Blood Throne: the Dark Knight in Depth!

Written By Reece Robbins

Hey everyone, Reecius here with the first in-depth article for the Hero Expansion: the Dark Knight.

Back Blood Throne Here!

Let’s dive into the tank class for the Iconoclasts! The Unicool team was at Spiel this past week but will be back in action in the next day or so and I will have a full update on fulfilment timelines very soon!

We’ve previously covered the following classes:

We have previously covered the following classes:

Martial Characters:

Skill Classes:

Arcane Classes:

Hero Expansion Classes

I have really been looking forward to getting to the Hero Expansion classes and the Dark Knight is a great one to start with. Whereas with the Core Box classes we aimed to keep things on familiar ground to ease players into Blood Throne, for the Hero Expansion we deployed a lot of the more creative ideas. Apart from the Dread Mage which is more of a diversion from the stock standard RPG classes, the core box classes are all fairly familiar and the way they play is intuitive.

For the Hero Expansion we got pretty funky with it as you will see. As stated, each faction will have 12 archetypes to fulfill in order to keep them balanced. However, the way each class fulfills that role within their faction will vary as well their secondary and tertiary skill trees so that they all feel unique. 

As a quick refresher, the Hero Expansion gives you two general factions which are represented by a mix of peoples from all over the world of Cheol who live in the city of New Jasmir after the events of the core box campaign. These are the Adherents to Zenith and the Iconoclasts, broadly composed of those nations which share an ideological common ground regarding the use of Dehvathae, or the extracted essence of sentient beings. The Adherents oppose its use whereas the Iconcolcasts condone it.

The heroes of the Core Box are split 50/50 between those ideological blocks and in the Hero Expansion split along those lines and are joined by 6 new heroes each, forming two full factions of 12 heroes for the expansion campaign. 

Ajax, the mighty Titanborn Fighter of the Core Box campaign is the tank class for the Adherents to Zenith faction and after playing through that you will be very familiar with how he works. He’s fairly straightforward and fun to play, he is tanky as heck and hits hard in melee. He constantly heals himself a small amount and can taunt enemies into attacking him, keeping your other heroes free to act unimpeded. 

The Dark Knight by comparison fulfills the same role for the Iconoclasts. He is there to tank damage and deliver a beatdown in melee. However, as you will see when we dig in, how he goes about doing this is quite a bit different than the trusty Fighter, meaning that while broadly you use him in the same way, the playstyle is very different. Let’s dive in!

The Power of Pain

The Dark Knight thematically is built around the idea of a warrior that uses their pain to fuel their magical abilities. As the Dark Knight takes damage they get more powerful abilities to use. As a tank class, this means as this Hero does their job of tanking damage, they amp up in power. It makes for a really difficult puzzle for your opponent to solve: they have to deal with the Dark Knight but doing so only makes them harder to deal with! As they gain Pain Tokens, which is the mechanic the class is built around, they use these Pain Tokens for a wide variety of magical abilities to control the battlefield around them, deal more damage, become tankier, etc. The end result is a class that is genuinely very fun to play and provides a wealth of creative options to the player.

Equipment Restrictions

Much like the Fighter, the Dark Knight is able to select up to Heavy Armor–giving them max static defense–and may not select ranged weapons being a melee focused class. However, unlike the Fighter who must select a shield, the Dark Knight does not have this obligatory choice. This might seem minor but it is in fact a very big difference as it opens up a lot of options for your Dark Knight. You can choose to take a Shield in the Off-hand slot to maximize his defense, and the pre-built Dark Knight hero Canthus does in fact come with this option. When making a custom Dark Knight you could opt for a two-handed weapon or even to dual wield. This allows a greater degree of customization and build options. It comes down to how you want your Dark Knight to play, do you want him to crush foes at a distance with a great weapon? Slice and dice in melee, dual wielding weapons? Or to be a full tank with heavy armor and a heavy shield? 

