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world of excal-heim

Grave Knight

Version 1.9

The Lich's of Excal-heim offer a deal to any who dread their own mortality; Serve as their stalwart warrior and be granted relentless life.
Anyone that accepts is put through a ritual, infusing them with necrotic power. They arise in a liminal state, not quite dead, not quite alive; A Grave knight. TL::DR
Grave Knights are constantly teetering between life and death. This gives them a somewhat fragile psyche.

Quick Build

You can make a grave knight quickly by following these suggestions.

First, Strength should be your highest ability score, followed by Constitution.

Second, choose the Haunted One background.

Grave Knight Table

Level	Prof.	Features	Trance
1st	2	Dissociation, Living-Undead Hybrid	2
2nd	2	Living-Undead Hybrid Improvement	2
3rd	2	Grave Path	3
4th	2	Ability Score Improvement	3
5th	3	Undying Constitution	3
6th	3	Grave Path feature	4
7th	3	Living-Undead Hybrid Improvement	4
8th	3	Ability Score Improvement	4
9th	4	Deathly Mockery	4
10th	4	Grave Path feature	4
11th	4	Jolly co-operation	4
12th	4	Ability Score Improvement	5
13th	5	Undying Constitution Improvement	5
14th	5	Bone Shields	5
15th	5	Grave Path feature	5
16th	5	Ability Score Improvement	5
17th	6	Necrotic Bastion	6
18th	6	Grave Path feature	6
19th	6	Ability Score Improvement	6
20th	6	Bone Shields improvement	6

hit dice: 1d10

hit points at 1st level: 10 + your Constitution modifier

hit points at higher levels: 1d10 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Grave Knight level after 1st

armor proficiencies: All armor

weapon proficiencies: All melee weapons

tools: None

saving throws: Strength, Constitution

skills: Choose 2 between Athletics, Arcana, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, and Survival

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

a light, medium, or heavy suit of armor
(a) a one-handed melee weapon and a medium shield or (b) a Two-handed melee weapon
(a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) a priest pack

Alt Money Start
3d4 *10 GP

spellcasting:

class features:

Dissociation

Starting at 1st level, as a bonus action, you can enter a trance. You can do this a number of times each long rest as shown in the Grave Knight Table above.
While in this trance you ignore all pain, mental distractions, and bodily harm. The trance lasts for 1 minute, stopping early when you use an action to end it or you are knocked unconscious.
While in this trance, you gain the following traits:

You have resistance to non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
You are immune to being frightened, charmed, and stunned.
Your movement speed increases by 5ft and long jump by 10ft
You don't require air, food, drink, or sleep.
You cannot cast any spells. Any spells active when you enter Undead Trance are immediately canceled.
Your armor class drops by 3

Living-Undead Hybrid

Starting at 1st level, you are both a humanoid and an undead, which gives you the following:

You are vulnerable to damage from silver weapons.
you are resistant to poison damage and have advantage against being poisoned.
You can be targeted by spells and effects that target undead and/or humanoid creatures.

At 2nd level, instead of sleeping, you enter an inactive state for 4 hours each day.
You do not dream in this state; you are vaguely aware of your surroundings, having your passive perception cut in half.
Additionally, you are resistant to necrotic damage and immune to diseases.
At 7th level, you are resistant to all spells and effects that target undead and/or humanoid creatures.

Grave Path

At 3rd level, you can pick a path that sharpens how you wield your skills of resilience. Choose either the Hypnotist or Grudge, detailed below. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, 15th, and 18th.

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.

Undying Constitution

Grave knights are naturally attuned to the allure of the grave, and this comes with powers that can enhance both body and soul.
At 5th level, when you succeed on 3 death-saving throws, you regain 1 hit point and 1d12 temporary hit points instead of becoming stabilized.
You can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
At 13th level, you are proficient with death-saving throws.

Deathly Mockery

you can make gory comments full of banalities and expletives, cursing death onto another, forcing them to attack you.
At 9th level, As an action, you can target a creature within 60 feet of you that you can see. The target must attempt a Wisdom saving throw with a DC of 10+your intimidation skill. Creatures that are deafened automatically succeed this throw. On a success, they are immune to this feature's effect for the next hour. On a fail, they have disadvantage on all checks and attack rolls targeting creatures other than you for the next 3 turns.

Jolly co-operation

At 11th level, you can spend part of a short rest bonding with a willing creature that is friendly to you.
As a bonus action, you can teleport to an unoccupied space within 5ft of a living bonded creature. This cost one of your uses of Dissociation and you can't travel more than 60ft this way. You can only be bonded to 4 creatures at a time.

Bone Shields

At 14th level, you call upon your squires of the grave as a grave knight. You can summon 3 hovering skeletal shields to unoccupied spaces within 10 feet of you. These shields follow you as you move and occupy the space of a Medium creature. They are constructed out of a haphazard mix of bones and have an AC of 10 and 20 hit points. When they drop to 0 hit points, they shatter and collapse into a pile of bones. You can use this feature once per long rest.
At 20th level, you can use this feature twice per long rest.

Necrotic Bastion

At level 17, Those who wish to bypass your defenses do so at their peril. When a creature within 5 feet of you makes an attack against a target other than you, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against them.

subclass options:

Hypnotist

The mind rules over the body. You can push yourself to the limit with your trance, utterly ignoring physical difficulty even when they slash away at you.

Unyielding Body

At 3rd level, while you are in trance, you have advantage on Constitution and Wisdom saving throws.

True Strength

At 6th level, while you are in trance, you can add your Proficiency Bonus to both attack and damage rolls for melee weapons.

Necrotic Absorption.

At 9th level, while you are in trance, anytime you take necrotic damage, you gain an equal number of temporary hit points.

Spring Back

At 15th level, when you make any number of death throws, you regain all uses of Dissociation.

Focus of a Still Heart.

At 18th level, once per short rest, you can triple the number of actions you take each turn for 1 minute.

Dreadknight

Writhing Shadows

At 3rd level, as a bonus action, you can make the ground in a 15-foot radius of you, difficult terrain. You ignore all penalties caused by this difficult terrain.

Try Again

At 6th level, when you are “healed” by the Undying Constitution feature, you gain Xd10+1 temporary hit points instead. Where X is your remaining hit dice, minimum of 1.

Life thief

At 9th level, at the cost of one of your uses of Dissociation, you can make an unarmed attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 1d6 necrotic damage, and you gain an equal amount of temporary hit points.

Cackling Bones

At 15th level, If a creature hits one of your bone shields with a melee attack, they must pass a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your Wisdom modifier + your proficiency bonus) or become frightened until the end of their next turn.

Residual Cringe Damage.

At 18th level, as a bonus action, you can snap your fingers and instantly deal 6d6 damage to every creature you harmed in the past minute.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Grave Knight class, you must meet these prerequisites: 15 Constitution, 15 Strength Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Grave Knight class, you gain the following proficiencies: melee weapons, all armor.

Created by

stormgate_dnd.

System

Dungeons & Dragons 5e

Statblock Type

Class Features

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Dungeons & Dragons 5e Class Features : Grave Knight