Knight

Medieval Europe's equivelent of Hell's Angels

Not to be confused with the miniature Imperial Titan..

"The knight is a man of blood and iron, a man familiar with the sight of smashed faces and the ragged stumps of lopped-off limbs; he is also a demure, almost maidenlike, guest in a hall, a gentle, modest, unobtrusive man. He is not compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth. The man who combines both characters – the knight – is not a work of nature but of art; of that art which has human beings, instead of canvas or marble, for its medium."

– C. S. Lewis

"I tell you there is not so much savor in eating or drinking or sleeping,
as when I hear them scream, “There they are! Let’s get them!” on both sides,
and I hear riderless horses in the shadows, neighing,
and I hear them scream, “Help! Help!”
and I see them fall among the ditches,
little men and great men on the grass,
and I see fixed in the flanks of the corpses
stumps of lances with silken streamers."

– Bertran de Born, Occitan knight and troubadour

The "knight" (pronounced 'Kuh-niggit' for you Frenchies with outrageous accents) is a title given to a loyal servant of a monarchy in olden Europe. To start your knightly lineage, you must be valuable enough to your lord that he eventually bestows knighthood upon you. Once that is done, you are officially part of your kingdom's nobility (albeit at the near bottom of the ladder, but you're leagues better off than the common folk) and any children you bear will also be knights, who will then continue your proud lineage throughout the ages.

The etymology comes from Cniht / Knecht among Saxons in England and Saxony - a house servant. But if you were serving a lord, he might lend you a horse thus making you a rādcniht. Meanwhile in the post-Latin parts of the post-Rome, the cavalier was still riding around the estates of post-Gaul. As with the Equestrian class in the Roman Republic, they had to own the land and resources to keep a horse - and in Dark Age Western Europe, that meant signing on to some feudal lord. So the Venn between "knight" and "cavalier" was a slightly blurry single circle.

The knight started becoming the chivalrous, romantic daredevils we all know and love by the 12th, due to the influence of Christianity and Islam throughout Europe, and to a lot of romantic bullshit from the Languedoc troubadours. They are usually rich-enough blokes that knight families typically owned at least one estate that they may develop as they see fit.

These guys were the greatest thing in Europe's arsenal for nearly a thousand years before being weakened by Swiss pike formations, another Chinese import that was improved by European engineering, and the idea of a professional standing army which gradually put an end to the age of knights. Then, around turning point of the 1700s, Romanticists began looking to the past for inspiration, and the combination of myth and legend mixing with the legitimate tales of mighty warriors and began the wider spreading of the ideal of the dashing knight in shining armor (a phrase that originally meant "the new guy who has never been through battle").

Misconceptions

In modern parlance, Knight is the catch-all term for some posh bloke who fought on horseback with decent armour and weapons. It was the case for some time, but the term 'Knight' has started to refer to the social rank of the man, not the way he fought, around the XIIth century. 'Chivalry' does refer to horsemanship, however.

Most armored guys on the battlefield of High and Late Medieval period (usually carrying shield, non rusted armor and a decent weapon) were Men at Arms -- a better equipped class of soldier. Through patronage of a wealthy lord, large groups of these blokes were kitted out with decent weaponry and armour (to varying degrees). They sometimes had a horse if there weren't enough cavalry; otherwise they were just a better equipped form of infantry. They were usually of better social standing than their comrades serving in a Lord's (or Knight's) armies as meat shields and arrow fodder (conscripted peasant), although that itself would vary: from men who their overlord might socialise with to a degree, to a better-off commoner like a merchant who simply bought better armor than the smelly peasants, or just some smelly oik with an aptitude for combat who was kitted out at his Lordship's expense.

Since most Knights were fairly wealthy, they nearly always fought as Men at Arms (being that they could afford decent plate armor, an arsenal of weapons, and a war horse, on their own), though not all Men at Arms were Knights. It is also worth noting that Men at Arms usually were poorer equipped than Knights, and often received little to no training which usually lasted between a fortnight and a month. Knights, however, were trained from the age of six and this training lasted until their mentor deemed them ready to be a full knight (that age varied, but generally was around 17-18 years; Edward the Black Prince, for example, was granted full knighthood in 16 years). They also had the option and means of having their own armor and weapons specially made/procured for them. Additionally, any non-noble who was able to attain knighthood though exemplary military service would have been a warrior few could equal.

