Grave Knight
Heralds carry a variety of messages out into the world, and for some, that message is “death comes for you.” Grave knights are often spoken of in whispers for fear that even saying the name of one of these champions of undeath will draw their attention. Not all grave knights are indiscriminate slayers of the living, however. Some are driven by revenge against a specific foe, others may guard sites of import, some serve more powerful undead masters, and some may simply wish to be left alone. A rare few are true heroes, turning the curse of unlife into a powerful weapon against the forces of wickedness.
Tenets of the Grave Knight
While grave knights are a varied bunch, they typically share a few key beliefs in common.
Add the necrotic school of magic to your list of herald spells.
At 3rd level when you choose this archetype, you gain the following Channel Divinity option.
Enervating field. As an action, you call upon your power to drain the life from the living around you. Each living creature within 30 feet of you must make a Constitution save against your spell save DC or have their movement Speed halved until the end of their next turn.
Also at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with the Adamant Mountain combat school. You also gain a single rank one maneuver from that school that does not count against your known maneuvers.
Beginning at 3rd level, your Lay on Hands ability no longer works as it did before. Your Lay on Hands ability can restore hit points to undead creatures (including yourself), but healing is now only half as efficient as it once was; you must spend 2 points to heal a point of damage, and you must spend 7 to cure a disease or neutralize a poison. However, you can now spend 5 points to deal an additional 1d8 points of necrotic damage when hit with a weapon attack. This may not be combined with Divine Smite, and you cannot spend more than 5 points per turn on this feature.
Finally, at 3rd level you begin to transform into an undead creature yourself. Choose one of the following options:
At 7th level, your undead transformation progresses. If you’ve chosen Path of the Revenant at 3rd level, you gain the Revenant feat. If you’ve chosen Path of the Vampire at level 3, you gain the Vampire Spawn feat, and if you’ve chosen Path of the Mummy, you gain the Mummified feat.
In addition, at 7th level, you learn to tap into your growing necromantic power for greater effectiveness. You gain one of the following features:
Also at 15th level, if you’ve chosen Path of the Revenant, you gain the True Revenant feat, and disregard the one-year time limit normally imposed by it. If you’ve chosen Path of the Vampire, you gain the Vampire Lord feat. If you’ve chosen Path of the Mummy, you gain the Mummy Lord feat.
At 20th level, your transformation into an agent of death is complete. If you would die, you instead do not die and immediately regain hit points equal to half of your maximum. Once you have used this feature, you may not do so again until you have finished a long rest.