Shard Knight (5e Subclass)
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Shard Knight
Soul Alchemy
Shard knights control a very ancient and forgotten mystical art, the art of crystalmancy. This mystical technique allow its controller to transform souls into magical crystals called soul shards, a powerful arcane fuel with almost infinite energy, that can be used in a variety of ways. These knights use take the martial approach, using the soul energy to empower their weapons, enhance natural abilities and overall exploring the different ways the crystallized souls can be used in combat.
Some see the crystalmancy as a brand of the necromancy, controlling the vital force of deceased creatures, bending souls to their will, but is actually a mix between two disciplines, necromancy and transmutation. The crystalized souls aren't really undead in nature, since they are not nonliving souls tied to the material plane, but rather souls tied to the shard magician. Once a shard is broken, the soul continues its travel through the planar wheel as usual for deceased creatures.
Hunters and Gatherers
To gather the raw materials necessary to their practice, shard knights will often hunt otherworldly beings and harvest their souls to craft crystals. Some are members of orders or groups devoted to the killing of a particular type of antagonizing entity, like fiends, aberrations and undead, using their own souls against them. Others...(complete later)
Creating a Shard Knight
If you want to make a Shard Knight ask how you gained your power of the forces of nature. Were you blessed by a powerful fey at birth? or maybe cursed by a powerful Wizard?
- Quick Build
You can make a Shard Knight quickly by following these suggestions. First, Strength for Thunder or Dexterity for Mist should be your highest ability score, followed by Charisma. Second, choose the Soldier background.
Class Features
As a Shard Knight you gain the following class features.
- Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per Shard Knight level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 1d8 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + Constitution modifier per Shard Knight level after 1st
- Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Constitution, Charisma
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Athletics, Acrobatics, Insight, Intimidation, Nature, Perception, and Religion
- Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) scale mail or (b) leather armor
- (a) a longsword and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
- (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
- a longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows
- If you are using starting wealth, you have 4d4 x 10 gp in funds.
| Level | Proficiency Bonus |
Features | Shards | Awakened Shards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Spiritual Chamber | 1 | - |
| 2nd | +2 | Awakened Shards | 1 | 1 |
| 3rd | +2 | Archetypes | 2 | 1 |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 2 | 1 |
| 5th | +3 | Soul Explosion, Summon Shard Spirit | 3 | 2 |
| 6th | +3 | Shard Break | 3 | 2 |
| 7th | +3 | Archetype Feature | 4 | 2 |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 2 |
| 9th | +4 | Shard Break Improvement | 5 | 3 |
| 10th | +4 | — | 5 | 3 |
| 11th | +4 | Archetype Feature | 6 | 3 |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 6 | 3 |
| 13th | +5 | Advanced Invocations | 7 | 4 |
| 14th | +5 | — | 7 | 4 |
| 15th | +5 | Archetype Feature | 8 | 4 |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 8 | 4 |
| 17th | +6 | Spirit Summoning | 9 | 5 |
| 18th | +6 | — | 9 | 5 |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 10 | 5 |
| 20th | +6 | — | 10 | 5 |
Spiritual Chamber
At 1st level, you have built a amulet that can contain souls for you to use when crafting shards. When a creature within 30 feet is reduced to 0 hit points, you can capture its essence and create an appropriated shard.
- Shard Resistance
Whenever a shard feature call for a DC, you calculate it as follows:
Shard Save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.
- Shard Creation
You can have a number of shards equal to half your level in this class. You can use a shard to generate magic effects, depending on their type. Each creature type is related to a type of energy. The types of energy are: acid, cold, fire, lighting, necrotic, psychic, radiant and thunder, poison.
The shard energy type will be from the same type that creature is immune to. If the creature has more than one immunity, you can choose any of them.
If the creature has no immunity, the shard created will be from the same type of damage type the creature is resistant too. If the creature has more than one resistance, you can choose any of them.
If the creature has no resistance or it is a plant, you can purify and release the essence, letting the residual taint of the soul or spirit on the spiritual chamber, generating poison essence.
- Charged Strikes
You can spend 10 minutes to attach a shard to a weapon to perform a charged attack. As an action, you deal its normal damage, plus an additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier against one target within 5 feet. At 5th level, the melee attack deals an extra 1d8 damage to the target, and the fire damage to the other creatures creature increases to 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier. Both damage rolls increase by 1d8 at 11th level and 17th level.
- Powered Armor
You can spend 10 minutes to attach the shard to a armor or shield. Doing so will protect you against that type of damage. You can use your reaction and reduce the damage every time you take damage from the same type of your attached shard. You reduce by an amount equal to 1d8 + your level in this class. You can have only one shard attached to an armor at the same time.