Class Ability: Power from Pain

The Dark Knight’s Class Ability, Power from Pain, is very different from any other class and in fact seems quite weak at first blush. However, as you read on you will see that it is in fact the core mechanic to what makes the Dark Knight tick and once you master it his potential power is enormous. Every time the Dark Knight takes damage as the result of an Action (so not from a DoT triggering, etc.) the Dark Knight gains 1 Pain Token. Additionally, he begins the game with a Pain Token and may have up to two. These will be used to power his other abilities which have a potential limit much higher than other similar abilities for other classes. This balances out the fact that the Pain Tokens themselves do not do anything but as you gather them you can potentially do more damage or tank more effectively than any other class.

There are several ways to modify this ability with Feats. Increased Soul Capacity increases the maximum amount of Pain Tokens a Dark Knight may have by +1 and allows them to deal 1RD damage to themself to gain a Pain Token as a Free Action. Dark Hunger grants the Dark Knight +2 Pain Tokens any time they Knock Out another Model, and Maximum Soul Capacity grants the Dark Knight +1 Pain Tokens when they activate and increases their total capacity by +1. These abilities are critical for ensuring the Dark Knight always has a pool of Pain Tokens to draw on to fuel their other abilities and to increase the potential output of their other Class Skills as will become evident.

Finally, the Dark Knight may take Dark Skill, which allows them to use a Pain Token to make a Melee Attack Action as a Simple Action. This increases their Action Economy dramatically, basically giving themself an extra action to attack, freeing them up to use their remaining actions for other options.

Primary Skill Tree

Being the party tank is the primary skill tree for the Dark Knight and as such, they have several skills in their tool chest beyond the class ability of gaining Pain Tokens while taking damage.

Relentless Advance

A very useful Class Skill available at Level 1: Relentless Advance allows the Dark Knight to do several things. First, they remove the Hobbled status effect from themself if they have it, which is good on its own. Next, they make a compound Move and Defend Action. This allows them to advance while also increasing their Defenses (Evasion, Fortitude and Will) by +2 until their next activation. As tank classes tend to wade right into the thick of the fight, this massively helps to keep them from getting slowed down and out of the fight. As the Block Action also gives you the Hobbled status, it means a Dark Knight with a Shield won’t get slowed down as they make Block Actions. An all around great Class Skill and one you will use frequently. If you are making a Move Action, might as well defend while doing it!

Infernal Armor

At level 4 the Dark Knight gains access to the extremely good Infernal Armor Class Skill. Firstly, it is a Reactive Action meaning you use it during another hero’s Activation which is always good as it means it doesn’t eat up any of your own actions. It allows you to, after being hit by an Action which deals damage, spend any number of Pain Tokens to increase your Damage Reduction by 1 per Pain Token. This is massive as typically a Hero can only boost their Damage Reduction by 1 from any single buff. To make yourself potentially Armor 4, 5 or even higher means against many attacks you reduce the amount of damage you take to nearly nothing. The floor is 1 DD, so your opponent will at least get to roll a single die regardless, but this can make a potentially devastating hit into a slight tickle.

Agony’s Armor

The ultimate ability of the Dark Knight is Agony’s Armor, which you automatically add to your deck at level 10. As with all ultimate abilities, it is incredibly strong. This skill gives you a unique status effect which lasts for one turn. Any time an opposing model makes a damage dice pool against the Dark Knight, they roll the same damage dice pool against themself! This doesn’t require a lot of explanation, it is a devastating card that particularly in PvE games means many models will simply destroy themselves as they attempt to attack the Dark Knight. In PvP it in effect means no one will attack you for a turn unless they have no choice. Truly an incredible skill!

Secondary Skill Tree

The Dark Knight’s secondary skill tree is melee striking, or DPS depending on how you like to word it, and the Dark Knight is very adept at smacking their enemies.

Dark Blade

At level 1 you may select the Dark Blade Class Skill and you will almost always be including this in your deck. In addition to normal damage from a melee attack, the Dark Knight heals 1RD HP. You may spend any number of Pain Tokens to increase the damage and healing of this attack by +1RD per Pain Token. As you can see this Class Skill helps the Dark Knight to not only do more damage but heal as they do so! They draw the life out of their foes, keeping themselves in the fight, perfect for a tank class. As you will note is a theme with this class, you can scale this up massively if you are willing to burn all your Pain Tokens on it, something that is unique to the Dark Knight and allows for a lot of depth of play.

