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Class Features

As a dark knight you gain the following class features.

Darkside

In times of peril, you can allow yourself to succumb to the lurid temptations of your inner hatred, pain, and regrets to gain strength. As a bonus action, you may expend 1 Dark Arts point to gain the effect of Darkside for 1 minute. While succumbing to your Darkside, you gain the following benefits:

• Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.
• When you make a melee weapon attack using Strength, you deal bonus necrotic damage that increases as you gain levels as a dark knight, as shown in the Darkside Damage Die column of the Dark Knight table.
• You regain hit points equal to half of the bonus necrotic damage done (rounded down) by Darkside, or all on a critical hit.

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.

Blood Price

Starting at 2nd level, you can sacrifice your life force to replenish the well of darkness within you. As an action, you can expend one of your hit dice and roll it. You take necrotic damage equal to the amount rolled and recover Dark Arts points equal to half of the damage taken (rounded down). This damage cannot be reduced or mitigated by any means, and any excess Dark Arts points over your maximum are lost.

If the necrotic damage from this feature would incapacitate you, you suffer an entropic backlash; you are left with 1 hit point, gain 1 point of exhaustion, made prone, and any remaining Dark Arts points are lost.

Stalwart Soul

By 3rd level, your familiarity with profane corruption and the grim, uncompromising principles of impartial justice have reinforced your resolve. You can no longer be frightened.

Flame in the Abyss

When you reach 3rd level, you confront the darkness that has tormented your soul, receiving absolution and renewed sense of conviction. Up to this time you have struggled to find your purpose, and have wondered if the lonely path of the dark knight was truly your heart's desire. Now fully committed, you choose a path which best reflects your intent as a dark knight, which are all covered in more detail at the end of the class description.

Your choice grants you grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, and 14th level.

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.

Oblation

Starting at 5th level, you can use your reaction to expend and roll one of your hit dice to ward yourself, or a creature of your choosing within 30 feet of you, in a protective barrier whenever they are hit by an attack or damaged as a result of a magical effect or spell. The target gains temporary hit points equal to the die result + your Charisma modifier.

Shadowskin

By 7th level, the time you've spent wielding negative energy has become a permanent part of you. You have darkvision out to a range of 60 feet and you gain resistance to necrotic damage. If you already have darkvision from your race, its range increases by 30 feet.

Reprisal

Beginning at the 9th level, you can deliver inexorable retribution against those who seek to harm you. Whenever a creature within 5 feet of you targets you with an attack and misses, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack against your attacker. On a hit, you can choose to expend 1 Dark Arts point to force the creature to make a Strength saving throw if it is no more than one size larger than you. The DC for this save is equal to the damage done. On a failed save, the target is knocked prone.

Blackblood

By 11th level, you have learned how to channel your suffering into vehement weapon strikes and baleful wards. While succumbing to your Darkside, you gain use of the following abilities:

Bloodspiller

Whenever you take the Attack action on your turn, you can choose to expend 10 hit points and 1 Dark Arts point to gain the effects of Bloodspiller until the start of your next turn. While under the effects of Bloodspiller, you gain advantage on weapon attack rolls using Strength and your melee weapon attacks deal an extra 10 damage of the weapons type.

Quietus

As an action, you can choose to expend 5 hit points and 1 Dark Arts point to make a melee weapon attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of you, with a separate attack roll for each target. You can increase the radius of Quietus by 5 feet by sacrificing an additional 5 hit points, to a maximum of 10 feet.

The Blackest Night

As an action, you can choose to expend and roll 2 hit dice to wreathe yourself, or a creature of your choosing within 30 feet of you, in a barrier of writhing, vein-like shadows for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The target gains temporary hit points equal to the dice result + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus.

While a target has these hit points, they become heavily obscured to others. In addition, whenever a creature within 10 feet of the target hits them with an attack, the shadows lash out at the attacker, dealing it 2d8 necrotic damage.

