Death Knight Above a frozen abyss, a lone knight stares deep into the darkness, wielding twin frosted swords. Armed vagabonds surround the figure, their hands shaking from fear. As they rush the knight, their forms are consumed by a sudden torrent of cold, reducing their mortal forms to monuments of ice. Graverobbers shuffle quietly through a graveyard, their forms hidden by the night. When they reach the duke’s grave, a haunting melody rings out. Before they can react, a colossal blade cleaves through the robbers, its edge causing their flesh to fester and corrupt. Deep underground a group of bandits search for forbidden treasure. Passing through a doorway, they are confronted by a darkened figure. Before they can react, the figures form shifts and contorts into a raging blaze. The wielder, with his flaming blade, swings, his blade stretching down the corridor, incinerating the forms of the bandits. Manifestations of Vengeance A death knight is a champion of the unholy, a wielder of the twisted energies of death and destruction, a manifestation of vengeance. They are stalwart soldiers who hunt without remorse, relentlessly devoted to their cause. As former members of the living, they no longer remember their pasts, cursed with the unknown and forced to rebuild themselves. Using their inherited control of the powers of undeath, Death Knights travel the land, hunting those they deem worthy of punishment. Once a target has been found, nothing will hold back their wrath. Bearers of a Code The word of a Death Knight is their law; their binding contract with the living world. When one receives their word, then nothing will stop that task from its inevitable completion. Death Knights rarely offer others their word, as they try to focus on their personal interests and vendettas. However, when a cause arises that demands vengeance, they will oblige with wicked passion. Creating a Death Knight The Death Knight class can only be chosen if the character has died within the previous 24 hours. Upon choosing this class, the character goes through a horrifying transformation, stripping them of their memories prior to the transformation. The exact memories that are lost are determined by speaking with the DM. The most important aspect of a Death Knight is what drives them to deliver vengeance. Are they driven by the cries of the bullied and abused? Do they stalk those who wish to harm innocents? Or do they only enforce vengeance on those who have wronged them? As amnesiacs, who were they in their past? What connections have they formed that may resurface? What happened that changed you into the fearless Death Knight? Was this a sudden twist of fate that placed you at the wrong place at the wrong time, or was this a malevolent ploy by those wishing your downfall? Death Knights rise as beings of vengeance, often shifting towards evil alignments. However, there have been some who still hold on to the fleeting emotions of the living, falling closer to a neutral or good alignment.

The Death Knight Level Proficiency Bonus Features 1st +2 Unholy Resilience, Cursed Word 2nd +2 Life Eternal, Fighting Style 3rd +2 Death Domain, Mark of the Death Knight 4th +2 Ability Score Improvement 5th +3 Extra Attack 6th +3 Death Speaker 7th +3 Death Domain Feature 8th +3 Ability Score Improvement 9th +4 Unholy Resilience Improvement 10th +4 Raise Steed 11th +4 Death Speaker Improvement 12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 13th +5 Unholy Resilience Improvement 14th +5 Life Eternal Improvement 15th +5 Death Domain Feature 16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 17th +6 Aura of Dread 18th +6 Cursed Word Improvement 19th +6 Ability Score Improvement 20th +6 Death Domain Feature Class Features As a Death knight, you gain access to the following features: Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d10 per level

Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier

Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per level after 1st Proficiencies Armor: All armor

Weapons: Simple weapons, martial melee weapons

Tools: None

Saving Throws: Strength, Constitution

Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Intimidation, Perception, Insight, Investigation, Nature Equipment You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: (a) a martial weapon or (b) two martial one-handed weapons

