Death Knight (Unbound)

An unbound Death Knight is often the result of a necromancer trying and failing to reanimate and bind a mortal warrior with an unyielding will. Or in some rarer instances, the result of a secret ritual known only to a very few. These Death Knights aren't bound to another being or to an oath they made but are free. Those who become Death Knights enter into a unique state of being; they are both living and undead constantly shifting between the two. When they are living, they experience the world like any other living creature. But when they are undead, they lose their sense of smell and taste, all colors appear as if a bit faded, and gray and their bodies become numb. They can sense when, for example, they hold something, but only sense that something is being held, not its texture nor the strength that they are using. When it comes to the baser needs like food, water, and sleep as undead, they don't need them, but if they stay in their undead form for too long, when they become living again, they will suffer from starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion. They can't die from old age, but anything else can kill them, including neglecting their needs, but this form of immortality has its drawbacks because most Death Knights slowly go insane as the centuries pile on. As far as appearance goes, when living, they have their regular appearance, but when undead: The skin becomes pale white. The hair, if it's a lighter color when living, becomes pure white or, if it's a darker color when living, it becomes pitch black. The sclera either becomes bloodshot or pitch black, and the iris either becomes a mixture of their current eye color and red, or they become heterochromatic with one being red. An interesting part of the existence of a Death Knight is that his word is binding, if a Death Knight gives his word that he will do something, he will do it even if it's the death of him several times over because if they break their word, they will die. This includes the chaotic Death Knights, but they rarely, if ever, give their word or they do in such a way as to be able to do it their way. They can't be of any neutral alignment. That is because it requires a more polarized alignment to become your being and not someone else's puppet. 

Examples: 

Lawful Good: These are most often people with an unwavering conviction for justice, believing that they must uphold what is right alive or dead. There are those. However, that resent their fate seeing it as a curse from the Gods. These people are often those that led a good life following the law in hopes of a nice afterlife. They are usually antisocial and keep to themselves, but will act when innocent people are threatened. Their resentment can grow into hatred, and they can become lawful evil.

"Alive or dead, I must do what is right." "

What did I do, that the Gods have punished me? Maybe if I do enough good, this curse will be lifted." 

Lawful Evil: These Death Knights often lose their memories and become an instrument of death with one goal - to kill all that is living. They are pragmatic and don't take any joy in people's suffering if they have a choice between killing someone or causing them suffering 10/10 times they will choose to kill.

"I don't care what you say, you are alive, and I must kill all that lives."

"The Gods have cursed and forsaken me. Now all will know death."

Chaotic Good: Most often, people with an insatiable lust for life. They are very sociable and altruistic, caring little for themselves and material possessions. But they are often prideful and reckless, charging ahead without thinking and having a hard time asking for help. Their main objective is to make people happy, to forget their worries, and live to the fullest even if it's for one day. They indulge in carnal pleasures. Overindulgence can lead to them becoming chaotic evil.

"Who cares about me? I certainly don't!"

"Live life to its fullest, my friend, for I have seen and know what death is."

Chaotic Evil: Driven by a fierce desire to experience all carnal pleasures, the more taboo, the better. They also care very little for material possessions, not because they are altruistic but because they can't bring them any carnal pleasures. A chaotic evil Death Knight might throw a large bag of gold to beggars to incite a riot. They revel in causing suffering and watching as hope drains from the eyes of their victims. Most of them claim that when a Death Knight is closest to death, that is when they get a rush like no other, so some of them constantly chase it fighting and killing anything that moves.

"It's been a while since I was stabbed through the heart. AHHH, WHAT A RUSH!"

"You want to know why I tortured them, why I killed them, why I desecrated their corpses? Simple, it felt good! Just like it's gonna feel good when I bathe in your blood."

Death's Embrace

At lv3 you gain Death's Embrace: You attain a new state of being, you are both living and undead, existing in a state of flux between the two. As a living creature, you gain immunity to holy spells and 50% resistance to necrotic and poison damage. As an undead you gain immunity to necrotic and poison damage but take x2 damage from radiant damage, holy spells, and silver weapons, you suffer a -5 on any perception check that relies on taste, touch and smell, you also don't require air, food, water or sleep. To determine whether you are living or undead for a certain interaction or effect, roll a d6: On a roll of 1 or 6, you are treated as living and on a roll of 2,3,4 or 5 you are treated as undead. You gain immunity to having your soul/life energy drained, any creature that tries, takes your "Reaping Strike" necrotic damage bonus as damage, ignoring damage resistances. You can't astral project and if you die, you are treated as having your soul drained. When your HP drops to 0 you die, you don't make any saving throws. Your "Second Wind" ability is replaced by "Share My Fate". You can also cast "Glyph" spells.