Mired Empathy

Starting at 13th level, your intimate understanding of personal darkness and suffering allows you to recognize and empathize with fellow troubled souls. You are aware of any humanoid creature that is in severe emotional duress, tormented by feelings of guilt, or burdened with unfathomable grief within 60 feet of you. When you are in range of a creature afflicted by such sorrows, you are alerted to their presence by faint tendrils of intangible darkness that appear to gather and seep from their chest.

As an action, you can touch a distraught creature and expend 1 Dark Arts point to attempt to emotionally commune with them, potentially gaining insight into their afflictions. When you do so, the creature must make a Charisma saving throw against your Dark Knight Spell DC. A creature can choose to willingly fail their saving throw. On a fail, you can feel the emotions that are causing the creature distress, and become aware of any unresolved trauma that lies in their psyche (such as the loss of a loved one, a visceral hatred for another, or anguish over an outcome they were powerless to prevent).

Once you've communed, or attempted a communion, with a creature in this way, they become immune to the effects of your Mired Empathy feature for the next 24 hours.

Dark Mind

Beginning at 15 level, you've learned to quell the invasive whispers that claw at your mind. This persistent mental discipline is a natural bulwark against the deceptions of outside trickery and manipulation, granting you proficiency with Wisdom saving throws.

Additionally, whenever you are subject to an effect that would cause you to become charmed, you can use your reaction to expend 1 Dark Arts point to remove the condition from yourself. You can only use this reaction on the same turn that the condition was applied.

Improved Shadowskin

At 17th level, your prolonged exposure to death and the voracious entropy of your Dark Arts have forever tainted you; you involuntarily exude a dreadful aura that makes others uncomfortable in your presence, the color drains from your eyes, and your skin deteriorates to a pallid, sickly gray. This unsettling nature imposes disadvantage on both performance and persuasion (Charisma) ability checks whenever you interact with a creature of a non-evil alignment.

While your gruesome appearance and unholy disposition can be viewed as detriments, you have inherited beneficial traits and characteristics typically associated with the living dead. You are permanently under the following effects:

• You are immune to the effects of poison and the poisoned condition.
• Your Constitution score increases by 2, with your maximum for the score becoming 22.
• You regain hit points equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1) whenever you start your turn with no more than half your hit points remaining and you are not incapacitated.

Salted Earth

Starting at 18th level, you can expend 1 Dark Arts point to cast the circle of death spell without requiring any components. Once you cast a spell this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest or until you expend 6 Dark Arts points to use it again.

Living Dead

Beginning at the 20th level, you can completely surrender yourself to the lurking darkness and tempestuous emotions swirling within your heart, instilling within you an unholy tenacity to continue fighting, regardless of the severity of your wounds. When you are reduced to 0 hit points without being killed outright, you can choose to expend 2 Dark Arts points to activate Living Dead using a special reaction. You can use this reaction if you have already used a reaction this round, but not if you used a reaction this turn.

When you do so, you regain 1 hit point and you cannot fall below 1 hit point for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). Immediately after the effect of Living Dead ends, make a Death Saving Throw. You take 1 level of exhaustion on a success. On a fail, you take 2 levels of exhaustion and your speed is reduced to 0 until the start of your next turn.

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

A Path Shrouded in Sorrow

A dark knight lives and dies by sword with an understanding that the path they have chosen for themselves is a sad, lonely existence mired in suffering. These dark warriors are fully prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice to safeguard the weak and the oppressed, knowing that those they seek to defend will view them as nothing less than a villain or a monster. Yet no matter how bleak existence may seem, or how cruel and ignominious mortals can be to one another, dark knights can find solace in the simple fact their endless struggle has brought hope to the hopeless — no matter how trivial or small the deed, it was done because it was the right thing to do, and nothing more.

This understanding helps a dark knight navigate the oppressive, suffocating darkness of the world around them, kindling a gentle, flickering flame in the abyss. This sole spark is the seed of hope in a dark knight's heart, a benevolent guidestone that keeps them from straying from the path into damnation...or simply provides a remorseful dark knight a means to channel their unavoidable grief and sorrow.

