The quest for true power leads some down the painful and meditative path of the Dark Knight. Dark Knights spend years training in order to unleash the powerful destructive forces of the Negative Energy Plane, but it is not without its costs. An individual that embarks upon this path is subject to near constant pain and injury as they pay the toll to the keepers of the dark planes. For their suffering they are granted powerful equipment willed into being from the whirling magical powers of the Negative Energy Plane, unnaturally black armor and blades that the strongest warrior would buckle under. However, for a Dark Knight, these items paid for in suffering and blood, are but the lightest burden, as if the armor was but a flowing gown of the finest silk and the blade a feather freshly fallen from an eagle. As they progress deeper into the mysteries of the the realm they gain powerful Auras that can augment their combat prowess or allow them to fill the empty voids carved out of their bodies for the terrible powers that they wield. A Dark Knight must always respect that he is not the true master of his powers, but a mere executor of the greater will of the dark planes. With the greatest care he must use his powers or else be torn asunder by the gaping maw of the negative energy plane.

Dark Knights live mostly solitary lives, while some masters of their arts may take on apprentices. Shunned or spurned by normal people Dark Knights seldom enter cities or towns, sticking to the sanctuaries where they learn their arts or the wilderness and lonely paths of the world. Dark Knights seldom fight amongst each other regardless of alignment. If a Dark Knight chooses to embark on an adventure they often take specially trained and magically enchanted animals from which they can syphon life force. Though their powers are typically associated with evil, Dark Knights may be of any lawful alignment. Good Dark Knights may be feared and revered guardians of regions, while neutral ones may enforce order where they venture, and evil may seek to subjugate and control.

Alignment: Any Lawful

Hit Die: d12

Starting Gold: 1d4 x 10 gp

Class Skills

Craft (Int), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Knowledge (The Planes) Listen (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis)

Skill Ranks Per Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Special: Magical Animal, Fast Healing 10, 3d4 HP

Level	Base Attack	Fort	Ref	Will	Special Abilities
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Unnatural Fortitude, Precision, Power of Will, Dark Aura, Life Syphon, Summon Dark Armament, Combat Expertise, Life Syphon Aura
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Power Attack, Level 1 Dark Aura
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Drain Undead
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Level 1 Dark Aura
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Level 1 & 2 Dark Auras
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Level 1 & 2 Dark Auras, Dark Vision
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Level 1 & 2 Dark Auras
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Level 1, 2 & 3 Dark Auras, Wantless Desperation
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Level 1, 2 & 3 Dark Auras
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Level 1, 2 & 3 Dark Auras, Overpowering Will
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Level 1, 2, 3 & 4 Dark Auras
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Level 1, 2, 3 & 4 Dark Auras

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dark Knights are proficient with all martial weapons and with all armor. Dark Knights cannot become proficient with shields of any kind. Dark Knights are proficient with their summoned equipment.

Unnatural Fortitude (Su): A Dark Knight receives double his constitution modifier to his hit dice at every level and cannot be healed through holy or restorative effects. Dark Knights do not regain hit points through natural healing via sleep.

Precision (Ex): Dark Knight's may only ever make one attack per round. As such, Dark Knights may not take attacks of opportunity, but instead may attempt an Intimidate check instead.

Power of Will (Ex): A Dark Knight receives his Wis modifier to all attack and damage rolls when using his Dark Shard. At 10th and every 10 levels thereafter he receives an additional 1/2 of his Wis modifier to his attack and damage rolls when using his Dark Shard. A Dark Knight receives his Wis modifier to his AC while wearing his Dark Guard, this AC counts even against touch attacks and while flat footed. At 10th level and every 10 levels thereafter he receives an additional 1/2 his Wis Modifier to his AC.

Dark Aura (Su): A Dark Knight is bathed in an invisible dark aura and receives -4 to all charisma checks except Intimidate. Dark Knights receive +4 to all intimidate checks. Dark Knights may choose to ignore any negative energy or necromantic spells or effects that may affect them.

