Most people hope to die peacefully and privately, but some have not earned that right, and executioners are tasked with taking out these individuals in the harsh light of day. Often brutal and always deadly, executioners bring not just violence but death to those they or those they serve have determined are no longer worthy of life and set a terrifying example for those who bear witness. The morality and demeanor of executioners varies wildly. Some are sadists and psychopaths, reveling in the misery, terror and carnage they cause. Others are stoic, restrained agents of justice who see themselves as the means by which righteous and just verdicts are carried out. Few have many friends.
Beginning at 3rd level, you take on some item of clothing, mark, or iconography that marks you as an executioner. This is often the traditional black executioner’s hood, but can be other things as well, depending on your culture. You gain proficiency with the Intimidation skill. If you are already proficient, you gain an expertise die. While wearing your Mark of the Executioner, your expertise die in Intimidation increases by one step, to a maximum of 1d10.
Also at 3rd level, you learn to use the traditional implements of an executioner to greater effect. When you enter a rage, choose a greataxe or greatsword you are wielding. The chosen weapon does additional slashing damage equal to your proficiency bonus until your rage ends. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points while wielding one of these weapons, you may decapitate it if it has a head. If the creature can’t survive with its head removed, it dies. This effect does not apply if the target is too big for its head to be removed by the weapon (determined at the discretion of the Narrator), or it can survive the loss of its head. If the creature has multiple heads, you can choose which one to sever.
At 6th level, whenever you kill a creature with Headsman’s Cut, you may snatch up its head and hold it aloft as part of the attack, causing hostile creatures within 30 feet of you to make a Wisdom saving throw. Creatures that fail their saving throw take 2d6 psychic damage and are frightened of you for one minute. Creatures that succeed take half as much damage and are rattled until the beginning of your next turn. A frightened creature can repeat the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the frightened condition on a success. Once a creature has successfully saved against this feature, it has advantage on future saves against it for the rest of combat, and future successes avoid the damage entirely rather than halving it.
At 10th level, you become better with the implements of death and can add additional options to your repertoire. You can use Headsman’s Cut with a battle axe or bastard sword as well as a greataxe or greatsword. You can still only apply the bonus damage to a single weapon. If you have a shield or weapon in your other hand, you quickly skewer the severed head on your weapon, which cannot be wielded normally until you spend a bonus action to knock the head off (treat it as a club while the head is attached). The bonus damage from Headsman’s Cut now applies whether you are raging or not, and while you are raging, you deal an additional 1d6 points of necrotic damage with a single weapon associated with the Headsman’s Cut feature.
At 14th level, your embrace of death dealing has made you a figure of menace and horror, and you are nearly impossible to sway from your task. While you are raging, you are immune to the confused and frightened conditions. Also while raging, you have advantage on saves to avoid the charmed, rattled, and stunned conditions. You can now use Headsman’s Cut, Public Spectacle and Cut Down with any melee weapon that deals slashing damage. You can still only apply the bonus damage to a single weapon. Creatures that fail their save against Public Spectacle now suffer a level of strife in addition to the other effects. If this would result in the creature having more levels of strife than your proficiency bonus, it does not gain the level of strife.
In addition, you have dealt so much death that it is reluctant to collect you. If you would acquire the Doomed condition, you may make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a success, you do not acquire the condition and you recover a level of fatigue and a level of strife from the thrill of cheating death.