Knight of Darkness (5e Class)

Knight of Darkness

A figure seen in black armor roaming the land at night, rumored to steal the light.

A Knight of Darkness relies on the gifts given to them from the gods and goddesses of darkness. They find it easy to corrupt and steal the life essence of their enemies. They can learn to kill specified targets, steal their enemies souls, or topple enemy soldiers.

The Darkness

The Darkness is a force that can be harnessed by a select few.

Knight of Darkness Quirk (as a flavor option - roll a d6)

1. You are always cold to the touch.

2. Your smile is always very cruel looking.

3. Your eyes are jet black.

4. You often talk to the souls within you - to others you seem insane.

5. Sometimes when you breathe heavily you exhale dark cold mist.

6. Every now and again you shift into the shadow realm - it looks like you blur for an instant in time (does not have any real affect)

Creating a Knight of Darkness

Credit goes to Patches

Quick Build

You can make a Knight of Darkness quickly by following these suggestions. First, "Charisma" should be your highest ability score, followed by "Strength" or "Dexterity". Second, choose the Noble background with the Knight variant or the Knight of the Order. Third, choose <!-elaborate on equipment choices->

Class Features

As a Knight of Darkness you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per Knight of Darkness level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Knight of Darkness level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: light, medium, heavy and shields
Weapons: simple and martial
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion and Religion

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a martial weapon & Shield or (b) Two Martial Weapons
• (a) 5 javelins or (b) Any simple melee weapon
• (a) priest's pack or (b) explorer's pack
• (a) cloak and hood (optional color) or (b) noble clothes
• Chainmail and an Unholy symbol
• If you are using starting wealth, you have 5d4x10 gp instead of starting equipment in funds.

Table: The Knight of Darkness

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Souls	Features	—Spell Slots per Spell Level—
				1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	+2	-	Divine Sense, Night Eyes, Hands of Darkness, Curse of Darkness	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	-	Fighting Style, Spellcasting, Shadow Smite	2	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	5	Font of Souls, Reaping Strike, Channel Darkness	3	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	10	Ability Score Improvement, Aura of the Soul Harvest	3	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	15	Shadow Strike, Soul Cleave	4	2	—	—	—
6th	+3	20	Aura of Darkness	4	2	—	—	—
7th	+3	25	Soul Tap	4	3	—	—	—
8th	+3	30	Ability Score Improvement	4	3	—	—	—
9th	+4	35	Gift Of Souls	4	3	2	—	—
10th	+4	40	—	4	3	2	—	—
11th	+4	45	The Darkening	4	3	3	—	—
12th	+4	50	Ability Score Improvement	4	3	3	—	—
13th	+5	55	Weight of Souls	4	3	3	1	—
14th	+5	60	Corrupting Touch	4	3	3	1	—
15th	+5	65	Soul Barrier	4	3	3	2	—
16th	+5	70	Ability Score Improvement	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+6	75	—	4	3	3	3	1
18th	+6	80	Dark Soul	4	3	3	3	1
19th	+6	85	Ability Score Improvement	4	3	3	3	2
20th	+6	90	Champion of Darkness	4	3	3	3	2

Divine Sense

The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell. You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. When you finish a long rest, you regain all expended uses.

Night Eyes

You gain darkvision to 60ft. if you don't already have it. If you have darkvision the range is doubled.

Hands of Darkness

At 1st level you are corrupted by darkness, you can use your power of darkness to steal the essence of others and replenish your life. You have a pool of vampiric power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can steal a total number of hit points equal to your Knight of Darkness level x 5. As an action, you can make an attack roll to touch a creature and draw power from the pool to steal the life force from the creature up to the maximum amount remaining in your pool. (they lose the hit points and you gain the hit points). You may spend 3 soul charges to gain advantage on the attack roll. You do not need to make an attack roll if the victim is willing to gift you their essence. Alternatively, you can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cure a target of one disease or neutralize one poison affecting it - you gain 5 hit points when consuming diseases or poisons. You can cure multiple diseases and neutralize multiple poisons with a single use of Hands of Darkness, expending hit points separately for each one and regaining hit points as the desecration seeps into your body and restores you. This feature has no effect on undead and constructs.