Original Sins

One seeking to become a dark knight must be introduced to it through some means, be it an ancient tome inscribed with their rituals or a mentor searching for an apprentice to impart their knowledge. However, equally as important as the means to become a dark knight are the fledgling's reasons for pursuing dark vigilantism — Do they lack power to defend their loved ones and see the dark arts as a means to an end? Did they make a mistake that cost them greatly, and they wish to make amends for their folly? Or are they bent on vengeance for some past wound or loss that drove them to choose this dark warrior’s path?

An aspiring dark knight must eventually face the darkness that lurks in their heart and overcome their greatest fears and regrets, which is seen as the culmination of all the dark knight’s training. Once they have done so, they select a path that best represents their dedication to the greater good.

A Voice in the Abyss

Each path available to a dark knight is an unending journey of pain, misery, and endless death. But these stalwart warriors shoulder their burdens with quiet stoicism, taking small comfort in knowing the suffering they endure keeps evil at bay, if only for a brief moment. At 3rd level, you must choose one of the below options for your death knight:

A Deathbringer walks the path of the unyielding executioner, embracing their vengeful Darkside to deliver vehement blows capable of rending the armor of even the most heavily-armored knight in order to reach their victims. The Shadowbinder peers inwards, taking note of the darkness swelling within their breast and channeling its ruinous entropy into powerful, advanced forms of Dark Arts. And lastly, Bloodthirsters are voracious martyrs who sneer in the face of suffering, weaponizing sacrifice in the form of soul-devouring strikes and maniac states of bloodthirsty delirium.

Deathbringer

The path of the Deathbringer is a solemn commitment to punish those who have committed a grievous sin. When a lord orders the wanton slaughter helpless villagers, when an entire people turn to genocide in blind worship of a god, when a cutthroat merchant's guild grows too violent and abusive, when warring armies pillage and terrorize the countryside – at times like these, dark knights arise and swear an oath of retribution to set right that which has gone wrong. To these merciless executioners, their own purity is not as important as delivering uncompromising justice.

Dark Passenger

At 6th level, you gain the ability to slip into the shadows to deliver inescapable death to the wicked. When you are in dim light or darkness, you can expend 1 Dark Arts point as an action to teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness and make a melee weapon attack against a creature within range, dealing an extra 2d6 damage on a hit. If this attack reduces the creature to 0 hit points, you gain an additional use of this feature as part of the same action.

The extra damage granted by Dark Passenger increases to 3d6 at 10th level, and 4d6 at 14th level.

Weight of Sin

Beginning at 10th level, you can burden your enemies with the weight of their sins. As an action, you can expend 1 Dark Arts point to exude an aura of oppressive gloom for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier. The aura has a radius of 30 feet and reduces any bright light within its area to dim light.

Whenever a creature of your choosing enters the aura for the first time on a turn, or starts its turn there, they must make a Wisdom saving throw against your Spell Save DC. On a failed save, the target takes psychic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1) and they become frightened of you until the start of their next turn.

Mercykiller

At 14th level, you take it upon yourself to punish the guilty at any cost, and show no mercy when doing so. While succumbing to your Darkside, your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 18-20 and you add your Charisma modifier to the necrotic damage dealt by your Darkside Damage Die.

Shadowbinder

A great darkness lurks in the heart of every man and woman, an abhorrent and wicked monster capable of performing acts of cruelty so inhumane to make even the most resolute cleric or stalwart paladin question their faith; a fact all dark knights are intimately familiar with. But where other dark knights are content to harness the darkness as nothing more than a destructive tool of death, Shadowbinders peer deep into the abyss to glimpse hidden truths – to find understanding and purpose in the tempestuous currents of the stygian void.

To a Shadowbinder, darkness is not something to be feared, but a misunderstood force of nature that, while certainly malefic, can also be equally as soothing as the brightest ray of light.