(a) chain mail or (b) chain shirt

(a) a dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack Unholy Resiliance You’ve arisen a member of undeath, and have been granted supernatural abilities. You gain the Undead racial type, along with any previous racial types. You no longer need to consume food or water, or need to sleep or breathe, but gain vulnerability to radiant damage. At 9th level, You gain immunity to disease and darkvision for up to 60 ft. At 13th level, you become a true member of the undead, visibly showing new signs of the transformation. Alongside the changes gained when you chose your domain, your body begins to show physical alterations that match your domain. This may include parts of your body becoming hypothermic and discolored, your hair withering and fading away, or even scorch marks beginning to envelop your skin. You gain advantage on spells that require a Wisdom saving throw. Cursed Word Your word carries unholy weight, forging an invisible contract when spoken. As an action, you can choose to accept a request from a creature you can hear. Once accepted, you are compelled to follow through with the request. You gain a +2 on any ability checks made to further or complete the request, given that it is relevant (If you are unsure, speak with your DM). You gain -2 on any ability checks relating to disobeying the request (If you are unsure, speak with your DM). Once given, you are unable to accept another request using this effect until you either complete your previous request, or you die. Once the request is no longer valid, you must wait 24 hours before using it again. At 18th level, your word carries the weight of your infamy. You now gain +4 to ability checks made to further or complete the request, and -4 to ability checks relating to disobeying the request. Life Eternal Your encounter with death has left you resilient against its beckon. Starting at 2nd level, you gain advantage on all death saving throws. At 14th level, your resilience improves. When you would be reduced to 0 hit points or less by a non-critical attack, you may make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw. If you succeed, you are reduced to 1 hitpoint instead. Fighting Style At 2nd level, you adopt a 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. Great Weapon Fighting When you roll a 1 or 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, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

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. Two Weapon Fighting When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack. Death Knight Domain At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that emphasises your skills as a Death Knight: Frost, Unhallowed, and Hellfire, all detailed at the end of the class description. Your archetype choice grants you features at 3rd level and then again at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. Mark of the Death Knight Starting at 3rd level, you are forever branded as a risen Death Knight. You take on visible changes depending the domain you choose: Frost Your eyes glow an icy blue, and your skin gains a soft blue tinge. Your hair begins to take on blue streaks, and your nails begin to freeze over. Unhallowed Your eyes glow a sickly green, and your skin gains a soft green tinge. Strands of hair begin to wilt, darkening in color while your body begins to thin. Hellfire Your eyes glow an demonic red, and your skin gains a soft red tinge. Your blood thickens and contorts to a dark red paste while the heat of your breath increases dramatically Due to these changes, many races view you as unholy creatures, and may respond with fear or open hostility. As it is hard to mask the visible changes to your body, most can quickly notice what you are. This will begin to take effect in how you roleplay your character, and how the world perceives you, both as friend and foe. You gain a +2 to intimidation checks but gain -2 to persuasion checks due to your outward appearance to others. Ability Score Improvement When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature. Extra Attack Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Death Speaker At 6th level, you gain the ability to speak with the dead. Once per long rest, you can speak with the dead as if using the “Speak with Dead” spell. This effect lasts for 10 minutes. At 11th level, unholy energy suffuses the targets words, translating them. You understand the target as if they were speaking your native language. This effect does not apply to other creatures in the vicinity. Raise Steed At 10th level, you learn of a ritual that can bind a part of your unholy essence into a slain creature to serve as a steed. As an action, you can begin a ritual on the corpse of a creature in order to bind it to servitude. This ritual takes 1 hour of concentration. Once completed, the creature comes back to life in a skeletal form, gaining the Undead type alongside its original racial types. Additionally, it no longer needs to consume food or water, and has no need of sleep. The creature can be of your choosing, such as a warhorse, a pony, a camel, an elk, or a mastiff (Your DM might allow other animals to be summoned as steeds). Your steed serves you as a mount, enhanced by the release of death. It gains an additional 30 feet to its movement speed. When your steed drops to 0 hit points, its body collapses, crumbling into a pile of bones. You can redo the ritual on the creature's bones at any time given the bones are still within 30 feet of each other. You may raise only one mount at a time. Using this ability while a steed has already been raised will cause the ritual to fail. Once used, this ability requires a long rest to use again. Aura of Dread Your power feeds on the weak. At 17th level, you have advantage on attacks made against targets within 10 ft that have fewer hit points than you. Death Domains One rarely chooses how they die, but those who rise again carry with them the weight of their death. As a Death Knight, you can harness this and channel it into a deadly domain of combat. Frost Domain The Death Knights of the frost domain harness the devastating powers of frost as their weapons of vengeance. Masters of the frigid temperatures, these knights channel penetrating effects to weaken and disable their foes. Natural loners and wanderers often choose this path, looking to the frozen wastes as a place of harmony and quite, and their newfound abilities as tools to destroy any who would ruin that peace. Death knights of the frost domain typically lean towards a neutral alignment to fit their cold hearts and icy gaze.

