Death Knight

Once a unique warrior of your kind, you were valorous in your own way. After some unfortunate event, you lost your life. Insted of dying and disapearing, your soul was brought up back to life by an entity who ruled over death. A demon, a god, or any other powerful being that saw potential in you. Your benefactor gives you power over his domain, using your fear and hate to fuel the unholy powers of death. You are now his instrument of destruction.  Once again you walk amongst the living, knowing deep inside that you are no longer one of them.

Unholy Actions

When you reach the 3rd level, you are able to wield the power of Death. You gain a pool of four Death Points. You can spend one Death Point to perform a single Unholy Action. The kind of action it requires to execute is described below.  Each Unholy Action can enchance your attacks or provide you benefits in some way. You regain your Death Points after a short or long rest. Additionally, if a creature dies to any necrotic damage you do, you restore one Death point, at a maximum of four.

 Some Unholy Actions requires the target to make a saving throw to resist it's effects. This saving throw DC is calculated as described below:

Save DC = 8 + Strength modifier + Proficiency bonus

You can only use an Unholy action if you are wielding your Infused Weapon. Also, you can only use one Unholy action per turn. Once you reach the 10th level, you are able to use two Unholy Actions per turn.

You learn two Unholy Actions from the list below. You learn one additional Unholy Action of your choice  at the 7th, 10th, and 15th levels. Each time you learn a new Unholy Action, you can also replace one Unholy Action you know with a different one.

Infused Weapon

You are able to infuse your weapon with the power of death. At the 3rd level, you gain the ability to imbue your essence into a single two-handed weapon of your choice.  You must spend one hour bonding with the weapon, which can be done during a short rest. Once bounded, you can dismiss the weapon as a free action. It gets stored into an extradimensional space. As a bonus action, you can summon the weapon, causing it to teleport intantly to your hands. You can't be disarmed by holding this weapon unless you are incapacitated.

You can only have a single Infused Weapon bound to you at a time. If you attempt to bond with a second weapon, you previous Infused Weapon is destroyed.

Death Presence

The smell of death reeks to your nose. On a 60 feet sphere radius, you are able to feel the presence of any undead that lurks in the area. You are not able to distinguish it's location, type or identity( (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, located 35ft away, hidden in a corner, for instance). You are merely aware of their presence at your surroundings.

At the same radius, you are able to feel if any living thing dies or is close to death. If any creature within range reaches 25% of their health, you become aware of it's presence and you are able to tell how many hitpoints the creature has left. If the creature dies, you no longer feel it's presence.

This effect is not optional, and is active all the time. It can't be turned off by the Death knight's free will.

Unholy Action - List

The Unholy Action list will be presented in alphabetical order:

Bone Shield

(Reaction)

After being attacked, you use your reaction to raise a shield of bones to protect you. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to AC. This includes the triggering attack.

Chilling Reach

(Bonus Action)

Your blade spreads dark energy on your enemies, slowing their pace. Every time you hit an enemy with a melee attack this turn, choose another target within a 5-foot-radius sphere centered on your first target. This new target takes 1d8 necrotic damage  and it's movement speed is reduced by 10 ft. If there is no other enemy than the first target, the damage and  the effects of this skill are aplied to the first target instead.

The slowing effect lasts until the start of your next turn. Additionally, the slow stacks. Each time the secondary target is aflicted with the effects of Chilling Reach, it's movements speed is reduced by an additional 10ft (Minimum of 0).

The reach of this skill increases by 5ft when you reach the 5th level (10ft radius sphere centered on your first target) and 11th level (15ft radius sphere centered on your first target).

Death Choke

(Bonus Action)

You wrap your unholy powers around your target's neck, rendering it unable to breathe. You point your hand to a target that you can see. It must make a constitution saving throw. On a failed save, your target is raised in the air. Until the start of your next turn, that target is paralized. On a sucess, the target must regain their breath and cannot cast spells with the vocal component.

The target of this skill  must be within 60ft of you. If it fails on the saving throw, you can force Medium sized creatures or smaller to move half of its normal movement in any direction you want, but this movement does not generate oportunity attacks. You can also release this skill  whenever you like (no action required). The effects of this skill will end if the target colides with another object, is attacked or isn't released until the start of your next turn.

