Guide - How to Roleplay a Death Knight

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Foreword
This orginially started out as an informative comment to a question posed on the WoW forums, but turned into a whole guide on the matter. I checked the sticky and found no guide on the matter, so I decided I would post this as its own thread.

From there, I got comments (on the forum and in personal whispers ingame) recommending I post it on the wikia, so here goes.

Facts About the IC Class
When you roll a Death Knight, there are a few things that need to be considered.

You are Undead
No running around claiming to be alive and well, or anything other than a Death Knight. Also, scratch any ideas of just claiming it in character to make people more at ease around you. Even if you are well preseved and your skin still has some color to it, your icy, Scourge eyes, your characteristically hollow echo of a voice and your undead, unholy aura will give you away in 2 seconds flat.

You are a Death Knight. An Undead Necromancer Knight.

You are a Third Generation Death Knight.

 * First Generation Death Knights were the spirits of Orc Warlocks placed within the corpses of fallen Alliance Knights from the First War, raised and used in the Second War by Guldan.


 * Second Generation Death Knights are primarily fallen and corrupted Paladins. Arthas himself was one of these. They are bound to their specific runeweapon. Take it away and they are powerless.


 * Third Generation Death Knights are the most versatile, able to pick up and use any weapon off the battlefield, obviously more proficient with the weapon if they runeforge it, which must be done personally at a Runeforge.

You wield rune magic
Rune magic is a form of Arcane magic, accessed by more natural means. It is what powers all your spells. Moreover, Death Knights and the Scourge use a form of runic magic taught to them by the Vrykul. It is a form of the art that even the most experienced wizards find unfamiliar.

Through this magic, they wield powers of Frost, healing Blood and Unholy necromancy.

How is a Death Knight made?
There seems to be two ways to become a Death Knight.


 * 1) The first is the simple, straight forward method. You are killed - you are raised. Nothing more to it than that.


 * 1) The second is a little more complex, involving a slow corruption over time that eventually turns you into an undead Death Knight, but without a specific moment of death. This is a method of turning undead that applies to many necromancers, as well as a fair few Death Knights, including Aurius Rivendare, and most likely Arthas himself. They never died, as such. They just slipped over from living into undeath at some indeterminate point. But make no mistake, though, they are fully undead after that point.

Eating, Sleeping, etc.
Eating - According to "Corpulous' Mess Hall Rules", a book in Acherus, Death Knights seem to be capable of eating and drinking. How much they actually need to is not specified.

Sleeping - According to Phase 3 of "The Death Knights of Acherus", a book in the phased starting zone of Acherus, Death Knights are capable of sleep, but are not permitted to by the Scourge, suggesting they do not need to.

Hygiene - According to "Guide to the Side Effects of Reanimation", a book in Acherus, Death Knights can continue to decay, but that good personal hygiene can slow, if not even halt this. The book suggests it might be an idea to cultivate a more rotten look, but not to go overboard as you don't want an arm falling off in combat.

Other Needs - Death Knights need to inflict pain and suffering. It is something the Scourge likely built into them as a means to keep them working for the Scourge, and to keep them from turning good.

If they do not sate this need, they will become wracked with pain and eventually turn into a mindless killing machine.

If you wish to have an actually playable character within the Ebon Blade and the Hode/Alliance, your character needs to find a way to sate this need without succumbing to it. The best solution is probably to pick your targets, direct your need toward a common enemy, such as the remaining Scourge, the Twilight's Hammer cultists, the opposing faction...

This need does not stack with the Blood Elven mana addiction, but rather replaces it. However, it is possibly quite a bit worse than the mana addiction.

It is not specified if the target must be humanoid or intelligent or if 15 minutes of tormenting a spider can "take the edge off."

Dictated Story by Blizzard
A portion of your IC background will have been decided for you by the game.


 * You are a Death Knight of the Ebon Blade. If you are not a part of the Ebon Blade, you are considered hostile by the Ebon Blade, the Horde, the Alliance, and generally everybody, meaning you'd be attacked on sight in any place controlled by such people.


 * Being in the Ebon Blade comes with a responsibility. Most living people have such prejudice against the undead, the Death Knights especially, that they don't always differentiate between one Death Knight and the whole Ebon Blade. It's a big enough stretch for some to try to differentiate between the Ebon Blade and the Scourge. So whether you like it or not, you represent the Ebon Blade, and being a jackass damages their reputation. They cannot fight the Alliance or the Horde, so you'd better behave while around those people.