Share My Fate

At lv3 you gain Share My Fate: You can inflict damage to one opponent equal to the total damage you have taken up until that point, including being resurrected and healed, or half that damage, distributed equally, to two opponents. You must make physical contact with the target(s) with your hand(s), the hand(s) you are using must not be covered by anything. The target must make a CON saving throw, if it is successful it takes no damage. After it is used or you have taken a short/long rest the damage resets to 0.  You can use this ability once per short or long rest. Starting at lv13 your target doesn't make a CON saving throw it just takes damage.

e.g. If you've taken 10 points of damage total you can either inflict 10 points of damage to a single opponent or 5 damage each to two opponents.

Reaping Strike

At lv3 you gain Reaping Strike: Your melee attacks are imbued with necrotic energy, dealing even greater damage to your opponents. You also regain HP equal to the necrotic damage you deal with your melee attacks, it can't exceed your max HP. But you can't regain HP by conventional ways; holy healing spells, potions or other magic. Long rests do heal you, but only at half the normal rate. For every level, you gain +1 dice of necrotic damage. You start with a d4, at level 7 you're dice become d6, and at level 13 d8.

e.g. If you're at lv4 you get a 4d4 necrotic damage bonus to melee attacks. At lv1 - 1d4, lv8 - 8d6, at lv11 - 11d6, at lv15 - 15d8 etc.

Weakened Rise

At lv3 you gain Weakened Rise: Once per day if you die, regardless of how or the state of your corpse, you can revive yourself with 1 HP and a temporarily (1d4 rounds or 1d4 hours) reduced movement speed, speed is reduced by 10ft.

Glyph Spells

As a Death Knight you can only cast "Glyph Spells", they use your CHA stat for casting. Glyph Spells require a physical medium to be cast and depending on the material of the medium they either get a bonus or a penalty. To craft a spell glyph you need to paint, carve or chisel the glyph you want to cast onto the medium you are using. The medium is consumed after casting.

Materials: Paper -2lv, wood -1lv, stone +-0, iron, steel, gold or any other common metal +1lv, obsidian, and rare metals +2lv and bones from a powerful magic creature (unicorns, liches, dragons, etc.) +3lv.

Number of glyphs: At lv3 you get 3 glyphs and you gain 1additional glyph for every martial archetype feature in "Death Knight". If you die and resurrect yourself the number is reset.

Necrotic Blast: Starting at lv3 you can cast this spell. At a range of double your movement speed blast an opponent with necrotic damage equal to the current necrotic damage bonus from "Reaping Strike" + the material modifier.

e.g. At lv3, you cast the spell with stone as the material the damage would be 3d4, if the material is paper 1d4 and if the material is obsidian 5d4. 

Take The Pain Away: You can cast this spell using only stone as the material. You target one ally that has taken damage, you take damage equal to the difference between their current HP and their max HP and they gain HP equal to the damage you took, you also transfer any curse the target had upon yourself. This spell can kill the caster.

Attract Death: Whenever an opponent makes an attack: melee, ranged or magic you can expend one of your glyphs and redirect the attack to yourself, if it is cast on a creature with multiple attacks you become the target for all of them. The material determines whether you take more damage or less. Paper - take double damage, wood - you are stunned for 1 round, common metals - get a retaliation attack, obsidian, and rare metals - stun the opponent for a round, and magic bones - take 1/3 damage.

Necrotic Overflow

At lv7 you gain Necrotic Overflow: For every 10 points of HP, you have lost add 1 additional dice to your "Reaping Strike" ability. At max HP you don't gain this bonus. If your HP is below 50% then 1 random adjacent tile gets covered in necrotic energy dealing 3d6 necrotic damage, it remains 1d6 + 1 turns, this occurs every turn you are below 50% HP. If you have "Necrotic Overflow" active you ignore 50% of your target's necrotic resistance/immunity.

Death Breath

At lv7 you gian Death Breath: A breath weapon whit a reach of 60ft. in a straight line, dealing necrotic damage equal to your current "Reaping Strike" damage bonus. It can be used as a bonus action. At lv7 it can be used once per long rest, at lv14 twice per long rest and at lv20 three times per long rest. This ability is unaffected by antimagic fields.

