D&D 5E Player wants to be a Death Knight but will use official rules: Build Help

[Jaiken]

My player likes the Subclass you drew up:

So I think this is pretty easy to do with some modification of the Oathbreaker subclass, with the following additons/changes:

3rd level: creature type changes to Undead, immune to poison and necrotic damage as well as poisoned and frightened conditions.

Subclass spells: Command, Compelled Duel, Hold Person, Magic Weapon, Dispel Magic, Elemental Weapon, Banishment, Staggering Smite.

Replace Dreadful Aspect with a Channel Divinity that gives Magic Resistance for 1 minute as a Bonus action.

7th level: Eliminate Fiends from the Aura of Hate feature but add that all undead, including the Death Knight have advantage against saves from being turned

15th level: The Death Knight can use an action to hurl a ball of fire 10d6 damage, dex save for half. The Death Knight can do this a number of times per day equal to half their proficiency bonus (rounded down).

20th level: On being hit by an attack the death knight can use a reaction to give himself a +6 bonus to AC. The bonus lasts to the start of his next turn.

 

[ECMO3]

Mind if I copy this? Going to send it to my player.

Of course you can copy and use it .... that is why I posted it

 

[Chaltab]

I'd go with Reborn Oath of Vengeance Paladin.

 

[Kurotowa]

Depending on flavor, a Fighter 1 / Undead Warlock X might work. (Not Undying, that subclass is trash, Undead from Van Richten's Guide is the playable version.) Blade Pact for weapons, Chain Pact for a skeleton familiar, it's about as close as you can get with existing D&D options.

 

[ECMO3]

Depending on flavor, a Fighter 1 / Undead Warlock X might work. (Not Undying, that subclass is trash, Undead from Van Richten's Guide is the playable version.) Blade Pact for weapons, Chain Pact for a skeleton familiar, it's about as close as you can get with existing D&D options.

People complain about Undying Warlock, but I have had a lot of fun with them (had a lot of fun with Undead Warlock too). Those are my two favorite Warlock subclasses to play.

Undying Warlock is awesome levels 1-10 in a campaign with a lot of Undead. I probably would not want to single class in it beyond level 10 though.

Undying Warlock also pairs really well in a multiclass with Shadow Sorcerer. Strength of the Grave + Defy Death + Armor of Agathys + Tomb of Levistus makes you pretty darn difficult to kill. As far as the 5E subclasses go, this is one of the best Sorlock combos IMO.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

For those of us who haven't played WOW, can you give a brief description of what the fantasy of a Death Knight entails?

I assume it's some sort of heavy armor undead, but beyond that I'm not sure. Usually a Death Knight is an undead paladin equivalent, isn't it?

Loosely, they're undead-focused antipaladins. Heavy armor, big 2H weapons or dual-wielding, never shields. "Unholy" DK is all about corrupting your targets with magical diseases, inflicting "festering wounds" and making those wounds "burst" to deal extra damage, and expending "runic power" (castoff energy from when you spend your recharging runes) to inflict rapid extra strikes. "Frost" DK is all about dual-wielding (you don't have to, but I'm fairly sure you generally should), the idea being that you bleed the heat and life from your enemies with frost, allowing you to rip them to shreds and freeze them in their tracks, still using the same runes and runic power system but with a different focus. (There's also "Blood" DK, but that's a tanking spec and I suspect probably not what the player wants to focus on, though I could be wrong.

My only modification to ECMO3's stuff @Jaiken would be to replace the "ball of fire" with a cone of cold spell. 15th level is a little bit early for a 5th-level spell on a Paladin, but cone of cold is substantially more thematic, and does essentially exactly the same damage (10d6=35, 8d8=36). It requires a Constitution save rather than a Dexterity one, but I think that fits with trying to go up against a being that is sapping the life out of you more than a flung ball of fire does. If you want to limit the power of this feature, I'd say just copy the cone of cold text, but have it target only a single enemy rather than multiple. That would definitely drop it to being roughly a 4th level spell. (Raulothim's psychic lance has a better damage type and better range, but deals 1d8 less damage; that seems a pretty reasonable comparison. There are surprisingly few single-target damage spells at this level.)

 

[ECMO3]

Loosely, they're undead-focused antipaladins. Heavy armor, big 2H weapons or dual-wielding, never shields. "Unholy" DK is all about corrupting your targets with magical diseases, inflicting "festering wounds" and making those wounds "burst" to deal extra damage, and expending "runic power" (castoff energy from when you spend your recharging runes) to inflict rapid extra strikes. "Frost" DK is all about dual-wielding (you don't have to, but I'm fairly sure you generally should), the idea being that you bleed the heat and life from your enemies with frost, allowing you to rip them to shreds and freeze them in their tracks, still using the same runes and runic power system but with a different focus. (There's also "Blood" DK, but that's a tanking spec and I suspect probably not what the player wants to focus on, though I could be wrong.

My only modification to ECMO3's stuff @Jaiken would be to replace the "ball of fire" with a cone of cold spell. 15th level is a little bit early for a 5th-level spell on a Paladin, but cone of cold is substantially more thematic, and does essentially exactly the same damage (10d6=35, 8d8=36). It requires a Constitution save rather than a Dexterity one, but I think that fits with trying to go up against a being that is sapping the life out of you more than a flung ball of fire does. If you want to limit the power of this feature, I'd say just copy the cone of cold text, but have it target only a single enemy rather than multiple. That would definitely drop it to being roughly a 4th level spell. (Raulothim's psychic lance has a better damage type and better range, but deals 1d8 less damage; that seems a pretty reasonable comparison. There are surprisingly few single-target damage spells at this level.)

TBH I was mimicing at the D&D Death Knight, which has had either the Fireball spell or the new Hell Fire Orb (which is the same but not a spell) from all the way back in 1E. I find that kind of iconic to a death knight, but in fairness I never played the WOW version the OP asked about.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

TBH I was mimicing at the D&D Death Knight, which has had either the Fireball spell or the new Hell Fire Orb (which is the same but not a spell) from all the way back in 1E. I find that kind of iconic to a death knight, but in fairness I never played the WOW version the OP asked about.

Fire really isn't thematic for the WoW version. They're about necromancy and frost.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Fire really isn't thematic for the WoW version. They're about necromancy and frost.

Yeah. Which, I mean, no shade on ECMO3; everything else they mentioned was pretty good. I myself was unaware of the D&D Death Knight having a ball of fire attack.

 

[FrogReaver]

Fighter 1 Warlock X could be promising.

Focus on pact of the blade stuff. Armor of Agathys seems like it would be great on a death knight. You can also take the warlock smite invocation at 5.