Inflict Agony

At level 2 the Dark Knight may choose the Inflict Agony skill. This is a simple but very useful ability. It uses 1 Pain Token and is a Shout Action (Shout Actions are invocations or verbal actions that are not a spell) at Short Range which not only deals 2RD damage but also gives the target the Dazzled status effect. Dazzled halves the Evasion of the target which is extremely useful for a Martial hero like the Dark Knight which needs to hit things to do damage. If you find yourself stuck on a monster or opposing hero that is very hard to hit, this Class Skill is a life saver. Also, as with most Shout Actions, it is a Simple Action. As a quick refresher, in Blood Throne, Heroes have 2 Standard Actions and 1 Simple Action. Standard Actions are your normal actions like moving, attacking, casting a spell, etc. Simple Actions are a sort of “extra” action which some classes utilize. This means the Dark Knight can use this to both do extra damage and debuff a foe.

Pain Storm

At level 6 the Dark Knight may select Pain Storm, which like Inflict Agony is a Shout Action and a Simple Action. It allows the Dark knight to spend 1 or more Pain Tokens to deal 1RD damage to each affected enemy within Reach Range of the Dark Knight. As line of sight is not required, this can hit enemies behind you or invisible to the Dark Knight as well! As it is a Simple Action, you can only use this or Inflict Agony in the same turn but it is another great tool for the Dark Knight to be able to deal extra damage without using a Standard Action, potentially to multiple enemy models. As the skill targets the Will defense, which is often a low defense for melee oriented models, it is highly likely to hit. Further, as tank classes often are in the middle of the fight surrounded by foes, the potential to hit several models with this skill is high.

Dark Strike

At level 8 the Dark Knight may choose their best offensive Class Skill, Dark Strike. Dark Strike is a Once Per Game ability, and when used instead of normal damage, you replace all DD in your damage dice pool with RD, meaning the attack bypasses Armor, cannot typically be blocked or parried and deals a higher average and potential damage. To make this even more devastating, you can increase the damage with the use of Pain Tokens. For a Dark Knight with a great weapon or dual wielding the potential damage output from this attack is massive, often enabling you to one shot a target! As with all big punch abilities like this you want to be aware that your opponent will try and deny it, so be mindful of when you use it as you only get one shot with it!

Tertiary Skill Tree

The Dark Knight’s Tertiary Skill Tree is Crowd Control and they have a single Class Skill in this category.

Get Over Here!

At level 1 the Dark Knight may select the Get Over Here Class Skill. This is a Shout Action and as with the other Shouts the Dark Knight has access to, is a Simple Action. So, while you have a lot of options for how to use the Simple Action for your Dark Knight, they are all very good! This skill targets Fortitude at Short Range and if successful, pulls the target model into your Engagement range. No better way to tank than to force your opponent into combat with you! You can further upgrade this ability via the Reaching Get Over Here! Feat to make the skill Medium Range with the expenditure of a second Pain Token. This makes the skill extremely potent. While expensive at 2 Pain Tokens, the ability to pull a support hero or monster from the backline into melee with a bruiser like the Dark Knight is absolutely devastating and sure to catch your opponent off guard.

Feats

Dark Knight Class Feats broadly run along two themes: increased defense or offense. The class has a tremendous amount of builds available to it, and it comes down to how you want your Dark Knight to play.

At level 2 the Dark Knight may choose to either increase their Evasion by +1, making them harder to hit, or to increase the amount of Pain Tokens they may hold as well as having the option to deal 1RD damage to themself when they activate to get a Pain Token. If you want an all out tank and have built your Dark Knight with a Shield, the first option is likely going to be more appealing as it doubles down on what you are already building your Dark Knight to do: be hard to hit. If you have a more offensive Dark Knight, then having more Pain Tokens at your disposal is a good choice. 

At level 4 the Dark Knight may either opt to increase the potential range of Get Over Here to Medium Range with the expenditure of a second Pain Token or to gain 2 Pain Tokens whenever they Knock Out an Opposing Model. Again, it comes down to how you build your Dark Knight. If you want them to be a tar pit, holding the line then the ability to drag opponents into combat with you is invaluable. If you instead want a more offensive Dark Knight and assume they will be smacking enemies around the table, the ability to generate Pain Tokens while doing that makes them much more efficient. 

