Good morning wonderful internet people,
Things have been interesting over here at Gemhammer, the OGL debacle has been an emotionally taxing experience, and we're doing our best to wrap up everything that's left and also deal with that. We still don't have any announcements on future plans or anything like that. But I wanted to make sure I circled back about the Knight prestige class that we said we would update about from a few weeks back.
The Knight
Knights are found in many feudal cultures in one fashion or another. While many children tales paint them as the most honorable warriors, standing up for truth, justice, love or some other knightly virtue, this is a far cry from the reality of most knights. However, while not all knights are the most honorable. To have become a knight in the first place they must have show considerable skill in the martial arts, demonstrating skills as a capable warrior. Knights also tend to have experience leading others.
The knight gains access to a powerful attack called a Great Cleave
"when you hit a target with an attack roll you can choose to double the damage die. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again."
The great cleave ability is effected by the knightly virtue the knight chooses.
Knightly Virtues
Knightly virtues offer different level up options for the knight based on their selection, effectivly being subclasses for the knight prestige class. The three virtues available to the knight in Ro'Lok's Guide to Violence are the Chivalrous Knight, the Fallen Knight, and the Hedge Knight.
Chivalrous Knight
The classic depiction of knight is that of an honorable and chivalrous knight who works tirelessly for the betterment of the kingdom and it’s people. These knights take up their sword in the name of truth, justice and the ways of their people. They receive favors to bring them luck in battle. To many’s dismay these good and gentle knights are among the fewest.
Pursuing this knightly virtue eventually unlocks their capstone feature Sword of Justice.
"You are empowered by the potential for bloodshed, even if it’s your own. Once per turn, you can gain a bonus to attack and damage rolls up to +5 against one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a melee weapon. Afterwards, you take a penalty to armor class equal to the bonus until the start of your next turn."
Fallen Knight
Unfortunately some knights fall from their lofty post, never reaching the idealistic heights that they hope for. Disillusioned by the politics of their corrupt kingdoms, or falling to that very corruption themselves, fallen knights do what they need to survive. Nothing fancy or complicated about it.
Pursuing this knightly virtue eventually unlocks their capstone feature Underhanded Cleave.
"You can exploit your opponents weaknesses to deal additional damage to the target. When you use your Great Cleave feature, you can use your reaction to add a number of d6 equal to your proficiency modifier to the damage die."
Hedge Knight
By far the most common for of knight to be found, the hedge knight is a step above the average sell sword, traveling from lord to lord looking for work, taking part in tournaments to earn enough gold just to eat.
Pursuing this knightly virtue eventually unlocks their capstone feature Double Edged Cleave.
"When you use your Great Cleave feature, you can choose to overextend your attack, dealing more damage but leaving yourself open for an attack. The melee attack gains an additional 5 reach, and the target takes bonus damage equal to 10 + your proficiency bonus + your Strength modifier. Afterwards, the target, and any hostile creature within 5 ft. can use their reaction make an opportunity attack against you."
Magic Items
Some of you may have seen 40,000 Warhammers, a new magic item that will be featured in Ro'Lok's Guide, and we wanted to make sure we posted it here in case you missed it along with a few other magic items for you to enjoy while we wrap things up.
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That's all for now, I'm still trying to find a time that we can go through the PDF together, but i'm also still adding artwork back into the book after our layout issue from a frew weeks back. So please bear with me. As always, let us know if you have any questions, or would like us to talk about anything in particular. Thanks!
-Conor