Hello everyone, first time posting here. I was on the reddit and thought it would be good to get a custom class out to as many places as I could. I need some review, so if you wouldn't mind giving me your input, it would be greatly appreciated.
Bloodmage
Description There are those who will give themselves, mind, body, and soul to their art, and that is no truer then for the Bloodmage. Believing their sacrifices would bring about greater power, cultures sought to use the very life force binding humans to the material plane as a medium for their abilities. This dark and blackened past has lead to the strange art rarely being practiced.
Those who seek their roots and carry out the barbaric rituals become Bloodmages, terrifying combatants who seek self destruction to bring about the end of their enemies.
Role Strong combatants with razor sharp skill sets, they excel at dealing damage from a safe distance, but may find themselves vulnerable if approached.
Alignment Bloodmages started in barbaric, unruly civilizations of old, but their teachings can be continued by anyone, even the spiritual and enlightened. Bloodmages are not limited by any alignment, but lean towards chaotic.
Hit Dice D12
BAB Same as Sorcerer
Saves 1 Great (Same as Fighter)
Class Skills The Bloodmage's class skills are Appraise (INT), Fly (Dex), Heal (WIS), Knowledge (Arcana, History) (INT), Spellcraft (INT), Survival (WIS), and Use Magic Device (CHA)
Skill Ranks at each level: 2+Int modifier.
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Bloodmages are proficient with all simple weapons and light armor, but not shields.
Bloodletting A Bloodmage does not gain spells in a typical fashion, and can cast as many spells a day as their body will allow. Each spell requires a sacrifice from the caster, dealing HP damage equal to the spell level x 2 - their CON modifier (to a minimum of 1). A spell who's spell slot changes (Through metamagic or other means) instead deals its damage as per its new spell level x2. They may not cast if the spell would reduce them below 1 hp, and the damage they inflict on themselves cannot be healed through magical or mundane means, only through a full 8 hour rest. They draw spells from the Bloodmage's spell list.
Temporary HP is not considered for casting, but may otherwise persist normally. If the spell (or spells, through metamagic or other means) would deal more then 1/4 of the Bloodmage's health pool, they must make a fortitude save or become stunned, taking only ½ of the inflicted damage and fail to cast.
Bloodmages are divine spontaneous casters who mark their skin with spells to learn them. To do this, they must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10+ the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Bloodmage's spell is 10+ the spell level + their Charisma Modifier
Though prolific, their abilities are limited, and as such a Bloodmage begins play with three 1st level spells of their choice. At each new Bloodmage level they gain spells of their choosing, in accordance to Sorcerer's Spells Known.
Infused Body A Bloodmage's body is merely an extension of their essence, magical power running throughout. Due to their unique connection with their body, a Bloodmage will always alert a Detect magic user.
Bloodline The Bloodmage may pick a Bloodline (as per the sorcerer class ability) and gain its feats as they level.
Numb If the Bloodmage casts a spell equal to ½ or below the level of their highest level known, they only receive half damage from this. If they are using Shared Pain, the damage is dealt normally to the sacrificial party.
Shared Pain At 10th level a Bloodmage may form a bond with one person close to them, in a ritual taking 4 hours, and 1,000 GP in strange crystals. Their blood will intermingle, and as long as both the Bloodmage and the bonded partner are conscious and willing, the Bloodmage may use their HP pool to cast from if you are 30 feet of each other and have line of sight, both parties taking half damage, the bonded party not benifiting from Numb. A bloodmage may do this a number of times per day equal to his Charisma modifier.
At 15th level the Bloodmage may form a bond with 3 total participants.
At 20th level the Bloodmage may form a bond with 4 total participants.
Abbreviated Ritual: At 12th level, as a standard action, a Bloodmage may use two charges of Shared Pain to cast solely from the HP of an un-bonded participant. The participant must be willing, terrified, helpless, or magically coerced. If their state changes (From Helpless to Fine) the ritual is broken, and you may no longer use their HP without spending 2 more charges when they re-enter one of those states. You must be able to see and physically touch the subject. You may only cast spells equal to ½ of your highest spell learned this way, and may not use this on a victim you have grappled.
So in short its a sorcerer who uses HP instead of casts per day, something I've wanted for years since I first heard of pen and paper RPGs but never found one that really did it for me. I've got a nice progression table here if you need the visualization.
In Pathfinder, a creature type or class's BAB and Hit Die are linked. If your class has a 1/2 BAB, then it should have a d6 Hit Die. There's many complicated game design reasons why the game works like this. But if you want your class to have plenty of hit points, then encourage players to have a high Constitution.
