Knight Moves

I loved the knight background from the previous iterations of the D&D Next playtest. Any fighter or cleric or paladin that I created was likely to be a knight. However, this background has been removed from the current materials. Now the knight is a sub-class of the fighter, and it seems to be emulating the 4e fighter's defender mechanics (i.e., disincentivizing enemies from attacking the fighter's adjacent allies). Although I prefer the new gladiator build to the knight, I really dig the knight's Level 19 benefit, which is called Coterie of Knights. This benefit allows the character to establish a knightly order (complete with heraldry and a code of conduct!) and provides up to 10 fifth-level knights as henchmen. Very cool!