Arkhan

, also known as Arkhan the Cruel, is a dragonborn paladin/barbarian. He is played by Joe Manganiello.

Appearance
Arkhan is a heavily muscled, red-scaled dragonborn, nearly 7’ in height.

His holy symbol is an amulet he wears suspended around his neck by a thick gold chain, adorned with the five-headed dragon sigil of Tiamat. This same symbol is emblazoned on the front of his magic shield.

He wears a suit of jagged, spiked, obsidian-metal plate armor with green dragon scales embedded throughout the main plates. Around his neck is a loop of golden thorns inset with dozens of gems, representing each of the chromatic dragon colors called The Wreath of the Prism. He carries a magical battleaxe carved from deep cerulean sapphire and adorned with numerous runic sigils called Fane-Eater.

Background
Arkhan was a former hired killer who was imprisoned and nearly beaten to death in an attempted forced conversion by a religious cult. Arkhan was able to break his chains and murder his captors, aided by visions and power granted to him by the five headed chromatic dragon goddess, Tiamat.

Vander, a high elf Arkhan considered to be "the closest thing he’d ever had to a brother," was burned to death in an attack by Vecna’s Death Knight aided by Delilah Briarwood. This ambush also led to the cutting out of the still beating heart of a Goliath companion of Arkhan’s as well.

Arkhan then chased Delilah and the Death Knight to Thar Amphala on a white dragon named Obatalá. The dragon was killed and Arkhan was left for dead by Vecna's followers.

While attempting to wrestle a gloomstalker to the ground, Arkhan stumbled into a building where Vox Machina were hiding. With the aid of Vex and Grog, Arkhan used the Wreath of the Prism to take control of the gloomstalker dubbed “They,” thus turning it into his attuned mount.

Afterward, he and Vox Machina struck a deal. If Vox Machina could look past the religious differences between their good-natured gods and Arkhan’s Queen of Darkness, Tiamat, and help Arkhan get revenge on the Death Knight, then he would in turn join them and “fight for their lives with the fury of a man who was already dead.” The group unanimously agreed and soon after put Grog and Arkhan into position to destroy an outer sigil protecting Thar Amphala.

This unfortunately attracted the attention of Sylas and Delilah, riding atop a now undead Obatalá. Arkhan and Vox Machina managed to defeat Delilah (which ended the force reanimating Obatalá), but Sylas escaped. Arkhan then took a bit of revenge by animating Delilah's corpse into his own undead puppet.

Inside the tower of Entropis, Arkhan encountered a reanimated Vander and successfully cast Control Undead on his former companion. Further up the tower, had it not been for a “lucky” natural 1, Arkhan would have beheaded Shaun Gilmore due to a trick by Vecna.

Vox Machina’s moment of relief was interrupted when Vecna’s Death Knight caught up to the group. A revenge fueled Arkhan chose to stay behind and sacrifice himself by holding the knight back with his two undead minions while Vox Machina continued on to confront Vecna himself.

Arkhan defeated the Death Knight and rejoined Vox Machina late in their battle with Vecna. He made quite an entrance by tossing the severed head of Delilah Briarwood and the Death Knight’s helmet into the crevasse below. Then using a magical fly potion to manifest a faint pair of shimmering, chromatically-shifting dragon wings, he flew up into the fight and added key support using the last of his Divine Smites to serve mega damage to the Lich (135 points in a single round) and broke Vecna’s spell concentration at a key moment in the battle thus returning Grog back to the fight after he was magically shifted to another plane. Eventually Arkhan and Vox Machina proved to be too much and they managed to defeat Vecna using the trammels and the tome. The Lich imploded leaving behind no trace save for his weaponized hand. With the support of Vox Machina, Arkhan began preparations to destroy the Hand of Vecna for good. He raised his magical battle-axe Fane-Eater above his head and whispered a prayer to his goddess Tiamat but then instead of swinging the axe down onto Vecna’s hand, Arkhan instead chopped off his own hand at the wrist and in the wake of Vox Mchina’s shock, attached the Hand of Vecna to himself and used its power to teleport out, claiming it was “just business." His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Percival de Rolo and Keyleth
Arkhan briefly adventured with Percy and Keyleth several years before they encountered each other again in Thar Amphala. After receiving the mental image of a golden jeweled artifact during a dream provided to him by Tiamat, Arkhan ventured into the corrupted Temple of Shumas with Percival and Keyleth where they battled several Yuan-Ti before coming face to face with the Temple’s spectral guardian. Arkhan took control of the ghost using his Control Undead ability and therefore gained control of the temple’s boss, a Manticore named Changó. Wrapped around the Manticore’s neck was the same golden jeweled treasure he saw in his dream... The Wreath of the Prism. This adventure was played out in an episode of CelebriD&D.

Vander
Vander, a high elf ranger, was a companion of Arkhan's and the closest thing he had ever had to a brother. Vander was incinerated by Vecna’s Death Knight during an excursion into Thar Amphala. Later, when Arkhan was traveling with Vox Machina, they encountered Vander's reanimated corpse inside the tower of Entropis. Arkhan used Control Undead to take control of Vander's corpse and bring him to the top of the tower with him. It was here that Vander finally met his end helping Arkhan to defeat Vecna’s Death Knight.

