A new variant idea?

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

** Disclaimer: I tend to avoid the RBD forums, due to my allergic reaction to pop-ups (yes, yes.. I'll get that little popup-killer app one of these days). If this has already been proposed, in one form or another, I bow to the previous author. **

The Blood Knight:

Most likely a paladin, although this could be held comfortably by any of the melee classes. I'm thinking paladin mostly due to the one predominant obviousness: Sacrifice. What's a blood knight without splatter? :)

That being said, auras would be a topic of some debate. With the single-targetting of Sacrifice, some power would be appreciated. On the other hand, perhaps Thorns would be appropo as well (I'm remembering the spikey armor from the BKs in D1).

Weapons and Equipment:

My initial impulse is to equip the fool in Blood craftings at first opportunity. To reach that point, however, one might allow for the usage of anything that either leeches, returns damage or replenishes life? I'm open to suggestions, please. If that were the case, perhaps the building of his "Blood Suit" would be his Quest.

That being the case, one handed axes would be the choice, methinks... unless you'd opt for the big buggers for a show of style. Style can be a good thing. B)

Another restriction might be towards the anti-esthetic: It either has to look scary or sound scary. "CorpseMourn", "Rip Saw", "Goreshovel"... you get the idea.

Interaction:

Curmudgeon? Darth Vader? Lachdanan on a really bad day? A Disciple of Gorash? Input is appreciated, here.

Trials or Tests:

Aside from my thoughts on assembling a Blood Suit, I'm at a bit of a loss. Considering the wealth of variant community experience on the LL, I thought that this would be a good place to ask.

*looks pointedly at Griselda, Elric and Occhidiangela*

Thanks in advance!

*tips helm*

[AtomicKitKat]

Might I suggest Biggin's Bonnet? I never gave this item a second glance, until I stuck one on Gleeclaw, my Cleglaw-using Amazon. Boy am I ever glad I did. Level 16 and she's doing 60+ damage per chop(maximum)

Name: Biggin's Bonnet
Type: Cap
Quality: Unique
Level Req: 3
Powers:

+15 MP/HP
+14 Defense(around 20 when added to the base, not bad for a lousy cap)
+30 AR
>>+30% Enhanced Damage(this is the main draw)

Also, it looks like a scalp that you just ripped off somebody's skull.

For body armour, look for all the various ones named after skin(anything with skin, fleece, silk, shell in the name)

You mentioned Goreshovel. You can add Gore Rider War Boots to the list. The Deadly Strike would help since he doesn't have any Critical Strike of his own.

Quests/Tests/Trials

How about as a test, he has to fill up his stash with the equivalent of a full inventory(excluding belt) of health potions(blood)? As a reward for that, he would get to wear his first piece of "magic"(most likely the bonnet)

I'll leave the real variant players to come up with more difficult tribulations for your character. Let us know how it goes!

[NiteFox]

We-ell, I don't know if anyone really cares about the "look," but in D1 the equipment of a Knight-class monster could be replicated as such:

Helmet: Unique Great Helm (Veil of Steel or Gotterdamerung)
Armor: Plate Mail/Field Plate/Gothic Plate (Never was sure, really)
Weapon: Bastard sword (Unique equivilent - Doombringer)
Shield: Unique Buckler - The Split Skull Shield

I don't know if that helps any.

[Occhidiangela]

As a mildly interested Variant Scum . . .

The Blood Knight would play very well from the Barbarian Point of view. Big and slow and strong. And a Melee Necro, due to the 'look' might also do nicely, with Amp Damage and Life Tap being critical skills, and of course a Blood Golem, though I really think an Iron Golem would be a better sidekick. :)

Barbarian Thoughts:

For the Sword and Shield set up, all swords must be the two hand variety wielded one handed. No double wielding allowed.

Shield: Gothic Class Preferred, spiked and bone an option for the 'look.' No purely round shields allowed, but a Kite early on would be in the correct theme, from a looks point of view.

Helm Goal is Winged Helm/Great Helm. Full Helm as soon as possible, since ya Gotta cover the face. :) Masks allowed, Grim Helm would be nice. The Barbarian Helms would need to be the ones that completely cover the face.

Skills:

Iron Skin for sure, and Natural Resists, since the Knights were Immune/highly resistant

For a Steel Knight, Fire Immune is a theme, so a goal would be 95% Fire Res
For a Blood Knight, Lightning Immune, 95% Lightining Resistance would be a goal
Alternately, no Cold resistance allowed above zero %, as Blood Knights were always sucseptible to Stone Curse, which Freezing emulates.