Necrotic Bleed

At lv7 you gain Necrotic Bleed: If you are caught in an antimagic field you start to take 1 damage per round and every round two adjacent tiles to you or to ones covered with necrotic energy get covered in a thick necrotic fog dealing double your current "Reaping Strike" damage bonus. If you die inside an antimagic field you can't be resurrected except by a wish spell. If you die in an antimagic field you explode in a 20x20ft. area dealing double your current "Reaping Strike" damage bonus, as well as spreading necrotic energy to adjacent tiles.

Rise

At lv10 you gain Rise: You to can revive yourself to half HP when you die, even if your body is disintegrated, dismembered or turned into goo, your body reconstitutes itself, the only exception being dying in an antimagic field. This ability can be used once per long rest.

Necrotic Rot

At lv10 you gain Necrotic Rot: When you deal necrotic damage to a creature with regeneration, it must make a CON saving throw or have its regeneration negated. At lv18 the creature doesn't make a saving throw but has its regeneration negated.

Defying Doom

At lv10 you gain Defying Doom: If you are afflicted by a curse and you die and resurrect yourself the curse is lifted. If a curse would transform you into something else when you meet the conditions for the transformation you die instead. In addition, if you would be transformed by something other than a curse you can take 20 damage and resist the transformation.

Rising Vengeance

At lv15 you gain Rising Vengeance: When an enemy kills you, you can revive yourself to full HP and make a melee attack against the target if it is within your movement range gaining a +10 to hit. If however, the target is outside your movement range you can do one of two things 1) drop your HP to 1 and lunge at the target ignoring distance and terrain, if you hit you deal double your current "Reaping Strike" damage bonus, regardless of wheater you hit your target or not, you are stunned until your next turn and enemies get advantage on attacks against you. 2) your enemies gain disadvantages on all ranged and spell attacks made against you, until your next turn. If you die by other means - self-inflicted, damaged by an ally, terrain hazards, etc. you gain half your movement speed rounded down to your current movement speed until your next turn. You can use this ability once per long rest.

Unyielding Spirit

At lv15 you gain Unyielding Spirit: You gain +2 to CHA, max 20. You can no longer be charmed, frightened or mind-controlled, if a creature attempts to enter your mind you can reduce your HP by 30 to resist it. When a lv7 or higher spell is cast against you, you can make the caster take your current "Reaping Strike" damage bonus as damage and if it reduces their HP to half or bellow half the spell fails if it doesn't your HP is reduced to 1.

Necrotic Infusion

At lv15 you gain Necrotic Infusion: Gain the effects of "Necrotic Bleed" without permanently dying. You can control where the necrotic fog appears, also you can choose whether you spread necrotic energy, when below 50% HP, or not. When you die the explosion range is increased to 30x30ft. If you are undead you can activate this ability as a bonus action. This ability can be used once per short rest.

Death's Gift

At lv18 you gain Death's Gift:  If your AC is =<15 you add half of your max HP rounded down to your max HP and use that as your new HP you also gain the ability to force yourself to be treated as living for a certain ability once per day, you lose this bonus if your AC becomes 16 or higher. If your AC is =>16 you gain 5 additional glyphs and when you kill an enemy with a ranged necrotic attack, reanimate it as an equivalent undead under your control for 2d6 + 2 rounds, also gain the ability to force yourself to be treated as undead for a certain ability once per day, you lose this ability if your AC falls below 16.

Deathbringer

At lv18 you gain Deathbringer: A powerful chain attack ability with effects based on your current form - living or undead. You gain these effects regardless of your state: critical hits instantly kill the target, for every target killed you gain one action that can only be used to move and attack, if you make more than two attacks on the same target the chain ends, if you use a bonus action except "Death Breath" the chain ends, if you cast a glyph the chain ends and if you miss the chain ends, the chain doesn't end if you die and resurrect yourself. On a roll of 1, you can make both you and your target take double your current attacks max damage. When the chain ends you become incapacitated for 1d6 + 1 rounds. If "Necrotic Infusion" hasn't been activated, automatically activate it, without spending an action. If you're undead - you also deal criticals on a roll of 19 and the range of your death explosion increases to 40x40ft. If you are living you also score criticals on a roll of 16,17,18 and 19 but you take damage equal to the necrotic damage you inflicted after "Reaping Strike's" healing effect, on a critical strike you take double the necrotic damage bonus as damage, this effect can kill you. Also, apply your necrotic resistance to damage taken.