Death Knight A pale dwarf, with skin cold as ice, raises his axe to meet the orc chieftan's own. The dwarf had single handedly carved a path through the orc's tribe, with a single goal on his mind. The orc hoped that the dwarf's energy would fade, and that the fight would be easy by the time he took the field, but the dwarf swung again and again, machinelike in his fury. Suddenly a blue rune lit above the dwarf's axe, and it swung with more force than ever, and the orc was unable to meet it. A man clad in black plate armor strides through the disease ridden town. Flanked by undead bodygaurds, he fears no rebuttal from the meager townsfolk. Finding a corpse ridden with boils, he reaches down to inspect it. Satisfied with the speed at which his new plague rendered the town desecrated, he ordered his thralls to hunt down survivors. There will always be new diseases to test, and new victims to test them on. Seeing her ally in danger, the elven warrior flung herself between them and the horde of goblins baring down on them. A whirling mass of bones moves to defend the pair, and tears the attacking horde asunder. Inspecting her ally's wounds, a red rune appears above her hand, and the wounds began to mend themselves. Satisfied with her work, she willed her weapon back to her. Suddenly her sword leapt from the ground, landed in her hand, and she sheathed it. It would be a long night, and there would be many more goblins ahead of them, and she'd be ready. Sowers of Death To say that a Death Knight is tied to death is to say a person is tied to food. They feel an unnatural drive to cause as much death and destruction as possible. Some fall to this desire, and become little more than monsters given mortal shell, but Credit: Keun-ju Kim others focus this desire to further their goals. Be it razing the countryside, or leading a rebellion agaisnt a tyrant, death follows Death Knights wherever they go. Users of Dark Magic An edgy name and tendency to kill, are far from a Death Knights only characteristics. They channel their dark magic through runes, small symbols that appear on the Death Knights weapons, armor, or even on their skin. By expending the latent power in the runes, the Death Knights can cause a number of magical affects. Creating a Death Knight When creating a Death Knight, consider how you obtained your dark powers. Death Knights use ancient runic magic, little of which is known or understood. Some learn their magic from dark tomes found in a lich's lair, ancient scrolls found in some dragon's den, or some return to life with knowledge from beyond the grave. Sometimes even near death experiences can trigger memories to surface from deep within the psyche of mortal men. Regardless of their source, the dark runic magic leads to many powers that some might consider...unnatural. Quick Build You can make a Death Knight quickly by following these suggestions. First make Stregnth your hightest ability score followed by Constitution. Second choose the Soldier or Criminal background. Class Features Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d10 per Death Knight level Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution Modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution Modifier per Death Knight level past 1st level Proficiencies Armor: Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor, and Shields Weapons: Simple and Martial Weapons Tools: None Saving Throws: Strength and Constitution Skills: Choose 2 from Athletics, Arcana, Religion, Insight, Perception, and Intimidation Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: (a) A greatsword or (b) any martial melee weapon and a shield

(a) Two shortswords or (b) any simple weapon

(a) Chainmail or (b) Scalemail

An explorer’s pack and four javelins

Death Knight Level Proficiency Bonus Features Rune Empowered Attacks 1st +2 Fighting Style, Undead Warrior - 2nd +2 Runes, Rune Empowered Attacks 3 3rd +2 Archetype, Runic Power, Death Strike 4 4th +2 Ability Score Improvement 4 5th +3 Extra Attack 5 6th +3 Runic Conversion 5 7th +3 Archetype Feature 6 8th +3 Ability Score Improvement 6 9th +4 On a Pale Horse 7 10th +4 Tireless Undead 7 11th +4 Archetype Feature 8 12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 8 13th +5 - 9 14th +5 Raise Ally 9 15th +5 Murderous Efficiency 10 16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 10 17th +6 Archetype Feature 11 18th +6 Archetype Feature 11 19th +6 Ability Score Improvement 12 20th +6 Empower Rune Weapon 12 Fighting Style: You adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty, Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again. Defense While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC. Dueling When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. Great Weapon Fighting When you roll a 1or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit. Two-Weapon Fighting When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack. Undead Warrior Your connection to death gives you a few benefits: You gain a +2 bonus to death saving throws (Natural 1’s still count as 2 failures).

Resistance to Necrotic Damage

Proficiency in Intimidation. If you are already Proficient, you may add double your Proficiency bonus.

You have Advantage on Arcana and Religion skills for knowledge about undead. Credit: Ivan Kuzkin