Dark Knight
This week I made the Dark Knight. I was originally going to make it a Paladin subclass, but the more I kept looking into it, the less sense it made. I felt like Dark Knights shouldn't have easy access to healing spells or party buffing auras. There were a lot of things that Paladins had by default that didn't feel right for a Dark Knight. I then considered turning into a Fighter subclass for a while, giving it the Paladin abilities it could use, and then cherry-picking from the wizards' spells. When I noticed that it was difficult for a Fighter subclass to really feel right, I looked to other jobs. And that's when I remembered... the Warlock's Hexblade subclass.
The Hexblade turns the Warlock into a melee fighter; a sort of "dark paladin", if you will. Looking at it now, I probably should have considered doing something similar to the Hexblade from the start, but I didn't think the Hexblade turns the Warlock into enough of a melee fighter to be receiving hits like the Paladin does. So that's my angle with Dark Knight: Take Hexblade, and make it a more martial counterpart of itself, all while molding it into a faithful representation of the FFXIV job. Because Warlock subclasses all have a patron, I named this one The Darkness Within, alluding to the fact that a Dark Knight gains it's powers from one's own darker alter ego.
For the most part, the Hexblade's expanded spell list was on point with what I would have had in mind for Dark Knight. I made some changes to add some more Paladin spells to include in the Warlock's very Dark-Knighty repertoire. I made sure not to include any healing spells on purpose. The most notable additions are Death Ward and Destructive Wave, which gives the Dark Knight more staying power and a powerful AOE, respectively.
I changed the Hexblade's Curse by, first of all, removing it's 19-20 crit chance feature that Champion Fighters (The flagship users of this ability) need to wait two more levels for. Instead of this, I decided to add a few options of Fighting Style, including Spellslinger, a fighting style I made for Red Mage. With the inclusion of the Fighting Style feature, it should help reinforce the Dark Knight as a martial character.
I then continued tweaking Hexblade's Curse further. I removed the ability to heal after making a kill and turned that into an invocation called Blood Weapon, which is essentially Dark Knight's version of the Fighter's Second Wind. Finally, I turned the feature from a curse to a form of rage, so that it may better interact with another feature I cover below, Living Dead. Finally, I toned down the damage bonus of Hexblade's Curse to use a 1d4 (later upgraded to 1d6) instead of a straight proficiency modifier. I called the final product Delirium. I wanted to add something like the Rage's resistance to nonmagical weapon damge, but I felt like I was already giving too much at level 1, and Delirium didn't need to have any restrictions.
I left Hex Warrior largely untouched, and just added Heavy Armor proficiency. I renamed it to Grit.
I was originally going to leave Living Shadow as the 14th level ability, but when I decided to include Living Dead, I opted in making a modified version of Hexblade's Accursed Specter instead. Living Shadow allows you to conjure it at will as an action, instead of for free after slaying a foe. The catch is that your Living Shadow stays just long enough for a fight, which Accursed Specter stays for the rest of your adventuring day. Their stats are largely similar, and the way you control Living Shadow is very similar to the Artificer's Iron Defender, which I thought was very intuitive.
The level 10 ability, Dark Missionary, follows the Warlock subclass' pattern of being a defensive feature. They gain proficiency to Constitution saving throws, which not only helps solidify their identity as a martial subclass, but it'll also help them with Living Dead. They also gain a limited version of a Paladin's aura by allowing them to use a reaction to grant themselves and others a bonus to constitution saving throws.
I initially thought against adding Living Dead to the Dark Knight's repertoire, having them use Death Ward instead, but I figured that the lack of staying power that their d8 hit dice provided, compared to Paladin's d10, and Barbarian's d12, did actually merit a little more help. With their incredible constitution saving throw modifier, as well as the ability to cast Death Ward on themselves, Dark Knights can stay in the front lines for a very long amount of time.
I'm fairly satisfied with the end result. I think it encapsulates the feeling of Dark Knight well, and it looks fun to play. My two concerns with it are giving it three features at level 1 (even though I think they're all balanced) and any action economy issue that the Living Shadow might bring (since it requires a bonus action from you in order to attack, and your smite spells require a bonus action to trigger).
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