Undertakers are clerics charged with guiding the living into the dark—be that gently or with the gnashing of teeth. Some undertakers worship the gods of death and destruction, uttering curses of decay and raising armies of undead. Others worship gods who—out of a respect for the dignity of life or hatred for the undead—practice death magics as a way to balance the cosmic scales. One way or another, they find themselves dealing with the rivers of life and death, either wading through or gliding gently across.
Holding fate so clearly in their hands, some undertakers more closely identify their archetype with another term: psychopomp, or “guide of souls.” Such an undertaker directly identifies with the spirits who transition mortal souls into the afterlife, such as angels of death, valkyries, chain devils—or even Charon, the Ferry of the River Styx.
Table: Undertaker Spells
| Cleric Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1 | detect poison and disease, protection from evil and good |
| 3 | gentle repose, ray of enfeeblement |
| 5 | animate dead, revivify |
| 7 | blight, death ward |
| 9 | antilife shell, raise dead |
Starting at 1st level when you choose this archetype, you can cast detect evil and good without spending spell slots. You can do so a total number of times between long rests equal to your Wisdom modifier. When you cast detect evil and good, you know whether an entity you sense is Undead.
Also at 1st level, you are charged with transitioning those whose time has come. You gain proficiency with martial weapons. You learn chill touch and spare the dying as bonus cantrips. Once between long rests, when you cast ceremony to perform a funeral or to guide the passing, you can do so without providing material components.
Beginning at 2nd level, as a bonus action you can lay a curse on a creature you can see within 30 feet of you, using your Channel Divinity. The next time that creature is hit by an attack before the end of your next turn, that attack’s total damage is doubled.
At 6th level, choose one option from the following:
Displaced Death. Through intensive prayer or symbolic rites, you can divert ill fates. When you or a friendly creature within 30 feet fails a death saving throw, you can use this feature to strike that failure from the record (even if you are unconscious). Once you have used this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, you can’t use it again until you complete a long rest.
Piercing Darkness. Necrotic damage you deal ignores resistance. When you reach 12th level, you treat creatures which ordinarily have immunity to necrotic damage as only having resistance. At 18th level, you ignore immunity to necrotic damage.
Beginning at 8th level, your weapon attacks deal extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. In addition, you can infuse divine power into a weapon attack to deal an extra 1d8 necrotic or radiant damage (your choice when you gain this feature). Once you have used this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest.
Beginning at 17th level, you can twist ambient life force emitted by the dying to the benefit of your allies… or to yourself alone. When a creature you can see of CR 1 or higher dies within 120 feet of you, you or a friendly creature you can see within that range regains hit points equal to 1d6 per that creature’s CR (minimum of 1d6). (Creatures who use character level instead of CR are treated as having CR equal to their level.)