Life Syphon (Su): A Dark Knight may meditate upon a willing or coerced subject and syphon HP from the subject to the Knight, the amount and rate syphoned is up to the Knight. This action takes a minimum of 1 hour without any other action.

Bonus Feat (Ex): At 1st level the Dark Knight receives Combat Expertise as a bonus feat. At 2nd the Dark Knight receives Power attack as a bonus feat.

Drain Undead (Su): At 3rd level a Dark Knight may drain the power of any undead within 5 yards of him at will. Roll 1d20 + Dark Knight level + Wis modifier to determine the amount of hit die of undead affected, will saves against 10+ 1/2 Dark Knight level + Wis modifier. The Dark Knight is healed 1 HP for every hit die
worth of undead destroyed in this way. At 9th level the Dark Knight the amount of healing is increased to 2 HP per hit die drained, at 15th level it is further increased to 3 HP.

Dark Vision (Su): Dark Knight's eyes are altered by their constant contact with the negative energy plane granting them Dark Vision the penetrates even magical darkness.

Wantless Desperation (Su): The Dark Knight's Auras blur the boundaries between the Negative Energy Plane and his current plane of existence. As long as a Dark Knight is sustaining a Dark Aura that costs HP he gains the traits of an Undead creature except retains his hit die and constitution score and still must make fortitude checks where applicable and as such is still susceptible to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, and energy drain.

Overpowering Will (Ex): At 16h level a Dark Knight gains spell resistance* equal to 5 + Dark Knight level + wis modifier.

*Spell resistance overlaps, it does not stack.

Summon Dark Armament (Su): A Dark Knight may sacrifice 20% of his total HP to summon his Dark Shard for 12 + 1/2 Dark Knight level + Wis modifier hours or until he goes to sleep. A Dark Knight may sacrifice 20% of his total HP to summon his Dark Guard for 12 + 1/2 Dark Knight level + Wis modifier hours or until he goes to sleep. Every Level a Dark Knight gains 8 Armament points to upgrade his Dark Armament.

Level	Damage 2pts	Life Steal 8pts	Enhancement 4pts	Crit Range 6pts	Crit Mult 4pts	Range 2pts
Base (Free)	1d6		+1, Magic	20	x2	0
1st	2d6
2nd			+2			20 ft.
3rd	3d6
4th		1d6	+3 Ghost Touch	19-20		40 ft.
5th
6th	4d6		+4		x3	60 ft.
7th				18-20
8th		2d6	+5			80 ft.
9th	5d6
10th			+6 Axiomatic	17-20		100 ft.
11th
12th	6d6	3d6	+7		x4	120 ft.
13th				16-20
14th			+8			140 ft.
15th	7d6
16th		4d6	+9, Adamantine	15-20		160 ft.
17th
18th	8d6		+10		x5	180 ft.
19th				14-20
20th		5d6				200 ft.

*Life Steal adds additional damage die to any Dark Shard damage that are immediately converted into HP for the Dark Knight. Damage dealt in this way counts as negative energy damage and only effects entities with a constitution score. These die are included in critical hits so critical hits return large amounts of HP to the Dark Knight.

Dark Guard

Level	AC 2pts	DR 4pts	SR 8pts
1st	+4		0
2nd		1/-
3rd	+6
4th		2/-
5th			10, Magic
6th	+8	3/- Light Fortification
7th
8th		4/-
9th	+10
10th		5/-	20, Ghost Touch
11th
12th	+12	6/- Medium Fortification
13th
14th		7/-
15th	+14		30
16th		8/-
17th
18th		9/- Heavy Fortification
19th	+16
20th		10/-	40

Spell Like Abilities (Su): Dark Knights gain certain spell like abilities as they progress in level. These abilities augment and expand the Dark Knights abilities beyond the martial. Use Dark Knight level as caster level where applicable. Spell like abilities count as swift actions. Use 10 + ½ Dark Knight level + Wis mod for all saves related to spell like abilities.

