|
I've always liked the flavor of blood magic, using your blood to do incredible things no caster can without using blood. Unfortunately, every implementation of blood magic I've seen in 3.x/PF has been "deal minor damage to yourself to increase DCs or add metamagic to your regular spells" variety, and that just seems boring to me.
Now, I thought about making my own homebrew blood magic system, but thought to check and see if anyone knows of a blood magic system that is unique and interesting, and not of the style mentioned above?
I have a 3 feat tree for blood magic. I posted them in This thread. About 3 or 4 posts down. I hope you find them useful.
Also, if you like my way of doing blood magic, feel free to add your own ideas to it. You may want some extra options that I haven't thought of. All I ask is that if you do, please post your ideas. I may like them enough to add them to my version.
To Fnipernackler: I really enjoy your suggestions. Maybe a little harsh as most mages don't have the hp to sacrifice.
Why not homebrew a Blood Mage bloodline for a sorcerer.
You could mod the Aberrant bloodline and storyboarding Eschew Materials feat as using your blood to compensate for the material cost, Acid Ray special ability could look like blood.
Also, Sanguine means blood, and is an alternate bloodline for undead.
EDIT: Blood Witch... instead of communing with a familiar, you perform a ritual sacrifice with the blood of the victim (the creature(s) is killed during the sacrifice; sacrificing an unwilling intelligent creature is an evil act; the creature(s) must have HD equal to the highest level spell you can cast).
Blood Casting: A magic user can sacrifice some of his/her own blood to spontaneously cast a spell up to 3rd level (or however you wish to do this) 3/day. The sacrificed blood (hp damage) must be of the same level as the spell cast in this manner.
Cruoromancer Wizard archetype (Advanced Race Guide 98)
3 hit points lost for a free 3rd level spell to me is a bit much. I tried to balance out a fair number of hit points for the benefits gained. You can always suggest lower hit point values or change them yourself. 10 hp at 13th level isn't too bad. You might not be able to do it too often but you shouldn't need to since with the benefits you should be able to drop the enemy quicker than usual.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Here's a half-finished prestige class I wrote a while back. It's essentially barbarian rage for spellcasting.
Bloodmage
Attack Bonus: low
Hit Dice: d6
High Saves: Will
Skill Points: 2 + int
class skills: Appraise, Heal, Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft
Prerequisites:
Feats: spell focus (any)
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 3 ranks
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 2nd level arcane spells
Special: Ability to prepare 1st level arcane spells without a spellbook
Spellcasting:
[snip - full casting progression]
Blood Burn (level 1):
A Bloodmage can ignite her blood with magical fire, granting additional magical prowess. While under the influence of blood burn, a bloodmage experiences a heightened mental state, granting a +4 bonus to intelligence and charisma, as well as a +1 bonus to her caster level with all arcane spellcasting classes. She also ignores the penalties of fatigue for the duration, and treats exhaustion like fatigue.
A bloodmage can safely support a blood burn for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + her Constitution modifier. At each level after 1st, she can safely empower herself for 2 additional rounds. Temporary increases to Constitution, such as those gained from spells like bear's endurance, do not increase the total number of rounds. Once her rounds per day have been expended, any further use of the blood burn ability will deal 1 point of constitution damage per round.
If the bloodmage's hit points are reduced below zero while empowered, she may choose to act as if she were disabled instead of dying or dead (but does not automatically stabilize). If her hit points negative hit points fall below her constitution score while empowered, she immediately dies. If a bloodmage is killed during a blood burn, her body is engulfed by magical fire. This is treated as a fireball spell centered on her location with a caster level equal to her own.
Starting a blood burn is a free action, while ending one is a move action.
Reckless Spellcasting (level 1):
The path of the bloodmage is a shortcut to power. The risks of losing control of these energies is very real. Whenever a bloodmage fails a concentration check to cast a spell, she must make a will save of DC 10 + spell level or else involuntarily begin a blood burn.
Blood Power (level 2)
At the 2nd level, and every 2 levels thereafter, a bloodmage may select one blood power (I have not written the list of blood powers; as I said, this prestige class is incomplete)
Vital Energy (level 3)
At the 3rd level, a bloodmage can better direct the course of magic through her bloodstream. She gains fast healing 1 when using her blood burn ability, and her natural healing rate is twice as fast for hit points and ability damage.
Reform Body (level 5)
At the 5th level, a bloodmage gains the ability to reform her body after death. To do this, she must build a magical chamber to perform the reanimation process when she dies. This costs 10000 GP and one week of work. She may only have one such reanimation chamber at a time. When she is killed, her body will reform 1d4 days later (presuming her soul is not trapped). The reanimation chamber requires one week to recharge after being used, and does not function if the bloodmage is killed by a death effect. This otherwise works like the raise dead spell.
And that's as far as I got. Anyways, maybe it'll give someone else some ideas?
There's also maybe borrowing from the wilder psychic class. maybe taking points of damage to allow for metamagic without having to sacrifice a higher spell-slot?
I'm pretty sure that Blood Mages are a popular thing among people who make homebrews.
This is especially true after a rather lousy 3.5e Prestige Class and the disgusting Bloatmage came out.
