The Shadow Knight is considered by many as the opposite to a Paladin, while in some ways this is true, on Norrath they aren't the traditional evil Black Knight to the Good White Knight. The races that are capable of producing Shadow Knights are not all innately evil, even Gnomes are known to become them and the Humans have a great many. In a similar fashion to a Paladin, Shadow Knights have to be dedicated to their deity, whether this dedication is because of a desire to serve or to gain in power and wealth is debatable. What is true for certain is none of the deities Shadow Knights follow could be thought of as good and will usually be classed as evil.
Shadow Knights have many of the skills and undertake similar training to that of a Warrior, complemented with an impressive spell casting ability in Necromantic magic. They are one of most respected and feared professions and as individuals are formidable opponents, even inexperienced Shadow Knights have completed tough and painful tasks, proving their worth enough to be trained. The Iksar especially give difficult tasks to their young apprentices, many of whom will never make it beyond their apprentice status. They are taught to fight without fear or mercy and not to question their masters, at least not until they can defeat them and give commands of their own.
Shadow Knights have no qualms about their method of defeating an opponent, including leaching their health and strength to enhance their own. Among the dark spells available to them, Shadow Knights can cause an enemy to run in fear and slow their movement, catching up and striking them repeatedly where their armour is most vulnerable. This isn't to say Shadow Knights avoid direct combat as they are very powerful duellists, often using weapons of a cruel and damaging shape (and resulting effect). They are among the most dangerous enemies that an adventurer could encounter and as an ally need to be respected and dealt with carefully; Shadow Knights have a reputation for being easy to annoy, quick to anger and not always making their distaste known until it may be fatal for the those responsible.
Shadow Knight Races Dark Elf, Drakkin, Erudite, Gnome, Human, Iksar, Ogre, Troll
Stats[]
Shadow Knights are more Warrior than they are spell caster, and because of this need to be strong enough to do heavy damage and tough enough to take it. Strength is important but stamina is often more so, the ability to do damage is only secondary as Shadow Knights are often first to be called upon to stand between the enemy and the rest of the party.
The spell casting ability of a Shadow Knight relies on intelligence, it determines their mana pool and as such how long their spell casting can continue before they need to rest to regain mana. Because Shadow Knights are often doing the fighting in combat they won't have time to sit and meditate so a high intelligence can prevent them running out of mana during encounters, or at least allow them a little longer before running dry