Crypt Knight

Crypt knights have devoted themselves to the service of immortal sorcerers, undead creatures of such great power that they can actually grant divine spells and abilities. Through this service, they are granted the ability to control and create undead. Lord Angra Manyu is a Crypt Knight.

Alignment: Lawful evil.

Hit Die: d10.

Class Skills: The crypt knight's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Ride (Dex). Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Crypt knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields.

Detect Death: The character can sense the presence of death at will, as a spell-like ability. The amount of information revealed depends on how long the character studies a particular area or subject.

1st Round: Presence or absence of death. 2nd Round: Number of dead auras (creatures, objects, or spells) in the area and the strength of the strongest death aura present. 3rd Round: The strength and location of each aura. If an aura is outside the character's line of sight, then the character discerns its direction but not its exact location.

Aura Strength: An auras death power and strength depend on the type of dead creature or object that the character is detecting and its HD or caster level.

If an aura falls into more than one strength category, the spell indicates the stronger of the two. Note: Each round, the character can turn to detect things in a new area. The power can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.

Immortal Grace: A crypt knight applies her Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus to all saving throws.

Immortal Health: A crypt knight is immune to all diseases, including magical diseases.

Touch of Death: Each day a crypt knight can restore a total number of hit points equal to the crypt knight's Charisma bonus (if any) times the crypt knight's level to any undead creature. Touch of Death is a spell-like ability whose use is a standard action. Alternatively, the crypt knight can use any or all of these points to deal damage to living creatures. Treat this attack just like a touch spell. The crypt knight decides how many points to use as damage after successfully touching the living creature.

Aura of Courage: Beginning at 2nd level, a crypt knight is immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Allies within 10 feet of the crypt knight gain a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Granting the morale bonus to allies is a supernatural ability.

Death Attunement: The crypt knight is attuned to negative energy. She becomes immune to negative levels, and is treated as an undead creature for the purpose of powers and spells that cure or inflict wounds. She registers as an undead creature to detection spells, and other undead will react to her as if she was an undead creature.

Animate Dead: Once per week per three levels of experience, the crypt knight may use animate dead as a spell-like ability.

Rebuke Undead: The crypt knight may use this ability a number of times per day equal to three plus the crypt knight's Charisma modifier. The crypt knight rebukes undead as a cleric of two levels lower would.

Extra Turning: As a feat, a crypt knight may take Extra Turning. This feat allows the crypt knight to rebuke undead four more times per day than normal. A crypt knight can take this feat multiple times, gaining four extra daily turning attempts each time.

Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a crypt knight gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a spell, the crypt knight must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level. Crypt knight bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a Difficulty Class of 10 + spell level + Wisdom modifier. When the crypt knight gets 0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st-level spells at 4th level, the crypt knight gets only bonus spells. A crypt knight has access to any spell on the crypt knight spell list and can freely choose which to prepare, just as a cleric can.

A crypt knight prepares and casts spells just as a cleric does (though the crypt knight cannot use spontaneous casting to substitute a cure spell in place of a prepared spell).

Through 3rd level, a crypt knight has no caster level. Starting at 4th level, a crypt knight's caster level is one-half his or her class level. Crypt knights choose their spells from the following list:

1st levelcause fear, doom, inflict light wounds, invisibility to undead, summon undead I.

2nd levelbulls strength, darkness, death knell, desecrate, inflict moderate wounds, shatter, summon undead II.

3rd levelcontagion, create undead, deeper darkness, greater magic fang, protection from elements, summon undead III.

4th leveldeath ward, create greater undead, freedom of movement, inflict severe wounds, poison, summon undead IV.

The summon undead spells are described in Magic of Faerun. Basically, the function like summon monster, except that the list of creatures is different. Summon undead is an spell. Summon undead I: Medium-size skeleton, small zombie Summon undead II: Medium-sized zombie, large skeleton Summon undead III: Large zombie, ghoul, huge skeleton Summon undead IV: Allip, ghast, huge zombie.

Undead Servant: The crypt knight gains the services of a special undead creature, either a skeleton or a zombie of any size the crypt knight can animate. Many crypt knights use this ability to create undead mounts for themselves. The undead servant does not count against the control limit on animated dead.

Should the crypt knight's servant die, another can be created using the animate dead ability. The new servant has all the accumulated abilities due a servant of the crypt knight's level.

The crypt knight's servant is different from a standard undead of its type in many ways. It is intelligent and superior to a normal undead of its kind and has special powers, as shown below

Crypt Knight Level: The level of the crypt knight.

Bonus HD: These are extra twelve-sided (d12) Hit Dice. Remember that extra Hit Dice improve the servant's base attack and base save bonuses.

Natural Armor: The number listed here is an improvement to the servant's AC. It represents the preternatural toughness of a crypt knight's servant.

Str Adj.: Add this figure to the servant's Strength score.

Int: The servant's Intelligence score.

Turning Resistance: The servant's turning resistance equals half the crypt knight's level.

Share Spells: At the crypt knight's option, the crypt knight may have any spell she casts on herself also affect her servant. The servant must be within 5 feet. If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the spell stops affecting the servant if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the servant again even if the servant returns to the crypt knight before the duration expires. Additionally, the crypt knight may cast a spell with a target of "You" on the servant (as a touch range spell) instead of on herself. The crypt knight and the servant can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the servant's type (undead).

Empathic Link: The crypt knight has an empathic link with the servant out to a distance of up to one mile. The crypt knight cannot see through the servant's eyes, but they can communicate telepathically. Even intelligent undead see the world differently from humans, so misunderstandings are always possible. This is a supernatural ability. Because of the empathic link between the servant and the crypt knight, the crypt knight has the same connection to an item or place that the servant does, just as a master and his familiar.

Share Saving Throws: The servant uses its own base save or the crypt knight's, whichever is higher.

Rebuke Undead: The undead servant gains the ability to rebuke undead as a cleric of half its hit dice, once per day per two levels of its master, but does not apply Charisma bonuses or penalties to this ability.

Spell Resistance: The servant's spell resistance equals the crypt knight's level + 5.

Code of Conduct: A crypt knight must be of lawful evil alignment and loses all special class abilities if she ever willingly commits a chaotic act. Additionally, a crypt knight's code requires that she respect legitimate authority, act with honor (not lying, not cheating.), serve and obey their masters beyond all reason, and punish those that harm or threaten higher authority.

Ex-Crypt Knights: A crypt knight who ceases to be lawful evil, who willfully commits a chaotic act, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all special abilities and spells, including the service of the undead servant. She also may not progress in levels as a crypt knight. She regains her abilities if she atones for her violations, as appropriate.

Rule List | Lord Angra Manyu