I'm feeling nostalgic for EverQuest.  We played Dark Elves.

Which RPG has a good analog to the EverQuest-1 Shadow Knight?  An anti-Paladin with life stealing spells and able to summon a skeleton sidekick?

My first choice was Shadowdark and the Knight of Saint Ydris.  That's more of a Witch-Knight hybrid, but pretty close.  The Ydris Knight is found in the 'Zine #1 on The Arcane Library, and is an official class.

I have never played EverQuest, so I know nothing about its Shadow Knight. The only famous Death Knight I know is Lord Soth from D&D, who is related to Dragonlance and Ravenloft.

Looking for Death Knights at https://www.fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Category:Death_Knight it shows that Ravenloft has maybe 8.

One of the old TSR one-on-one modules was about playing a good death knight I believe. Its one of the series I do not have so can not say for certain.

oops! Its a solo module. Not a one-on-one. Knight of the Living Dead.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on February 13, 2025, 07:05:32 PMI'm feeling nostalgic for EverQuest.  We played Dark Elves.

Which RPG has a good analog to the EverQuest-1 Shadow Knight?  An anti-Paladin with life stealing spells and able to summon a skeleton sidekick?

My first choice was Shadowdark and the Knight of Saint Ydris.  That's more of a Witch-Knight hybrid, but pretty close.  The Ydris Knight is found in the 'Zine #1 on The Arcane Library, and is an official class.

i'm playing BG3 right now, and their Oathbreaker subclass of paladin is a pretty good version of Shadow Knight, imo. dunno how authentic a representation that is of anything in 5E, but there.

Oathbreaker paladin is probably the closest, I have never seen anyone do a good Shadowknight/Death Knight approach. Some of the JRPG games probably have a Dark Knight (a la Final Fantasy) but that's not really the same thing.

For those who don't know a Shadowknight in Everquest is basically a Fighter/Necromancer. You can wear heavy armor and use weapons and shields, but you can cast necromancer spells (think diseases and darkness) and summon an undead minion. Same thing with WoW's Death Knight. So to properly mimic it you'd need to:

A) Fight like a Fighter
B) Cast (limited) Necromancy spells, both offensive and defensive
C) Be able to summon undead.

Rolemaster Standard System can pretty much do it out of the box.

Take the Paladin profession, swap out the Paladin Base Lists, swap in the Evil Channeling Base Lists, and done.

not sure of anything that works otb, but if I were your DM, I'd just let you play a paladin with an alternate and highly limited spell list. of course, paladins don't get spells for a while, so that might not be exactly what your looking for.

Quote from: psiconauta_retro on February 13, 2025, 11:08:38 PMI have never played EverQuest, so I know nothing about its Shadow Knight. The only famous Death Knight I know is Lord Soth from D&D, who is related to Dragonlance and Ravenloft.

Looking for Death Knights at https://www.fraternityofshadows.com/wiki/Category:Death_Knight it shows that Ravenloft has maybe 8.

Think of an anti-Paladin.  An armored warrior who has spells that injure people, and some minor necromancy.

Shadow of the Demon Lord probably can make a death knight.  Then again SotDL can pretty much do anything.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on February 13, 2025, 07:05:32 PMWhich RPG has a good analog to the EverQuest-1 Shadow Knight?  An anti-Paladin with life stealing spells and able to summon a skeleton sidekick?

Do you want a PC class for this, or are you looking for a monster stat block?

Issue #79 of Dragon Magazine (Fall, 1983) had Saint Kargoth. Stats of course are for AD&D 1st Edition.
Issue #222 of Dragon Magazine had Lady Jane Restfield, a.k.a. "Bloody Jane the Damned". Stats were for AD&D 2nd Edition. The article in which she appears is about running Death Knights.

Quote from: HappyDaze on February 15, 2025, 12:28:25 AM

Quote from: weirdguy564 on February 13, 2025, 07:05:32 PMWhich RPG has a good analog to the EverQuest-1 Shadow Knight?  An anti-Paladin with life stealing spells and able to summon a skeleton sidekick?

Do you want a PC class for this, or are you looking for a monster stat block?

PC.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on February 15, 2025, 11:24:03 PMPC.

That article on death knights in issue #222 of Dragon Magazine can be used to create a PC death knight with very little work.

Quote from: Digitalelf on February 16, 2025, 02:19:56 AMvery little work

Is this what you're reffering to? That looks like it would take a lot of work to make a PC, what do you have in mind to convert it?

Quote from: Zenoguy3 on February 16, 2025, 03:04:19 AM

Quote from: Digitalelf on February 16, 2025, 02:19:56 AMvery little work

Is this what you're reffering to? That looks like it would take a lot of work to make a PC, what do you have in mind to convert it?

Yes, that is what I was referring to.
The article is literally a template. It much like making a PC into a vampire or lycanthrope.
It clearly states that it is a class. So I would use the class as a template that you essentially just apply to a PC instead of an NPC.
It suggests that the new death knight not be lower than 4th level, but the character continues to advance in level after that. So I would restrict the class to PCs 4th level and above.
I would also restrict certain classes from becoming death knights. And to become one, the PC would have to be cursed in a sense. Perhaps a high level evil priest can perform such a curse.
I could go on, but I think (hopefully) that I've explained that it can indeed be done with little effort. 🙂