At level 6, you can opt to take Dark Defense which lets you add a Block Die per Pain Token to the dice pool when Blocking or Parrying. This is extremely good for a shield or dual wield style Dark Knight as it lets you burn Pain Tokens to reduce the amount of damage you take any time you use active defense actions. Conversely, you can simply choose Dark Power and increase your Power by +1. As a quick reminder, you add Power to the Damage Dice Pool when making most attack actions, thus allowing your Dark Knight to deal more damage with each attack.

At level 8 the Dark Knight may take Maximum Soul Capacity to passively gain a Pain Token each time they activate and increase the maximum Pain Token capacity by +1. If you opted for all of the Feats on this side of the Feat Tree you could potentially have a maximum of 4 Pain Tokens, passively gain 1 per turn and potentially have a second if you choose to take some damage. This means your Dark Knight could be adding an insane amount of damage to some of their Class Skills, or to be able to increase their defense massively on demand. It gives you a tremendous amount of options. The other choice is Dark Skill which lets you burn a Pain Token to make a Melee Attack Action as a Simple Action which as we have covered, really increases your Action Economy, allowing the Dark Knight to do more each turn. Both are fantastic choices and which is better boils down to what role you want your Dark Knight playing in your Party. Is he chopping his enemies down and gaining Pain Tokens through a combination of dealing and taking damage? Or is he passively able to gather Pain Tokens, and then use them when and where you deem best?

Playing Canthus

Canthus is easily the most unique of the Heroes we have presented so far in Blood Throne. The “Bug Knight” as he has been referred to was a surprise hit among backers and it makes me excited to get to his faction when the time comes. The Vespiary is an insect themed faction but unlike what you often see in fantasy or science fiction, they are not mindless drone like creatures, but fully sentient beings that share an empathetic connection to one another and have a reduced (but not eliminated) sense of individuality. The true Vespar are small and fragile insect humanoids who previously lived peacefully in the Great Forest, and were largely unknown to the rest of Cheol. However, with access to this incredibly powerful resource Dehvathae, they are able to bond other Kith with a Vespar larvae, creating a new and much more physically powerful hybrid. In the process, the host loses a degree of their individuality but also any sense of emotional pain, guilt or loss they carried with them. The result is a being reborn with a new sense of purpose and belonging to a group. 

Normally, most individuals in Cheol would be a hard pass on turning into a hybrid bug person, but given the state of the world and the immense trauma most people carry due to the events of the Throne Wars, a chance at a new life free from mental anguish is a deal many are willing to take. As such, the Vespiary is growing rapidly while most other factions left in the world are degrading or barely hanging on. The Vespiary now have access to powerful warriors which they lacked, and have begun to expand their borders at a frightening pace. Their missionaries preach the message of Vendainya, their Deh’Va, and they find opportunities for new recruitment in unlikely places. 

Canthus was one such individual, haunted by loss and pain. He is now reborn as a Dark Knight, harnessing that pain to make him more powerful, his new body making him imposing and resilient. When not knocking heads in combat, he proselytizes the message of the Vespiary, always seeking to convert new faithful to their cause.

Canthus’ stats are geared towards being highly resilient and being able to get his Class Skils off reliably while still being able to pack a punch in melee. This is one of the tricky parts of making a Dark Knight as their abilities want a stat spread. Whereas the Fighter can really focus on two or three stats, the Dark Knight has several demanding their attention. To this point, Canthus has the Gifted level 1 General Feat which gives him a second stat Boost Point, allowing him to have more points to spread around. He also has the Weapon Focus level 1 General Feat, boosting his Accuracy to a respectable 3 which along with his Chitin Blade having the Accurate keyword, helps him to connect in melee. Power 2 means he doesn’t hit as hard as Ajax, but he does have Metaphysics 2 which means he is more likely to get his shout actions off reliably. He is somewhat limited with only 2 Class Skill choices to begin with, so you will want to look for feats and items which allow him to gain more Class Skill options as he goes.

