Knight

A Knight’s dedication to Honor and willingness to fight no matter the odds makes them formidable opponents and stalwart allies. Heavily armed and armored, they are well-equipped to defend themselves from most physical threats, representing a unmovable wall of steel on the battlefield. They are not without their weaknesses and are known to be susceptible to Spirit or Faith based attacks. Regardless, they are one of the most defensive classes in the Realm of Strife, and can use their abilities to protect and buff their allies. While their unwavering Honor and strict codes is sometimes inconvenient, they are typically welcome in any group.

It is said that a Knight is not truly a Knight without his mount. While many theories exist as to why Knights prefer mounted combat, the simplest explanation is that as one of the most heavily armored classes in the Realm of Strife, they are also ponderously slow when on foot. A mount allows them to overcome this obstacle, remaining both mobile and near impenetrable by conventional weaponry. In the Realm of Strife, few are willing to embrace the strict codes and regimented lifestyle of the Knight class. As a result, it has the least options in terms of available races.

Class Overview

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Typical Roles: Tank, Support/Utility, Melee Damage
Damage Types: Physical
Class Mechanic: Honor
Available Races: High Elf, Human, Centaur
Initial Gold: varies by race from 300 to 320

During Character Creation you may choose to use the Default Stat Line, before racial modifiers, instead of rolling for stats, or if after rolling ten sets of stats you don’t like the results

Proficiencies

Natural Armor Proficiency: Cloth, Leather, Mail
Trainable Armor Proficiency: Plate
Natural Weapon Proficiency: Knives, Swords (including 2-Handed), Bludgeons, Axes, Polearms, Shields
Trainable Weapon Proficiency: Bludgeons (2-Handed), Axes (2-Handed), Firearms

See Equipment section for details. When using a weapon that your class is not proficient with, see Combat Penalties. There is no level or title prerequisite to train in a new proficiency, however you must receive the appropriate Training.

Class Skills

Class Passive Skill: My Word is My Oath
Class Secondary Skill: (choose one) Riding Skill, Commander, or Equipment Trainer
Because of their naturally high movement speed and mobility Centaurs make some of the best Knights of all. They are effectively their own mount and therefore Centaur Knights may exchange any free Riding Skill Secondary Skill points for a skill point in Combat Specialist.

Primary Skills

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Honor

For Knights there is no greater motivator, no greater reward, and no higher calling than Honor. As such Knights have the most robust array of Honor skills of any class, takign the form of Oaths, Virtues, and Codes.

No training is required for Oaths and Virtues, as these are a function of the Knights personal and imposed sense of honor. However Code training is typically facilitated by the Order to which the Knight belongs. There a higher ranking Knight will act as Mentor and trainer for one of the following Knight’s Code:

• Chivalry (Default first code)
• Leader of Men
• Sacred Quest
• Feudal lord (in development)
• Corruptor of Man (in development)

Knights cannot learn a previously unknown Code or Code Skill (i.e. putting the first code point into Feudal Strike) unless they are taught/instructed by a Mentor (aka Code Trainer) that knows the corresponding skill. If assigning additional code points to an already known code skill, then no trainer is required and the point can be assigned immediately (i.e. increasing the number of code points in Feudal Strike from 1 to 2). This represents an Knight honing their skills rather than actually learning a new skill.

See Learning New Honor Codes and Code Abilities for details.

Level Ups

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Knights use the following chart for levelling up:

Specializations

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Specializations are recommended for advanced players only, and are accomplished through the Secondary Skill system (see Specialist Skills). Knights may choose to specialize their skills in up to two weapon uses and/or two combat styles, but can not have more than two specializations in total.

