұрын

Agreed. I think it's good for facilitating new players, but requires a bit more effort on the DM side to give it more depth after everyone is a bit more experienced.

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.

This might be the first time the youtube algorithm actually recommended me a cool video.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

I'm glad you enjoyed! I'll be making more, so feel free to subscribe to have the new content thrown your way.

@XyerDark

7 ай бұрын

@@The_ArchlichAlready did brother.

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.

Working on one now, with a twist. A noble Paladin who fell for doing the right thing, thwarting the demonic forces yet leading the world to become separated from magic and divinity. The hook, they set him up. Knowing he would do the right thing.

Your description of a Death Knight fighting reminds me of that chad knight from that Elder Scrolls Online trailer.

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.

This has become a channel I always enjoy watching the videos for. For I am the GM that loves being brutal, high danger, and loves to throw the most deadly stuff to my players.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed!

I just had a dumb (smart) idea of the death knight actually not wanting to stay long at their fortress, with rumors of this asshole just leveling encampments just on the boarder of its territory just for sport

@giovannirocket9954

7 ай бұрын

Also: 8008135

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 video I am strongly considering changing that last part. Well done!

Thank you!

Your videos have been a godsend. My players are now getting to the point where they love being overpowered as fuck. And it’s very fun but I want to challenge them more so that the win is more satisfying for everyone

Babe wake up, new Archlich video just dropped.

Bro how you gonna come out of nowhere with a fucking banger of a video that just gave me the inspiration to flush out a side villain NPC for my campaign and now have him come back as a flushed out DK. How you only going to have 4 videos on your channel. Now I have to wait for more.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you're finding inspiration from my work! I'm a relatively young channel, and I've gotten an anomalous amount of subscribers in a rather short amount of time. Feel free to subscribe, as I'll be releasing more in the future!

On a real note; the illrigger class by MCDM (Matt Colville) is a great suite of abilities to amplify a death knight. It's essentially a Blackguard in a way an Oathbreaker paladin could never be. The Painkiller subclass Illrigger IS my vision of fantasy Darth Vader

We got the power!

Something I do when designing fortresses and outposts for sentient creatures is make 5 encounters. The scouts (1 day out), the patrol (when they enter the hex), the gatekeepers, the response force, and the inner sanctum.

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 video) 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. The party's Paladin ended up being the only survivor, as he had the Elder Champion feature of the Oath of the Ancients, with the Undying Sentinel ability coming in clutch at literally the last round. Of course, Resurrection magic exists, so they came back, but seeing all his dead comrades and just the irl face of absolutely *_frigid_* concentration was awe-inspiring. I'll never top that high in my lifetime.

Many thanks for the video. If i may make a suggestion: Nagpa. The Skeksis dont get enough love in my opinion.

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. The sword, however, was cursed: because of it's malevolent influence he lost all those he loved and cared for, including his lord, his wife and his children. He always paid an immense price for every life saved, every monster felled, until he was alone, all his friends and loved ones had either died or betrayed him, yet he was still fuelled by his unshakabke sense of duty. At the end of his life, something awoke from the depths of the earth: a great beast with scales, wings and fiery breath. He alone had the courage to face it, and for an entire day he and the dragon battled, until the great beast had fallen, and soon after Volkmar had too. Following his last wishes, the sword was buried with him in the most hidden parts of his castle's catacombs, well into the depths of the earth. During the following centuries, the castle was abandoned and his location forgotten, however there's a ruined castle at the top of a Mountain near a small village, and everyone who ventures inside of it never comes back. Many villagers have mysteriously disappeared, and there are reports of strange things happening in the forest. What the poor inhabitants of the region don't know is that in the depths of the castle's dungeons, hidden away from the living, what remains of Wolkmar's body has awoken. The sword has driven him to obsession, and as always he's driven by his sheer sense of duty: The Western Empire has fallen, and as it's First Knight it is his sacred duty conquer all the lands of the west, and re-establish it the name of his lord.

@The_Archlich

6 ай бұрын

I'm glad you found the video useful!

Fuck yes, love me some Death Knight action. Banger video, dude.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you.

I do wish that death knights got legendary actions, lair effects/actions, and legendary resistance at least. Oh, and a dread aura since 5e oathbreaker paladins get that. Same for other things like pit fiends and balors.

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

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.)