Where Canthus really shines is on defense. With armor 3 he passively reduces damage he takes, plus with his heavy shield and Dexterity bonus he has a very solid Evasion 7, Fortitude of 5 and Will of 3. He has a whopping constitution of 3 which means he starts with 21 HP and every odd level gains +4 HP! By end game he will be able to soak a massive amount of punishment which obviously works well with the Dark Knight mechanics. If you opt to boost his Constitution to 4 at level 5, this goes up to an absurd +5 HP per odd level (and works retroactively as well) which means he could be sitting at 41 HP at level 9! If you add in a passive healing magical accessory such as the Ring of Healing, Canthus becomes incredibly difficult to actually finish off.

As an Aseculan, the term for those that have undergone the bonding process of the Vespiary, Canthus not only has a powerful exoskeleton but the ability to make brief flights with his wings. In game terms this means Once Per Game as a Simple Action, he can make a Move Action that ignores intervening terrain and models (although may still trigger attacks of opportunity). This is massively useful, particularly for a slower model like Canthus. Any ability that grants extra movement is incredibly good in a game like Blood Throne and this allows you to reposition your Dark Knight while still being able to attack, or perform other actions.

This gives Canthus a fantastic suite of tools to work with. He is extremely resilient, surprisingly mobile with his Heritage Skill, still packs a punch and has a wide variety of abilities to draw on giving him a tool for any situation. Canthus is definitely geared more towards tanking than striking and playing him in this role helps the Iconoclast faction have an anchor Hero to hold the line. Generally the Iconoclasts have more offensive capability than the Adherents so Canthus is a welcome Hero to their lineup who can go right into the thick of a fight and hold the enemy at bay, while being fairly self sufficient. With Dark Blade he can hit hard and heal himself, and with Get Over Here! He can ensure you dictate the terms of engagement. The more punishment he takes the more options he has to control the flow of a game. Just be sure to have access to some of his reactive defensive abilities to increase his tankiness when needed as if he does get overwhelmed in a single turn before you can heal him, his loss hurts the team dynamic massively.

Typically you want to position him centrally and move up to engage the enemy front lines. Put a strong defensive buff on him such as Beast Hide from the Shaman, or Gazelle’s Stride to increase his speed, and from there he is largely fine to leave on his own. A Healing Potion in his deck is always nice to have, and then laugh (evilly of course) as he holds down a large section of the map. He teams up very well with mobile, hard hitting heroes like Dalnon the Rogue or Dextrioth the Warlock (whom we will get to in a future article!) who love to have a brick like Canthus to keep the other team’s attention while they rush a flank and get behind the other party where they can absolutely wreak havoc. 

Playing Against Canthus

Canthus presents a difficult problem to solve. He is tough and hard to avoid, and WANTS you to hit him. Often the best bet is to seek to simply contain him, although that is easier said than done as he has solid defensive stats all around. Unlike Ajax who has an Achille’s Heel in his Will of 1, Canthus doesn’t have the same glaring weakness. But finding a way to simply stop him for a few turns can be enough. Pin Down from the Ranger is amazing at this, as is simply sending in a Summon to tie him up for a few turns. The Arcane Trickster has a wide selection of abilities to deal with a tank like Canthus, being able to Charm him and send him off to attack an ally being one of the best examples! The Transmuter also has multiple spells which help tremendously to deal with a Hero like Canthus. Leaden Boots will slow him down and Rust will halve his Damage Reduction, rounding down! This makes him vastly easier to deal with.

The other way to handle him is to absolutely overwhelm him in a single turn before he can heal. Any attacks which bypass armor, such as RD (Raw Damage) will work wonders. The Paladin is the hardest hitting hero in the Adherents Roster, so having Saabir wade in fully buffed with a debuff on Canthus often will allow you to take him down before he can recover! Regardless, it is a steep mountain to climb, so have a plan or pay the price as the Dark Knight carves a path through your ranks.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning about the Dark Knight. Next time we will cover the Paladin for the Adherents, the melee powerhouse and secondary healer who is their answer to the Barbarian class. 

Reece Robbins
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Druid in Depth and Sneak Peak of the Physical Books!