• Max one Weapon Specialist skill (choose from: Knives, Swords, Bludgeons, Axes, Polearms)
• Max two Combat Specialist skills (choose from: Sword and Board, Freehand, Great Weapon, Paired Weapon, Freestyle, Warder, Mounted)

Title System

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Knightly Orders

Knights gain titles based on their rank and standing within an highly organized and hierarchical Order of fellow Knights. While the individual precepts of Knightly Orders vary based on the culture and function their play in society (anywhere from elite soldiers, to land owners, to nobility) the basic rules for advancement are the same. Relying on promotion through good standing within the Order and completing honorable quests assigned by their superiors. In this way Knights can climb the ranks within their Order and gain Titles. While Knights can be a part of other organizations, it is first and foremost their affiliation with their Knightly Order that defines who they are and the title they are known by, as well as the rewards and benefits befitting their station.

Knightly Orders can vary greatly in size, and do not necessarily require anything beyond a Knight Captain to lead them, so long as they have swore service to a Liege Lord of some kind (often a King or high ranking noble). When a Knightly Order serves a Liege Lord in this manner, the Liege Lord acts as the ultimate authority over that Knightly Order.

The initial titles awarded by a Knightly Order are as follows:

Once a Foot Knight is ready to advance to their next title, there are two divergent paths they may take based on the Code they select:

Path of Military Service

The traditional path of most Knights is that of military service. This service is either directly under the authority of their Knightly Order, in pursuit of whatever ends they deem vital, or as directed by a Liege-Lord of some kind. While it carries significant obligations and restrictions of personal freedoms, it also carries increasing benefits of commanding other Knights. To accept this path is to enter the hierarchy of command, accepting as Code to be a Leader Among Men.

Path of the Questing Knight

To accept this path is to accept that your Code will forever be tied to that of a Sacred Quest. When a Knight embarks upon this path they are released from their obligations of military service. Even if at first they do know what their quest might be, typically the Knight will feel an inescapable pull towards this path. Although some Knights have been known to pursue this path simply to avoid military service and forge their own honor and destiny, it does not release them from sworn Oaths to their Order and their Knightlord and/or Leigelord. Questing Knights are seen as a small but noble off shoot of an established Order.

Outlaw Titles

Hedge Knight

For those Knights that willingly choose to exist outside of a Knightly Order or are otherwise prevented by circumstance or misconduct,  the only alternative is to take on the title of Hedge Knight. Though they are shunned, outcast and disrespected by other honor classes, they are not without Honor. In fact, sometimes their own sense of honor is what prevents them from serving an Order or Liege-Lord who they believe to be corrupt.

Having never sworn an Oath to a Knightly Order or pledged themselves to the service of a Liege-lord, a Hedge Knight is forced to live on the outskirts of high society, sleeping “under the hedges” rather than in a Lord’s hall. In many cases this is simply because they have as of yet failed to prove themselves worthy. This tends to make Hedge Knights  among the bravest Knights in the land, though often bordering recklessness in their attempts to prove themselves and win honors for their name.

Hedge Knights live and fight like any other honor class, following some oath or moral code all their own, or mimicking that of an Order they respect and look up to. Given the opportunity, many Hedge Knights will pledge themselves to an Order and/or Liege Lord later in life. Some, with enough experience and men to follow them, will  even attempt to establish their own Knightly Order.

Oathbroken

The Oathbroken are disgraced Knights who were once part of honorable Orders or honorably served a Liege Lord, but have since broken or reneged on their oaths. While some may have legitimate and even honorable reasons for doing so, Oathbroken are universally reviled and despised, treated with even greater contempt than a Hedge Knight, for they willingly gave up that which they once claimed to hold above all.

The sole benefit of being Oathbroken is that you no longer lose honor for activities that run contrary to the rules and regulations laid out by your Order or Leige Lord and are now in fact free to forge your own code of honor. This means that Honor Codes that were previously unavailable to you can now be used where applicable. However to the Oathbroken, an oath means little and as such any Oathbroken Honor class CANNOT use Oaths in combat.

If an Oathbroken is later restored to Honor by rejoining their Order, or finding a new Order or Leige Lord, they lose any codes that would normally be restricted to them but can retroactively gain Titles and codes based on the Order they have joined and are free to use Oaths once again.

