Is this an okay DK?

Well...
BACK GROUND COMPLETELY UNKNOWN! He has been a death knight for quite some time, older than Archerus but still able to change rune weapons when needed. He is a Night Elf, though he has no memory of his own past. He remembers how to do things, but not how he learned them, and knows nothing about who he was. The people who resurrected him gave him the name Ruftvess (Basically, I said my OOC name Dhampira in TRP Forsaken), which he has always kept.
He has a weird personality, being happy, yet seemingly with himself, as he doesn't talk to many people, and he finds most unhappy things happy. He finds people incredibly interesting for no apparent reason, and likes to just do things that will spark a reaction, which would amuse him greatly. Every night however, he goes to an area which has no-one but animals in it. Here, he slays the animals to sate his blood lust, then he buries the animals, in case he should ever find himself in some trouble in that area.
He was raised as a Death Knight, but his skills with frost/unholy magic have always surpassed his skills with a blade.

Is this okay? I was a bit nervous about him being happy most of the time (despite the fact he gets happy for the wrong reasons).

Depends just how much of a power fantasy you're going to make this guy, expect to get hate for being a DK regardless. Also, being happy is rather out of fashion with the standard DK demographic... plus amnesia is meh.

Well, I'm gonna alter some stuff due to the comments and feedback I get from this forum, so I may make him remember everything, but be... mad.
Plus, is it okay if he gets happy over blood and gore? or just because he's mad?

Amnesia is meh, but makes sense for what was once a scourge minion.
"Happy DK" has my stamp of approval, there are way too many death knights that are obsessed with being badass and brooding, it'd be nice to see one that's a little more "human".

He's a Night Elf. (A pun on the phrase of "acting human").
Just a note though, brooding DK's are what the Lich King wanted, so it's not bad to play one of those (not saying you said it was bad).

Steven Adams wrote:Well, I'm gonna alter some stuff due to the comments and feedback I get from this forum, so I may make him remember everything, but be... mad.
Plus, is it okay if he gets happy over blood and gore? or just because he's mad?

Depending on the generation I believe it would make sense for a DK to experience a feeling of elation when inflicting pain/spilling blood.

In regards to madness, do this or go home.

The trouble when people make "mad" characters is that they just go for either cartoony or attempt to do Heath Ledgers joker and fail.
Playing "mad" well requires knowing exactly what is wrong with your toon, how they reached it and how believable it is. Just my two cents.
But yeah, as others have said amnesia is a cop out

Hmmm... shall I make his madness make him believe the other Kaldorei are... stupid? Because otherwise he'd be disgusted by himself.

I'd just like this to be said:
Amnesia for the character is quite ok. You as a player should have a clear notion of the character's past even so. Who did he use to be before The Traumatic and Superdramatic Event, how did he behave around people, what did he do for a living, what id he spend his idle hours doing, what kinds of foods and drinks would he make if he truly was to indulge himself, what were his favorite spaces, what times of day did he feel most like himself, when did he feel the safest and what were the things that truly mattered to him?

Then:
What was The Traumatic and Superdramatic Event? What happened? Who were involved? How did your character react to it? What did he feel like? What did he feel like during this event? Why does his mind deny him access to the memories? How has this thing changed him? How would he react if he suddenly remembered?


Or eventually just take him out there, RP him. Feel the character. Live the situations. Avoid giving straight answers to questions about your character that you haven't got straight answers to yet, and figure them our as you go. To know why your character is the way he is, you need to know him, and RP tends to be the best way to figure that out.

Why does he have a Forsaken/Common-translated name? Forsaken language is low-class human language, not "scourge" or "undead." Ruftvess is also a commonly-seen ooc translation, I'd probably change that tbh, to something more night-elfy, or scourgey.