 * You broke free from your servitude to the Lich King at the battle for Light's Hope Chapel. If you tried to break free earlier than this point, by rebelling, fleeing, or whatever, you would with 98% certainty have been killed by the Scourge. They have numerous methods for dealing with such traitors, none of them pleasant. If you tried to hold onto your ties with Arthas and the Scourge at Light Hope Chapel, the Ebon Blade and the Argent Crusade would have tried to put you down.


 * The Death Knight starter quests and the battle at Light's Hope Chapel take place about 2-3 years ago. It would not be impossible for you to have been a Death Knight for longer than that, but it would be rather implausible for you to have become a Death Knight after that and still be with the Ebon Blade. There hasn't really been any viable Death Knight production since the events at Acherus and it was the battle at Light's Hope Chapel that allowed you to break free from the will of the Lich King.

Making Your Character Within This
You can still have a lot of freedom with your character so long as you follow common sense and those basic rules set down by the lore that you agree to by default when you roll a Death Knight.

Some of the questions you should ask yourself when you roll a Death Knight, to figure out your character and define their personality are:

- Who were you before? What was your living life like?
a) Were you a Paladin, a Warrior, a Rogue, or something else? (Those three classes appear the most likely, in that order, based on what the Scourge's preferences seems to be. Perhaps this is due to the physical requirements of being a Death Knight which are anyway enhanced. This not saying other classes can't work, but give it some thought before deciding.)

b) What race are you? How does the culture of your race perceive the state of undeath? If you are a Night Elf or a Draenei, you're going to have great problems with this as undeath is seen without exception as a fate far worse than death, a perversion, an abomination, an affront to all that race stands for and what you yourself most likely once stood for. (It is highly recommended to read the guides on your chosen race.)

c) Did you have family? Who? Where? Are they still alive? If so, how do they see you now? If not, did you cause their deaths as a DK or blame yourself in some way (DK related or not)?

- How did you become what you are?
Were you killed in battle and raised on Acherus, or did you pledge allegience to Arthas in return for what you thought would be a gift, just just a better alternative to death? Most of all, what made you worthy of this "gift" in the eyes of the Scourge? (The requirements aren't all too high as you were anyway just intended as a shock troop against the Argent Dawn. Arthas was trying to churn out as many Death Knights as possible to overwhelm the Defenders of the Light, but the Death Knights still had to be fully capable of their tasks, which is why you see the emo ones killed right away in the phased starter zone.)

- When did you realize that fighting for the Scourge was wrong?
If this was before the battle at Light's Hope Chapel, what were the factors keeping you obeying orders until that point? (The most obvious answer is fear of what the Scourge would do to you if you disobeyed, but there can be other reasons, too, such as simply not caring at the time, or being unable to resist the Lich King's command in your mind.)

- After getting your free will back, no longer at the mercy of the Scourge, what made you decide to go on existing?
In the face of what you have become and the atrocities you have committed, why did you not end your own existence. (Vengeance against the Scourge is the obvious answer, but then you need a new one now that the Lich King is dead. As well, if the destruction of the Scourge was your only goal, you would spend all your time in Northrend fighting them.)

- How do all the above things effect you?
What emotions your Death Knight can or cannot feel is very much up to you, but a few things to keep in mind are that while in service to the Scourge, such emotions as love, compassion, remorse, were beaten out of you and other emotions such as anger, hate, sadism, lust for destruction and power, were encouraged.

You were not merely sent to kill those villagers, you were encouraged to enjoy it. What you need to ask yourself is how that effects you now that you are free? What emotions do you allow yourself to feel? What emotions have gone lost? What emotions return to you and how do you manage it?

Talent Trees
This might seem like an odd category in a roleplay guide, but the various specializations of a class do carry some in character weight.

You do not necessarily have to have the same specialization OOC as IC, but it can help with representations.

To know which tree does what, look at the abilities it grants, as well as what abilities are categorized into those distinctions. Dark Command, for example, is a Blood ability though does not require that you spec Blood to use it, same with Death Coil and Unholy.

Aside from that, here are my own interpretations of what the different talent trees mean in character.

Blood
Blood is all about the power of blood, whether for offensive, defensive or regeneration purposes.

You use Blood Magic to boil the blood of your enemies, increase your own strength and toughness, and sap the health of your foes to restore your own, or tap into the power of your blood runes to perform some minor healing on yourself, or potentially others.

I imagine that being healed by a Death Knight's Blood magic would feel warm, but not the fuzzy kind of warm. It would be like the warmth of a blush or how some injuries, particularly scrapes, can feel warm.

Also make note that a Death Knight is not nearly as capable at healing another as a priest or other practiced healer would be, and the Death Knight's ability to heal himself would be limited as well unless he were draining the life from another creature to restore himself.

