Death Warden (Death Domain Cleric)

As devout followers of the Null, the dragon god of death, Death Wardens wield unnatural necrotic powers.  With his dark blessing, they are able to summon and reanimate the dead as servants who fight by their side, they can curse their enemies to weaken them, and drain their very life force to grant them strength.  With each enemy they offer to their deity, their strength grows.  Like Null himself, Death Wardens tend to follow one of two aspects: the path of the Reaver or that of the Guardian of Lost Souls.  Those that follow the dogma of the Reaver believe that death and decay are inevitable and omnipresent and that the aspects of death should be incorporated into their lives in order to truly be strong. Embracing death in life heralded that one day the afterlife would be part of the living world as well.  Death Wardens that walked this darker path often took up a mantle of evil.  Those that adhered to way of the Guardian believed that all life eventually led into death, which was simply a starting point to another kind existence. True death, on the other hand, was final and absolute.  Followers of this dogma tended to resist the darkness of their power just enough remain neutral.  Death Wardens are often met with scorn and disgust wherever they travel but what happens to those perpetrators will depend on the Warden's chosen path.  Will they become sacrifices to Null or will they ignore it knowing that they are using their dark powers to help rather than destroy.

Upon choosing the Death Warden subclass, players are granted access to the following magically attuned items:

• [Dread Hammer of Undeath]
• [Cloak of Dual Aspects]

Warrior of Dread

When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency with heavy armor and stronger martial weapons.

Walking the path of the Death Warden and feeding of it's necrotic energy grants you the strength to wear heavy armor and wield weapons of greater power.

Language of the Dead

When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain Undercommon as an additional language proficiency.

Channel Divinity: Shepard of the Dead

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to charm undead.

As an action, you present your holy symbol and invoke the name of your deity. Each undead that can see you within 30 feet of you must make a wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is charmed by you for 1 hour. While charmed by you it cannot harm you, or creatures you designate.

As an bonus action, you may mentally issue a command to any creature charmed by you within 60 feet (if you control multiple creatures, you can command any or all of them at the same time, issuing the same command to each one). You decide what action the creature will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the creature only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the creature continues to follow it until its task is complete. 

Any undead with an intelligence of 7 or higher may repeat the save when it takes damage. If they succeed, the charm effect ends for that creature.

Disciple of Death

At 2nd level, you gain resistance to necrotic damage.

As you begin to embrace the power of death, you also begin to build a natural resistance to the necrotic energies that comprise it.

Cursed Spellcaster

Beginning at 6th level, the Harming spells you cast on others heal you. When you Cast a Spell of 1st level or higher that Removes Hit Points from a creature other than you, you regain Hit Points equal to 2 + the spell’s level.

Necrotic Strike

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with unholy energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon Attack, you can cause the Attack to deal an extra 1d8 Necrotic damage to the target.  When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Master of Death

At 17th level, your ability to command undead heightens. Undead you have charmed through the use of Channel divinity remain charmed indefinitely.

At the end of each day, undead with an intelligence of 7 or higher may repeat their Wisdom saving throw to end the charm effect.