Dissolve Shard
By dissolving his Dark Shard into his Aura a Dark Knight may increase the effectiveness and range of his Auras 50%. Doing so results in the Dark Knight becoming unequipped with his Shard and therefore unable to attack with it until he reconstitutes it from his Aura. Reconstituting counts as a swift action.

Dissolve Guard
By dissolving his Dark Shard a Dark Knight may increase the effectiveness and range of his Auras 50%. Doing so results in the Dark Knight losing all defensive benefits of his Guard until he reconstitutes it from his Aura. Reconstituting counts as a swift action.

False Charisma
By dissolving both your shard and armor into your Aura a Dark Knight is able to forcibly alter it's disturbing quality and masquerade as a normal individual. Doing so adds 4 to any charisma rolls you take except intimidate.

Cape of Shadows
For 10 HP you may summon an writhing cape of shadows, it is a cape and may be used as any other cape.

Dark Glamour
At 2nd level you gain Dark Glamour which can be used once a day. You may attempt to glamour a target with a will DC of 10 + 1/2 Dark Knight level + Wis mod, if the targets fails the save it is affected as if by a Geas spell except the duration is limited to 1 round/level, save negates effect. At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter you gain an additional use per day of Dark Glamour.

Peering Shadows
At 3rd level you gain the ability to peer into one shadow and see from another once a day. You may focus your attention to any other shadow within (Dark Knight level + wis mod) x 10 ft of you. You may ignore the distance restriction if you use a summoned shadow. Effects similar to a scrying spell, last up to 10 minutes/level. At 6th level and every 3 levels thereafter you gain an additional use per day of Peering Shadows.

Shadow Fold
Once a day at 3rd level and an additional time every 3 levels thereafter after you may teleport, as in Dimension Door, from one shadow to another visible shadow within (Dark Knight level + wis mod) x 10 feet of you. Folding to a shadow created by Summon Shadow ignores the distance limitation.

Summon Shadow
At 4th level you gain the ability to summon a supernatural shadow once a day to any location that you can see or have seen within 1 + Int mod days. These shadows persist for (Dark Knight level + wis mod) hours but fade when a Dark Knight sleeps or dismisses them. Every four levels thereafter you gain an additional use per day. A Dark Knight may imprint an area at 1st , 4th and every 4 levels afterward, you may always summon a shadow to an imprinted place. However, you must spend at least a week in the vicinity of the specific place before you can imprint it, you may erase a previous imprint to imprint another. Summoned shadows are no larger than 100 square feet and do not necessarily have to be on flat or logical places.

Death Throes
At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter you gain a use of Death Throes that may be used once per day. If you are at 0 or negative HP you may roll a will save against a DC 20, if you make the save you regain consciousness at 10% of your max health and may act immediately.

Death Seeker
Death Seeker may be used once a day at 6th and an additional time per day every 6 levels thereafter. Death Seeker restores 50% of you max hit points after killing any enemy.

Purge
At 7th level you gain Purge, 1/day you may remove all non permanent debuffs and buffs currently effecting the Dark Knight. At 14th level you may use this ability twice per day.

Shadow Door
At 8th level you may open a door between two Summoned Shadows once per day, that anyone or anything can pass through, the door lasts for 5 min/lv. The door's maximum size if 100 square feet or the size of the summoned shadows. At 16th level you may use this ability twice per day.

Blood Confirmation
At 8th level gain the use of Blood Confirmation once per day. After rolling a critical hit you may sacrifice 10% of your total health to automatically confirm the critical. This sacrifice must happen before you roll to confirm. Doing so you may choose to maximize all of your normal weapon damage, not including life steal die. At 16th level you gain an additional use of the ability per day.

Deep Siphon
At 9th level you gain Deep Siphon. Using this ability after a successful hit maximizes your life steal die/life syphon die this turn At 18th level you may use this ability twice per day.

Borrowed Life
At 10th level you gain Borrowed Life, any Aura or HP costs you incur this turn are negated but must be payed + 10% the turn afterwards. At 20th level you may use this ability twice per day.

