A knight is a proud, skilled melee combatant who fights in the name of honor and chivalry. A knight relies on more than a sharp sword and a stout suit of armor to defeat her foes. Her drive, determination, and fighting spirit allow her to control the battlefield in ways that others cannot match. A knight can challenge an opponent to a duel, calling upon the foe's pride and ego to force his hand. The knight's talent with heavy armor, shields, and defensive tactics grant her the ability to disrupt her foe's plans. Only the most talented rogues and monks can slip past a knight's defenses to strike at her allies. An adventuring group with wizards, sorcerers, and other lightly armored members thrives with the assistance of a knight. While the knight keeps enemies occupied, her allies can use their talents and abilities without fear of attack or harassment.

The knight class is a great choice if you want to play a tough, durable melee combatant whose strong personality allows you to manipulate your foes. Weaker foes cower in fear before you, while stronger foes move to strike you rather than your allies when you play on their egos and challenge them to duels. Your expertise in using armor and carrying a shield allows you to form an impregnable defensive line. Once you engage a foe, he has difficulty moving away to threaten your allies. If you want to be a front-line melee combatant who defends the rest of the party and manipulates opponents, the knight is a good choice.

Your class features involve mastering the use of armor and shields and learning how to manipulate your foes so that melee combat takes place on your terms, not theirs.

MAKING A KNIGHT

A low-level knight is similar to a cross between a fighter and a bard. You have many hit points, a high Armor Class, and an ability similar to bardic music (the knight's challenge class feature). You can pick a single foe, usually the one who poses the most dangerous physical threat, and gain a bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against that opponent. You must pay close attention to the knight's code of conduct, since it forbids you from taking advantage of several tactically useful situations.

You excel in combat in a manner similar to a fighter - but while a fighter can slay a monster, your primary talent is your ability to keep that monster away from your allies while you battle it. It might take you longer to win the day, but your many hit points and strong defensive abilities help preserve you. Best of all, your defense enables your allies to function at full capacity without being subject to the monster's attacks. Any sorcerer or wizard in the party thrives when you are there to absorb attacks and hold back your mutual foes.

As you advance in level, you gain the ability to dictate a foe's actions, forcing him to attack you instead of other targets. Weaker opponents, which typically appear in numbers too large for you to hold them all back, quail in terror when you menace them. Even if they slip past you, they take penalties when they attack your allies. Your knight's challenge and shield block class features combine to let you excel in one-on-one melee, granting you a bonus on attack rolls, damage rolls, and Armor Class against a single foe of your choice. If the group faces a mighty villain or a single, overwhelming physical threat, it's up to you to keep the monster occupied while your allies cast their spells or maneuver for position.

You benefit from a high Charisma score, since it determines how often you can use some of your abilities and the save DC of those abilities. A high Constitution allows you to increase your already impressive hit point total, thus bolstering your capacity to defend your allies. Strength improves your combat abilities, making you more effective as a front-line character.

The majority of knights are dwarves, humans, and half-elves. The dwarf's tendency toward order, combined with that race's militaristic bent, gives rise to fighting orders dedicated to upholding justice and obeying an honorable code. Dwarf knights also serve as wandering dispensers of justice between isolated settlements who enforce the rule of law and protect small clanholds. Humanity, with its sprawling kingdoms and empires, produces many knights who fight as much for king and country as for personal honor and monetary rewards. Some half-elves enter into such service as well and can rise to high ranks within such orders. Gnomes and halflings rarely become knights, since the knight's straightforward code of conduct runs counter to the small races' reliance on trickery and clever planning. Few half-orcs have the opportunity to become knights, but when they do their natural strength serves them well. Elf knights are rare, since elves prefer freedom and flexibility over the rigid code of honor all knights must follow.

Knights are always lawful. Their dedication to a code of conduct is but one expression of their devotion to order. Most knightly orders arise as institutions forged to protect a kingdom from invaders or to enforce the law against chaos from within.

While knights value order, they tend in equal numbers toward good, evil, and neutrality. Lawful good knights see order as a tool to protect the innocent and weak from evil. Lawful evil knights believe that the social order serves to reward the strong. Lawful neutral knights abhor the destruction and suffering that chaos can bring and so uphold order for its own sake.

PLAYING A KNIGHT

As a knight, you are driven to prove your abilities, showcase the code of chivalry as a proper way to live, and defend your allies. You are impetuous and brave, never backing down from a challenge. When you face a mighty foe, you take a moment to call out a challenge to him, salute his fighting ability, or list his crimes that you seek to avenge.