Curse of Darkness

The weight of the souls and the darkness of your own soul weighs heavily on you. You lose 5ft. off your base movement speed for all modes of travel and have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) vision based checks in direct Sunlight.

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.

• 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 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. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

• Protection:When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.

Spellcasting

By 2nd level, you have learned to draw on divine magic through meditation and prayer to cast spells as a cleric does.

Preparing and Casting Spells

The Knight of Darkness table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells. To cast one of your Knight of Darkness spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

You prepare the list of Knight of Darkness spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the Knight of Darkness spell list. When you do so, choose a number of Knight of Darkness spells equal to your Charisma modifier + your Knight of Darkness level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, if you are a 5th-level Knight of Darkness, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Charisma of 14, your list of prepared spells can include four spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st-level spell cure wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn't remove it from your list of prepared spells.You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of Knight of Darkness spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

Spellcasting Ability

Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your Knight of Darkness spells, since their power derives from the strength of your convictions. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Knight of Darkness spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

Spellcasting Focus

You can use an unholy symbol as a spellcasting focus for your Knight of Darkness spells.

Spell List

1st Level Spells: Bane, Bless, Command, Compelled Duel, Cure Wounds, Detect Evil and Good, Detect Magic, Detect Poison and Disease, Heroism, Inflict Wounds, Protection from Good and Evil, Purify Food and Drink, Ray of Sickness, Searing Smite, Shield of Faith, Thunderous Smite, Wrathful Smite

2nd Level Spells: Aid, Blindness/Deafness, Darkness, Darkvision, Find Steed, Gentle Repose, Lesser Restoration, Locate Object, Magic Weapon, Protection from Poison, Zone of Truth

3rd Level Spells: Animate Dead, Aura of Vitality, Beacon of Hope, Bestow Curse, Create Food and Water, Dispel Magic, Elemental Weapon, Fear, Feign Death, Magic Circle, Ray of Enfeeblement, Remove Curse, Revivify, Speak with Dead, Vampiric Touch

4th Level Spells: Aura of Life, Aura of Purity, Banishment, Blight, Death Ward, Locate Creature, Staggering Smite

5th Level Spells: Banishing Smite, Circle of Power, Commune, Contagion, Destructive Wave, Dominate Person, Dispel Good and Evil, Geas, Greater Restoration, Hallow, Mass Cure Wounds, Raise Dead

Shadow Smite

Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal necrotic damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is a celestial or angel.

Font of Souls

Beginning at 3rd level you can tap into the darkness fueling within you. This well within you is formed by the life essence (souls) you have harvested over the years. You start with no souls, but can store up to 5 at 3rd level, and gain more as you reach higher levels, as shown in the Souls column of the Knight of Darkness table. In order to gain souls, you must either land the killing blow on a creature or spend one minute harvesting the soul from a slain creature (creature must have died inside the last five minutes). You can never have more Souls than shown in the table for your level. You can only absorb the souls of other creatures excluding; constructs and undead, or from a body where the soul has already left. Once a soul charge is expended the soul is set free. You can use these souls to regain expended spell slots at the cost of [2 + Spell Level}. You can do this as a bonus action on your turn. You can create spell slots no higher in level than 5th.