Intensity
At 11th level you gain Intensity which doubles the HP costs of your Auras but also doubles their power (or applies their effect twice) and range. At 17th level you may use this ability twice per day.

Twin Blades
At 13th level you may create an exact copy of your Dark shard and may make a second attack at your full base attack bonus this round. This ability overrides the Precision Extraordinary ability. At 19th level you may use this ability twice per day

Auras (Su): By continually sacrificing hit points a Dark Knight may channel the Negative Energy Plane in the form of powerful auras. Only one Aura may be active at a time. Activating an Aura counts of a free action, though a Dark Knight may only switch Auras once per round. When an Aura is activated hit points must be immediately sacrificed. Aura upkeep happens at the beginning of the round, but may be bypassed by either deactivating the Aura or activating another one. Damage suffered from Aura upkeep cannot be reduced or redirected. Aura bonuses do not stack, if there are multiple iterations of the same Aura active, choose the better one for its effects.

Level 1 Dark Auras

Life Syphon Aura
 Range: Personal

Life Syphon Aura is always active as long as the Dark Knight is wielding his Dark Shard. When rolling for any damage against living targets roll additional die according the Dark Knight's level. A Dark Knight gains up to that amount of hp, though he may not gain more HP in this way than the amount of damage dealt. Life steal from this aura does not multiply on a critical hit.

Level	Syphon Die
1st	1d4
4th	2d4
8th	3d4
12th	4d4
16th	5d4
20th	6d4

Improved Life Syphon Aura
Cost: 5 HP
Range: Personal
While this Aura is active roll twice as many life syphon die, but otherwise functions as the same.

Dark Intelligence Aura
Cost: 2 hit points per round (10)
Range: Personal

This Aura infuses your Dark Shard with an intelligence seething from the dark planes. Every two levels the Dark Shard gains skill points and a language. At 20th level the Dark Shard gains Abyssal Thought, which allows the Dark Shard to communicate with any intelligent creature telepathically and gains +8 against Sense Motive, Listen, and Spot checks regarding intelligent beings.

Level	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma	Skill Points	Special Abilities
2nd	8	8	8	12	Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (The Planes), Knowledge (Necromancy), Knowledge (History), Spot, Listen, Sense Motive, Speak: Common
4th	10	10	9	+4	Speak: Elvish
6th	12	12	10	+5	Speak: Infernal
8th	14	14	11	+6	Speak: Dwarvish
10th	16	16	12	+7	Speak: Celestial
12th	18	18	13	+8	Speak: Gnome
14th	20	20	14	+9	Speak: Abyssal
16th	22	22	15	+10	Speak: Draconic
18th	24	24	16	+11	Speak: Sylvan
20th	26	26	18	+12	Abyssal Thought

Drifting Shadow Aura
Cost: 2 hit points per round (5, 10, 15)
Range: Personal

This Aura surrounds you with dense whirling shadows that grants your movement special abilities. At 2nd level it allows a Dark Knight to fly at half his movement speed, at 8th level movement speed is increased to full movement speed, 12th one and a half times, 16th twice, and 20th two and a half times his movement speed. At 12th level this Aura grants Seeping Darkness which blurs the boundaries between the shadows and a Dark Knights rendering him able to pass through cracks in windows and doors, but increases the cost to 5 HP per round. At 16th level, while this Aura is active the Dark Knight no longer triggers traps, but costs 10 HP per round. At 20th level this Aura grants Pervasive Darkness which a Dark Knight to move through objects, such as walls, obstructions, and magical barriers at a rate of up to 10 feet per round, but costs 15 HP per round.

Level	Flight Speed	Special
2nd	50% Normal
8th	100% Normal
12th	150% Normal	Seeping Darkness, 5 hp
16th	200% Normal	Does not activate traps, 10 hp
20th	250% Normal	Pervasive Darkness, 15 hp

Shadow Walk Aura
Cost: 2 hit points per round (5, 10, 15)
Range: Personal

While this Aura is active a Dark Knight may move an additional five feet per round per level and ignore difficult terrain. At 8th level this Aura grants the ability to walk up walls as if they were horizontal surfaces. At 12th level this Aura grants the ability to slow fall, allowing you to fall as little as 10 ft per round. At 16th level this Aura allows a Dark Knight to move without provoking attacks of opportunity. At 20th level this Aura provides complete concealment when standing still and minor concealment while moving.

