Ecology of the Deathknight up

[Imp]

I just noticed it said "result of a Religion check." Not Knowledge(Religion.)

I liked the idea of Knowledge checks for monster info in 3.5, since it actually made some of the skills useful. Implementation wasn't so good, since most of the results listed told the player exactly nothing useful.

Where "useful" knowledge is defined as "How can I kill it?" and "How can it kill me?"

Yeah I saw that too. I am sort of hoping this means the conceptually unimaginable Knowledge (local) has been taken out and shot.

I understand that making knowledge-type skills reveal things about monsters provides the nearly-sole motivation for PCs to put points in the skills, but, that a cleric of say Moradin would use his ranks to a) remember various prayers and ceremonies not only of his god but of countless others, and also b) quickly identify what exact variety of skelly thing is coming at the party with a great-axe, and yet not c) provide any insight at all into the ways of the orcs, archenemy of the god since his inception... etc. for gods of the sun, love, the harvest, so on and so forth. But then to model that sort of body of knowledge would be uselessly complex... these skills just make my head hurt.

 

[monboesen]

Assuming that the elf in the picture is a cleric I notice that she doesnt wear heavy armor. Possible easter egg: Clerics no longer have heavy armor proficiency?

 

[Klaus]

Oh, I know there would have to be something there. And the glow on the armor matches. It's just--something about the elf herself that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the image.

The perspective is off. Her outstretched leg would need to be between the deathknight's legs in order to be so foreshortened, and the hard blue glow makes her look like she was Photoshopped into the picture (which she was, but still). If the blue outline weren't so uniform and sharp (maybe blurred, wavy and with some light motes), she wouldn't look so out of place. Can't help with the leg, though. That position is too "extreme" to work in such a static composition.

From the older preview image WotC had on their site, it looks like Mark Sasso (who did this picture) is using a technique I used for quite a while, which involved doing the whole picture in grayscale and then colorizing it in Photoshop. I have stopped doing that in order to get a more "paiterly" look by working directly in color.

 

[Jack99]

The final mechanics for the death knight template are easy to use and reinforce the death knight as a significant melee threat. The melee-oriented abilities augment any capabilities the NPC already has, rather than making a DM choose between using a death knight power or an NPC power. The death knight retains its supernatural nature without having abilities that feel like spells, and it can be a great leader of undead without necessitating undead minions. The new soul weapon concept gives the death knight its own space in mechanics and story, bringing new life to this decades-old undead.

Did we just get confirmed that there will be monster templates in 4e? If so yay. i really liked those.

 

[OakwoodDM]

Someone may have already mentioned this, but I felt like joining in the 4e conspiracy comments. Has anyone noticed, at the beginning of the article, how there's a description of the Death Knight creation story from the POV of Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings, but no Gnomes?

Does this simply mean Gnomes have no creation story for Death Knights, or that the article could only be so long and so couldn't fit in all the opinions, or is it another pointer towards the possibility (or is it probability by now?) that Gnomes aren't in the 4e PHB1?

 

[Greenfaun]

The perspective is off. Her outstretched leg would need to be between the deathknight's legs in order to be so foreshortened, and the hard blue glow makes her look like she was Photoshopped into the picture (which she was, but still). If the blue outline weren't so uniform and sharp (maybe blurred, wavy and with some light motes), she wouldn't look so out of place. Can't help with the leg, though. That position is too "extreme" to work in such a static composition.

Yeah, I agree with that. I also think that both the figures in the work were pasted onto the pre-painted background. It's harder to see on the deathknight because at least it uses the same palette and lighting, but it's clearly pasted in rather than occupying a three-dimensional composition. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, maybe the artist is used to animation, but this was clearly made by drawing the figures individually and then stacking layers rather than composing the figures inside the setting naturally.

 

[pawsplay]

Death knights are warriors who chose to become undead.

Wah?

 

[Irda Ranger]

Yeah, I agree with that. I also think that both the figures in the work were pasted onto the pre-painted background. It's harder to see on the deathknight because at least it uses the same palette and lighting, but it's clearly pasted in rather than occupying a three-dimensional composition. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that, maybe the artist is used to animation, but this was clearly made by drawing the figures individually and then stacking layers rather than composing the figures inside the setting naturally.

Ah, that's what was bothering me. I knew the elf was off.

But even drawn separately, she's about to fall on her butt.

I retract my guesses about wizards and non-standard implements. I think this is a divine spellcaster of some kind, either a cleric with a longsword (via feat or deity's preferred weapon) or a "dish" (divine gish, get it?). Could be paladin, ranger (if they use divine spells) or a multiclass.

Religion vs. Knowledge (Religion)
It looks like WotC is rolling up theory and practice into one skill check. I bet there's no Knowledge (Arcana) or Knowledge (Nature) anymore either, just Spellcraft and Survival. That makes a lot of sense.

 

[Wormwood]

I guess I'm a 4e fanboy or something, but I really LOVED the article.

The artwork is fantastic---and I am confident that the art direction of 4e is in good hands. The 'fluff' is evocative, interesting and (for this DM at least) inspiring.

What truly impresses me is the 4e team's willingness to reconsider assumptions. Rather than simply 'update' the old Death Knight, they re-invented it with an emphasis on actual play.

That's some of the audacity and vision I've been hoping to see!.

 

[Klaus]

Death knights are warriors who chose to become undead.

Wah?

HA! WotC seems to be taking a page from my own Netherlord template, presented in Counter Collection: Undead as a martial version of the lich, who were warlords that chose to become undead: