Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as The Dark Knight

Holy Character Build Guides! Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted do what defines them and create a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons character who is vengeance and the night. The Dark Knight strikes fear into the hearts of the superstitious and cowardly lot of 5E D&D villains and monsters. We’ve D&D-ized quite a lot of fictional characters and items including a certain beloved mutant. Newer character options since then created an opportunity to revisit this concept. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — The Dark Knight

Every CBG we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with The Dark Knight here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to The Dark Knight’s exceptional prowess in a number of disciplines. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too (case in point). At every step of the way we considered options for expanding the scope of what they bring to the never-ending war on evil.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — The Dark Knight solidly represents the Caped Crusader by 7th level. Fictional characters like the inspiration for this one boast very long histories with no shortage of legendary accomplishments. From this point the journey to 20th level reflects the source material’s wide range of skills and development.

Reflecting any established fictional characters in 5E D&D terms requires some flexibility in your imagination. For one thing many of these kinds of characters like the inspiration for this one come with years and often decades of material to draw on. It’s important to keep in mind how playing these characters reflects their journey from the earliest adventures. Given enough time and experience they’ll be relatively comparable. Another thing to consider related to these large bodies of source material is the variety of interpretations for a character.

My favorite aspect of the Dark Knight CBG is the background choice. I’ve always dug the dichotomy of Bruce Wayne and Batman and how the former acts as the disguise for the latter. In a 5E D&D campaign the idea of a character who presents themselves as shallow and ineffectual while possessing extraordinary skills and abilities sounds fun to roleplay. Whether I’m running a game or playing in one I like to make the background features meaningful and a scenario where this character navigates bureaucracy in their mundane persona sounds like a lot of fun.

Dark Knight NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

After all these years creating content through Nerdarchy I must admit creating creatures is my favorite thing to do the same way Nerdarchist Ted loves making magic items. Hopefully what I put together is fun and useful for DMs out there. The majority of the 60+ creatures in our CBG collection were created by me and it’s fun looking back to see the progression. Early on these NPCs were basically straight up ports of the PC versions but we’ve since gotten much broader with the interpretations.

The Dark Knight was tricky for a couple of reasons. I wanted to make a higher challenge rating creature to reflect versatility and effectiveness but didn’t want to try and bake in the source for a lot of this utility the player character receives via their artificer levels. Coming up with a reasonable justification for what’s basically a normal human as such a high CR creature always presents a challenge. This is especially the case because I strive to avoid stat blocks with lots of features and traits for DMs to manage.

The solution I came up with reflects another aspect of Batman’s methods — extreme preparation. Essentially the Dark Knight NPC has a mobile lair with the idea being when they make their presence known to potential adversaries they’ve already prepared the area for danger. Instead of a lair action one of the Dark Knight’s actions allows them to activate one of their gimmick traps, which they can use in place of an Unarmed Strike if it’s available. I like how it turned out because I imagine this NPC needs to activate a trap on their own rather than something simply happening between turns in a round. The Dark Knight NPC is also a Legendary creature and longtime CBG fans might notice a freshening up of the stat block to reflect recent official changes, which distinguishes bonus actions for easier use.

Always Prepared. Against otherwise insurmountable odds a Dark Knight’s almost supernatural forethought gives them an edge. By studying and understanding their adversaries a Dark Knight can prepare for just about any scenario. When a Dark Knight emerges from the shadows to confront whatever threatens the region they’ve sworn to protect it’s not without careful planning. Environmental hazards, traps and specialized magical trinkets elevate these otherwise mundane humans to something much greater — a symbol of justice.

“Right Where I Want You (Recharge 5-6). The dark knight activates a Proximity Gadget (see sidebar) targeting a creature it can see within 10 feet (including itself).”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a versatile problem solver prepared for just about anything — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out The Dark Knight Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — A fantasy hero acts as self-appointed protector of the fantasy city she calls home on the cover of The Dark Knight Character Build Guide. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]

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