Grubby
Grubby, a gnome wizard, was another of Arkhan's companions who was killed and reanimated by Vecna. Arkhan briefly recognized Grubby's zombified corpse before it was destroyed by Pike in Entropis.

Vox Machina
Arkhan’s fealty to Tiamat was a conflict with Vox Machina when they met, but their goals at least for the time being were seemingly in alignment. Arkhan joined Vox Machina and assisted them in the final slaying of Delilah Briarwood and her undead dragon before singlehandedly holding off the Death Knight with his two zombie minions so that Vox Machina could get the jump on Vecna. He defeated the Death Knight and rejoined the group ultimately helping them to rid the Prime Material Plane of Vecna. Once Vecna was defeated, Arkhan tricked Vox Machina into believing he was going to destroy the Hand of Vecna once and for all but instead cut off his own hand and used the last of his Lay on Hands pool to reattach Vecna’s Hand to himself before using it to teleport out, claiming his actions were "just business.”

Abilities
As an Oathbreaker paladin, Arkhan is required to be evil, and "[w]hatever light burns in [his] heart has been extinguished. Only darkness remains." In exchange, he has immense power to control and raise undead creatures; the ability to frighten other creatures; and a +4 bonus to melee attack damage.

Arkhan multiclassed as a barbarian, granting him the ability to go into a frenzied rage.

Arkhan now wields The Hand of Vecna.

Dragonborn Abilities

 * Draconic Ancestry (Red)
 * Breath Weapon (Fire)
 * Damage Resistance (Fire)

Class Features

 * Aura of Courage
 * Aura of Protection
 * Cleansing Touch
 * Divine Sense
 * Divine Smite
 * Extra Attack
 * Fighting Style
 * Improved Divine Smite
 * Lay on Hands (70 points)
 * Oathbreaker
 * Aura of Hate
 * Channel Divinity
 * Control Undead
 * Dreadful Aspect
 * Oathbreaker spells
 * Spellcasting (Charisma-based ability)

Oathbreaker Spells
Arkhan has access to the following spells, which do not count against the number of spells he can prepare.

1st-level

 * Hellish Rebuke
 * Inflict Wounds

2nd-level

 * Crown of Madness
 * Darkness

3rd-level

 * Animate Dead
 * Bestow Curse

4th-level

 * Blight
 * Confusion

Paladin Spells
Arkhan has access to paladin spells up to 4th-level. As a 14th-level paladin, he can prepare up to 11 spells per day.

4th-level

 * Death Ward

Class Features

 * Danger Sense
 * Primal Path: Path of the Berserker
 * Frenzy
 * Rage
 * Reckless Attack
 * Unarmored Defense

Notable Items

 * Fane-Eater, a very rare artifact battleaxe: You gain a +3 bonus to attack rolls made with this weapon. When you deal a critical hit with this weapon, the target suffers an additional 2d8 necrotic damage, and you regain an equal amount of hit points. You gain an additional use of Channel Divinity between rests while attuned to this weapon. When you bring a medium or larger living creature to 0 hit points with this weapon, you can expend a use of your Channel Divinity to gain a number of temporary hit points equal to your character level.
 * Obsidian Flint Dragon Plate +2 : You gain poison resistance. The bladed and jagged nature of this armor grants the wearer advantage to break non-magical grapples.


 * The Wreath of the Prism (Exalted), a legendary artifact neckpiece: The wearer gains darkvision and can see invisible objects and creatures up to 60 feet. The wreath can be removed for up to 1 minute before losing attunement. If the wreath is placed around the neck of a beast, dragon, or monstrosity of CR 6 or lower (requires a successful grapple attempt against the creature), the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 17). On a success, the creature is immune to the effects of this item for 24 hours. On a failure, that creature is charmed by the attuned and will follow simple commands. This effect lasts until the wreath becomes unattuned, or another creature is charmed by the wreath. A creature that is released from the wreath's influence knows it was charmed by the bearer.


 * The Hand of Vecna, wondrous item, artifact: Your Strength score becomes 20, unless it is already 20 or higher. Any melee spell attack you make with the Hand, and any melee weapon attack made with a weapon held by it, deals an extra 2d8 cold damage on a hit. The Hand has 8 charges. You can use an action to expend 1 or more charges to cast one of the following spells (spell save DC 18) from it: Finger of Death (5 charges), Sleep (1 charge), Slow (2 charges), or Teleport (3 charges). The Hand regains 1d4+4 expended charges daily at dawn. Each time you cast a spell from the Hand, it casts the Suggestion spell on you (spell save DC 18), demanding that you commit an evil act. The Hand might have a specific act in mind or leave it up to you.

Quotations

 * "Its just business. Until we meet again..." – To Vox Machina after grabbing the Hand of Vecna, attaching it to himself, and teleporting away.

Trivia

 * Arkhan was the character Joe Manganielo played in the episode of CelebriD&D he was featured in. He played alongside Taliesin Jaffe and Marisha Ray, who played as Percival and Keyleth respectively.
 * Vander and Grubby are characters played by Joe's real-life brother Nick and by Will Hines, respectively.
 * Joe also plays a 6th level version of Arkhan in season two of Force Grey: Lost City of Omu.