Larger creatures cannot be moved using this kill. The remaining effects still aplies.

Death Grip

(Bonus action)

You harness your unholy energy around your target, bringing him close to you. You aim your hand to a medium size or smaller target that you can see. It is then pulled to an adjacent space 5ft from you. It has disadvantage attacking any other target that isn't you until the end of your next turn. Larger creatures still recieve the disadvantage effects, but cannot be moved by the effect of this skill.

Death Surge

(Action)

You curse your target with a numbing pain, and it starts withering from the inside. You can choose a target that you can see within 60ft. That target must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 1d6 necrotic damage and it has disadvantage on his melee attacks until the end of its next turn. On a sucessfull save, the target only takes half the amount of damage.

The skill’s damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level (2d6), 11th level (3d6), and 17th level (4d6).

This skill always hits if it targets an undead creature or yourself. In these cases, instead of taking damage, the target heals itself for the same amount of the damage done by this skill. The disadvantage effect does not apply in these cases.

Desecrated Ground

(Action)

You carve your sword on the ground, desecrating a 15-foot-radius sphere centered on you. Any creature that enters this area or starts their turn in there must make a constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the hostile takes 1d8 necrotic damage and half of it on a sucess. The effect lasts until the Death knight leave the inicial 15ft spherical area. Only one Desecrated Ground can be active at a time. You don't take the damage of this skill.

The skill’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

Leech Strike

(Bonus Action)

Your blade feeds on the living. Any successful melee attack in this turn deals an aditional 1d8 necrotic damage. You then gain half of that amount as temporary hitpoints and the full amount on a critical hit. The duration of the temporary hitpoints is 1 hour.

The skill’s damage increases by 1d8 when you reach 5th level (2d8), 11th level (3d8), and 17th level (4d8).

Necromancy

(Action)

You become aquainted with manipulating life and death. You are able to cast one of  the following spells according to your Death knight level:

Death Knight Level  3rd    5th      7th

Spell list Cantrips: Thaumathurgy, Spare the Dying, Friends 1st lvl: Hex, Cause Fear 2nd lvl: Darkness,Gentle Repose 3rd lvl: Speak with Dead, Animate Dead, Revivify 4th lvl: Death Ward, Summon Undead

 

Death Embrace

Once you reach the 7th level with this class, you embrace your power over death. Until the end of the turn, all the weapon damage you do is converted into necrotic damage. The damage you do with this effect ignores resistances. You can use this feature once every short or long rest.

Shadow Travel

Once you reach the 10th level with this class, you learn how to meld with your own shadow, and use your dark powers to travel. As an action,  you can teleport to a destination you have seen before, or is within your line of sight. The location you appear must be large enough to fit your size and must have a visible shadow or be covered in darkness.

If used to move to a location up to 60 feet from your current position, this feature consumes 1 death point.

If used to move to a location that is further than 60 feet from you, this feature consumes all your death points and you increase your exaustion level by one at the end of your travel.

Dark Pact

Once you reach the 15th level with this class, you learn how to call your benefector to honor his part of the pact. Every Death Point you spend at this turn is refunded. Additionally, if you use the Death Embrace feature on this turn, it does not consume it's use. Therefore, after your turn ends, the Death Embrace feature is also recharged.

You may use this feature twice per long rest.

Dark Avatar

Once you reach the 18th level with this class, you become an unstoppable force of darkness. As a bonus action, you envelop yourself in shadows, consuming all your remaining Death points (minimum of 1). Doing so will transform you into the Dark Avatar.

Once transformed, you can no longer Dash or Desingage. You must use your turn to engage the enemy that is closer to you and attack it as many times as possible.

The Dark Avatar can use up to two unholy actions per turn without expending Death points. Additionally, the effects from Death Embrace are always active as long as you mantain the Dark Avatar form.

The trasformation lasts until the end of the turn if you spent 1 Death point to activate this ability. Each additional Death point spent to activate this ability makes the transformation last for an additional turn (maximum of 4 turns). If your hitpoints reaches 0 or you become uncountious, you lose the Dark Avatar form.

This feature can be used once every long rest.