Awakened Shard
At 2nd level, you can use the true power of the shards. You can choose to awaken the true potential of a soul on a shard. Choose one type of creature's soul, from the following: aberration, celestial, dragon, elemental, fey, fiend, plant or undead. You have one awakened shard at 2nd level, gaining additional ones as you gain levels in this class, as shown on the Awakened Shard column on the Shard Knight table.
Every time you gain a level in this class, you can choose to replace one awakened shard you have for another one. The damage types within parenthesis indicate the type of shard required to create that type of awakened shard.
- Celestial (radiant, fire, lighting or thunder shards)
When you activate this shard, you next attack with a weapon is charged by a radiant shard, dealing 3d8 additional radiant damage against a aberration, fiend or undead you hit with it.
- Faeric (psychic, radiant, lighting, fire)
When you activate this shard, point to a place you can see within 30 feet. Then, you can use your action to teleport to that location.
- Elemental (acid, cold, fire, lighting, thunder)
When you activate this shard, after hitting a creature with an attack, it becomes engulfed by the element represented by the damage type of your weapon. On a hit, the creature is enveloped by elemental energy, taking additional damage equal to 1d10, from the type of damage of the energy, on the end of its next turn.
- Fiendish (fire, necrotic, acid or poison shards)
When you activate this shard, reducing a creature to 0 hit points with a charged attack will grant you temporary hit points equal to half of the total damage dealt.
- Undead (necrotic, poison, psychic or cold shards)
When you activate this shard, all creatures within the area have disadvantage on Strength checks and saving throws, and can only move up to half their total movement speed.
- Aberrant (psychic, necrotic, cold or acid shards)
When you activate this shard, make an attack with a weapon. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw, or is frightened by you until the end of your next turn.
- Draconic (fire, poison, lighting, acid or cold shards)
When you activate this shard, instead of making an attack, you can use your action to spit your shard energy into a 15-foot cone. All creatures within the cone must make a Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes the 1d6 damage for each point of proficiency bonus you have, on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.
- Plant (poison or radiant shards)
Archetypes
Although all shard knights practice the art of soul crystallization, as their progress in their art, they will focus in one specific aspect of this art, unlocking new secrets contained within the shards. When you reach 3rd level, you select your archetype. Your archetype of choice grants you features at 3rd level and then again at 7th, 11th, and 15th level.
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.
Soul Explosion
Beginning at 5th level, when you make one charged attack as an action, you can use your reaction to release a powerful explosion, dealing additional damage equal to 2d6 damage against any creature of your choice within 5 feet.
In addition, now you can attach or remove a shard from your weapon as an action on your turn.
Summon Shard Spirit
Starting at 5th level, you can use the awakened shard to materialize a spiritual construct of the same type of the shard. As an action, choose one of your awakened shards. When you do this, you can summon a creature with a CR 1 or lower, from the same type of the chosen shard. The creature appear in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of you and fight for you for 1 minute. While the creature is summoned, you lose access to all benefits of the related Awakened Shard.
The summoned creature is friendly to you and your companions. Roll initiative for the summoned creature, which have its own turn. The creature obey any verbal commands that you issue to it (no action required by you). If you don’t issue any commands to it, the creature will defend itself from hostile creatures, but otherwise take no actions.
Once you activate the shard in that manner, you can't do it again until you finish a short or a long rest.
Shard Break
At 6th level, you learn how to use the power contained inside the shards to empower yourself. As an action, you can break a shard, releasing its power on yourself or on a creature within 30 feet of you, generating one of the following effects:
Single Shards
Non Awakened. Breaking a non awakened shard will increase the damage of the next attack made by a creature infused with its power by 2d6. The damage type is the same of the broken shard.
Elemental. The affected creature gain resistance to the acid, cold, fire, lighting or thunder damage (choose one) for 1 hour.
Celestial. The affected creature gain the effects of sanctuary for 10 minutes.
Undead. The affected creature You can break this shard over a corpse or a pile of bones as an action, causing it to reanimate as if it was target by the animate dead spell.
Draconic. The affected creature gain wings, and gain flight movement speed of 20 feet.
Aberrant. The affected creature exudes an aura of fear of 30 feet, and any creature within 10 feet of it is frightened for 1 minute.
Fey. The first creature who look at the affected creature within 10 minutes becomes charmed for 1 hour.
Fiend. The affected creature is engulfed in flames for 1 hour. The first successful attack within the duration against the affected creature deal 1d8 fire damage and 1d8 necrotic damage back to the attacker.
Plant.
Shard Combinations
Starting at 9th level, you can combine awakened and non awakened shards, pressing one against the other and breaking them at the same time, creating new effects:
Non Awakened + Non Awakened (different types). For 10 minutes, the creature weapon attacks deal additional 2d4 additional damage. Each d4 is from one of the damage types represented by the shard.