Level	Distance Bonus	Sneak Attack Bonus
1st
2nd
3rd	30 ft.
4th	40 ft.	2d6
5th	50 ft.	2d6
6th	60 ft.	2d6
7th	70 ft.	2d6
8th	80 ft.	3d6
9th	90 ft.	3d6
10th	100 ft.	3d6
11th	110 ft.	3d6
12th	130 ft.	5d6, 10 hp
13th	150 ft.	5d6
14th	170 ft.	5d6
15th	190 ft.	5d6
16th	220 ft.	8d6, 15 hp
17th	250 ft.	8d6
18th	280 ft.	8d6
19th	310 ft.	8d6
20th	350 ft.	12d6, 20 hp

Shadow Fold Aura
Cost: 5 HP per round (10, 15, 20)
Range: Personal
While this aura is active the Dark Knight's Shadow Fold ability is improved. The primary effect of the aura increases the maximum distance a Shadow Jump can travel, but as an added bonus an attack immediately after a Shadow Fold also deals sneak attack damage.

Level	Will	Special Abilities
1st	-
2nd	10
3rd	15
4th	20
5th	25
6th	30
7th	35
8th	40	Wall Walk
9th	45
10th	50
11th	55
12th	60	Slow Fall, 5 hp
13th	65
14th	70
15th	75
16th	80	Concealment 50% Moving, 100% Still, 20 hp
17th	85
18th	90
19th	95
20th	100	Undetectable, 15 hp

Scrying Aura
Cost: 2 hp per round (5, 10, 15)
Range: Personal
This Aura increases the effectiveness of Peering Darkness. Perception checks receive a bonus as well as receiving increased range and granting other powerful abilities.

Level	Range Bonus	Perception Bonus	Special
1st	-
2nd	20 ft.	+1
3rd	30 ft.	+1
4th	40 ft.	+2
5th	50 ft.	+2
6th	60 ft.	+2
7th	70 ft.	+2
8th	80 ft.	+3	Detect secret doors
9th	90 ft.	+3
10th	100 ft.	+3
11th	110 ft.	+3
12th	130 ft.	+4	Detect magic, 5 hp
13th	150 ft.	+4
14th	170 ft.	+4
15th	190 ft.	+4
16th	220 ft.	+5	Detect traps, 10 hp
17th	250 ft.	+5
18th	280 ft.	+5
19th	310 ft.	+5
20th	350 ft.	+6	Detect thoughts, 15 hp

Dark Glamour Aura
Cost: 2 hp per round (5, 10, 15)
Range: Personal
While this aura is active the Dark Knight's glamour ability is improved. Primarily this aura increases the DC of Dark Glamour, increasing its chance of success. At higher levels this Aura allows multiple targets to be glamoured at once.

Level	DC Bonus	Special
2nd	+1
7th	+2
12th	+3	Dark Glamour may now effect up to 2 targets, 5 hp
16th	+4	Dark Glamour may now effect up to 3 targets, 10 hp
20th	+5	Dark Glamour may now effect up to 4 targets, 15 hp

Radiant Shadows Aura
Cost: 2 hp per round (5, 10, 15)
Range: 5 ft./level radius
While this Aura is active the Dark Knight radiates dark light casting his surroundings into shadows. As the Dark Knight's power increases the shadows deepen causing enemies to stumble and eventually become lost in the shadows.

Level	Special
8th	Affected area now counts as difficult terrain
12th	Affected area is bathed in darkness reducing light by 1 step, 5 hp
16th	Affected area is bathed in darkness reducing light by 2 steps, 10 hp
20th	Affected area is bathed in darkness reducing light by 3 steps, 15 hp

Death's Token Aura
Cost: 5 hp per round
Range: Personal
If you kill an enemy with this aura active you may forego all life steal you normally would have received to gain a Death Token, these charges last a maximum of 24 hours and allow you to automatically confirm the success of any Death Throes rolls you may take.