Faster Run: Only if prohibit Running when in combat, or near enough to engage in combat. The Blood Knight walked. He was in no hurry, he just showed up and pounded away.

Sword Mastery, of Course.

Skills?

Bash / Concentrate / Stun. Stunlock by a Blood Knight was most nasty in DI, as I recall, it was a quick path to death.

One Point at least into Berserk for the Phys Immunes, since in Diablo I, NOTHING was immune to sword strokes.

War Cries: Shout. No Grim Ward, but I suppose that Battle Orders would be OK, since BK's had plenty of Hit Points, and they never seemed to run out of stunning attacks.

Find Item: Not sure if that fits, but Blood Knights could drop the Ob Zod, so maybe Find Item would be valid. Find Potion . . . sure, if you want to keep the stash filled with Reds.

Leap and Leap Attack? Probably not. Does not fit the idea.

Whirlwind? Probably not, unless you want to emulate the old "catch up from lag Keystone Cops Blood Knights" that hang ups would occasionally create. :)

Incr Stamina of course.

Goals: By the end of NM Diff, a Complete Blood Outfit, to include two rings, an amulet, the whole nine yards. :) Then its off to Hell Difficulty to drench yourself in more Blood! :)

Or, By end of Act III Hell, a Completely Crafted Blood Set up. The back Up weapon would have to be a Blood Axe, which you use to kill Bosses with.

Early Quests:

Kill All Rogues encountered!
Kill All Goats, those jerks let the Heroes past their posts in Tristam and got your buddies butchered
Kill ALL Spell casters encountered, those Sorcerers still give you nightmares.

Find a Spiked Shield
Find a Full Helm
Drink from all Health Shrines, as you are a Blood Knight, that is your source of health.

No mana shrines allowed, Wells permitted, and Refilling Shrines.

Armor: as metal as possible, at the first opportunity, for example, as soon as you can gamble it, you must get a suit of ring mail. Rubies are the prized gem, you will trade and barter, or take by force, all rubies that you see drop.

Metal Boots as soon as available, beginning with Chain Boots. The heavier the Better.

Metal Gloves only as soon as they are available in the game.

Acceptable Armor: Breast Plate/Splint Mail/Field Plate/Gothic Plate/Full Plate/Ancient Plate.

Plated Belt as soon as possible.

Just a few ideas for adding some depth to the idea.

[WarBlade]

Your Blood Knight sounds almost identical to a character of mine called "Rackman" (as in the torture device). I made that character as a 'redistributer of pain'. He's played variant style where sacrifices are always maintained.

Sacrifice: 20 - He sacrifices of himself to inflict harm on his foes.
Thorns: 20 - He's pretty fair in ensuring that his foes sacrifice themselves to harm him.
Prayer 20 - He sacrifices his Mana to replenish his life.

Equipment:
- Plenty of Life Steal (currently armed with Bloodletter Gladius in Nightmare among other things)
- Vulpine Items are allowed.
- Disdains poison, keeping the poison sources down to a single charm.
- Never uses Life Replenishment.

Tactics:
Basically kill anything that moves. Nothing comes for free with this guy and he never accesses a chest or fallen Rogue etc without having to fight over that bit of territory first to ensure that a sacrifice has been made (If he stands next to a chest and nothing is or was ever within wake up range the chest is ignored). Likewise gold or Shrines in the middle of nowhere with nothing to guard them is left alone. Potions can be used - He sacrifices gold for those, or the sacrifice has already been made in an earlier fight.


Another character of mine that might suit your Blood Knight theme is a Necomancer called "Link". He's another 'redistributer of pain' idea and is basically a melee/missile guy based around a Blood Golem.

Skills:
- BG
- Amp Damage
- Iron Maiden
- Life Tap

A Thorns merc is also appropriate.

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Nico,

Can only wear Red items (hey, DI Blood Knights had a red tinge to them IIRC), and carries a huge, two-handed sword. Heavy armour, and swings slow: perhaps something along the lines of a Defiant Martyr (trust me, these kick butt!)? Obviously things like Godly and Angelic should be out of the question, while Demonhide is quite the rave on the catwalks of The Abyss. Life Leech should be something highly valued (IMO), and a leeching weapon preferred over a more damaging one.

Just a few basic ideas :)

PS You should be using Mozilla or Phoenix: I've not seen a pop-up in about a year ;)

[Loschonorg]

hmm blood... consider open wounds as special effects?

