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Have you ever given your character a tragic backstory and wished you could do more with it? Well, thanks to a new subclass drop by D&D Beyond, you can now utilize the new Sorrow Knight Fighter Subclass to channel their tragedy into power!

Let’s take a look at these fighters who use their dark and pained emotions to cause literal emotional damage!

What Are Sorrow Knight Fighters?

The Sorrow Knight Fighter is created after they have experienced extreme loss. This could include the loss of love, faith, or anything that they have an intense and profound attachment to. Rather than wallowing in the deep void of grief, these fighters harness it as a motivator to protect others from similar pain and wield it as a weapon against their enemies. To further aid them they also access the Shadowfell, a plane of dread and misery that they can connect to due their feelings of deep despair.

As is customary for all subclasses in the D&D 5e rules, the Sorrow Knight Fighter subclass is selected at level 3.

Sorrow Knight Fighter Features:

These Fighters walk in life with their emotional scars, through which they channel their power to use against their enemies. Their misery is fueled by special dice called Despairing Strike Die (which comes with the level 3 Sorrow Knight). This allows for a player to hit a creature with an attack roll using a weapon and deal additional Psychic damage equal to the roll and can also add one of the following effects:

• Abandoned

The target must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw or have the Deafened condition. While Deafened, the target regards all creatures it can see as enemies. This condition ends at the end of the Sorrow Knight’s next turn.

• Dread

The target has Disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes before the start of the Sorrow Knight’s next turn.

These Despairing Strikes that the Sorrow Knight’s utilize are channeled through the Shadowfell itself. Which makes sense considering this is a place of death and decay which is apt for a warrior who has been molded by their grief and loss.

In addition to this, as a level 3 subclass, the Sorrow Knight also has Solemn Gaze, granting Darkvision of up to 60 ft. If Darkvision is already an ability, it increases the range by an additional 60 ft.

This also grants Empathetic Inquiry,

As a Magic action, the Sorrow Knight can attempt to search the mind of a creature they can see within 30 ft. The target must succeed a wisdom saving throw or the Sorrow Knight learns of the emotion that is at the forefront of their mind such as worry, love, or hate (to name a few). This can be used a number of times equal to their wisdom modifier and can be replenished after the completion of a Long Rest.

At level 7 the Sorrow Knight gains Dreaded Appearance which blends a type of shadow teleportation and pairs it with a psychic area-of-effect debuff.

The teleport ability is called Tactical Shift, which allows the Sorrow Knight to teleport to an unoccupied space that can be seen within 30 ft.

Immediately after reappearing to the new area, for a brief moment the Sorrow Knight can take on the appearance of the creature’s fears (the dreaded appearance), visible only to those creatures. Each creature of their choice within a 10-ft radius must make a Wisdom saving throw.

On a failed save, the target takes psychic damage equal to the roll of their Despairing Strike die and has the Frightened condition until the end of the Sorrow Knight’s next turn.

On a successful save, the target only takes half damage.

*Note: Once the Sorrow Knight takes on an appearance, it can't be done again until a Short or Long Rest is completed.

At level 10 the Sorrow Knight further proves their fighting ability with the aid of the Shadowfell that they channel it and gain the following:

• Apathetic:

A target must succeed a Wisdom saving throw or have the Incapacitated condition until the start of their following turn. While Incapacitated, the target gives one-word responses when spoken to.

• Lost:

A target must succeed a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the target is Blinded and their speed is reduced to 0 until the end of their next turn.

On a successful save, the target’s speed is reduced by half.

• Weary:

A target must succeed on a Constitution save or gain 1 level of Exhaustion. They can’t exceed an Exhaustion level of 2. The Exhaustion levels gained are removed at the end of their following turn.

At level 15 the Sorrow Knight gains Grim Constitution. This grants them Resistance to Necrotic and Psychic damage.

In addition to this, when subjected to an effect that reduces HP maximum, a DC Constitution Save can be attempted. On a success, the HP max does not decrease.

However, each time a Cons Save is done after the initial save, the DC increases by 5. The DC resets to 15 upon the completion of a Short or Long rest.

And at level 18 a formidable fighter becomes even more so as they gain Grieving Mantle. This allows the Sorrow Knight to attune to the Shadowfell for 1 minute (unless incapacitated) and for the duration they gain the following:

• Shade Form

When the Shadow Knight Fighter is hit by an attack, they can take a Reaction to become immaterial for a moment and reduce the attack’s total damage to zero.

• Unwavering Resolve

They have immunity to the Charmed or Frightened conditions. If they had either condition prior to activating the Grieving mantle, then the condition ends once it is activated.

Sorrow Knight Fighter Feats:

Of course, as it is the nature of D&D, there is always more that is offered with subclasses, and the Sorrow Knight Fighter is no different. Feats that this subclass offers are:

• Shadow Pact - The Sorrow Knight can make a pact with an entity from the Shadowfell, drawing upon some of their powers and utilizing it against enemies.
• Shadow Trapper - The Sorrow Knight can inflict the deep melancholy and despair that the Shadowfell is known for and utilize it on their trapped enemies.
• Shadow Weaver - The Sorrow Knight can create, control, and manipulate the shadows as they see fit.

Sorrow Knight Fighter Character Creation:

When creating your Sorrow Knight Fighter bear in mind what their class entails and how they would handle a situation and place your Ability Scores accordingly. It is suggested that you focus attention on primary stats such as:

• Strength - important for combat
• Constitution - for endurance
• Wisdom - for saving throws (DC: 8 + Wisdom Mod + Proficiency Bonus)
• And/or Dexterity - if you are leaning to a fighter that has more finesse or is more range than melee

Tarokka Deck for the Sorrow Knight Fighter:

To further aid in character creation the Tarokka Deck is coming to the players! The Tarokka Deck has been a tool for DMs in Curse of Strahd and in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within DMs were given a guide on how to further use the deck to build out their own campaigns and villains. Now, players will have a chance for themselves through the Tarokka Life Path introduced by D&D Beyond.

This allows players to utilize the Tarokka Deck in order to build a foundation and assist in the creation of your character’s backstory. Players can see how the deck fates their characters with a certain trajectory and (either through gameplay or conflicting results) see how their character traverses their path as they either embrace it or fight it.

Conclusion:

The Sorrow Knight Fighter subclass is definitely going to be a fun one to utilize! With their ability to tap into the Shadowfell and utilize their deep seeded emotions of grief and loss to fight their enemies, they take weaponizing deep emotion to a whole new level.