The Undead King

Your patron is the King of an isolated kingdom of the undead, and holds true mastery over death. His motivations might be spreading his influence, establishing strongholds or footholds in new territory, waging war, rebuilding their fallen empire, protecting their realm from outside forces, discovering what is happening in the world outside their kingdom, making allies, or something else entirely. By entering into a pact with the Undead King, you vow to become one of his Death Knights, to answer his call when needed, and to serve in his army, forever. The Undead King takes great pride in Death Knights who serve loyally and who prove themselves worthy by accomplishing great feats. 

Those bearing the mantle of Undead King may be of any alignment, and have goals, motivations, and back stories to match. They may be a Lawful Good ruler, rebuilding their fallen empire with the tools granted to him by whatever curse destroyed it. They may be a Chaotic Evil tyrant who rules over mindless undead with a similar vision for the lands currently outside his dominion. Whatever the case, the Undead King is a master of Necromancy and the Undead, and will use those tools to carry out their goals.

By forming a pact with the Undead King, you will be trained in the arts of necromancy, rune magic, heavy armor, and martial weapons, becoming a Death Knight in their service.

This subclass relies on the homebrew spells Reanimate Dead and Manifest Dead, which are reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 versions of Animate Dead and Create Undead, and should replace any references to those two Fifth Edition spells.

Expanded Spell List

1st-level Undead King feature

The Undead King lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Undead King Expanded Spells

Spell Level	Spells
1st	bane, detect magic
2nd	blindness/deafness, spiritual weapon
3rd	stinking cloud, speak with dead
4th	death ward, greater invisibility
5th	wall of force, cloudkill

Death Knight

1st-level Undead King feature

At 1st level, you acquire the training necessary to effectively arm yourself for battle. You gain proficiency with heavy armor, shields, and martial weapons.

The influence of your patron also allows you to exert your will over a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with that lacks the two handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with 

Undead Hex

1st level Undead King feature

Your patron has gifted you with the power to mark your opponents with their ire, granting the Undead Hex ability.

As a Bonus Action, you place a curse on a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you for one minute. Until the spell ends, you deal necrotic damage equal to your proficiency bonus to the target whenever you hit it with a melee attack, healing yourself and one undead you choose within 10 feet of the target for an amount equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action to curse a new creature.

You can use this ability once per short rest.

Marshal the Undead

6th-level Undead King feature

You have learned how to better wield Death magic, gaining the following benefits:

• All undead under your control gain 1 HP per Hit Die of the creature for every 2 levels of Warlock. For example, a skeleton summoned by a 10th level Warlock would get 10 additional hit points, 5 per Hit Die of the creature.
• zombies created through Reanimate Dead only count as 2 HD creatures for the purposes of control limits for the spell's rules.
• All undead under your control add half your Proficiency Bonus to Attack rolls, rounded down.
• You can target an additional corpse when casting animate dead.

 

Ravenous Undead

10th level Undead King feature

Your undead minions become ravenous, gaining the following benefits.

Vigor Mortis. Use a bonus action to take the dash action toward the target of your Undead Hex. This can only be used if it is followed by an attack action against that target where at least one melee attack roll is made on the same turn, or could have been made barring any intervening actions by its enemies. In addition, any zombie under your control gains a persistent bonus to their movement speed of 10 ft.

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the undead to 0 hit points, it must make a constitution saving throw. The DC is 5 + half the damage taken. On a success, the undead drops to 1 hit point instead. This feature replaces any similar features the creature might have.

In addition, you can focus your castings of Reanimate Dead to create empowered skeletons and zombies. This spell requires four medium corpses or one large corpse to cast, all of which must be within range of Reanimate Dead. Use the stat block for the ogre zombie for zombies and the minotaur skeleton for skeletons. When creating an empowered skeleton, you can choose to swap the Strength and Dexterity scores of the minotaur skeleton. These empowered minions gain the Multiattack feature, attacking twice per attack action and their CR is 5 for the purposes of Turn Undead, but do not gain any other special actions or abilities, such as the minotaur skeleton's Charge or Gore. Any feats or features that specifically effect a zombie and skeleton, or undead in general, also effect these empowered undead. Empowered Zombies use their total HD when determining control per the Reanimate Dead spell rules.

Death Gate

10th-level Undead King feature

Your patron has given you the ability to travel by way of their Teleportation Circles.

As you cast the spell, you draw a 10-foot-diameter circle on the ground inscribed with sigils that link your location to the location of your patron’s permanent teleportation circle. A shimmering portal opens within the circle you drew and remains open for one minute or until closed at will by you. Any creature that enters the portal instantly appears within 5 feet of the destination circle or in the nearest unoccupied space if that space is occupied.

This ability can be used to travel to other teleportation circles that include your patron’s specific rune in their sigil sequence--a string of magical runes arranged in a unique pattern once you have discovered them, or the last place the ability was used from.

The gate cannot be used again until the death knight finishes a short or long rest.

Lord of the Dead

14th-level Undead King feature

Your patron names you among his most powerful servants. They call upon you to visit them in their domain, that they might bestow upon you their blessing and promote you to the rank of Death Lord. Upon completion of this visit, you are transformed into a state somewhere between life and death. Consult with your DM on how you wish to roleplay this change. Discuss the effect the transition has on your appearance - perhaps you become younger, take on a deathly pallor, or your eyes glow with the power of the Undead Kings magic. 

The transition grants the benefits below, in addition to whatever mechanical or thematic changes you and your DM discuss.

• You no longer need sleep and can gain the benefits of a Long Rest by spending four hours doing light activity.
• You no longer age and cannot be magically aged.
• You cannot be Poisoned and gain immunity to poison damage.
• You gain resistance to Necrotic damage.
• Allied undead within 30 feet of you gain Turn Resistance, granting advantage on Turn Undead saving throws.

In addition, you gain access to more powerful undead servants, as befits your ascension to Lord of the Dead. When casting Manifest Dead through the Mystic Arcanum feature, it can raise more powerful creatures as if being cast as a 7th, 8th or 9th level spell. You can only upcast it in this fashion when you unlock the corresponding Mystic Arcanum levels and doing so consumes your use of that Arcanum until you finish a long rest. For example, you cannot create a Wight until you unlock your 8th level Mystic Arcanum.