Knights value order and honor in all things. They worship lawful gods, though whether their patrons are good, neutral, or evil depends solely on the knight's preferences. Good knights favor Heironeous, while neutral ones follow St. Cuthbert. Evil knights, if they venerate a god, offer prayers to Hextor. Knights of Heironeous and Hextor are renowned for the epic duels they have fought against each other. Opposing armies sometimes halt their advance to allow these sworn enemies to duel to the death before the rest of the battle is joined.

You respect paladins for their skill in combat and devotion to a code of conduct, although their path is somewhat different from your own. You see wizards, sorcerers, clerics, and bards as useful allies who should stay back away from combat; individual knights sometimes travel partnered with a member of one of these classes. Most knights consider barbarians to be crazed lunatics who lack the honor, self-control, and training to fight in a proper civilized manner, yet a skilled barbarian can earn a knight's grudging respect through deeds in battle. You have little regard for rogues, beguilers, or others who rely on stealth or deceit. In general, you have no feeling one way or the other toward druids, monks, and rangers. You distrust the duskblade's mix of melee combat and spellcasting but can empathize with the dragon shaman's devotion to his totem dragon, though you might be wary of particular shamans (those devoted to chaotic dragons). In general, you feel protective (but with a touch of condescension) toward adventurers who cannot handle heavy armor and weapons.

You serve two basic roles in battle. You excel at dominating the field of battle, since your defensive abilities make it difficult for opponents to move past you and strike vulnerable members of your party. You believe that the best way to face an enemy is to challenge him to an honorable duel and kill him fair and square, claiming all the glory for yourself. When faced with multiple foes, you can strike fear into some and goad others into attacking you rather than your allies. You are the sorcerer's, wizard's, or bard's best friend. Your commanding presence draws attacks to you, while your hit points and heavy armor make you ideally suited to absorb blows. While you are engaging foes in combat, your allies can use their spells and special abilities without interference.

When looking at feats to select as you gain levels, you have two basic paths. You can focus on your fighting skill, or you can attempt to expand your capabilities to serve as the party's spokesman. The former option is best when you are the group's primary combat specialist. If the party includes a barbarian, paladin, fighter, ranger, or duskblade, you can afford to dabble in feats that improve your Charisma-based skills. Although Diplomacy is not a class skill for you, the Skill Focus feat combined with your superior Charisma and a few cross-class ranks makes you a serviceable emissary. When it comes to combat feats, look to ones that improve your ability to deal damage. Your class features already enhance your defense, making feats such as Power Attack, Weapon Focus, and so forth excellent options to boost your offense. Alternatively, you could focus on crippling your foe's ability to deal damage. Combat Expertise combined with Improved Disarm and Improved Trip form a potent combo. When you lure a foe into attacking you, you can pluck his weapon from his hand or knock him to the ground. In either case, your opponent is neutralized as a threat to you or your allies.

Improved Initiative is a critically important feat, since it allows you to act first, move forward, and defend your allies. The sooner you find a place at the front line, the longer you can hold back the monsters.

KNIGHTS IN THE WORLD

The concept of the knight, or cavalier, or chevalier has arisen in many cultures that used mounted warriors in their armies. Typically, knights were members of the rich, land-owning upper class who could afford to buy and maintain heavy armor and a horse. Such individuals served an elite role in the military not only for their fighting talents and ability to ride over and smash through infantry who lacked polearms but also for their social standing. For the historical knight, his status as a rich landowner was the basis of his superiority to others. Legend transformed the concept of the knight to focus on one who sets forth searching for deeds that will win him glory, drawing on his code of conduct and charismatic personality to defeat his enemies. Since a character who owns land and sits on a fortune in gold makes for a poor adventurer in a traditional D&D game, the knight character class focuses on the concept of a heavily armored melee combatant who fights according to a strict code of conduct. Fidelity to that code grants the knight the confidence and fighting spirit to excel on the battlefield and hence the glory he or she seeks.

A knight adventures to prove her skill at arms, to advance the cause of whatever lord she might serve, and to further her own aims. She rides forth from her lord's castle to right wrongs, quest in her lord's name, and prove herself worthy of knighthood. By actively seeking fame, glory, and acclaim, the knight brings praise and respect to the code of honor that she fights under.