Non Awakened + Non Awakened (same types). For 10 minutes, the affected creature weapon attacks deal additional 1d4 additional damage, from the type of the shards. In addition, you gain +1 on attack and damage rolls with a particular weapon.
Elemental + Any. For 10 minutes, the affected creature gain immunity to the damage type of the broken non awakened shard.
Celestial + Radiant. For 1 hour, the affected creature regain 4d6 hit points and gain the effects of protection from evil and good.
Undead + Necrotic. You can break this shard over a corpse or a pile of bones as an action, causing it to reanimate as if it was target by the animate dead spell.
Draconic + Any. The affected creature gain advantage on all Charisma and Strength checks for 1 hour. Gain resistance to the damage type of the broken shard and his attacks deal additional 1d4 damage from the damage type of the broken shard.
Aberrant + Psychic. The affected creature can cast arms of hadar at will for 10 minutes, as a 3rd level spell.
Fey + Radiant. The affected creature become invisible for 1 hour, or until you make an attack or cast a spell.
Fiend + Fire or Necrotic. The affected creature gaint the effects of polymorph for 1 hour or until reduced to 0 hit points, assuming the shape of a fiend with a CR of 1 or lower.
Plant + Poison.
Spirit Summoning
When you reach 17th level, you learned how to unlock the true power of the soul contained within your shard. During a long rest, you attune yourself with one of your shards, and use the soul inside it as a vessel to contact a spirit from the same type of the shard. The spirit is any creature from the same type of the shard, with a CR of 5 or lower. You can use your action to break the shard, summoning a spirit of a creature contained within the shard.
The shard spirit acts independently on its own turn, but always obeys your commands. On each of your turns, you can use a bonus action to mentally command your shard spirit if it is within 60 feet of you. You decide what action the shard spirit will take and where it will move during its next turn, or you can issue a general command, such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor. If you issue no commands, the shard spirit only defends itself against hostile creatures. Once given an order, the shard spirit continues to follow it until its task is complete.
You can't summon another spirit while one still active, and when the spirit reaches 0 hit points, it is released and can finally rest.
Hollowed
Soul eaters are the shard knights able to merge the souls they absorb into their own body.
- Soul Infusion
Starting at 3rd level, you learned how to merge the souls with your own. You can infuse yourself with a soul, granting the benefits described into the Soul Transmutations section bellow during a long rest.
The infusions are permanent, but can be removed and exchanged for another over a long rest. To infuse a soul, you must have your soul chamber at hand and perform a 1 hour ritual. You also must have an awakened shard, that you use as a component for that infusions. You can have a number of soul infusions equal to your proficiency bonus.
- Crystal Sword
Starting at 7th level, you can materialize your own soul into a crystallized blade, that lasts until the end of your next turn. The crystal sword is considered a simple melee weapon and deal damage equal to 2d8 force damage, and it has the finesse, light and throw properties. Whenever you make an attack against a creature with the same creature type of your awakened shard, you make the attack at advantage. Attacks against any other creature types are made at disadvantage.
If you drop the weapon or throw it, it dissipates at the end of the turn. Thereafter, while the spell persists, you can use a bonus action to cause the sword to reappear in your hand.
- Soul Replacement
When you reach the 11th level, you can choose to lose one of the souls inserted into your own body, instead of your own. Whenever you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can spend one shard to be reduced to 1 instead.
Hollowed Soul Infusions
- Non-Awakened Infusions
Choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lighting, necrotic, psychic, poison, thunder or radiant. Each time you hit a creature with an attack from a charged weapon, you can replace the damage type deal from the chosen non-awakened infusion. You can choose this multiple times, one for each damage type.
- Draconic Infusion
You can summon a pair of wings, which you can use to fly up to 20 feet. You must end your movement on the ground, or else you fall.
At 15th level, these wings give you flight speed equal to your movement speed.
- Celestial Infusion
You can use your bonus action on your turn to roll one hit die and regain a number of hit points equal to the number rolled + your Charisma modifier.
- Elemental Infusion
When you finish a long rest, you can choose to have resistance to one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lighting or thunder.
- Aberrant Infusion
Your melee attacks gain reach property, if they already haven't. Attacks made at reach distance deal psychic damage, instead of the normal damage.
- Fiendish Infusion
You can see through normal and magical darkness up to a range of 120 feet.
- Faeric Infusion
As an action, you can choose a creature within 5 feet of you. This creature must make a Wisdom saving throw or is charmed until the end of your next turn. A creature affected by this feature can't be affected again for the next 24 hours.
- Undead Infusion
You no longer need to sleep, eat or drink, and you no longer age, magically or otherwise. You still must take a long rest to avoid the effects of exhaustion and to regain class features.
Multiclassing
Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Shard Knight class, you must meet these prerequisites: Charisma 13, Constitution 13.
Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the Shard Knight class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons.
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