Beholden Knight

It takes a great amount of willpower and patience to deal with the ramblings of a second, amoral voice in ones mind, but to have their whispers constantly brushing your ears during every waking moment is an unthinkable torture. However, for Beholden Knights, this is a small price to pay for great power. Beholden Knights share magical pacts with smaller, unique beings like Dragon Whelps or Beholder Eyes. They are willing to lend their power to a worthy candidate to their magic, in exchange for shaving a few years off of their Knight’s life to exponentially increase their own.

Eye/Dragon of Domination

Beholder's Eye. A singular floating eye of a Beholder has formed a pact with you. It shares a typical Beholder's distaste for mere mortals, but isn't very strong by itself. Beholder Eyes cannot exist inside water. If it is splashed with an amount of water equivalent to a large bucket, it will dissipate immediately. However, all features that use your hit dice increase to 1d12, though your actual hit points don’t change. It also can utilize force as its elemental affinity. It gains proficiency in Perception.

Dragon Whelp. You've forged a pact with a small dragon. It's a child in size, but is somehow far more intelligent and mature than most dragons of its age. Its element and demeanor is all dependent on its color and type. They are greedy and coin-hungry, but their nature and small appearance allows them to easily move about, even in crowded environments. Whelps gain proficiency in Sleight of Hand and an extra 10 feet of movement.

As a free action, you may burn one of your hit dice to summon your Beholden. It lasts for up to a minute, and is considered a small creature that can occupy your own space freely, and it shares your initiative. The Beholden can also be targeted during combat. Its stats mirror your own, but its health is equal to your largest hit die + your cumulative level x 2, and its AC is equal to 8 + CON + PB. It does not gain bonuses to skills from its stats. It has 30 feet of flying speed, and adds your proficiency bonus to Charisma and Wisdom saving throws.

Acting as an extension of yourself, the Beholden may grapple other creatures and interact with objects. However, it cannot use magical items.

Aspected Ire

At third level, you may use your bonus action to command your Beholden to take one of these actions.

Cursed Blessing: Your Beholden acts as a medium, infusing a creature with some of your own vital force.

Distraction: Your Beholden flies forward to catch an opponent off guard.

Radiate Energy: Your Beholden blasts a creature with elemental energy.

Cross Surge

At 7th level, you gain access to the following abilities.

You may view the world through your Beholden’s eyes and ears, gaining their senses but losing your own.

Your Beholden gains your proficiency bonus to Shove, Grapple, and Escape rolls while within 30 feet of you, and can do any of those as a bonus action. If a hostile creature moves out of the Beholden's reach, you may use your reaction to Radiate Energy as an attack of opportunity.

You also gain two hit dice at the start of combat, but you cannot have an amount that exceeds your level.

Sacrificial Pact

At 10th level, as an action, you may merge with your Beholden for one minute. They are removed from combat, and features that require them to be summoned may instead be used from your location.

Upon merging with them, you regain one hit die, and heal yourself for any hit dice used to command it in the past 30 seconds, though you don’t regain those as hit dice. For the next minute, you ignore any magical effects that increase the AC of creatures you target for attacks. This includes the Shield Spell, Shield of Faith, and cover granted by magical effects. During this duration, you also add your proficiency bonus to any damage rolls you make, except for those made as bonus actions.

After this feature is used, you may not summon the Beholden until your next short rest.

Recourse

At 15th level, the Beholden gains new abilities.

When you or your Beholden is hit, as a reaction, you may Radiate Energy at the attacker.

When an allied creature within 30 feet of you or the Eye is incapacitated, as a reaction, you may burn 3 hit dice to heal them for an amount equal to your CON modifier.

Now, if you had less than half of your hit dice remaining at the start of combat, you gain back 4 of them instead of 2.

Final Pact

At 18th level, when you are about to be killed (not incapacitated, killed), you may burn any amount of your hit dice to revive yourself with health equal to however many hit dice you rolled, as well as clearing all death saving throws.

However, when you do, you have 30 seconds (5 rounds) to incapacitate a creature with a weapon attack, or land 5 weapon attacks, in order to siphon life energy from them. If you fail to meet one of the two conditions, the Beholden devours your soul and life energies before fleeing, which kills you, and prevents you from resurrecting through spells like Revivify, Resurrection, or even True Resurrection,  unless it is found and convinced to return your soul. Healing does not cure this condition.

If you manage to meet either condition, you live, but you may not use Final Pact again for 1d4 months.