You could give him a few minutes of conversations. He could be friendlier and more easily convinced to give up treasures if one of the characters worships or is the cleric of his former god provided that Ras T'fima wants to atone for his sins. He could also be convinced if one of the characters was from the same group of marginalized people the death knight championed before his death.
There is a tabaxi PC & two tabaxi NPC guides, who the death knight Ras T'fima might see as belonging to the marginalized group. I'm contemplating him having a quest to give the PCs in exchange for letting them keep some treasure: rid the ruined city of loot-seeking mercenaries (Flaming Fist).
The golden standard for a death knight remains Lord Soth, of course. And the idea of nobility fallen due to personal failing is as old as stories.
So i think you could use those factors as hooks to roleplay him. He could be grim and determined, but that IS a little played out at this point.
So how about this: I don't know if you've ever had to turn to a debt consolidation company or addiction treatment center, but for any person who has, there is a period of buoyancy after the initial consultations. You've been defeated and hopeless for so long, and finally you have a plan to address the problem permanantly - it's a powerful feeling of relief and almost joy, and it can carry you for a while.
So I think could be more interesting to play the character at that point of hope and excitement at seeing an opportunity to attone for past misdeeds and overcome the personal failings that led him to where he is. A joyful and exuberant undead creature, let alone a death knight, would be a rare and unexpected thing to encounter.
Very interesting twist!
Even though he has endured over 100 years of undead vigilance cut off from his people, the death knight is still driven by a spark of hope. He looks for anything or anyone that seems like it might offer him a chance of redemption.
His original crime/sin was hubris, I think – overextending his political power (for ostensibly noble reasons) & concealing that he'd lost faith in Ubtao. But looking for opportunities to practice "humility" doesn't exactly drive a game session / encounter.
Maybe part of my difficulty in "cracking" the death knight's personality is that I need to further develop the backstory of his crime/sin. Make it more compelling?
For personality, I’d recommend looking to either Dekkion, in the old D&D cartoon’s Quest of the Skeleton Warrior episode, or the T’lan Imass of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. The T’lan Imass, in particular, seem appropriately inspiring. For them, their humanity is a distant thing, their oath to fight their enemies the Jaghut paramount. They are utterly implacable when it comes to the vow, though individuals throughout the series seem to become more human as they spend more time with them.
Wow! Dekkion, that's a time warp. Basically, a forlorn knight who was tricked by an evil wizard & acts as a quest-giver? Hmm, well I can try borrowing Dekkion's voice if I'm up to the voice-acting challenge.
Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with Malazan Book of the Fallen. Been meaning to read the first book, but don't have time before this Sunday's session.
A couple things come to me by looking at this. Keep on the Shadowfell where these was a former knight you could speak with or fight. I would have to look up his whole bit. The other is the movie Indiana Jones and last Crusade where they are in the cup room with the Knight Templar (even though he is not undead).
I try to give NPCs just one hook for the players to remember or play along with. Dead wife or child is always a staple in movies and books. Even Lord Soth was all about his wife and love gone bad. Change it up a bit and have him read a book that corrupted his soul and made him believe he was something different. He must still believe he is acting on good faith to his tenants of god. Perhaps he can be saved and resurrected? Perhaps he is looking for something like parts of an amulet that join together and open the BBEBook of doom because he thinks foolishly that he can stop the coming apocalypse.
I smell future quest-bait.
While I never played Keep on the Shadowfell, I did consider modeling the death knight after the Last Crusade Knight Templar, but ultimately decided he needed more "teeth" because the death knight serves as a deterrent to mercenaries (Flaming Fist) looting the ruins. There's a built-in conflict of mercenaries vs. death knight in the scenario. The PCs met the mercenaries first, and tentatively agreed to get rid of death knight haunting the ruins in exchange for the mercenary commander allowing them access to restricted sites in the ruined city. "Tentatively", because likelihood of PCs betraying mercenaries looks high.
Besides his duty to "protect the ruins, treasures, and secrets" of the ruined city (Mezro), including the secret way to reach the
actual living city in its own demiplane, the death knight longs to return home.
He is slightly bitter that his king/brethren have, once again, sequestered the city from the rest of Chult...during Chult's hour of need. He *might* be swayed to take action that – indirectly – pressures his king/brethren in demiplane city to get more involved in defending Chult from undead, mercenaries, etc.
Well, sounds like he's a good plot device. I'd skip the stat issues, and give him
1) A purpose
2) Specific powers to assist in the purpose
My suggestions are thus:
1) You've got the purpose, well done
2) Anyone in possession of an object under BBEG's protection automatically fails any saves regarding spells cast by said BBEG. Also, BBEG can now cast Bestow Curse, Contagion, or any other nasty spell you'd like. Also, the duration of said spell is now permanent and does not require concentration. This guy is pretty restricted in his given duty, so it would be fair that his powers to enforce that duty on his turf would be significant. The party has violated an ancient site. Once the party rogue is stuck with disadvantage on all DEX checks for the foreseeable future, or has a scorching case of Flesh Rot and takes double damage vs. everything, they'll probably be more than happy to return the book or jump through any number of hoops to get rid of it.
Curses of this nature are far more feared by players than mere tactical threats. You're basically messing with their favorite toy, and it's conveniently reversible once they've either complied with your plot line or come up with something of their own so clever you just can't help yourself but let them win with it.
As far as role playing goes, avoid anything you think Lord Soth would do. Make him bored of his charge. Make him long over the fact that he's working off his past sins. It's been 100 years already and he's still here. He won't open up with this stuff, but have they players see not a demon knight hungry to claim their souls in righteous wrath, but one who is resigned to the task but clearly past any emotional investment in it. Bored. Maybe even secretly happy someone has given him cause to rouse from his slumber. Maybe he wants to be destroyed. Maybe he wants to capture them out of spite and join his misery. Or trick them into taking up the duty while he passes to the next world. Anything but Soth.
Ah, the scenario does have a "gilded curse" which I'm linking to the death knight; basically, anyone spending too much time holding onto treasures found in the ruins has their mind twisted toward paranoid greed like Thorin Oakenshield in
The Hobbit.