Knight's tournaments were NOTHING like how we picture them through Hollywood; they were not leisurely affairs of organised jousting with the King's retinue and nobles looking on. Jousting itself was regarded as a sideshow compared to the main attraction of a tourney - the melee, which was in many respects a mock battle, designed to keep knights practiced in combat (hopefully) without actually killing anyone and an attractive prospect for many young knights to rise in stature through winning the tourneys. Two sides of knights would meet in the tourney ground (usually a massive area encompassing the length between two towns) and clash in brutal hand-to-hand combat with the aim of securing opposing knights for ransom (that were subject to the regular rules of war).

It is also worth noting that some Knights did not fight at all, being too sickly, too old when war broke out, or simply too scared. Due to this, some knights engaged in civilian leadership roles, rather than military ones.

The Modern Take

In our current times the misconceptions mentioned above have created a stereotype in the general public's mind of what it means to be a knight: an owner of land and a castle, wearing that ridiculous heavy armour on top of a mighty horse and being the upmost example of honour, valour and nobility. The first is mostly accurate, though there was a distinction between a knight of rank and training and a landed knight (the difference should be obvious if you have the lightest grasp of English). The second point is also both true and untrue. While full plate and chainmail are definitely heavy pieces of equiptment, especially to the modern man who has rarely had reason to wear anything heavier than a backpackon a hike, being trained from childhood to carry and more importantly use the equipment of war meant that the knight was more or less a living tank. That being devastatingly strong and surprisingly fast. Imagine if you will, dismounting a knight from his horse, only for him to hit the ground, roll away like an acrobat, and then being face to face with a man charging at you at a full sprint with a warhammer. Finally, on the idea of being the great and noble hero; while this was certainly the case for some, after all, most stereotypes are founded on a seed of truth, there were also a large number of knights, landed or otherwise, that were huge dicks. Sadly this has become one of the more common ways to portray any man in armor on a horse despite generally every boy dreaming of being one at some point in his life. (George Martin is said to gain another five pounds both monetarily and weight-wise for every knight that's portrayed as an utter bastard post-1990).

Many still use knights as a standard for human warriors of chivalry going out and slaying various beasts and saving various maidens (most fantasy settings, RPGs and MMORPGs use knights as a class type, some renaming to make them sound more original rip off D&D like 'Paladin' or 'Crusader'), but they are at a constant war with the line of pop-culture being pressed into having any European setting pre-1900s looking like the Dirt Farmers from the The Holy Grail revolted and took over the government.

Fantasy Knights in a Nutshell

If you are a chivalrous knight in a modern fantasy setting, your usual duties will include:

• Quest Taking: from killing a dragon to driving the moles out of the fields of farmers, anything that troubles the people you must take care of. It doesn't have to be you directly, though. If the task is too unworthy for your stature, but still needs fixing, sending your apprentice or hiring other people to do it in your stead also works.
• Monster killing: a category of its own (although often a Quest as well). There are various nasty critters around and in ye olde times you would serve as a pest exterminator for hire. The bigger and badder the monster you slay, the more famous you are with the kingdom.
• Damsel rescuing: even if she is married (or you are), you could get a kiss, a handkerchief, and hopefully a hefty reward for giving her a hand.
• Helping out your king: at times you'll be called on to help your king or lord and hook up with a bunch of your knightly mates to rout some naughty foreigners giving the kingdom trouble.
• Wench pulling: you keep an entire industry of busty women in business with the profits from your questing.
• Looking impressive: your armor and weapons aren't just your tools but also your icons. It gives the peasants something nice to gawk at are and often symbols of your deeds and character. Many knights are recognized simply by their gear (i.e: Excalibur for King Arthur).
• Example setting: along with looking good, you have to practice being good to and showing everyone how to be a goody-two-shoes. From escorting ladies to putting your cloak out across a puddle, from saying hello to Ted the stable boy to upholding your kingdom's faith and smiting any heretic who dares besmirch your god, being a choir boy is a 24/7 job. This is also the reason why Knights are typically Paladin equivalents in fantasy.
  • If you should fall short in your chivalry, it usually suffices to take on a particularly challenging and meaningful quest to restore your honor. If there's one thing peasants like better than tales of upstanding knights, it's tales of knights who stumble and get back up again (or die trying).
  • The flip side of upholding the code of chivalry is enforcing the code against oath-breakers. Knights who completely forsake their vows are especially harmful to your profession's reputation, so be vigilant for rumors of 'black knights' and the like.
• Training a squire: Building up a knight household is a ton of work, and if you died without a legitimate heir to your name, all your hard work over the decades would have been for naught. So, you had to train a successor who will carry your knight household throughout the ages. Train them well and don't just treat them as a glorified servant, as that little buttmuncher will be the one who'll be representing your legacy once you're gone, and you don't want your house to be remembered for that dastard who became the unbearable shame throughout the land.
• Impractical Chivalry: In some fantasy settings there are examples of knights who will refuse to fight enemies with lesser quality equipment, never use deceitful tactics in combat, stop in the middle of a fight to have a conversation with their enemy, and some even refuse to kill at all.
• Unusual Armor: In fantasy settings there are authors and designers who sometimes pick aesthetics over function some armors are not armor at all leaving various open areas to stab at, others go to the complete opposite direction and make the knight carry anvil sized pauldrons on his shoulders.
• Female knights are far less rare in fantasy games and settings then they were in real life in that they actually might exist and be encountered. Boobplate abounds and should be enjoyed, for any woman strong enough to carry around tens of pounds of armor would have the muscles required to hold off back pain.

