Death Knight (Paladin Option)

A paladin fallen in battle and awoken to serve a new lord. Stripped of almost all their magic and infused with deathly energy, but with the potential to regain their former power? 

You take up the mantle of Death Knight, disowning your paladin past in search for raw power. Death Knights are paladins that once fought heroically for the good of their god and people and died in battle, years later raised from the dead by a lich or other entity to serve their every whim as a monster combatant and servant. They have lost much of their magical power and smiting ability, but have the potential to gain it back if they go down the right paths. 

Spells that normally raise dead players such as revivify do not work on you. However the summon undead spell counts as the Revivify spell for you. There are ways of breaking your curse, whether for better or worse. If you are dropped to 0 HP, a creature can use the remove curse spell on you. For the next minute, if a spell that raises a player from the dead is used on you, you are brought back as an Oathbreaker Paladin of equal level to your current Death Knight and lose all your Death Knight levels, traits & features. The use of the Resurrection spell or True Resurrection on you also brings you back as an Oathbreaker Paladin and you lose all your Death Knight traits & features.  

 

Paladin Roots (Optional)

You remines about the days of your past and choose to walk the ways of the Paladin once more.
Remembering your former skills as a Paladin and choose to take them over your current fighting ones. Choosing this feature will do the following:

Remove the following Fighter features:  Second Wind, Action Surge

Add the following Paladin features: Divine Sense, Divine Health

As a mantle of slaughter and zero remorse you no longer have access to lay on hands, but your affinity to death and the entity that summoned you has granted you new choices for power. You may choose from the Warlock feature list: "Dark One's Blessing", "Hex Warrior" or "Among The Dead". Your choice from this list will replace your lay on hands feature. No spell slots are made available in this class, but if spell slots are available to your character then you also gain the Divine Smite feature. If you take up the divine smite feature, you may choose to cast your smite as necrotic damage instead of radiant. You will also have the option of keeping your Oath Spell List from a previous Paladin Character or take the one provided in the multiclass description. 

Profanities

At level 3, when you choose to take on the mantle of Death Knight, you learn a number of profanities equal to 1 + your Constitution or Charisma modifier (minimum 1). Chosen from is a list of profanities with which you may establish your Death Knight specialty. When you activate a profanity, a dark colored aura surrounds you imbuing you with the specific profanities bonus. You can use a bonus action to activate or deactivate one profanity. Falling unconscious will deactivate all profanities active. Activating a profanity while you have one already active will automatically deactivate the previous one. At level three you can only benefit from one profanity at a time, two at level 5, three at level 8, four at level 12 and five at level 18, and the profanity effect will stay active until it is deactivated, or on the subsequent failed saving throw.

You may attempt to activate another profanity past your limit, you must pass a DC 15 Constitution Save. On a failed save both the attempted profanity and a currently active profanity (random) deactivate and you must finish a Long Rest before you can make another attempt.

Aura Of The Damned

Any enemy creature within 20 feet must make a constitution saving throw against your Spell Save DC or be at disadvantage on attack rolls made against you. Enemies may re-attempt the Saving Throw once on their turn. If you land an attack on an enemy who hasn't yet succeeded their save, they have disadvantage on the Saving Throw until the end of their next turn. If you land a hit on a creature who successfully saves they must them make the same Saving Throw but with advantage.

Deathly Glamour

You can add your Charisma modifier to all ability saves

Etherfloat

You hover a few inches from the ground. You do not trigger pressure plates or the like; you can cross liquid surfaces if they are still; and you descend to the ground harmlessly as if under the effect of the 'Feather Fall' spell.

Grave Armor

Gain +1 AC and Resistance to Non-Magical attacks from enemies that are making melee attacks against you

Grave Digger

You gain resistance to necrotic damage and may choose to have your melee and range attacks count as necrotic damage. If you use spells then any spell you cast that normally deals necrotic damage gains one additional damage die. 

Mark Of Death

You may cast Bane or Hex on up to three enemies of your choice without using a spell slot or concentration. All enemies chosen must having the same spell cast on them and activating this Profanity counts as a full use regardless of how many enemies were chosen affected. The Hex cannot be moved as a bonus action. You can use this profanity a number of times equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down).

Deactivating the profanity ends the spells immediately. Uses are restored after a long rest.

Pale Horse

You summon a ghostly looking horse. You increase your speed by 10 feet.

Soulflay

A creature you choose within 30 feet of you have disadvantage on a single saving throw of your choice. You may use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. All uses are restored on a short rest. 

