The Hell Knight Fighter from the Villainous Options Unearthed Arcana is a new subclass all about wounding enemies and dealing damage over time.
The new Villainous Options Unearthed Arcana explores four different “villainous options” for player characters. This is for that one friend of yours who, well, you know the type. They’re always sunny and bubbly in real life, sort of liven up any room they wander into without even really trying. Here’s a chance for them to explore their darker side. It probably will be horrifying in ways that the wannabe edgelord at your table can only dream of.
And the Hell Knight Fighter is one such option. These are a little more explicitly villains. They get their powers from the Nine Hells directly, and they are used in the service of Devils. Sure, it’s a transactional relationship, but like, you definitely are working to further the cause of the hells in the mortal world. In exchange, you get some sweet new powers. But only as long as your idea of sweet new powers involves dealing damage over time and rolling an extra 1d6 damage occasionally.
Hell Knight Fighter – Hellfire Doesn’t Actually Hurt As Much As You’d Think
It all starts at level 3 with a handful of features. The first is a nice little ribbon that’s a bit more functional than you’d expect in the form of a Diabolical Gift. This feature gives you better than darkvision out to 120 feet. You can see normally in Dim Light and Darkness (magical and regular) out to 120 feet, which is actually quite nice. You can also speak Infernal.
Then there’s the underwhelming Hellfire Weapon, which occupies a weird sort of busywork slot. This feature lets you imbue a weapon with hellfire whenever you take the Attack action. Doing so transforms it into a Hellfire Weapon for 10 minutes. That sounds cool, but all that means is you shed dim light in a 5-foot radius while it’s unsheathed and you can deal Fire damage or normal damage when you hit with it. No extra damage. No magical benefits like a pact weapon or other kind of bonded weapon. In fact, there’s really only one other part of the subclass that interacts with it.
Hellfire Weapon exists as a feature so that there’s technically a rule that can be used for the other level 3 feature, which is the main feature of the Hell Knight Fighter: Infernal Wound. Infernal Wound lets you deal extra damage whenever you strike with your Hellfire Weapon. Once per turn you can deal an Infernal Wound – getting an extra 1d6 damage that then repeats itself at the start of each turn.
And to be fair, the Infernal Wound keeps doing damage for a full ten rounds, no save allowed to end it early. The only way to stop the damage is for the target to somehow regain hit points or to take an Action to stop the wound.
Limitations
But you’re limited in the number of Infernal Wounds you can do per Rest. You can only do your Constitution Modifer times per Short or Long Rest, which isn’t bad – it’s nice that they refresh on a Short Rest, but it does mean that you’ll probably only do it three or so times before you need to take a break to refresh it.
And as you’ll see, basically every other part of this subclass is all about doing an Infernal Wound. Only one other feature even cares about your Hellfire Weapon – which again, I don’t know. It feels like this is a subclass in want of a more solid identity. I like the idea, but the actual interpretation of this doesn’t really feel all that much like you’re a fighter empowered by devils. It feels like you get a sword that can sometimes keep hurting.
Higher Level Hell Knights
At level 7 you gain the Advanced Wounds feature, which means that sometimes your Infernal Wounds will do a little bit extra. Whenever you roll a 6 on the die for your Infernal Wound, you gain one of three extra benefits. You can cause Acid to erupt in a 5 foot radius that deals your Con modifier damage and Poisons creatures; you can deal Force damage equal to your Con modifier to the target; or you can deal Cold damage equal to your Con modifier to the target and they can’t take Reactions.
You also get Hell-Forged Equipment at level 7. This feature gives you Resistance to Fire damage, but only while you wear armor or wield a Shield). It also lets your weapon attacks and Fighter features ignore Resistance to Fire damage. Which is nice enough considering you do a lot of fire damage.
Level 10 and Above
At level 10, Hellfire Surge lets you erupt with hellfire whenever you take the Action Surge (again, only if you’re wearing armor or wielding a shield). You explode in a 10 foot emanation, dealing 1d6 Fire Damage to targets, or they take half damage if you make a save.
Blister of Avernus at level 15 means that your Infernal Wound die explodes now. Whenever you roll a 6, you can roll another d6 and add it to the damage, up to a total of three extra dice.
At level 18 you get a pair of features to cap off the subclass. First is Infernal Bargain, which lets you treat a 1 on your Infernal Wound die as a 6 (which doubles the frequency of your extra effects). You also get Hellfire Condemnation. This is sort of makes up for the rest of the subclass not really feeling Infernal, because this one is unquestionably evil: whenever you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, not only does it die, its soul immediately is condemned to the Nine Hells where it rises 1d4 hours later as a Lemure in a layer of your choice. Only a Wish spell can undo this if it isn’t revived in that 1d4 hours.
But Is It Good?
All in all, I think that WotC needs to go back to the drawing board with this one. Infernal Knight is a very cool idea. As a Fighter, though? It leaves a lot to be desired. Especially since Fighter subclasses don’t exist in a vacuum. There’s the Champion and Battle Master to compare to. Even the Psi Warrior feels more powerful than this one (with the exception of the level 18 feature), to say nothing of the Eldritch Knight. But that’s just my opinion. WotC wants to know what you think, so be sure and fill out the survey come April 9th.
In the meantime, check out the Hell Knight Fighter (and other Villainous Options) at the link below!
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