Frost
The Frost talent tree is the mastery of Ice. A Death Knight who specializes in Frost Magic uses it to make the blade of his weapon that much sharper, to sap the heat from his foes to slow them, or to completely freeze them in ice.

Unholy
Unholy is downright Necromancy. It deals with diseases and raising the dead, as well as mending the Undead.

A Death Knight who focuses in this tree of skills would become much more of a Necromancer, weakening his enemies with diseases and plagues and raising armies of undead minions to deliver carnage.

Although unlike a pure Necromancer, he is still incredibly deadly in close combat. Not merely a cloth-wearing bag of bones, if you close the distance to this Necromancer and hinder his spells, you still have an undead Knight on your hands.

How the spec tree might effect behavior
How the various specializations effect your character is rather much up to you. If you focus on the life draining aspects of the Blood tree and take on some vampiric behavior, or if being surrounded by corpses and diseases with the Unholy spec has an impact on your mind, or any other thing that makes sense with regards to what the specializations allow you to do.

The major question to ask is "What makes sense to your character?" That will also decide what specialization or "path" they choose to follow IC. As I stated earlier, your IC spec doesn't have to be the same as your OOC spec. You can choose Blood for tanking in pugs, but roleplay as Frost.

Bottom line: Let your character choose the spec, not the spec choose your character.

Some Personal Speculations

 * I imagine that by combining Blood and Unholy, a Death Knight could become pretty adept at mending his Ghoul or a Forsaken, though it might take much more effort and knowhow to mend more "advanced" undead such as other Death Knights.


 * Simply because the Death Knight is a Hero Class and lore-wise is a pretty damn powerful being, I would not be opposed to someone claiming IC proficiency in two or even all three talent trees at once. However, they should keep in mind that such versatile proficiency comes with the responsibility to play it well, and it does not make one invincible. As well, they might lack some proficiency in each tree that someone who focuses purely in that tree might have. (If that made any sense. I might come back to rephrase that paragraph at a later time.)

Where to get inspiration?
Look around at all the Death Knight NPCs to get an idea of what the general or stereotype is for Death Knights and how they behave. They are generally somber with an undertone of guilt, anger, remorse and self-loathing, but persisting for the sake of a goal (originally the death of the Lich King, something else now.)

Basically, they are depressed, yet driven by something, a motivation to keep going.

Remember that while some are open with their depressions, others try to hide it behind a facade or take it out in anger.

This brings us to...

Behavior
It is unlikely that you will be a very cheerful person, but if you lash out at everybody just for looking at you wrong, the Ebon Blade will step in and try to stop you, because it's bad for their image. You need to find a balance that is both enjoyable to play but also makes sense.

"The down side of being a DK is you dont socialize the same way as others. The key to solve this is, sadly or not, finding a guild that would suit you.

Other then that, start RP with your friends, dont always have to be strangers at an inn." /Fredian-Steamwheedle Cartel

Such a guild might be something combat oriented, and thereby also sating that need for death and destruction, or it might be something more scholarly. It all depends on who your Death Knight is beneath that undead shell.

It is worth mentioning that Death knights -can- fake emotions still. Sapph for example, is a Death Knight you are to kill in the quest "The Rider of Frost" in Icecrown. She is known for lulling her victims with faked emotions, showering them with sweet words, then killing them without breaking her smile.

Also worth mentioning is that the quest text starts by saying "Sapph's a death knight like no other." before describing her social traits. This implies that such behavior is at the very least uncommon, but her mere existence points to that it is not impossible either.

(Thanks to Fredian for bringing this quest to my attention.)

Progression
While Death Knight NPCs can make a good cookie cutter for how you might start out, remember that you are still developing, adapting. While your background may be that of a decorated war veteran with a full life lived already, you are not a very interesting character if you don't move forward. Stagnant characters are no fun. Change and character development is your friend. Just make sure it takes a logical course and doesn't jump around a lot.

Remember your origins
Keep your race, your cultural origins and your backstory in mind, as they are the underlying base on which you form your judgements on.

For example: As a Night Elf or Draenei you might try to refrain from using your necromantic abilities. As a Blood Elf or a Human you might relish in your newfound power. You might try to seek out people you used to know or try your best to avoid those who would recognize you, not wanting them to see you in your new state.

Remember what you are
You are an undead killing machine and there is no escaping that. You even have a built in need to inflict pain and suffering. Generally speaking, the living do not trust you. Some are even offended by your mere presence.