Soulreaver

The weapon you hold becomes bathed in the essence of your aura . The weapon must be a bound weapon(see below). On a successful melee attack add an additional 1d4 of necrotic damage. Increases to 2d4 at level 5, 3d4 at level 12, and 5d4 at level 18.

Terrorize

If a creature moves to within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction and the creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute. The DC is equal to 8 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus. Whether successful or not, a creature cannot be targeted by this ability again until you finish a long rest.

Bound Weapon

At 3rd level, you learn a ritual that creates a magical, living bond between yourself and one weapon. 
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. 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 as you, you can summon that weapon as a bonus action on your turn, causing it to instantly materialize in your hand, unless it is held by a greater power. In addition, you may also absorb its physical form within your very being, which may act as an effective storage place. You can have up to two bonded weapons, but can summon only one at a time with your bonus action. If you attempt to bond with a third weapon, you must break the bond with one of the other two. You gain a +1 bonus to all attack and damage rolls with your bound weapon. This bonus increases to +2 at level 12, and +3 at level 18. 

Siphoning Strikes

At 7th level, you learn to control the balance of life and death within yourself.
When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, gain temporary hit points equal to your Constitution or Charisma modifier and your hit point maximum also increases by this amount. If when combat ends and your hit point total is over your original hit point maximum you return to your original hit point maximum. If combat ends and you are lower than your original hit point maximum but higher than half your hit point maximum, you lose the temporary HP until you hit half your hit point maximum. 

One With Darkness

At 10th level, you looked into the pit for too long and it has finally looked back at you.
Your dark mantle causes horror in those that look upon you. You gain expertise in the intimidation skill if you don't already have it. You can also now see through both magical and non-magical darkness up to 120 feet, gain immunity to the frightened condition and resistance to necrotic damage. 

Undying Husk

Beginning at 15th level, The strings holding you to your mortality have been stripped away.
You no longer need to breath, you don't require food, water, or sleep but must still take rest to reduce exhaustion. You no longer age and you've become immune to necrotic and poison damage. While resting you appear like a standing empty suit of armor with no one inside. Looking inside does not give away that you are a living entity. To detect your presence while resting requires a "Detect Evil and Good", "Detect Magic" spell, or a DC 16 Arcana check.  

 

Eternal Undeath

Reaching 18th level, You have become more dangerous in death than in life.
When you are reduced to 0 hit points you may choose to unleash all your deathly energy. For 1 minute you transform into a minor-Lich, regaining temporary HP equal to your Death Knight Level x 5, you gain a bonus to your Attack, Damage, and AC equal to your Con or Cha modifier and you cause an explosion of death energy that deals 5d10 Necrotic Damage to all creatures within 20 feet. During this transformation you are unable to do any ability checks and will attack the closest creature to you each round, resisting this requires a Wisdom saving throw DC 15. If you drop to 0 HP while in this form you instantly die. If you survive the minute or you succeed the resist saving throw, you instantly disappear into a mist of necrotic black smoke as all non-cursed or un-bonded items clatter to the ground. You spirit will resurrect with your original body at the nearest graveyard after 2d4 days. Reviving in this way incurs 4 levels of exhaustion upon revival. You cannot use this feature again until have removed all levels of exhaustion.

 

(Level 20 Roleplay Option) In addition to these things, you may choose to no longer have to answer to any higher authority to maintain your powers.

Continuing to serve your master grants the following benefits: 

• Advantage on death saving throws
• "Plane Shift" spell (no spell slot) once every 1d4 days, usable only to reach your master entity's plane and in coming back. Visiting your patron will often be met with gifts or special assignments from your patron. (GM Loot Roll)
• "Contact Other Plane" spell (no spell slot) once a day, usable only to contact your master entity. You can use this to ask your patron questions or request a boost in knowledge. After each talk you may choose one saving throw to gain proficiency in and one skill to expertise in. Doing this action again will lose you the previous choices and allow you a new ones.  

Refusing to serve your master any longer and going your own way opens the following paths (DM discretion on how to proceed) :

• Path 1: Become a Lich NPC 
• Path 2: Become a Death Knight Commander underneath Jarad Vod Savo and take charge of his Death Knight cohort (DM discretion on how to proceed) 
• Path 3: Go it solo, possibly waging war against established liches or other undead lords such as Jarad Vod Savo and superseding them or taking another route. Going down this path unlocks a new ability: Once per long rest you may take an action to summon Avatar of Death to fight by your side. This avatar disappears only if it is killed, you take an action to dismiss it, or you attempt to summon another one.