Real Knights in a Nutshell

• Bureaucrat: in most areas of Europe, barons were the main land holding class and baronies roughly analogous to large townships (the modern word county coming from the slightly higher rank of count). Knights owed allegiance to barons and generally served as their officers of government, from constable to tax collector. A knight's fee (the quantity of land to sustain a knight) was roughly a couple thousand acres, and the typical barony consisting of roughly a dozen fees. Since a family could reasonably tend a few dozen acres (acre being an amount of land one man with one ox could reasonably plow in a day), this basically means a knight was responsible for a few hundred homes.
• Landlord: This went hand in hand with the former section; as while one could mistreat the peasants and tax them for breathing your air, this typically lead to dead peasants or poor crop yields. Usually from the dead peasants. Remember, a knight may have ruled over the people farming his land, but if he didn't treat them at least well enough to turn a consistent profit, that meant that the knight would quickly find himself without people or land to rule. And the people, despite what many would tell you, did in fact have certain rights. (Moreover, petty tyrants tended to wind up on the king's shit list for a reason, so take care of your farmers, dumbass.)
• Officer: you owe service to your lord. If they call on you to fight, you have to. In this regard knights were analogous to lieutenants or sergeants. Being men at arms, knights were expected to know how to fight, how to lead and teach others to fight. If they were particularly good fighters they might be used more like champions and vanguards, while the less martially able would still be expected to be capable of organizing and leading some men. In medieval Europe, the basic formation was the "lance", roughly equivalent to a squad, consisting of a knight and his retinue (perhaps a dozen men). Lances were organized into companies, captained by a noble (typically a baron or count). Lances wouldn't necessary take the field intact; for field warfare, knights would assemble as cavalry and their retainers would form the body of infantry. As the medieval wars dragged on, the concept of lances broke down and it became more normal for nobles to outfit and lead companies of their area's local men with consistent equipment and some once-a-month training (bowmen of Dumbhollow, Shitcreek company of pike, etc), which would be the norm until wars started waging so far away that kings and governments needed armies that were liable for service anywhere, not just in their area.
• Politician: you're part of the elite which means you have to spend an infuriating amount of time jockeying for influence or just protecting your current position. If you don't play ball by engaging with the rest of the aristocracy and maintaining your status, you'll find yourself in disfavor. If you're not seen as pious enough, the church will start hectoring you with the same effect.
• Mercenary: You fight for neighboring kingdoms in search for gold to pay for your needs but most importantly land to eventually claim as your own even after you claim a county or barony your descendants are not fully guaranteed to inherit the land. One example in history with many mercenaries is the taifa state period of the reconquista. Knights turned mercenary were common as the christian realms were not truly unified yet and the caliphate had collapsed into rump states meaning mercenaries would fight for various lords in attempts to become landed nobles.

Old-School D&D

Both 1st edition Dungeons & Dragons and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2e featured the knightly archetype in their options. For 1e, Gary Gygax himself created the Cavalier in an issue of Dragon Magazine as a variant Paladin. It... didn't work out so well. For 2e, the knightly motif was conveyed by certain Kits, predominantly for the Warrior class-group, with the most obvious version being, again, the Cavalier.

The Cavalier is not held up very highly by most Grognards, for reasons explained on its page.