Hey! I love the bloatmage! Lol
Would you ever play one?
I sure as hell wouldn't want to, nor should I be forced to do so.
Blood Mage as a concept can work without massive bloating and huge health risks, I say.
I agree with your last point. To answer your question, yes I would play one. The only reasons I have atm for not playing one is I have so many other character concepts and classes I'd like to play and two when I run ROTRL a player of mine will be playing one.
Psionics has a lot of cool powers that would work very well for blood mages. They should easily be converted to normal spells.
Affinity Field (9th)
Biofeedback (2nd)
Body Adjustment (3rd)
Collapse (1st)
Control Body (4th)
Crisis of Breath (3rd)
Crisis of Life (7th)
Death Urge (4th)
Decerebrate (7th)
Disable (1st)
Disruptive Touch (0)
Dissipating Touch (1st)
Empathic Feedback (4th)
Empathic Transfer (2nd)
Expose Weakness (3rd)
Fate Link (3rd)
Halt Death (0)
Induce Pain (0)
Inflict Pain (2nd)
Painful Strike (2nd)
Regenerative Aura (9th)
Recall Agony (2nd)
Recall Death (8th)
Share Pain (2nd)
Strength of my Enemy (2nd)
Suspend Life (6th)
True Metabolism (8th)
Wither (4th)
I posted my thoughts on Blood Magic about a year ago somewhere in these forums, including feats to make any spell blood magic. I'll repost them here. See what you think.
Blood Magic (Metamagic)
You use blood to power your spells rather than ætherial energy.
Benefits: The Blood Mage can sacrifice blood to fuel his spells. When casting a spell, the caster may inflict wounds in order to power the spell. When this is done, the spell is cast, but the spell caster does not lose any spells for the day. The wounds that must be inflicted to power the spell are an amount of hit points equal to the level of the spell times the level of the caster. These wounds can be inflicted on the caster or on a sacrifice (willing or not), and need not be inflicted by the Blood Mage himself. All wounds must be made within two rounds of spell casting. Blood Mages may make any number of wounds on themselves as a free action. If these wounds kill the sacrifice, the spell is treated as though maximized and enlarged. Any spell cast using blood magic automatically gains the evil descriptor, and if the caster is Good, his alignment automatically shifts to Neutral. If the caster is Neutral, the caster’s alignment shifts to Evil as soon as he sacrifices one hundred hit points worth of blood, or kills a victim to fuel a spell (willing or not). Blood Magic cannot be used to cast any spell with the good descriptor.
Blood Magic is highly illegal in all civilized areas, and there are entire orders of paladins and clerics whose sole purpose it is to hunt down and destroy Blood Mages.
Only humanoid, good dragon, or good outsider blood will work for this feat. Animal blood (animal, Fey, or Magical beast type) will also work, but the blood mage needs three times the amount of blood to complete the ritual.
Power of Blood (Metamagic)
You use blood to make your spells more powerful than would normally seem possible.
Prerequisites: Blood Magic Feat
Benefit: You may sacrifice blood to empower your spells. You may sacrifice an amount of hit points equal to the level of the spell times the level increase of the metamagic feat to be applied in order to apply that metamagic feat to the spell. Spells with metamagic feats applied to them using this feat do not need to be prepared beforehand with the metamagic feat attached, nor do they actually raise the level of the spell slot needed to cast them.
Blood sacrificed in this manner may come from the caster (in which it is a free action), or from a sacrifice. If the blood comes from a sacrifice, the wounds must be made within 2 rounds of spellcasting. If the sacrifice dies during spellcasting, the caster may add an additional metamagic feat he knows onto the spell for free.
The Blood Mage can only add metamagic feats he actually possesses. Use of this feat affects the caster’s alignment in the same way as the Blood Magic feat.
Normal: Metamagic feats normally raise the level of the spell.
Essence of Blood (Metamagic)
You use blood to increase the effectiveness of your spells to their natural maximums.
Prerequisites: Blood Magic Feat
Benefits: The Blood Mage can sacrifice blood in order to increase the effectiveness of his spells. Any spell with a random component can be affected. If a spell requires a die roll for damage or healing, the Blood Mage can sacrifice blood in order to raise the effectiveness of the spell after the die roll. The die roll can effectively be increased by one for every hit point sacrificed. These hit points cannot be taken from the damage caused by the spell this feat is empowering. A spell cannot be empowered beyond its natural maximum. For example, an 8th level wizard with this feat casting a fireball spell can only empower the spell to do a maximum of 48 damage (the natural maximum 8d6 can roll).
|
|
Sorry for the lateness of my reply. First thank you for your suggestions, but with the exception of Dasrak's prestige class, all of the suggestions for blood magic have been of the damage yourself to increase DCs/retain spell slot/etc variety, which I was desiring to avoid. Like I mentioned in my first post, I find that approach to be mechanically boring.
Perhaps it is the word "Magic" that makes people want to link it to standard casting, which is fine but not my cup of tea. Hoping to find something that had the flavor of blood magic, without being a resource to make casters even more OP than what they already are.
Anyways, thanks for the help. Since what I am looking for doesn't seem to exist in any complete state, I am going to try my hand at creating something, and get it posted up here in the next few days for review.