The Hellfrost Knight
Last week was Ice Week, and I deliberately decided to take the path less traveled and do an archetype that was not the low-hanging fruit of “ice mage” or “viking warrior,” and instead gave alchemists the cold shoulder, so to speak. I had so much fun that I decided that I wanted to do it again, and that’s where today’s archetype comes from.
New Antipaladin Archetype
Hellfrost Knight
There are many ways to symbolize death, destruction, and doom. Many choose to focus on aspects of sudden, violent death: burning hellfire, and blood-stained battlefields. But you are an agent of another sort of doom. You revel in the fear and dread of an inevitable doom, administered by an impartial, uncaring fate. For you, the ultimate symbol of death is that of winter, of the freezing cold, and the nether void, in which no life can survive.
Hellfrost Blade (Su): As a swift action, a hellfrost knight can suffuse a held weapon with an icy, otherworldly chill. This causes the weapon to deal an additional 1d6 points of cold damage. This cold is supernaturally intense, and while it affects creatures with vulnerability to cold normally, only half of this damage (rounded up) is subject to any resistance or immunity to cold that the target might possess. Additionally, a creature struck by such an attack must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 the hellfrost knight’s antipaladin level + the hellfrost knight’s Charisma modifier) or be numbed by the cold, imposing a penalty equal to the hellfrost knight’s Charisma modifier on all attack rolls for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 the hellfrost knight’s antipaladin level (rounded down, minimum 1), and reducing the target’s movement speed by half for the same duration. The hellfrost knight’s weapon remains affected for 3 rounds (though any penalties it inflicts may last much longer).
The hellfrost knight can use this ability once per day at 1st level. At 4th level, and every three levels thereafter, he gains an additional daily use of this ability.
At 3rd level, and every two antipaladin levels thereafter, the amount of additional cold damage inflicted by the weapon increases by 1d6 (to a maximum of 10d6 at 20th level).
This ability replaces the smite good class feature.
Winter’s Herald (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a hellfrost knight becomes immune to the effects of cold weather. This functions as the endure elements spell, except it only applies to cold environments, and not warm ones.
At 7th level, the hellfrost knight gains cold resistance 5. This cold resistance increases to 10 at 11th level, and again to 15 at 15th level. At 19th level, the hellfrost knight becomes immune to cold.
This ability replaces the plaguebringer class feature.
Fiendish Boon (Sp): If the hellfrost knight chooses the first type of fiendish boon, he replaces the options for flaming and flaming burst weapon special abilities with frost and icy burst, respectively. If the hellfrost knight chooses the second type of fiendish boon, he cannot select a fiendish servant that has the fire subtype, although he can select one that is neither evil nor chaotic as long as it has the cold subtype.
This ability modifies the fiendish boon class feature.
Spellcasting: A hellfrost knight adds the following spells to his spell list at the indicated levels:
1st: chill touch, unshakable chill (UM)
2nd: frigid touch (UM), sleet storm
3rd: ice storm, wall of ice
4th: icy prison (UM)
This ability modifies the spellcasting class feature.