Deep Dissolve
Cost: 5 hp per round
Range: Personal
If you dissolve your shard or armor while this aura is active your auras gain an addition 50% range and power, or gain +2 to any charisma checks. However, reconstituting your shard or armor after running this Aura requires a standard action. You may run an additional aura as long as this one is active albeit at an additional cost of 5 HP per round.

Level 2 Dark Auras

Shadow Veil Aura
Cost: 5 hit points per round
Range: 10 yard radius

While active this Aura provides an AC bonus to you and your allies. Every 6 levels the AC bonus increases. At 12th level this aura provides protection against incorporeal attacks. At 18th level this Aura grants +10 spell resistance against all magic types.

Level	AC Bonus	Special
6th	+2
9th	+3
12th	+4	Provides Incorporeal Protection, 10 hp
15th	+5
18th	+6	5 + Dark Knight level + Wis modifier Spell Resistance, 20 hp

Corrosive Darkness Aura
Cost: 5 hit points per round
Range: 10 yard radius

This Aura reduces the AC of enemies around you, every 6 levels the AC reduction is increased. At 12th level the Aura removes bypasses up to 5/- damage reduction, but costs 10 HP per round. At 18th level the Aura bypasses up to 15 spell resistance, but costs 20 HP per round.

Level	AC Reduction	Special
6th	-2
9th	-3
12th	-4	Ignore up to 5/- damage reduction, 10 hp
15th	-5
18th	-6	Ignore up to 10 spell resistance, 20 hp

Spectral Meteor Aura
Cost: 5 hit points per round
Range: Personal

This Aura increases the distance that a Dark Knight may throw his Dark Shard. At 10th level and every 2 levels thereafter the range increases. At 12th level the Dark Shard ignores AC and Reflex bonuses from cover. At 16th level the Dark Shard may attack all enemies within a single line of attack. At 20th level the a Dark Knight may choose to sacrifice an additional 10 hp to detonate the Dark Shard at any point along its path and attack all creatures within 5 feet to it for full Dark Shard damage.

Level	Flight Speed	Special
6th	+20 ft.
8th	+30 ft.
10th	+40 ft.
12th	+50 ft.	Ignore cover
14th	+60 ft.
16th	+70 ft.	Attacks all in a line
18th	+80 ft.
20th	+100 ft.	Detonate

Death Vortex Aura
Cost: 10 hit points per round
Range: 10 yard radius

This aura creates a negative energy vortex around the Dark Knight that syphons life energy from all living entities within its radius, including party members. If capable of attacking the Dark Knight, any living entity will. Creatures may make a will save against DC 15 to perform any other action. At 16th level any living entity within the aura, excluding the Dark Knight, may not move more than 10 feet per round, but the Aura costs 15 hp per round. At 20th Level the slowing effect reduces any movement to no more than 5 feet per round, but the Aura costs 20 hp per round.

Level	Life Syphoned	Special
6th	1
8th	2
12th	4
16th	6	Movement slowed to 10, 15 hp
20th	8	Movement slowed to 5, 20 hp

Endless Terror Aura
Cost: 10 hit points per round
Range: 5 yard radius

This Aura amplifies the already unsettling presence of a Dark Knight. All entities with a Wisdom score must roll a Will save against Dark Knight Level + Intimidate Skill or be rooted in terror and flat footed, save reduces Dex bonus and movement speed by half. At 12th level this Aura amplifies the Dark Knights presence so much that any creatures that fail the Will save are rendered unconscious by terror. At 18th Level any creatures that fail the Will save must make a Fort save against DC 25 or die from terror.