Abyssal Communion

At 3rd level, you have gleaned esoteric knowledge from your introspective reflections and meditations within the void of the abyss. You gain shadowbinder spells at the levels listed.

Shadowbinder Spells

Dark Knight Level	Spell
3rd	dissonant whispers, sleep
5th	crown of madness, silence
9th	life transference, summon shadowspawn
13th	death ward, phantasmal killer
17th	antilife shell, cone of cold

Shadowbinder spells cost Dark Arts points to cast and follow the same rules as any other spell cast using your Dark Arts spellcasting feature. See the Dark Arts section at the end of the class description for a detailed explanation on how to cast spells using Dark Arts. If you gain a shadowbinder spell that doesn't appear on the dark knight spell list, the spell is nonetheless a dark knight spell for you.

Syphon Strike

When you reach 6th level, you've learned how to replenish the well of darkness within you by syphoning the life force of dying creatures. Whenever you reduce a living creature with a CR greater than 0 to 0 hit points with the necrotic damage from your Darkside feature, or with the necrotic damage from a 1st level spell or higher for the first time on a turn, you recover expended Dark Arts points.

You recover an amount of Dark Arts points based on the Syphon Strike table below. You can only recover Dark Arts points from a creature this way once per turn, with any excess Dark Arts over your maximum being lost. Constructs and undead creatures are immune to the effects of your Syphon Strike feature.

Dark Missionary

Beginning at 10th level, your knowledge of sacrifice and occult rituals allows you to convert the suffering of yourself and your allies into a font of restorative, eldritch power. As an action, you can touch an ally within range over the course of 1 minute and expend one of your hit dice, taking necrotic damage equal to 10 + your Constitution modifier. When you do so, you harvest a Dark Missionary Die from your offering, an opaque orb of darkness that seeps into the body of the the touched ally. This special die is a d10 and lasts for a number of hours equal to your Charisma modifier.

While the Dark Missionary Die is in their possession, a creature can choose to take an action on their turn to expend and roll the die. The creature recovers expended Spell Slots equal to the amount rolled and immediately takes necrotic damage equal to 3 times the initial dice roll. This damage cannot be reduced or mitigated by any means, and none of the Spell Slots recovered can be 6th level or higher. If the necrotic damage from the Dark Missionary Die would incapacitate the creature, it suffers an entropic backlash; it is left with 1 hit point, gains 1 point of exhaustion, made prone, and any Spell Slots gained using the die are lost.

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

Living Shadow

At 14th level, you can draw on the well of darkness within you to summon tendrils of writhing, living shadow. As an action, you can expend 6 Dark Arts points to cast the spell investiture of shadow.

Investiture of Shadow

6th-level transmutation

• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S
• Duration: Concentration, 10 minutes
• Classes: Dark Knight

Until the spell ends, swirling shadows wreathe your body, and you gain the following benefits:

• You become heavily obscured to others.
• You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet.
• You can use your action to create a 15-foot radius sphere of magical darkness centered on a point you can see within 60 feet of you. This darkness lasts for the duration of this spell, or until you activate this ability again. Only one instance of darkness created by this spell can exist at any time.
• Whenever a creature enters the sphere of darkness for the first time on a turn, or starts its turn there, it must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature takes 2d10 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Bloodthirster

For some dark knights, their pact with darkness is one of penance, not vengeance. Perhaps they are rectifying a terrible mistake of their past, or take sole blame for an event that lead to a great, personal tragedy. Regardless of intent, a dark knight who walks the path of the Bloodthirster will gladly spill every drop of blood in their body defending the weak from suffering even the most minute of injuries. These martyrs revel in their sacrifice, and unsettle their allies equally as much as their enemies with displays of bloodthirsty euphoria.

These crimson-soaked knights bend the very rules of mortality to control the front-lines of the battlefield, and those who follow this path must be mindful to not lose sight of their own humanity during their voracious crusades.

