The Pale King |
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I hadn't really realized it before, but the Bloodrager class with its bloodlines and archetypes covers a lot of design space that was missing or weak before it. Yes many of these come online a bit late, but it's impressive all the same:
Draconic Bloodline gives a Dragon Disciple-esque character that works.
Arcane Bloodline gives something of an Arcane Paladin feel.
Shadow Bloodline gives you something like the Shadowdancer.
Celestial Bloodline lets you make something of a non-lawful Paladin.
Id Rager gives the closest thing we have to a Psychic Warrior outside of 3rd party.
etc.
Cole Deschain |
Thematically, it's also good for the character taken hold of by his ancestors (I use Undead-blooded for this all the time), the gifted amateur, and, of course, the lunatic dropping fireballs at his own feet as he wades through the enemy, singing a song of blood and death...
I love Bloodragers.
SheepishEidolon |
Only problem I have with them is deciding a bloodline. So many cool options.
Well, there is the cross-blooded archetype, and you can take Eldritch Heritage and Raging Blood. If that's not enough, you can sacrifice 5 more feats for VMC sorcerer. It's not the strongest build ever, but bloodrager can afford suboptimal choices easily, in my opinion.
Mathmuse |
In December 2015, at the beginning of the first module, Fires of Creation, of the Iron Gods adventure path, the PCs recruited sympathetic NPC Val Baine into the party, to aid in the search for her lost wizard father. Two PCs had the Local Ties campaign trait and were her friends, hence I had raised her age from 13 to 17. I assumed that she had begun learning wizardry under her father, and she cast a Jolt cantrip in the battle at her house. The players, however, wanted her to embrace her Kellid ethnicity and suggested Savage Technologist barbarian from the Technology Guide.
The compromise to accommodate both her heritages was bloodrager. I tweaked the Savage Technologist archetype in adapting it to bloodrager to give cantrips to the bloodrager.
The story is that Val's adoptive father had decided that she should know Kellid culture better than he could teach, so he had hired a local Kellid caravan guard to tutor her. Val had persuaded her barbarian tutor to teach her how to fight, too. Meanwhile, lacking extraordinary intelligence, she had learned the Jolt cantrip by sorcery rather than wizardry, tapping into her unknown Air Elemental bloodline, even through bloodragers did not ordinarily learn cantrips. (She prepared cantrips from her apprentice spellbook every morning until she realized the truth at 4th level.)
In many adventure paths I have had to give an unstatted NPC a character class. Finding a class that matches an existing NPC's background means searching through several potential archetypes and class dips for the perfect fit. Bloodrager class can stretch to fit.
The Pale King |
The Pale King wrote:Only problem I have with them is deciding a bloodline. So many cool options.Well, there is the cross-blooded archetype, and you can take Eldritch Heritage and Raging Blood. If that's not enough, you can sacrifice 5 more feats for VMC sorcerer. It's not the strongest build ever, but bloodrager can afford suboptimal choices easily, in my opinion.
Four bloodlines in the same character? That's a hilarious idea. Made more fun by odd choices. How you would explain that background would be a treat. :P
Prof. Löwenzahn |
If I were to advise Arcane Bloodline, I'd say Magehunter. They get all the good anti-mage stuff, especially with Primalist and the Spell Sunder/Eater of Magic rage powers.
Much love for Bloodragers from me, too <3
Bloodlines are always a good way to add depth and character background to your game. Bloodragers are among the best melee damage and tank classes and on top they can cast a little, so maybe they are not the easiest starter classes, but I believe one of the best Allrounder.
Grumbaki |
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Enlightened Bloodragers. A bloodragers with Lvl 0 spells and druid spells.
Extra points: go dragon disciple. You lose the lvl1 bloodline power due to the archetype, but it sucks anyways. This represents learning how to control the bloodrage (ignore negatives by lvl4) and then master the bloodline via dragon disciple.