You are Undead, with all that it entails. You are not bothered by normal hunger, thirst or fatigue. You can run endlessly, don't need to breathe, don't get drunk, and likely any physical injury short of destroying your brain won't kill you, although it will still hurt and the injury can still incapacitate you. This saying nothing for magical injury, and Light magic will hurt more than anything else, even if the spell effect is beneficial, like a healing spell.

You are also sterile, meaning you cannot have children. You're a walking corpse and corpses cannot procreate. How functional you are in that department for recreational purposes is probably very individual, but not advisable to explore. (I'd ask "Who'd want to?" but there will always be such people... Instead I'll just say "Stay away.")

Should your Death Knight actually find someone to have a romantic relationship with, despite the undeath and suffering and need to inflict pain, I would recommend it stay platonic.

Note, that from what I've seen, most of the serious roleplaying community frowns upon Death Knights in romantic relationships.

Your Ghoul
Something to consider is that your ghoul, first and foremost, is a pretty mindless slave under your command. I would call them completely mindless, but Blizzard seem to want to portray them as having some kind of basic intelligence, able to say some words and act as vendors and such.

But even so, your ghoul is not a pet that needs love, care and attention. It is a very dumb minion that obeys your every command, no matter how stupid or suicidal that command may be. (such as commanding it to attack Stormwind/Orgrimmar by itself, or simply to stand in fire until it is destroyed.)

Another thing about your ghoul is that it generally receives no love, care, or positive attention from others. It is a rotten, mindless chunk of meat and bones that smells quite bad and it is a clear result of Necromancy, which is rather illegal within the Alliance and only barely tollerated within the Horde because of the needs of the Forsaken.

At the very least, it is considered bad form to have you ghoul summoned or to raise one when not in combat. Within cities, you could possibly get arrested for having a ghoul around, and the ghoul would be destroyed.

Choosing a Mount

 * The Deathcharger is the obvious choice for a ground mount, as just about every Death Knight has one. (Standard issue and all that.)


 * Other undead horses, obtainable from the Forsaken, work as well.


 * The skeletal gryphon mount is also a viable option, though takes a little extra grinding to get. (Ebon Blade rep and 1k gold)


 * A Frostbrood dragon mount would be a bit overpowered and is certainly not Death Knight standard issue. You also have to ask, how the heck did you get it IC?


 * Living creatures may be quite unnerved by your dead, unholy presence. It is not impossible to have such a creature as a mount, but it might be quite troublesome, especially at the start when you first get it as a Death Knight. Depending on the personality of the mount, it might never accept you as a rider, or it might accept you quite quickly, or you might force it to obey. The approach of forcing the creature to obey would not work so well on strong willed creatures, but you'd be surprised how many creatures can be reasoned with: Gryphons, Hippogryphs, Wyverns...


 * As for the rest, the IC rules for mounts are about the same for DKs as for other classes. Dragons are generally a no, Celestial Steeds are rare as it is and wouldn't quite suit, etc. And make sure you have an IC reason for why you have the mount, and not just "because it looks cool."

How Others May React

 * To an undead steed, it would be understandable if they were uneasy with it. Skeletal mounts may even be frowned upon within cities, but I have no sources on that. The logic, however, would be the disallowance of necromancy, at least within Alliance cities.


 * Other mounts are other mounts. People react to them as they would otherwise. Meaning a horse is just a horse and they may look twice if they see a large, full plate Orc riding a Hawkstrider, Death Knight or no.

Useful Tips From Others
Since I don't particularly like the sound of my own voice, here's a choir of other people with their helpful hints. ;)

Quoting Fredian's Tips!
How to RolePlay a death knight. Key rules:


 * 1) Remember to have a runeblade, it what stores your powers.


 * 1) Remember the endless hunger, or you go mad. (Aka inflict suffering and pain)


 * 1) The best idea is you are dead, unless you have a RP plot that says otherwise


 * 1) You are a tool of death and war, not a hopeless romantic that hangs around bars.


 * 1) You have been part of the scourge, you did nasty things, does it haunt you is up to you.


 * 1) The scourge twisted and totured your body and mind, your emotions are twisted, fear and love is basicly removed.


 * 1) Do not start fight randomly, it makes you look bad.


 * 1) Be a loner, but still hang around people you know, but on a distance.

/Fredian-Steamwheedle Cartel

Quoting Barannah's Tips!
RP a person, most of all.

Perhaps your tauren death knight has lost his soft spot for peacebloom flowers, but beneath the "DK layer", he still have desires, motives, preferences and dislikes.

A big part of being a DK should be about how the person beneath copes with having that voice that screams MURDERMURDERMURDEEEEEEEER at the most inconvenient of times, but don't make that the sole focus for your character.

/Barannah-Defias Brotherhood

(more to be added as more tips are made)