I would also never RP a DK who is also a mage. DKs are overpowered, magi are overpowered. Together it would be ridiculously OP. If you are a night elven mage, you would not have been outside Eldre'thalas for the Lich King events (unless you were even more special; not impossible but incredibly unlikely) so that's pretty much a no-go. Even if you were a mage, the LK would have raised you as a lich or caster, not as a DK--those were generally generic soldiers/warriors. And it's unclear whether DKs still have any sort of mana pool, since their main "energy" comes from shadow, and from their blades' conversion of life force into runic magics stored within the blade.

So I'd change:

1. Make him a regular DK, not a mage.
2. Change his name.

If you do those--the 'happy' thing and the 'killing animals' are then fine and not particularly out of character for a death knight. Amnesia done right is fine; undeath could easily damage the brain and it would explain why a night elf would not kill himself in sentient undeath. Bear in mind that in undeath, emotions--particularly for positive emotions in the Scourge ranks--are muted, so he might not be RIDICULOUSLY happy, just pleasantly amused.

Rather than see it as "madness" think of a mental illness he could have. Research that and play on that.

Just edited, is that okay?

I think it's fine now! Just have a Forsaken have named him (to explain the Gutterspeak name) and you're good to go, imo

Yay! By the way, would DK's be able to use spells like...
Icebolts
Shadowbolts
Mind magic?

In my personal opinion, giving a death Knight character amnesia negates the very core of the character, which is the "my god what have I done / I've become a soulless killing machine". The standard story for Death Knights is one of redemption; they are usually motivated by either guilt if they're introverted, or vengeance when extroverted.

Of course you are free to ignore all that and choose your own path. I just don't see why you would want to.

Icebolts

You got icy touch

That frost aoe blast thing

Shadowbolts

Deathcoil

Mind magic?

Control undead i guess, sort of?

And other stuff.

Another important fact to point out about being a Night Elf Death Knight is the culture behind your race. Night elves has a strong notion towards the balance of nature and views the undead as outside the circle and would rather die then become a death knight or an undead fiend. Usually they slay the undead, even those of their own kind. You should ask yourself a question every death knight or undead out there always asks themselves at some point. "Why am I still alive?"

Also, on the argument that Death Knights can't feel happiness or any emotions at all except anger is a bit over due now, personally if I were to create a death knight I would have the character only feel slight emotions but not show them, thats just me.
After all this time you would think that development would have happened in the Death Knight situation and that they somehow had managed to regain some emotions either through magic or through just willpower.

Last but not least, you chose the class Death Knight, stay Death Knight. Just by being a Death Knight you are the combination of three different classes. Mage, Warrior/Paladin and Necromancer, the combination is the Death Knight who is OP enough as it is, if you want to cast different frost spells from Frost Mage just create things out of your frost runes, you want to fight in Melee you have been created to be a walking death machine in close combat who feels no pain, you need allies you just create them from the dead around you!

Note: Read up on a lot of guides on magic, death knight, night elf lore and culture, and finally make sure to have a constant OOC communication with the one you are fighting, trust me it will save you a lot of trouble.

Steven Adams wrote:Yay! By the way, would DK's be able to use spells like...
Icebolts
Shadowbolts
Mind magic?

I have a dk guide I wrote up for RPers, poke me if you want it and I can PM it. Mind magic, no. "Physical" shadow, frost magic, unholy magic, and blood magic are your magical tools, the latter 3 activated only through runes on your blade (without the runes you cannot use them).

So that means if disarmed, I can only use physical shadow?
*poke*

...What is "physical shadow"?

Like, shadow bolts, shadow tendrils etc. Non-visible shadow is like mind magic and so on.

erwtenpeller wrote:...What is "physical shadow"?

don't be obtuse; its the place where less light is, because its blocked by the big lump of flesh that is a DK. Obviously.

The lads got a point. Though what Ertwen meant was "What is "physical shadow magic"?"

A Death Knight can't cast any (Death Knight) magic without a rune-blade. If you want to slither dark purple tentacles up someone's skirt, roll a warlock or a priest!

erwtenpeller wrote:A Death Knight can't cast any (Death Knight) magic without a rune-blade. If you want to slither dark purple tentacles up someone's skirt, roll a warlock or a priest!

Pfft.

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