Oath of the Righteous Dead

The dead shall rise to defend the living.
The Oath of the Righteous Dead swears the paladin to the service of Rin, the Laughing God of the Dead and the defender of the living. These undead have been released from the grave to fight the xenos invasion, channeling their darkness to strike down their foes and protect their allies.

The Righteous Dead

When the Laughing Queen of the Dead opened the gates of the Underworld, the dead marched to fight the invaders from the stars. After witnessing the terrible destruction wrought by atomic flame, nanite swarms, and deadly gas, some of the dead swore oaths on their prison-tombs to defend the world they'd left behind. These Paladins became the Righteous Dead, champions of the Laughing Queen and defenders of the living.
Many of the Righteous Dead remain at the frontlines of the battle, but some pick up the banner of the adventurer. Most do so either to find something that can help against the invader, to do good beyond the battlefield, or defend their party.
These paladins share the following tenets:

• Defend the Living: You have returned from beyond the veil. Cherish this second existence and spend it safeguarding mortal life against dangers.
• Laugh At Death: Mock fear and despair. As one who has faced death once, you know no fear. Like your patron, laugh in the face of death and danger.
• Honor the Fallen: Remember those who have passed. Comfort the dying, avenge the dishonored dead, and usher lost spirits to their deserved rest.
• Destroy the Xenos: You were freed from your underworld tomb to fight the star-spawned invaders. Fight them at every turn.

A Note On The Undead
Before the coming of the Righteous Dead, undead were fables. Perhaps a handful of each type could be found across the world at any given time, turning their haunts in the places of legendary malice.
Now, most undead are part of the war against the invading xenos and allies to the living. Some have broken away to pursue their own goals or indulge in revenge, seek out family, or put an end to unfinished business.
Undead are not automatically Chaotic Evil, but follow their own morality.

Features

Overview

Level	Feature	Description
1	Risen From The Grave	Chose an Undead Aspect and gain its power.
3	Channel Divinity: Felling Strike	You raise slain foes to serve you.
5	Warlord Tactic	Pick one battlefield ability.
7	Strength of the Grave	Your Undead Aspect Grows in strength.
13	Boon	The Queen of the Dead grants you a boon.
15	Harvest Soul	You draw strength from the lingering essence of defeated foes.
17	Boon	The Queen of the Dead grants you a boon.
20	Apotheosis	Your Undead Aspect reaches its apex.

Risen From The Grave

1st-level Oath of the Righteous Dead feature
You are no longer among the living. At level 1, chose an undead aspect:

Wight

Wight are undead risen from warriors, tireless and relentless combatants. Their endless march crushes the enemies under foot, never stopping or resting. The Righteous Dead wights retain their bodies, with desiccated flesh drawn over bones and sunken, black eyes.
As a Wight, you gain the following benefits:
Restless Warriors
Freed from the shackles of living flesh, the Wight never tires in its pursuit. You have advantage on saving throws against effects that would cause exhaustion, knockback, or knockdown.
Life-Draining Strike
When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can deal an additional 1d6 necrotic damage. Once per turn, if this extra damage reduces the creature to 0 hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

Ghoul

Corpse-eating fiends, Ghouls are horrors that skulk the battlefield to prey on the weak. In the service of the Righteous Dead, the Ghouls instead turn their terrible hunger to the foes of the world. Ghouls mottled, decayed flesh and too many jagged teeth.
As a Ghoul, you gain the following benefits:
Chomp
When you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can attack again with a bite attack as a reaction. The bite does 1d6 damage, and creatures hit must roll a Constitution Saving Throw against DC 8 + your Charisma modifier or be Slowed for one turn.
Devour
Ghouls sate their hunger on their fallen. You can consume a corpse to regain 1 HD. You can use this ability a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus.

Mummy

Mummies are embalmed corpsed, organs removed and their bodies hollowed out before being wrapped in protective wrappings. Such burials are either an honor to reward the virtouous, or a punishment inflicted upon the wicked. Most are guardians, intended to protect the place they were interred.
As a Mummy, you gain the following benefits:
Dreadful Gaze
As a bonus action, you can turn your gaze upon a creature and curse them. The creature must roll a Wisdom or Charisma save (whichever is lowest) against DC 10 + your Charisma Modifier or become Death Cursed. As long as a creature is Death Cursed, they take an additional 1d6 Necrotic damage every time they take damage. This increases to 2d6 at level 10.
Deathless
Wrapped in protective linen and with vulnerable organs safely stored in your tomb, you are difficult to damage. While you aren’t wearing any armor, your base Armor Class equals 12 plus your Dexterity and Constitution modifiers. You can use a Shield and still gain this benefit. Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against disease and resistance to poison damage

Wraith

Like vengeful shadows, Wraiths drift across the battlefield to murder and maim. They appear as shifting smoke and shadows in a humanoid shape, retaining only fragments of their appearance from before their death. Righteous Dead wraiths turn their vengeance and hungry dark towards their enemies, leaving no place safe.
As a Wraith, you gain the following benefits:
Whispering Shadow
You have advantage on Stealth checks in darkness or low-light conditions, your shifting form blending with the dark.
Incorporeal Movement
You can move through other creatures or objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 2d10 force damage if you end your turn inside and object, and are ejected to the nearest empty space.
In addition, all Oath of the Righteous Dead paladins do not require air, food, drink, or sleep.

Design Note
Despite being undead, the Oath of the Righteous Dead do not benefit from most of the traits that undead monsters do, such as damage resistances or immunities, or condition immunities. This is mostly a matter of balance, and represents the Oath of the Righteous being brought back into the world.

