First Draft of Knights of the Crown (Knight of Solamnia)

[Raunalyn]

Ok, here's my first draft for the Knight of the Crown. I'm thinking the original entry into the knighthood would be a martial path. I'm still considering how to progress to the Sword and Rose knighthood, however (I have a few ideas, but I'm still letting them stew for a bit).

Critiques and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated.

Knight of the Crown
Strength in Honor
At 3^rd level, when a fighter chooses this path, he gains the ability to use the focus and knowledge gained from the Oath and the Measure and his honorable path to strengthen his resolve. Until the end of his next turn, the Knight has advantage on all Strength checks and Saving Throws, as well as advantage on all Melee Attacks. He cannot use this ability until he has a short or long rest. At 7^th level, he can do this twice before taking a short or long rest, and at 15^th level, he can use it 3 times before taking a short or long rest.
Honorable Will
At 7^th level, the Knight gains advantage on any saving throw to resist Charm or Compulsion effects due to his devotion to Honor and the Oath and the Measure.
Aura of Courage
At 10^th level, the Knight becomes immune to all fear effects. In addition, all allies within 10 feet of the Knight gain advantage on any saving throw to resist fear effects.
Heroic Initiative
At 15^th level, the Knight adds his Charisma to initiative checks.
Crown of Knighthood
At 18^th level, the Knight gains advantage on all saving throws. (I'm still considering this one, as it makes the level 7 feature obsolete).

 

[jadrax]

I take it this is intended as a straight conversion of the d10 Prestige Class as a Fighter Sub-class.

Which I think it does a good job of.

However, I am not sure the d20 rules were actually a good way to go about this. I am thinking you may be better of making a single Knight of Solamnia Fighter Sub-class, and having the Crown/Sword/Rose tiers built into it. So tier 1 (levels 1-4) you would be a Squire, Tier 2 (levels 5-10) Knight of the Crown, Tier 3 (levels 11-16) Knight of the Sword, and Tier 4 (level 17+) Knight of the Rose.

 

[Raunalyn]

Yeah, I thought of that, too. There is a problem with that approach, however...

There are high level Crown Knights who never progress to Sword or Rose Knights. Same with Sword Knights (The High Warrior and the High Clerist).

People may think I'm strange with my approach to this, but one of the things I'm considering is using feats to represent the change between orders since the new feats are a bit more robust. There would, of course, be prerequisites to the feats (must have the Knight of the Crown subclass, etc).

Still considering.

 

[jadrax]

I just looked how 1e did it, which has nested classes, that I am not sure is a good solution either.

Feats could be an option? Or maybe have triple choice class features at higher levels, basically like Warlock Pacts?

So Something like this:
Level 3: Squire Feature
Level 7: Crown Feature
Level 10: Crown Feature
Level 15: Choose Crown or Sword feature
Level 18: Choose Crown or Sword or Rose feature


Again, just throwing out ideas.

 

[Raunalyn]

Oooo...I kinda like that!

And ideas/suggestions are exactly what I'm looking for.

Right now, I'm working with the feat options, but I may try the level dependent features in my next draft, too. See how it looks.

I really appreciate your thoughts.

 

[Raunalyn]

Ok, updated draft 2, with changes to the base class and feats.

Knight of Solamnia

Strength in Honor
At 3^rd level, when a fighter chooses this path, he gains the ability to use the focus and knowledge gained from the Oath and the Measure and his honorable path to strengthen his resolve. Until the end of his next turn, the Knight has advantage on all Strength checks and Strength Saving Throws, as well as advantage on all Melee Attacks. He cannot use this ability until he has a short or long rest. At 7^th level, he can do this twice before taking a short or long rest, and at 15^th level, he can use it 3 times before taking a short or long rest.
Honorable Will
At 7^th level, the Knight gains advantage on any saving throw to resist Charm or Compulsion effects due to his devotion to Honor and the Oath and the Measure.
Aura of Courage
At 10^th level, the Knight becomes immune to all fear effects. In addition, all allies within 10 feet of the Knight gain advantage on any saving throw to resist fear effects.
Heroic Initiative
At 15^th level, the Knight adds his Charisma to initiative checks.
Crown of Knighthood
At 18^th level, the Knight gains advantage on all saving throws. In addition, he can focus on his devotion to Honor and receive temporary hit points equal to his level. This ability cannot be used again until he takes a short or long rest.



Knight of the Sword (Feat)
Prerequisite: Knight of Solamnia Martial Path

• Increase your Strength or Charisma by 1 point, to a maximum of 20.
• Turn the Unholy: As an action, you can use your devotion to the tenants of light and purity to banish undead and unholy creatures. Each fiend or undead within 30 feet of you that can see you must make a Wisdom Saving Throw with a DC equal to 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus. This is similar to the Paladin Turn the Unholy ability. You cannot use this ability again until you have a short or long rest.
• Smite Evil: When you hit an evil creature with a melee weapon attack, you can choose to deal 2d8 extra radiant damage to the target. If the creature is not evil, this ability has no effect. This ability cannot be used again until you take a short or long rest.
  
  (I'm considering allowing levels in Fighter to stack with any levels of cleric or paladin that the player may multiclass into. I'll have to wait and see what the final version of the multiclass rules look like)

Knight of the Rose (Feat)
Prerequisite: Knight of the Sword Feat

• Increase your Strength or Charisma by 1 point, to a maximum of 20.
• Rallying Cry: As an action, the Rose Knight can utter a powerful shout that grants courage and strength to his allies. All allies within 30 feet gain advantage on their next roll, whether it's a saving throw, ability check or attack roll. In addition, their base speed increases by 5 feet until the end of your next turn. This ability cannot be used again until you have a short or long rest.
• Inspire Greatness : The Rose Knight can inspire greatness in all willing allies within 30 feat. To inspire greatness, the knight must speak, and the creature must be able to hear the knight speak. A creature inspired with greatness gains 2 hit dice worth of temporary hit points (these are not actually used). This ability cannot be used again until the knight has a short or long rest.
  
  I like this approach because, thematically, it's consistent with Knights of Solamnia in previous editions. I'm pondering how to rework this to allow choice at certain levels.

Again, suggestions and critiques are welcome and appreciated.