Recharge Aura
Cost: 10 hp per round
Range: Personal
While this aura is active a Dark Knight any hp that would be gained from life steal/life syphon is instead converted into Recharge tokens, 5 hp is converted into 1 Recharge token. Any remaining hp that cannot be converted into Recharge tokens is lost. These tokens may be spent to regain a use of his spell like abilities. The tokens do not need to be acquired all in the same turn, so a Dark Knight may take several turns to recharge a powerful ability such as Death Seeker. However, if Recharge Aura is turned off then all Recharge tokens are lost. Multiple abilities may be recharged at once should enough you have enough tokens.

Ability	Recharge Tokens Required
Dark Glamour	1
Peering Shadows	1
Shadow Fold	2
Summon Shadow	3
Death Throes	5
Death Seeker	20
Purge	5
Shadow Door	6
Blood Confirmation	6
Deep Siphon	6
Borrowed Life	4
Intensity	10
Twin Blades	10

Purge Aura
Cost: 20 hp per round
Range: 5 ft/level radius
If you use Purge the affected area is hit as if with a Greater Dispel Magic spell with a DC of 10 + 1/2 Dark Knight level + Wis mod.

Debilitating Aura
Cost: 5 hp per round (10, 20)
Range: 5 yards
This Aura reduces all saves of nearby hostile creatures.

Level	Save Reduction	Special
6th	1
12th	2	Affected creatures must save twice successfully to succeed, 10 hp
18th	3	Successful saves still take half effect, 20 hp

Salvation Aura
Cost: 5 hp per round (10, 20)
Range: 5 yards
This Aura increases all saves of nearby friendly creatures or players.

Level	Save Bonus	Special
6th	1
12th	2	Grants Evasion, Reduces duration of negative effects by 1/2, 10 hp
18th	3	Grants Improved Evasion, reduces duration of negative effects by 3/4, 20 hp

Hardened Shadows Aura
Cost: 5 hp per round
Range: Personal

This Aura creates viscous shadows to surround the Dark Knight that reduce incoming damage. Every 4 levels the amount of damage reduced is increased, but HP cost to run is also increased. At 10th level the Aura grants 5 + Dark Knight level Spell Resistance, at 14th level spell resistance granted is increased to 10 + Dark Knight level and costs 10 HP per turn, at 18th spell resistance is increased to 15 + Dark Knight level and costs 20 HP per turn.

Level	DR	Special
6th	2/-
10th	3/-	5 + Dark Knight level Spell Resistance
14th	4/-	10 + Dark Knight level Spell Resistance, 10 hp
18th	5/-	15 + Dark Knight level Spell Resistance, 20 hp

Level 3 Dark Auras

Dark Echo Aura
Cost: 15 hp per round (25)
Range: Personal
This Aura splinters the boundary between the Negative Energy Plane and a Dark Knight's weapon. Any successful hit hits twice, though the second hit does deal full damage including damage from life steal die, the Dark Knight does not receive life steal/life syphon from it. At 20th level any hit hits three times and the cost to run the Aura increases to 25 HP.

Crushing Chains Aura
Cost: 5 HP per round
Range: Personal
Any successful hit by a Dark Shard causes the target to be wrapped by chains of crushing darkness. These chains render the target helpless unless it rolls a will save against DC 10 + 1/2 Dark Knight level + Wis Modifier, the target may attempt a will save to overcome the binding effects of the chains at the beginning of its turn. Crushing Chains deal damage as the Dark Knight's Dark Shard, including life steal effects, every round after they are applied before the target attempts its will save. Crushing Chains may be applied to the same target multiple times. Crushing Chains remain attached to the target as long as the Aura is active. Every set of Crushing Chains currently active increases the cost of this Aura by 20 HP.

Moon Reaver Aura
Cost: 15 hp per round
Range: Personal
This aura extends the reach of a Dark Knights melee attack by 5 feet. At no penalty the Dark Knight may use his attack to attack all enemies within his melee range.

Abyssal Aura
Cost: 10 hp per round (20)
Range: Personal
A Dark Knight may run an additional 2 Auras while this Aura is active. At 18th level this Aura allows
up to 3 additional Auras to be run while it is active and costs 20 hp to run.

