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Kerrick said:
No. Death knights are paladins cursed by the gods for violating their code of ethics. Technically they are evil when they become death knights, but it's the "fall from grace" that really cements their fate and curses them to an eternity of unlife.
Well... on a more serious note...
Would you consider the Ring Wraiths (LotR) to be Death Knights ?
I would.
Following that train of thought, it would take some serious magic to drain the life from a being, replacing it with the cursed life.
Difficult, but apparently possible in Middle earth.
The typical death knight, as seen through Dragon Lance, is the typical 'fall from grace', but to be more specific, its the fall from grace which insults the gods, and hence their curse makes death knights.
One might wonder why a 'good' god would have others tormented by a vile creature, instead of killing the knight outright. I've no answer to that.
I really think creating a Death Knight is along the same lines as creating an artifact. I dont think there are appropriate rules as such. I would recommend not having players create their own deathknights, but if it were possible, i'd follow the Lich template someone recommended in another forum.
Effectively, the lich, instead of being a wizard trying to transform oneself, would be applying the instructions and incantations to an appropriate 'knight'. Hence, a death knight.
The lich template was something like a 6 level prestige class over which the lich gains appropriate powers.
The 6 levels must be achieved within a certain amount of time or else the transformation is deemed to have 'failed', etc. Its somewhere.
The only technical difference is that a lich has a phylacry(sp?), while a deathknight.
-Tim