Sacrificial Pact

At 6th level, your reverence of pain has rewarded you with the ability to transfer an ally's suffering onto yourself. As an action, you can expend one Dark Arts point and ward a willing creature you touch, forming a sacrificial, eldritch bond with them for 1 hour.

Whenever the target is hit by an attack or spell while it is within 60 feet of you, you can use your reaction to transfer all damage the target takes to yourself, reducing the amount of damage taken by an amount equal to your Charisma modifier, until the start of its next turn. You must remain within line of sight of the target to use this reaction.

The Sacrificial Pact ends if you drop to 0 hit points or if you and the target become separated by more than 60 feet. It also ends if it is cast again on either of the connected creatures, or if you take a bonus action to dismiss it.

Blood Weapon

Beginning at 10th level, your weapon strikes are empowered by the suffering you endure in battle. For every 20 hit points you are missing, you gain a +1 bonus to melee weapon attack and damage rolls, to a maximum equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

Scarlet Delirium

By 14th level, your maimed body is wracked with the scars of battle and sacrificial wounds derived from your Dark Arts. To endure the punishment of pushing your body beyond mortal limits, you've learned to harness the darkness within you to ward your flesh and grant it a facsimile of life.

As a bonus action, you can choose to expend 2 Dark Arts points to gain the effect of Scarlet Delirium for 1 hour. While under the effect of Scarlet Delirium, you gain the following benefits:

• You have advantage on Constitution checks and Constitution saving throws.
• You gain additional temporary hit points equal to your Constitution modifier whenever a spell, feature, or effect would cause you to gain any.
• Damage from all sources is reduced by your current Blood Weapon bonus.
• You suppress the effects of exhaustion and magical sleep as long as you are not incapacitated. If you already have levels of exhaustion when you enter your Scarlet Delirium, its effects are suspended for the duration.

Dark Knights and One D&D

This homebrew class was intended for use with the core rulesets of D&D 5th Edition, though it borrows elements of One D&D (such as allowing more classes to receive a new feature, improvement, or ASI at every new level!) and can be easily converted to the new edition. If you would like to play a Dark Knight in One D&D, replace the 18th level Dark Knight feature Salted Earth with the 20th level Living Dead feature. Your new 20th level feature is the Epic Boon feature introduced in One D&D.

Dark Arts

Dark Knights draw upon the darkness that resides within every living creature to manipulate and channel the raw magic of the weave. Unconcerned with the origin of the dark powers they wield, dark knight's focus solely on exerting their own force of will through strong emotions – hatred, loathing, sorrow, fear, regret, and even compassion or love – as conduits to bring forth their ruinous Dark Arts against the corrupt and the profane.

Some scholars speculate that the source of a dark knight's power seeps from planar fissures connecting to the dreadful wastes of the Shadowfell, or from otherworldly deities such as the estoeric Raven Queen or the loathsome Orcus. Even more outlandish theories claim their abyssal magics are the fading echoes of Shar's lamentable Shadow Weave. However, dark knight's are pariahs within society, shunned as exiles and wanted fugitives – unfortunate circumstances that make it increasingly unlikely that the realms will ever truly know the veracity surrounding their occult arts.

4th Level

• Blight
• Confusion
• Elemental Bane
• Evard's Black Tentacles (PHB)
• Locate Creature
• Shadow of Moil
• Staggering Smite (PHB)

5th Level

• Banishing Smite (PHB)
• Circle of Power
• Contagion
• Destructve Wave* (PHB) *using the necrotic option
• Enervation (XGtE)
• Hold Monster
• Scrying
• Wall of Force

Credits

Brew by u/Celvira
Created using GM Binder
Based on the FFXIV to D&D Project by u/SilentSoren, whose hard work and dedication made this edit possible!

Art Credits:

Cover Art uncredited, searching for artist!
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Class Table Art by u/SilentSoren
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Credit Page Art by Edward Tsang on Artstation