Take it from someone who has experimented with similar concepts: hit points make for a terrible resource pool for gating abilities. As a resource pool, hit points have too variable of a capacity and have too many ways to replenish it. This makes it extraordinarily difficult to balance. With your class, it's utterly broken. The math of your class's costs is so broken that it's easy to min-max a 1st character to be able to cast more than 10 1st level spells per day.
There's also not a lot of class features here. You might be better off making an archetype.
I agree about using hit points to fuel spell per day. The way it is currently written, a level 1 bloodmage with a Constitution of 12 can cast up to twelve 1st level spells in the day and still remain conscious. Think about how much he would thrive with a healer in the party. With a Constitution of 16, he can really go crazy with 2nd level spells too.
I think that if you use a traditional spell per day table, you could still come up with a unique way to sacrafice hit points in order to gain something from it. However, it should have a smaller payoff, such as a minimal increase to caster level or adding metamagic effects to spells. Or maybe he spends HP in order to cast a spell he didn't prepare for the day.
If you want a way to make a blood sacrafice more substantial, you might be able to use ability damage. Obviously immunity to such damage would negate the benefit.
You could probably make this a wizard or cleric archetype where you lose arcane bond or channel energy.
Think about how much he would thrive with a healer in the party.
Damage dealt to the bloodmage through bloodletting cannot be healed through mundane means. Previously to this I had the spells dealing level x2 damage, but that limited a caster to 3 spells if they wanted to stay safe, and this is another change. Still not sure how I can make it reasonable without having it not be worth playing.
In Pathfinder, a creature type or class's BAB and Hit Die are linked. If your class has a 1/2 BAB, then it should have a d6 Hit Die.
Thank you for the insight. I had noticed that while playing but never really struck me as a rule. I'll change them to a d8 and give them Tribal Scars as a bonus feat. Also, keep in mind the damage they deal to themselves cannot be healed through anything but rust. Thanks for the info.
Might want to take a look at this Blood Mage for some ideas.
Check out the spell nap stack.
In Pathfinder, a creature type or class's BAB and Hit Die are linked. If your class has a 1/2 BAB, then it should have a d6 Hit Die.Thank you for the insight. I had noticed that while playing but never really struck me as a rule. I'll change them to a d8 and give them Tribal Scars as a bonus feat. Also, keep in mind the damage they deal to themselves cannot be healed through anything but rust. Thanks for the info.
Still not quite how that works. The d12 Hit Die for barbarians and dragons are the only exceptions in the entire game and they have a full BAB.
With my earlier analysis, I already factored in that healing doesn't restore hit points lost. It doesn't matter. Hit points are flawed as a resource for gating powerful abilities. The capacity is too variable and easy to min-max. The math for the class's costs is broken and doesn't look like it was thought out. Even the fact that Constitution factors in TWICE in the formula is a big deal.
You're adamant about having the class start with at least 12 hit points with almost no investment into Constitution. As Carien Barnes pointed out, with a 12 Con, you would start with 13 hit points and can cast twelve 1st level spells -- which is three times the amount of spells a 1st level sorcerer can. And this class knows more spells than a sorcerer. If it's this easy to make an overpowered character with minimal Constitution investment in a class designed to encourage building a high Constitution, there's something wrong here.
The math for the class's costs is broken and doesn't look like it was thought out. Even the fact that Constitution factors in TWICE in the formula is a big deal.
Yes, this class is really slowly being put together, and the fact I can't edit my main post is sort of frustrating. The HD is a d6, the spell cost is back to being double without con modifier being a factor, so their base HP level 1 is 12, and with toughness that brings them to 15, so if they really try that's 18 or 19 HP level one. Higher then most sorcs, but I think they'll need it. Casting more then 4 times brings them down to 10, a range where an errant crit could easily end them. They do have more potential casts still, but I feel like the balance is justified. Also, I simply gave them the bonus spell that sorcs get from their stats, which nearly every player gets anyways.
The math for the class's costs is broken and doesn't look like it was thought out. Even the fact that Constitution factors in TWICE in the formula is a big deal.Yes, this class is really slowly being put together, and the fact I can't edit my main post is sort of frustrating. The HD is a d6, the spell cost is back to being double without con modifier being a factor, so their base HP level 1 is 12, and with toughness that brings them to 15, so if they really try that's 18 or 19 HP level one. Higher then most sorcs, but I think they'll need it. Casting more then 4 times brings them down to 10, a range where an errant crit could easily end them. They do have more potential casts still, but I feel like the balance is justified. Also, I simply gave them the bonus spell that sorcs get from their stats, which nearly every player gets anyways.
Link to a Google Doc on a new thread for best results.
Heh... multiclassing for a Bloodmager.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b-xxCX4I7ppBk79WUJQH_zFxaqmV2e2yaibgOWI Yq9Y/edit?usp=sharing Thanks for the suggestion