Some knights are lone wanderers with neither castle nor king. A bloody war might leave a knight without a master. Homeless and with little more than her armor and weapons, this knight adventures to further the cause she still holds dear. She could work to bring down the enemies who defeated her lord or attempt to do as much good across the land as possible, winning glory all the while. She might seek for a new cause worthy of her devotion. The knight's order might fall, but the concepts of honor and chivalry endure so long as one knight holds them dear.

Other knights are similar to paladins in that they place their faith in a cause, though for a knight this cause is rooted in the world rather than a divine power. A knight might fight against oppression and brutality in all its forms, such as when a dwarf knight ventures into the underground with his companions on a crusade to defeat drow, duergar, and other horrors before they can threaten the surface. Such a knight doesn't need a lord or an order. All he needs is a sharp sword, a stout shield, and an indomitable belief in his cause.

The knight of the D&D game is a wanderer who hunts down the red dragon that has despoiled the countryside, or the hero who mans the walls and rallies the town guard when a horde of orcs appears on the horizon. The knight fights for a cause, and it matters not whether that cause is upholding the crown or a ceaseless desire to bring justice and hope to the land.

Knights gain notoriety for their deeds, whether triumphs in combat or selfless acts of great honor. Many an adventurer grew up on stories such as that of Archibold the Impetuous, who after the defeat of his liege's army stood alone to block pursuit on a narrow bridge while his allies withdrew to safety. The bards claim that Sir Archibold slew more than a hundred hobgoblins before he finally fell, by which time his allies had reached the safety of a nearby fortress.

Another legend tells of Lady Attis, an evil but brave knight who drove off a rampaging red dragon that had terrorized the region, not from any beneficence toward the inhabitants but to win the fame of defeating a foe no one else dared face.

Knights often band together into orders of knighthood, and many of these organizations have storied histories. Knightly orders typically allow their members to spend much of their time on individual quests, requiring only that the knight live by the code of the order and be willing to return to the order's headquarters when called upon. Knightly orders have a proud tradition of using heraldic symbols to identify themselves, and knights who belong to the order often carry these symbols on their shields and armor to identify their affiliation.

Individuals react to knights based on their previous interactions with other members of the class. A heroic knight meets stony silence and suspicion in a land where evil knights oppress the poor. By the same token, a villainous knight finds that folk who assume knights are chivalrous, fair, and honorable are quick to trust her and willing to believe the best about her. Such trust might indeed bring out the best in her, or it might lead swiftly to disaster, depending on the knight.

A knight who has retired from adventuring typically acquires some position of authority, with commensurate political power, whether as general, king's champion, or ruler of some city or outpost. People's opinions of knights are thus often the same as their views of authority in general.

KNIGHT LORE

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (nobility and royalty) can research knights to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: Knights are skilled mounted fighters who specialize in defensive combat.

DC 15: Knights are combat-oriented characters adept at protecting their companions and stopping foes from getting past them. They follow a strict code of honor.

DC 20: Knights are masters of armor and shield use. They can lure foes into one-on-one combat through sheer force of will.

KNIGHTS IN THE GAME

Because of their obvious place in real-world history, knights fit well into any campaign with a medieval setting. The class can be available to characters of almost any race or origin, or you can tie the class to a specific kingdom or group of cultures in your campaign world. Either way, the knight provides an exciting option for players interested in a meleeoriented character capable of holding a line of combat and really protecting her allies, as well as challenging monsters in single combat.

This class can fit in a campaign in many ways - to serve a specific plot need, you can tie its history to a race or add a connection to a mysterious organization. The class description assumes that many races and cultures produce knights, but in your world perhaps only lawful societies might field knights as part of their armed forces, creating an instant and flavorful difference between lawful and chaotic culture groups. If you take this route, create a chaotic-oriented group of hexblades, rangers, or scouts who oppose the order of knights.

A knight can be encountered anywhere her quest for glory might take her: at the head of an enemy army, on a lone mission into the underground, or simply wandering the countryside looking for suitable challenges. A knight often appears partnered with an arcane or divine spellcaster, since the knight's class features work best in conjunction with an unarmored or lightly armored partner.

EL 7: Lady Sorra(LE female human knight 7) adheres to the code of knighthood for one reason: it seems the fastest way to gain power in a world where those of common birth lack opportunity. She could make a temporary ally or suitable antagonist for any adventuring group, perhaps first appearing as an ally in one adventure and then again later in another as an antagonist. In the latter case, she is likely to be found serving as the personal bodyguard of a powerful evil spellcaster.