Reaping Strike

Beginning at 3rd level, the Knight of Darkness must bond with an edge weapon of his choice. Once bonded this weapon acts as his Unholy symbol and as a part of an Attack action you may declare a reaping strike. If your next attack kills an enemy you gain soul charges equal to their CR level (minimum 1 soul charge gained). After the weapon has successfully reaped 50 soul charges using Reaping strike the shadow enhances it's power granting +1 hit and damage and making the weapon magical if not already. This occurs at 50, 500, 1000 soul charges and only occurs if the reaping strike delivered the fatal blow. The weapon cannot be enhanced above +3 through this power. Any magical effects are not cumulative (a normal sword would become +1 at 50 soul charges but a +1 sword would need 500 soul charges to become +2 and a +2 long sword would need 1000 soul charges to level to +3) Although the increases will not happen with magical weapons at or higher than the level of Souls accumulated the properties are still selected at appropriate levels (e.g. If a +3 sword collects 1000 souls it will still have three of the properties from below). If the Knight of Darkness bonds with a different edge weapon the bonding process consumes half of the current charges or 100 charges whichever is greater.

In addition to the +1 level gain the Knight of Darkness may choose one of the following properties;

1) The Weapon turns jet black in color and is as hard as obsidian - If the weapon would break instead the Knight of Darkness can spend 1 soul charge to prevent.

2) The Weapon becomes powerful - At the expenditure of 10 souls, a critical hit also does an extra die of weapon damage.

3) The Weapon casts magical darkness in a 10ft. radius when unsheathed upon command for the cost of 5 souls. This dims bright light and darkens normal light.

4) The Weapon gains demonic luck - If the Knight of Darkness rolls a one on an attack he may use his reaction and spend 5 soul charges to re-roll.

5) The Weapon extends a gift of darkness to the Knight of Darkness - +1 initiative and +1 perception.

Channel Darkness

At 3rd level, as a gift from your dark god or goddess you gain the following two Channel Darkness options. You may use one Channel option per short or long rest.

• Corrupted Weapon

As a bonus action, you can imbue one weapon that you are holding with negative energy, using your Channel Darkness. For 1 minute, you add your Charisma modifier to attack rolls made with that weapon (with a minimum bonus of +1). The weapon also dims a bright light in a 20-foot radius and darkens dim light 20 feet beyond that. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the duration. You can end this effect on your turn as a free action. If you are no longer holding or carrying this weapon, or if you fall unconscious, this effect ends.

• Mark of Darkness

As a bonus action, you can mark a target within 60 feet that you can see. This mark lasts 1 minute. If you are within 10 feet of this marked target when it dies you gain double the normal soul charges from the marked enemy. (you do not need to roll a CHA check - you automatically receive these souls) If Reaping Strike kills the target you receive 2x the CR value of the enemy in soul charges.

Aura of the Soul Harvest

Beginning at 4th level whenever a creature with a soul within 10 feet of you dies you may use your reaction and make a DC 15 charisma check to capture their life force as it leaves their body and consume it into your Font of Souls as one soul charge per CR of the creature (minimum 1 soul charge gained). Failing the Charisma check means the soul is still inside the body and must be harvested with the Font of Souls and all constraints therein apply. At 11th level the range doubles to 20 feet at 18th level the range increases to 30 feet. If multiple creatures die at the same time you can use your reaction to capture all of their souls at once, 1 soul charge per CR of the creatures - (minimum 1 soul charge gained). This does not stack with Reaping Strike (souls harvested by a Reaping Strike cannot also be obtained through Soul Harvest).

Ability Score Increase

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.

Shadow Strike

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the attack action with a weapon on your turn. additionally you may spend soul charges and choose one (only one) option to power this extra attack known as your Shadow Strike: (the Shadow Strike is the second attack of your turn)

1 soul charge - gain +1 to hit and damage

2 soul charges - gain 10 feet of movement until your next turn

5 soul charges - your movement becomes zero for the round but you gain advantage on your shadow strike

5 soul charges - after the attack you may teleport to an area of dim light or darkness that you can see within 30 feet

10 soul charges - gain life equal to the damage of the attack including any damage from Shadow Smite up to your maximum HP.

20 soul charges - the target must make a CHA saving throw vs your spellcasting DC at disadvantage or be blinded and frightened of you for 1 minute.