Icy Affinity When you choose this domain at 3rd level, ice envelops around your body, forming a near invisible layering to enhance your protection. You gain resistance to Cold damage and are no longer affected by cold weather. Additionally, you gain +1 AC. This AC is considered natural armor. At 13th level, frost naturally emanates from the layer of ice encasing you. You permanently gain the effects of the Water Walk spell, as if the liquids freeze at your presence. Frigid Criticals Starting at 7th level, your most devastating blows cause your opponents to freeze over, hindering their physical capabilities. Whenever you critically strike an opponent, reduce their movement speed by half rounded down until the end of their next turn. During this period, they gain disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws. Torrent of Cold At 15th level, you gain the ability to activate Torrent of Cold as an action. While Torrent of Cold is active, a 6x6 spherical torrent of wind and frost appears around you. Creatures that enter the sphere or start their turn in the sphere must pass a Dexterity saving throw against your Dexterity stat. On a fail, the enemy takes 3d6 Cold damage and are restrained. On a success, the enemy takes 3d6 Cold damage, but are not restrained. This ability lasts for 12 seconds, and can only be used once every long rest. Baron of Frost You’ve become an archon of frost. At 20th level, once per long rest, for 1 minute, you can gain the following frost-enhanced abilities: Your icy armor thickens, encasing you in frozen plate. You gain +3 AC.

Your hands and weapons freeze over, reinforcing them. Whenever you successfully hit a target, you deal an additional 1d12 cold damage, and immediately trigger the effects of the Frigid Criticals ability You can end this ability as a free action, but must wait until you’ve completed a long rest in order to be used again. combat. Unhallowed Domain The Death Knights of the unhallowed domain are masters of the unholy aspects of death. These champions harness undeath as a means to sustain themselves, granting them supernatural abilities and traits. Members of this domain revel in the state of death, often hunting for the dying just to witness their final hours. They tend to wander near places of misfortune; Graveyards, battlefields, and even hospitals. These knights lean towards a chaotic alignment to fit their wicked interests. Necrotic Strike Starting at 3rd level, as a bonus action, you can infuse your next strike with unholy energy, coating the surface in a twisting black mist. When you successfully hit a target while this effect is active, all damage dealt is considered necrotic damage. This effect lasts for one round before dissipating. You must perform a short or long rest before being able to use this ability again. At 13th level, your infused-strikes sunder even the unholy. When you use this ability, all necrotic damage dealt ignores resistance to necrotic damage. Death Harvest At 7th level, you can feast on necrotic energies. Once per short or long rest, as a reaction, you can convert all necrotic damage received from any source as healing. This effect lasts for 1 round. Corrupted Criticals At 15th level, your most devastating blows corrupt your opponents, bringing a virulent plague upon them. Whenever you critically hit a target, they must make a DC 10 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus Constitution saving throw. If they fail, apply the effects of the Contagion Spell, choosing a disease of your choice using a saving throw of DC 10 + your Strength modifier + your proficiency bonus. The Harvest Reaper At 20th level, you can assume the form of death incarnate. once per long rest, for 1 minute, you gain the following abilities: All necrotic damage dealt by you to other creatures heals you for the same amount.

Whenever a creature moves or starts its turn within 30 feet of you, they must make a DC 15 + Constitution modifier + proficiency bonus Wisdom saving throw. On a fail, they are frightened of you until they are able to pass the saving throw at the end of each of their turns. Each time they fail, they take 1d8 necrotic damage and 1d8 psychic damage. On a success, they are no longer frightened of you and are immune to the effects of this ability for 24 hours. You can end this ability as a free action, but must wait until you’ve completed a long rest in order to be used again. combat. Hellfire Domain The Death Knights of the Hellfire domain represent the consuming hatred that’s born from undeath. Wielders of the fires of hell granted to them by the demonic denizens of the lower planes, these knights employ a fighting style fit for only the mad, with techniques specialized in hunting prey. They often migrate to places of conflict, hunting those deserving of eternal damnation. A chaotic alignment is often fitting for members of this domain, as their unchecked thirst for chaos can drive them to unspeakable violence.