[Griselda]

The problem with blood knights is that whenever I saw them in D1, I tended to think, "Ooh, treasure!" The others have good ideas as far as realistic equipment, but my brain is still stuck in an endless loop wondering how to make them the D2 treasure fairies. (Barb with find item?)

Maybe when I stop giggling, I'll think of something useful. (I'm not giggling at your variant, just my long-held association that I didn't even realize I had) :P

-Griselda

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Gris,

I guess your Blood Knight would be stacked up with Magic Find and Increased Gold affixes. Perhaps even go to the extreme of Lemming's Lemming variant, and never pick up your corpse: when you die, your body explodes, leaving treasures for the taking. True, very nasty for public games, but makes for interesting (read: DI) tactics in a good co-op game :)

[Occhidiangela]

Sort of the way that OopsForgiveMe would on occasion slay me. :D

From "Blood Knight" to "Item Fairy" in one quick blink of an eye. From the dark and threatening to the pretty little pinata. I am going to make a Blood Knight Barbarian after 1.10, just because! Maybe he will have to max Item Find just so that he can be an Item Fairy . . . a Big Muscular Item Fairy Named Bubba . . . no, too much like a convict . . . Bloody_Boutique? Bloody_Baubles? I am going to have to work on a name, this needs just the right <i>nom de nonsense</i>

In other news, I just rearranged some stash space and deleted 4 characters to prepare for 1.10, but in the process I preserved 4 cherished items: The ears of

OopsForgiveMe
Doc_Holliday
CharisCrossHairs
EarOfTheRube

I seem to be missing Cyrene's <i>desynch</i> and KoP's . . . blast it, I forgot his FF name.

ISOHoly is gone, as are LegsO_Lass, Pater_Tempus, and OcchiOlympic.

Time for some 'Fresh Meat' when we hit 1.10.

[Professor Frink]

Sounds like fun, so I started a softcore single-player paladin inspired somewhat by this. Here's my plan:

Skills, in approximage order of allocation:

Sacrifice - main attack. Nice physical damage boost, cool blood-from-back effect, and a good reason to have unreasaonably high leech.
Holy Shield - Primary defensive skill, Keeps that block % topped off.
Redemption - Main Aura. Health-for-kills goes along with the leech theme, and I've never had a character use it full-time before.
Vengence - Non-physical alternative attack.

I'll use 1 point in smite and defensive auras leading up to redemption situationally.

Hireling: An act II combat town guard (prayer), with no restrictions on gear.

Stat points:
Strength, not counting items, at roughly 2*clvl. Maybe more If I find good high-str elites later.
Dex sufficent to have 75% block when using my shield and Holy Shield. (enough for 60% block until I get lvl 24) -- may not be feasible with blood craft shield being 40% base block for norm/excep.
The few remaining points will go in vit. The plan is quick health recovery from leech, redemption, and prayer rather than a big health-bowl, hopefully most of those one-hit-kills will run afowl of smite and blocking.

Equipment:
Blood crafts, once I have the reagents and the clvl. I'll wear the first ones I make of each, then roll new ones and excep/elite base item ones as I get the chance. Three exeptions: charms (unrestricted), my 1-handed sacrifice weapon (axes just don't seem dignified, I'll probably wind up with a three-chip sword), and any equipment in slots I don't yet have a wearable blood craft for. I may need to give the blood craft reagents to a lower-level character for the actual crafting in order to get output items I can wear. No twinking/trading, except for 1:1 trades from other perfect gems to perfect rubies, as long as my other characters' supply holds out.

Play style:
Sacrifice, Sacrifice, Sacrifice, and try not to kill myself more than the monsters do. Switch to a two-handed blood craft axe and vengence for monsters with too much physical resist/immune. Walk in combat to keep blocking % high. I don't plan on attempting a full-clear, but no skipping or running-through areas. Item runs as necessary to get blood craft base items. "players 8".

So far, I've defeated act one normal, and in the catacombs I came across the unique mace, Crushflange. I have a weakness for low-level uniques, and I'll probably use this one long past the ideal time to upgrade, but for those of you who've managed to read this far, a question: How does crushing blow (crushflange has 33%) interact with Sacrifice? Hitting Andariel seemed to hurt more than usual, but it might have just been her poison. I'll have a bit of it on the gloves, as well, so if it does hurt me for 8% of the possibly huge crush damage, things could get, um, interesting.

comments? flames?

- frink