Grief Knight

Preface:

'An older woman, agarb in rusted chain mail dappled and smeared in blood; a mix of her own and her foes. She stands over her foe, staring the man who killed her son in the eyes, ensuring that he sees the pain of the loss of her child in her eyes. Her axe comes down, burying itself in the man's skull, letting go of the handle as the man's body went limp. She panted heavily as time stretched onward, before breaking down in a pile of tears, finally releasing the pent up melancholy. Her job was done. Her sons killer lay dead, her son avenged. He could now rest in peace, and for that, the woman could end her duty as a Grief Knight.' 

'A young soldier dresses in the half-plate garb of the army in which he served sits quietly in a field scattered with the bodies of dead gnolls, his sword plunged into the ground in front of him. He cried no tears, as he had none left to shed, merely reflecting on the laughs of his dear friend, of whom he admired. His thoughts forcibly steered him back to the memory of seeing his friend, a fellow soldier, being tackled by several gnolls, who plunged wicked, rusted daggers into him so many times, making him unrecognizable. And as the Grief Knight reflects, he remembers why he does what he does; slaying these monstrosities in the name of his friend, and to prevent others from a similar fate.' 

Grief Knights;

Grief Knights are not the sort one wants to mess with; They are very powerful, and have nothing to lose. Their attacks are viscous and unyielding, if that foe deserves a death, a Grief Knights is willing to deliver it. Their power comes from their Grief, so to speak. It gives them little to lose, a purpose for fighting, and the determination to fight to the bitter end. And in that, Grief Knights are a respected sort of feared, others can see their pain in their eyes. 

Playing a Grief Knight;

Grief Knights can be played a variety of ways, the most obvious being a quieter sort who has an intense aura of melancholy. Although this is the obviously most fitting associated personality, Grief Knights can be played any number of ways, whether that's a quiet sort of kind, an angrier more serious type, loud and boisterous because they see life as being far to short for what they've seen. But, however one wishes to play their Grief Knight, the core of this character is likely the trauma and tragedy that incurred the character to become a Grief Knight. 

Inspiration;

This subclass is a reference to Matt's character in the graphic novels series, "DIE," by Gillen Hans Cowles. Matt's character has experienced heavy loss, and uses it for battle. I will refrain from going into further detail about Matt and the character's association, as to evade potential spoilers. I heavily recommend the series for anyone who loves comics, graphic novels, fantasy, and table top role playing games in general. 

Authors note: This is my first homebrew subclass using D&DBeyond, and naturally I had to do a lot of troubleshooting to get as close as the desired end product as I wanted. Obviously there are some bugs with what works as a feature and what doesn't, but I recommend getting around this by checking the details of the subclass features often and trying to keep track of them when they come up. Going to try to refine my abilities in the future, but I was really inspire by, "Die,"  to finally create a homebrew subclass, and as aforementioned I had my difficulties. Please enjoy my poorly done creation, hopefully it can provide some spice to your characters who have a rather unhealthy amount of trauma.

Arcane Grief

Emotions or grief you felt or feel are strong enough that they've granted you some arcane power. This arcane power comes in the form of Vicious Mockery, Minor Illusion, and True Strike, which you can cast at will per the cantrip. Your spell casting modifier is Con + Prof and your spell save DC is 8 + Prof + Con.

Grief Blade

At 3rd level, you learn a ritual that creates a magical bond between yourself and one weapon, this weapon being your Grief Blade, which can be any weapon type of your choosing if you're proficient with it. You perform the ritual over the course of 1 hour, which can be done during a short rest. The weapon must be within your reach throughout the ritual, at the conclusion of which you touch the weapon and forge the bond. Your grief blade does some extra damage equal to your CON mod + other damage dealt with your Grief Blade. 

Once you have bonded a weapon to yourself, you can’t be disarmed of that weapon unless you are incapacitated. If it is on the same plane of existence, you can summon that weapon as a bonus action on your turn, causing it to teleport instantly to your hand.

You can have a single bonded weapon, and can summon it with your bonus action. If you attempt to bond with a second weapon, you must break the bond with one of the other two.

Woe Strike

Beginning at 7th level, when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can make one weapon attack with your Grief Blade as a bonus action.

Sorrow Charge

At 10th level, you learn how imbue your attacks with your Grief Blade with your own grief or aura, causing your enemies to be distracted by the sensation of that feeling when hit. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack made with your Grief Blade, that creature has disadvantage on the next saving throw or attack it makes, and takes an extra 2d6 of psychic damage on a natural 19 or 20.

Mutual Sorrow

Using the highest intensity of your emotions, you can force a creature to experience those same emotions you feel or once felt. You have four charges to use your spell attack modifier to touch the creature (must be within 5ft) and make them suffer the ferocity of the emotions you feel or once felt, dealing 3d6 psychic damage. The target creature must be capable of feeling emotions or have an intelligence of 5 or higher in order for this ability to have an effect. 

Improved Woe Strike

Starting at 18th level, you can channel the arcane power sourced from yourself to move a bit more quickly when you use your Grief Blade in taking the attack action. Before you make your attacks, you can use your bonus action to cast a cantrip, then take the attack action with your Grief Blade.