D&D 3.5

Third Edition's version of the Knight was introduced in Player's Handbook II and released for free as part of the book's preview. They have a high base attack bonus and roll D12s for HP. Their abilities are purely related to taking hits and forcing a single target to hit them, similar in concept to a 4E tank class, but with significantly less versatility in terms of providing damage output, boosting allies or disrupting the flow of the fight to suit his party. Probably one of the weaker classes as too much of its abilities are focused on being a punching bag of HP instead of an actual tank that is hard to hurt and lacks the ability to fuck things over, if you're familiar with how Marking a target works in 4E, its based off this guy, but at least in 4E you have penalties other than the -2 to hit to control your opponent. Like paladins this class has a code of conduct. Unlike paladins, the consequences of breaking this code of conduct last a day tops (directly anyways, who knows what larger setbacks it might result in). The code of conduct consists of what they consider a "fair play". Part of the code of conduct is not dealing lethal damage to helpless foes. By the way, some creatures are immune to non-lethal damage.

Knight is tier 5. Their one task, tanking, is theoretically useful but they aren't that good at it and simply unable to try against most threats. Outside that they aren't very useful.

TL;DR A bunch of Hit Points that prototyped the tank class mechanics of 4E that lacks any choice beyond taking it in the gut. Avoid and just refluff a paladin as an atheist.

D&D 4e

The knight was introduced in "Heroes of the Fallen Lands", the first of the two Essentials splatbooks for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. Flavorwise, knights are protection-focused warriors, champions who lead village militias, caravan guards and adventuring parties, favoring the use of heavy armor, hand weapon and shield to endure attacks as hold foes in place as the rest of their party closes in for the kill. Many knights belong to benevolent military orders, and whilst they are not paladins proper, they are still respected for their dedication to good (or at least martial perfection).

Mechanically, the knight is a "simplified" take on the 4e Fighter, this Martial Defender (with some Leader aspects) abandoned the AEDU System to something closer to an old-school fighter. Instead of the traditional front-loaded approach to class-features, the 4e knight gains different features at different levels. Instead of using the martial exploits system, it uses a combination of heroic-tier Utility powers and at-will stances, which modify the effects of its basic attacks. This formula would be reused for the Slayer, introduced in the same book.

A knight's core power is Defender Aura, an at-will utility used to mark foes, which goes in tandem with its Battle Guardian at-will attack to punish marked foes that try to slip past it. Its other level 1 features are Weapon Talent (+1 to your attack rolls with weapons), Shield Finesse as a bonus feat, access to two of the knight stances, and its only Encounter attack, Power Strike. It gains Improved Power Strike (use Power Strike 2/encounter) at level 3, Combat Readiness (+2 Initiative) at level 4, and Weapon Mastery (+1 damage with weapon attacks) at level 5. At level 7 it gains both an extra knight stance and one of the two Weapon Specializations, which adds a rider to its Power Strike attack; Bladed Step for heavy blades and Staggering Hammer for hammers. At level 8, it gains the utility power Shield Block, and at level 9 its Improved Combat Readiness feature boosts its initiative bonus to +4.

At level 11, it gains Stalwart Assault (Add Con bonus to Speed and melee weapon damage rolls in the first turn in an encounter), Stalwart Action (when you spend an action point, gain Resist 10 to all damage until the end of your next turn), and another Improved Power Strike (Power Strike 3/encounter). At level 12, it gains Greater Weapon Specialization, which gives it either the Shielding Blade or Bludgeoning Counterstrike utilities, another Improved Power Strike (4/encounter) at level 13, Paragon Weapon Mastery (+2 to all weapon attack rolls) at level 15, Armor of Conviction (gain Resist 5 to all damage while bloodied) and the Bolstering Strike utility at level 16, another new knight stance at level 17, Devoted Knight (using your second wind or total defense creates an aura 1 until the end of your next turn that grants your allies +2 to all defenses) at level 19, and Tactical Focus (you can slide a target you hit with Power Strike by +1 square) at level 20.

In the epic tier, it gains the Knight's Valor utility power at level 22, the Relentless Knight feature (can spend +1 healing surge when you use second wind) at level 23, Epic Weapon Mastery (+3 to all weapon attack rolls) at level 25, and finally Spirit of War (you can make a save to end an ongoing effect at both the start and end of your turns) at level 29.

It gains a chosen Utility Power at levels 2, 6 and 10.

General opinion is that it's a pretty badly handled class. It's strong at the Heroic Tier, but quickly falls behind the AEDU System classes from epic tier onwards, as its stance-modified basic attacks just don't cut it anymore.

Pathfinder - The Cavalier

Paizo has added traditional knights/men-at-arms to the Pathfinder roleplaying game, as the Cavalier class. They're a lot like Paladins without the magic. They differentiate themselves from the other melee classes in two major important ways: mounts and orders.