Common Builds

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With many options for forcing the enemies attention away from weaker members of their party and an immense capacity for preventing or weathering physical damage (Such as the Code Ability: Honorable Defense) Knights can be some of the best tanks of any class in Realm of Strife. This possible because of their naturally high defensive capabilities on multiple fronts as well as natural proficiency with shields and the earliest access to plate of any other class. Any true tank build for a Knight will involve high armor, particularly so if they choose the route of mounted combat, another natural choice for the Knight class. Most Knights will be able to achieve higher armor values at lower levels than most other Honor based tanks, meaning the armor reduction penalty of Oath of Protection becomes less of a deterrent to using this powerful AoE buff and quasi-taunt to control the battlefield and shield allies. However Knight tanking has so much more to offer than just high armor. Through the Knight Class Passive Skill My Word is My Oath, the Knight is unique among Honor classes in that it may begin each battle with up to three additional Oaths or Virtues activated. This allows Knights to use a wide spread of of powerful group buffs and defense-heavy oaths and virtues, without sacrificing the Virtue of Justice (the go-to taunt ability for the Honor mechanic that most Honor classes ignore in favor of other oaths or virtues).

While many hybrid builds exist, the Knight tank will typically invest heavily in one of two tanking styles:

• Avoidance Tank: High armor is always an effective means of protecting oneself against physical damage, however the avoidance tank views this as a last resort. It is more desirable to simply prevent the enemy from hitting you. While some Classes rely on speed, agility, or trickery to achieve this end, an honorable Knight does not require these tactics. Instead they stand unmovable on the battlefield, relying on the key Honor Code Ability: Prudence. This powerful code ability, unique to the Knight Class, allows the avoidance tank to block, parry, or ward-of more than once per round with a weapon or shield. There are two separate styles for avoidance tanks:
  • Sword and Board: Instead they use sword and shield to create an impenetrable wall of high parry and block potential. Obviously this works best when choosing the Sword and Board Combat Specialization, and can be further amplified by the Knights rare ability to specialize in two different weapon types, namely Swords and Shields.
  • Duelist: While it removes some of the Knights defensive capability against ranged attacks, the duelist build trades in the shield for an off-hand weapon with high parry, typically a knife or sword. Likewise, instead of Specializing in the Sword and Board combat style they instead specialize in Duelist combat to boost their off-hand parry and even reduce their opponents to-hit roll.
• Conventional Tank: Conventional tanking relies on the innate high armor and damage reduction/negation capabilities of the Knight Class, independent of weapon load out. This allows more freedom of choice for weapons, as your tanking capabilities are not specifically tied to having high parry and/or block weapons. Likewise, you don’t have the high investment cost of Secondary Skill Points for Combat Specializations and can instead have a more versatile build. Some attractive Secondary Skill options for Conventional Knight Tanks would be Battle Veteran, Commander or Military Training. Perhaps you could also spend those points on an Occupational Skill to help offset the extremely high cost of plate armor for both you and your mount. For example, the Bodyguard secondary skill point can help generate income and make you a better tank a the same time while Blacksmithing can reduce the cost of weapons and armor by up to 75%.

While the stereotypical Knight is always assumed to be a tank, there are other viable options for Knights:

• Support/Utility Builds:
  • Oath Bringer: With unrivaled access to Oath’s, boosted by skills like Mounted Exemplar, Knights can play the role of support class rather well, providing strong and consistent party wide buffs
• Melee Damage Builds:
  • Iron Juggernaut: Two handed weapon + High Armor + Juggernaut + Feudal Strike = the Iron Juggernaut

Additional Lore

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coming soon…

Notable Characters

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Sir Edden Todbury
Cavalier of the Order of the Griffon, based out of Telestra. Responsible for reuniting his Order with their Griffon allies of old and tasked with defending the skies during the Siege of Telestra.

Demo Character

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Gauldric Aldumere

Level 4 Knight, sword & board high armor single target tank