Might be fun to have a Death Knight and Mummy Lord beefing in the background. Two ancient enemies who hate each other's guts

Man this video is great, a Death Knight is the final boss of my game and is one of the coolest NPCs I've made in a while. With the contrast of being a former paladin turned bad guy, I made him the classical honorable and noble villain, with a early encounter with low level PCs and all, where he will be polite and respectful to them while also saying that one day they shall fight to the death, when they're stronger. He could even be a good guy, was he not serving a evil undead king (not a lich, just a CR 1/4 zombie noble) and he put loyalty above morals. Plan to making him very powerful too, took a similar direction to the changes you made, except I gave him aura of protection and a altered spell list to fit his fire theme.

Perhaps it's just because I've been preparing a pirate campaign for me chums, but watching 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_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

That would be sick.

I have been brought here from the vortex that is the algorithm and I must say you did not disappoint, I plan to share this with as many people as possible. 💙

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you for the kind words. Glad you enjoy my work!

Not by brain thinking "DK" was "Donkey Kong" whenever he said it in the video 😭😭

I think that the Death Knight should get aura of protection and aura of hate as an actual 19th level paladin, so a +4 to all saves, and +4 to damage rolls in a 30 ft radius. That is what I do in my games.

The lord has obtained a new power unknown to many dark lords, CONSISTENT UPLOADS!!!

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

May the world quake in fear at my power.

Broke: DK stands for Donkey Kong Woke: DK stands for Death Knight

@zj871023

7 ай бұрын

what?

WE GOT THE POWER!

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. I'm gonna fucking do this in my grim hollow game 100%. And the idea of the 12 death knights struck a chord in me so I'm going to do something similar. The Dread Seven, seven different types of undead scattered across the land, each known for different horrors and evils.

@thomasgrimble6476

4 ай бұрын

Stealing this

Planning on using a death knight as a vanguard for a greater evil. This video gave me a lot of inspiration. Absolutely amazing work, Arch!

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Thank you!

This wacky balls to the wall style of DMing is what I already do it for… you giving me more ideas to do insane techniques makes the hairs on my ass stand up

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.

Death knight teaming up with a Lich. Then being chads and just meeting each other like Carll Weathers and Arnie did in Predator to ruin existence for everyone

@The_Archlich

5 ай бұрын

We do a little trolling

All hail the archlich he has spoken wisdom to his lowly acolytes

personally, since some of them *are* fallen paladins of great strength, I would also give them the vengeance or conquest paladin capstone to just make them even scarier, since having an undead legend suddenly sprout wings and come down on you with an aura of fear is pretty badass.

Been hyped for this, loved Soth as a kid and I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate Death Knights into the campaign with that atmosphere and presence that Hickman and Weis conveyed 🙏

The only reason I know about death knights is because I watched a Vanossgaming video where they fought with flashlights and Sp00n quoted “I have to go back to the Death Knights.” Ever since then I always quote that video.

My party of level 8’s are gonna love this

Can’t wait to see what’s next

I was just running a Planescape campaing and they entered to Castle Nowhere of Evernight. I put down a tomb for a death knight and voila this video was published.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

It seems I have impeccable timing. Hope the lecture was helpful.

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.

Oh...I see, you're quite new. Made a single video a few years ago, and decided to come back and have another crack at it. The improvement is enormous! Your original video was entertaining and educational, and this video just polishes it till it's damn shiny. Keep it up, man!

@The_Archlich

6 ай бұрын

Thank you. Pretty busy with work so right now I usually just release a video about every month or so. Been making some slow progress on the new one.

Instructions Unclear: Accidentally made a god.

Thanks, now I have Harmony stuck in my head.

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

Good

Now we just need a Mummy Lord video to complete the Holy Trinity of undead chads, mage, warriror, and cleric.

@The_Archlich

3 ай бұрын

Looks like the vote may get this to happen!

Welp seeing that everyone is positing their ideas and inspirations from this lovely video 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

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.

Speaking of potential bbegs I would love to see your take on Strahd himself/Vampires in general as potential low to mid level BBEG’s.

These videos are some of my favorite DnD content on KZread!

@The_Archlich

7 ай бұрын

I'm glad you enjoy it! Thank you for the kind words.

I’m DMing for a group of 3 and this death knight with some flavor text will most definitely come up in the higher levels love your stuff makes me laugh and is honestly great how you describe the way you feel they’d actually behave in combat utilizing what you give them for abilities and items

@The_Archlich

5 ай бұрын

Thank you. I'm glad you find it useful!

Another video from the gigachad himself! Always love the content.