Channel Divinity - Felling Strike

Channel Divinity Action
When you take the Attack action, you can expend one use of your Channel Divinity to imbue your weapon with the weight of the grave. You add 1d10 Necrotic damage to your attack. If you reduce a creature's hitpoints to 0, you can use a reaction to raise the slain enemy into a zombie minion. The minion is destroyed at the end of the battle.

Warlord Tactic

5th-level Oath of the Righteous Dead feature
The Righteous Dead have been brought back to fight the xenos invasion, and have invented a number of tactics to stem the endless tides and protect their allies. Pick one of the following:

Aegis Of Hope

You gain the ability to create a consecrated area; a beacon to rally and empower your allies. As an action, you can create designate a 15 ft area within 60ft as your Aegis. Within this zone, allies gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier at the start of their turns.
Additionally, allies within the zone gain advantage on saving throws against Mutagenic and Super-Weapon effects, as well as Death saving throws. The effect ends if you leave the Aegis zone.

Breaking the Tide

When the xenos swarm in an endless tide, it is up to the Righteous Tide to break them. You gain the ability to continue your attacks; when you reduce a creature's hp to 0 with a melee weapon attack, you can immediately make another attack against another creature in range. You can attack a number of enemies up to your proficiency bonus.

Unmoving Bulwark

You gain the ability to turn aside fang, sword, spear, or spell. As a reaction, you can impose Disadvantage on an incoming attack.

Strength of the Grave

7th-level Oath of the Righteous Dead feature
The Righteous Dead turn their death into a source of strength, becoming more like a creature of undeath. Your Undead Aspect improves.

Wight

Relentless
The Righteous Dead will not be denied. Whenever the Wight misses an attack, you have advantage on their next attack against the same target.

Ghoul

Ravenous Hunger
As flesh tear and hot blood splatters against them, the Ghoul is whipped into a feeding frenzy. Whenever you reduces a creature to 0 hp, they gain advantage on the next attack they make.

Mummy

Retributive Curse
The mummy's curse grip all who dare to strike them. When you takes damage from a creature's attack, spell, or ability, you can curse your them as a Reaction. The creature must roll against your Death Curse.

Wraith

Unexpected Angles
The wraith's shifting form can attack from any quarter. If you have used Incorporeal Movement and moved through terrain, a creature, or object, you gain Advantage on your next attack. You cannot get advantage against a creature you have moved through.

Boon

13th & 17th-level Oath of the Righteous Dead features
At level 13 and 17, you gain the favor of the Laughing Queen of the Dead.
Roll on the Boon table.

Harvest Soul

15th-level Oath of the Righteous Dead feature
The underworld consumes your slain foes and empower you with their essence. When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points, you can harvest their fleeing essence. You can store up to your Charisma modifier in essence.
As a bonus action, you can spend one fragment to gran an ally you can see advantage on their next attack roll or saving throw. All stored essence is lost at the end of battle.

Apotheosis

20th-level Oath of the Righteous Dead feature
You reach the apex of your undead aspect, becoming a terror beyond reckoning, beyond fable, and beyond death.
As a Bonus Action, you can activate your Apotheosis, gaining the benefits below for 10 minutes or until you end them. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest. You can also restore your use of it by expending a level 5 spell slot (no action required).

Wight Apotheosis - Dread Knight

You become a dread knight of the underworld—an unstoppable juggernaut that moves steadily forward, never tiring, never yielding.

• Unstoppable Advance: You become immune to being grappled, restrained, paralyzed, or stunned, and your speed cannot be reduced by any means.
• Reaping Blows: Any attacks made with advantage deal additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier, and you restore that many hit points

Ghoul Apotheosis - Voracious Hunger

You embody the hunger of the void, all-consuming and never satisfied. Nothing escapes your hunger, and all who look at you know that they are prey.

• Ravenous Regeneration: Your frenzy sustains you. At the start of each turn, you regain hit points equal to your Charisma modifier. If you dealt damage on your previous turn, the amount doubles.
• Primal Terror: As long as you have dealt damage on the previous turn, enemies within 10 feet of you cannot gain advantage on attack rolls against you.

Mummy Apotheosis - Emperor of the Tomb

You assume the majestic and terrible presence of the most ancient of your kind, the embalmed god of glorious death, your mere presence cursing your foes.

• Creeping Curse: When you use your Dreadful Gaze, you can target every enemy within 30 feet. Additionally, every enemy cursed takes your Charisma Modifier damage at the start of their turn while Apotheosis is active.
• Aura of Ancient Dread: All creatures with of the Minion type with 30 feet are automatically Frightened by you.

Wraith Apotheosis - Sovereign of Shadows

You become like the void; a hungry shadow, a darkness that consumes all, the inevitable end.

• Hungry Dark: When you pass through creatures using Incorporeal Movement, you can chose to deal 1d10 + your Charisma Modifier necrotic damage to them.
• Inevitable End: If you cast Divine Smite with an attack that has Advantage, you can raise the spell level of Divine Smite by 2 as a reaction, to a maximum of 5.

Becoming A Righteous Dead

It is possible but unpleasant for an existing character to multiclass into the Righteous Dead subclass. By the very nature of the Righteous Dead, it requires the character to be, well, dead. To those who wish to serve the Laughing Queen as a Righteous Dead, they may undergo a ritual suicide that turns them into a Righteous Dead. Other undead servants of Rin find such displays of piety both impressive and depressing; they spend so much time defending the living, they treasure the spark of life and are sad to see it snuffed out like that.

Faction Views

The Necroarchy

As the civil wing of the Righteous Dead under the Laughing Queen's, the Necroarchy and Righteous Dead paladins work close together. They rule and administer, while the paladins fight and die.

Church of the Radiant Atom

The Righteous Dead have a complicated relationship with the Radiant Atom, as it does with all post-divinity religions. They are inspired by the xenos and their technology, the very enemy that the Righteous Dead were unleashed to fight.