Dread Knight (3.5e Class)

Dread Knight
A Dread Knight is a warrior who gains power over hellfire through ancient pacts with archfiends, granting him the ability to smite his foes with eldritch power.

Making a Dread Knight
Abilities: Charisma is probably the most important with Strength as a close second and Constitution coming in third.

Races: Any race capable of evil can spawn Dread Knights although they are most common among the Tieflings.

Alignment: Any Evil

Starting Gold: As Paladin.

Starting Age: Simple, You are not trained to be Dread Knight you simply are one.

Class Skills (Skill Points::4 + Int modifier per level, &times;4 at 1st level) Bluff, Concentration, Craft (Poison), Diplomacy, Intimidate, Knowledge (The Planes), Sense Motive, and Spellcraft.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the dread knight.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dread Knights are proficient with all armors and shields as well as all simple and martial weapons, war maces and bastard swords.

A least invocation costs one point, a lesser invocation costs two and a greater invocation costs three. If a Dread Knight has no invocation points, he cannot use any of his invocations or any powers that drain them. A Dread Knight regains all lost invocation points at the end of the day; however, the Dread Knight has one final way to restore invocation points: he may convert his constitution into invocation points, gaining two invocation points per Con point burned.

Any invocations that alter Eldritch Blasts apply to a Dread Knights Hellfire Smite as well.

 (Ex): At 1st level a Dread Knight's hands morph into fiendish claws, granting him two 1d6 damage claw attacks. This ability does not restrict his ability to wear items in the hands and rings magic item slots.

 (Su): At 3rd level, the Dread Knight gains the ability to smite his foes with eldritch hellfire once per round causing the next blow dealt with his claws to deal +1d6 damage. A Dread Knight can use this ability for free a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier +1, after which it drains one invocation point per use. The extra damage dealt with this blow increases every two levels after 3rd.

 (Su): At 4th level, the Dread Knight gains the ability to command fiends through shear willpower, this works exactly like the cleric ability Rebuke/Command undead except that it effects Evil Outsiders instead of undead. A Dread Knight's effective cleric level is equal to his Dread Knight level -3. Using this ability costs one invocation point per 4 Hit Dice of the strongest fiend that the Dread Knight is attempting to Rebuke/Command.

(Su): At 8th level, the Dread Knight gains the ability to surround himself with a aura of hellfire dealing 2d6 damage per round to all enemies within 10 ft., at 16th level this aura intensifies dealing 4d6 damage instead of 2d6. This ability drains 1 Invocation point every round it is active.

(Su): At 12th level, the Dread Knight gains resistance to harmful energy, gaining resistance to Electricity, Fire and Acid 5.

 (Su): At 20th level, the Dread Knight undergoes or foul transformation, this transformation requires a week-long ritual that, once completed, transforms the Dread Knight into a Half-Fiend, gaining all the attributes of one except the level adjustment and making the Dread Knight immortal and removing any age-based ability score modifiers. However, this transformation comes at a grave price: once completed the Dread Knight may never be raised again as his soul is traded to a Fiendish Lord to complete the bargain. Because of this, some Dread Knights never undertake the ritual.

Ex-Dread Knights
A Dread Knight who ever commits a good act without personal gain immediately loses all supernatural class features of the Dread Knight until he receives a atonement spell sealed with the blood of a innocent, however, a Dread Knights alignment can never become good no matter what, for once a Dread Knight always a Dread Knight.

Epic Dread Knights
You don't want to know.................

Playing a Dread Knight
Religion: No god not even an evil one would allow a Dread Knight to worship them and only the foulest of fiendish lords accept them.

Other Classes: No-one is comfortable in the presence of a Dread Knight even when they seem to be on their side, for as the say gos "Being on your side is just a step away from stabbing you in the back". Dread Knight for their part consider any "ally" to be merely disposable tools.

Combat: A Dread Knight belongs on the front lines not only because his abilities are focused on melee, but also because no one in their right minds would let him stand behind them.

Advancement: Multi-class? There is no other class that offers the Dread Knights sheer melee ability or awesome defensive power, in short Dread Knights do not multi-class.

Dread Knights in the World
"You wish for me to speak to you, you pathetic worm? Then here is what I say: Die."

Dread Knights do not truly fit in anywhere and with good reason, where a Dread Knight goes destruction follows.

Organizations: Dread Knights belong to no organization as the only common trait they share is that they all despise taking orders.

NPC Reactions: Fear. Terror. Death.

Dread Knight Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (History) can research Dread Knights to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Dread Knights in the Game
A Dread Knight is a boon to any party (at least till they betray them) and is good in almost any situation as not only are they expert warriors but also good negotiators due to their high charisma.

Adaptation: A good aligned variation of this class could be possible, most likely gaining minor healing ability but with a alignment restriction on who they could smite.