D&D 5e

Since knightly orders are a big thing in Forgotten Realms, the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition features two class variants with a knightly theme.

The Banneret (or Purple Dragon Knight, in-universe) is a Fighter martial archetype revolving around the concept of an elite and noble warrior whose skill allows them to inspire others to greatness in battle. It gets a bunch of class features reminiscent of 4e's Warlord, like healing allies when the fighter uses their Second Wind, triggering an ally to attack when you use Action Surge, and the ability to extend Indomitable to your allies.

The Oath of the Crown for Paladins, meanwhile, specifically represents the blur between knight and paladin, with a focus on lawfulness, order, and the sanctity of civilization in contrast to the paladin's general focus on doing good. It has features that let it serve as a mighty champion, and spells that tap into its spiritual authority, mostly enchantments like Command and Geas.

That not enough for you? Not only did we get a Cavalier subclass for the Fighter in the Kits of Old unearthed arcana, November 2016 gave us a full-fledged Knight subclass, which is essentially an even tankier version of the Cavalier. It can mount and dismount for only 5 feet of movement cost, has advantage on saves against falling off, always lands on its feet if it does fall off (providing it's no higher up than 10 feet and isn't incapacitated), has what is essentially the Fighter's Marking ability from 4e, a bonus skill with a "knightly" theme, the ability to make an attack as a reaction to an enemy moving within 5 feet that stops them moving if it hits, the ability to trade combat advantage for a bonus attack, gains a free opportunity attack each round, and gains +1 AC when wearing Heavy Armor.

Warhammer

Warhammer Fantasy

On average most nations in the old world have arrived into the early renaissance and have an understanding of the uses of gunpowder even so knights still exist the knightly orders of Tilea, Estalia, & The Empire have adjusted to this change through combined arms strategies as represented in their use of mercenaries and infantrymen to supplement their ranks. The knightly traditions of the empire along with their mercenary allies take much inspiration from the written word of human military leaders like Myrmidia and Sigmar along with advice from the dwarf ancestors.

Brettonian knights however along with their darker counterparts the Blood knights are still wholly focused on medieval style cavalry charges seeing the methods of warfare used by other nations as dishonorable. The knightly traditions of the brettonians are inspired by their own heroic legends along with the discovery of the depictions of elven knights found in the ruins they settled.

Elven knights whether it be the dark elves nauglir riders, high elven knights of caledor, or the wild riders of the wood elves all heavily use magic to assist them in battle and restrict the membership in their orders through levels of exclusivity that go beyond the traditions of even bretonnians which itself is not strange as the bretonnians knightly culture is based on that of their elven forebears.

Castles & Crusades

Here, the Knight exists primarily as a way for players to play non-divine Paladins, complete with a Charisma focus and a customizable Code of Honor that is flexible enough to allow one to play a chaotic evil dick and still technically be honorable (GM fiat need apply). They receive many bonuses to mounted combat and are actually granted a horse at level 1 free of charge (insert snide section about horses and dungeoneering not mixing well), but the real trick that most players would clue into upon reading their abilities is that they are the game's martial managerial class alongside Bards. Buffs to your party members' ability to hit, AC, and saving throws abound. Moreover, they are lauded by the book as having the distinct advantage of being the class that most readily gains access to land to earn coin from and followers to bravely lead into getting mulched by whatever monster you might try and punch above your weight class with.

At higher levels, they actually start to resemble the knights of myth as they gain increasingly strong buffs to combat as well as being able to command armies and make sure that Bill the Pitcher boy doesn't fail his morale check to charge the ancient red dragon. Eventually knights can become so honorable that they make a fantasy samurai blush, and can crush opponents in 1-on-1 encounters with debuffs and deal extra damage with their swords thanks to their winning smiles. You can even magically skip the years of training required to attain knighthood and transform Bill into a level 1 knight (provided he survived) Finally, the level cap allows one to finally get to do the cool mythic stuff that you'd imagined this class could do from the beginning, and provided that you never back down from a challenge, insult, fight, or shopping spree opportunity, you gain the power to prevent morale breaks, have a + to hit and damage equal to the number of hit die/level difference if said opponent is stronger than you, have a shine in your smile bright enough to intimidate anything of animal or lower intelligence away from you, and to even force a Control Weather spell as a 10th level caster once per month.

See also

• Bretonnia: A nation in Warhammer Fantasy based around these fuckers.
• Samurai: The Eastern version.