Fear Frenzy Aura
Cost: 20 hp per round (30, 40)
Range: 10 yard radius
Primal Fear radiates from the Dark Knight and drives all creatures around him into a frenzied fight for survival attacking anything near them unless they make a Will save against DC 10 + 1/2 Dark Knight Level + Wis modifier. The Dark Knight may exempt certain targets from this effect for an additional 2 hp per turn per exemption. This frenzy remains as long as the Aura is active. At 15th level the cost of the Aura increases to 30 hp and all creatures frenzied in this way lose 4 AC and receive -2 to all saves and take an additional 2 damage from all attacks, at 18th level the cost is further increased to 40 hp and affected creatures lose 8 AC and receive -4 to all saves and take an additional 4 damage from all attacks.

Twin Blades Aura
Cost: 15 hp per round
Range: Personal
If you use your Twin Blades ability while this aura is active the effect remains as long as this aura is active, you may run an additional aura as long as this aura is active albeit with an additional cost of 10 hp.

Level 4 Dark Auras

Abyssal Reflection Aura
Cost: 30 hp per round
Range: Personal
This Aura creates a living reflection of the Dark Knight equipped with exact duplicates of the Dark Knights current Armor and Weapon, including Dark Armaments. This reflection is controlled by and shares the Dark Knight's hp and exists as long as this Aura is active. Any other Aura bonuses being applied to the Dark Knight apply to his reflections and vice versa. Each reflection may run its own independent auras.

Endless Strike Aura
Cost: 5 hp per round
Range: Personal
After a successful attack you may sacrifice an additional 20 hp to gain another move and standard action. Additional uses of this power during the same turn cost an additional 10 hp per use, i.e. first use costs 20 hp, 2nd use costs 30 hp, 3rd use costs 40 hp etc.

Plane Splitter Aura
Cost: 100 hp per round
Range: 10 yard radius
All living beings within the Aura's radius, except for the Dark Knight, take 1d6 of Negative Energy Damage per Dark Knight level per round.

Vorpal Aura
Cost: 100 hp per round
Range: Personal
This Aura creates thousands of Negative Energy vortices to whirl around the edge of a Dark Shard
granting any living creature that is the victim of a confirmed critical hit instant release into the afterlife.

Dark Knight Feats

Improved Armament
Gain 8 armament points. You may take this feat multiple times gaining 8 armament points each time.

Focused Dark Auras
Auras and associated abilities cost 20% fewer HP. Must be at least 8th level to take this feat.

Dark Charisma
You no longer take a penalty on charisma checks. Must be at least 4th level to take this feat.

Welcoming Darkness
You may use your wis modifier as your cha mod. Must be at least 10th level to take this feat.

Improved Armament
Summoning your Dark Shard and Dark Guard now only cost 15% of your max hp each. Must be at
least 12th level to take this feat.

Author's Note: Added spell like abilities to increase utility. Added Auras to increase utility. Tweaked numbers for balance issues. Changed Auras for balance issues. Reworded abilities for clarity and balance. Changed Aura progression. Reworked Dark Armament progression, now with variability. Added Class specific feats.

This class is meant for tier 3, it is balanced for tier 3 as far as combat goes. Do not compare to tier 5 or 4 classes such as fighters, paladins, monks, rogues and the like, as this class will be extremely overpowered. Compare to swordsages and duskblades, as well as school limited casters such as Dread Necromancers and Beguilers. This class should not compare in power to tier 1 and 2 classes such as wizards or sorcerers.

That said, is the Dark Knight good? Yes. Very. Is it hard to play, depends on how you like to play. Can it one shot things, probably, 20th level is a bit ridiculous for most tier 3s, this class is no exception. With that said, it should be noted again that this class is still in Beta. It will be played in an upcoming campaign, so there will be tweaks to follow after reviewing its performance.

What about RP? The Dark Knight should be able to shine in RP as both a scary person and as a utility caster and with the right build as an oddly pleasant, though slightly offputting character.

Additional Ratings
Balance:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 10 Votes )
Utility:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 9 Votes )
Clarity:	1 2 3 4 5 ( 8 Votes )