Soul Cleave

At 5th level, You can use your action to make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet and that are in front of you, with a separate attack roll for each target. This can be amplified by Shadow Strike.

Aura of Darkness

Starting at 6th level, whenever you or a friendly creature within 10 feet of you rolls for damage your power over Darkness grants them unholy strength. The friendly creature may re-roll up to one damage die (they must use the new roll). At 11th level the Darkness enhances this aura out to 15 feet and allows 2 dice to be re-rolled. At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet and three dice may be re-rolled (they must use the new rolls).

Soul Tap

At 7th level you start to master the manipulation of souls. As a bonus action you may spend souls to amplify your abilities. For each soul consumed (Up to a maximum combination of 5 total souls) choose between:

• 1 soul: +1 to hit and damage on your next attack

• 1 soul: +5 feet movement this turn

• 2 souls: +1 AC for the next attack against you

• 2 souls: +1 on your next saving throw

• 2 souls: +1 on your next ability check

• 3 souls: roll with advantage on your next attack

All of these effects last only to the start of your next turn

Gift of Souls

At 9th level your mastery of soul manipulation is enhanced. As an action you may channel an ally within 30 feet that you can see. You may transfer 1 to 10 soul charges to that ally. The ally receiving the souls may choose one or more of the following;

• They may regain 2 hp per soul transferred

• They may use 5 souls to immediately exchange places with the Knight of Darkness. The Knight of Darkness can resist this effect at will (charges will be consumed).

• They may use 7 souls to gain +5 AC until the end of the Knight of Darkness' next round.

The Darkening

At 11th level, your darkvision extends to 120 feet, unless already at this distance in which case your darkvision extends an additional 30 ft. You are also able to see 10 feet into magical darkness.

You are so infused with darkness that all your melee weapon strikes carry dark power with them. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon, the creature takes an extra 1d8 Necrotic damage. If you also use your Shadow Smite with an attack, you add this damage to the extra damage of your Shadow Smite.

Weight of Souls

At 13th level, the souls you carry within you start to weigh heavily upon your physical being. Your base speed for all methods of travel is further reduced by 5 feet.

Corrupting Touch

At 14th level you Hands of Darkness is enhanced - it may now be used at range to target a creature within 30 feet - a dark misty hand extends from the caster and into the very soul of his victim. If the target is in dim or lower light Hands of Darkness gains advantage. Any creature touched by your Hands of Darkness regardless of whether ranged or melee must make a CHA saving throw against your spell DC or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn.

Soul Barrier

Starting at 15th level, the Knight of Darkness' darkness fills him with protective energy. The Knight of Darkness gains resistance to Necrotic damage. The Knight of Darkness also gains advantage on saving throws involving Necrotic damage, spells or effects.

Dark Soul

Beginning at 18th level your own soul has been completely consumed by the darkness - You gain blind sight to 30 ft. and you can no longer be frightened. You are now vulnerable to radiant damage and you have disadvantage on saving throws vs spells that inflict radiant damage.

Dark Champion

At 20th level, you can assume the form of Pure Darkness, taking on an appearance you choose. For example, your skin might turn black or put off a dark mist, your hair might become pure white or cascade off you like fog, or you might sprout skeletal spikes.

Using your action, once per long rest you undergo a transformation. For 1 hour, you gain the following benefits:

• You sprout skeletal wings and gain a fly speed of 60 feet.

• At the start of each of your turns, you regain 10 hit points.

• You emanate an aura of menace in a 30-foot radius. The first time an enemy creature enters the aura or starts its turn there during battle, the creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of you for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. Attacks rolls against the frightened creature have advantage.

• Enemy creatures starting their turn within 5 feet of you must make a CHA save vs your spell DC or have vulnerability to Necrotic Damage.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Knight of Darkness class, you must meet these prerequisites: Strength 13 and Charisma 13

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Knight of Darkness class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields, Simple Weapons and Martial Weapons

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