Why did I make a class? Who knows.
I did make a class though. I’m pretty certain of that. It’s not quite done yet, not to the standards of existing published classes like the Bard. But it’s complete enough for someone else to review.
The core concept of the class is essentially a direct port over of the Flagellant class from the game Darkest Dungeon. If you haven’t played that game, here’s a brief overview to give you a bit of a sense.
The bloodletter is a walking martyr. They crave punishment. They adore wounds and hardship. The closer they get to death, the more powerful they become. Playing this class is fun for two reasons. The first is that you get to subvert expectations in a way that feels fun. Normally, taking damage is a bad thing, but when you play this class, there’s a degree to which it’s a good thing, and I think that’s fun. The second reason this class is fun is that it forces you to constantly balance risk and reward. While I personally find that balance fun in most games I play, I should say that this class is not for the faint of heart. It’s not for newer players, either. Not only is it complicated, but you’re probably more likely to experience character death than you would with, say, a Paladin.
Fortunately, since DnD 5e came out, there aren’t too many new players left in this game.
Another thing I wanted to do with this class is to address the ‘rocket tag’ nature of Pathfinder combat. This is a fundamentally defensive, tanky class which deals bleed damage over time. There are a lot of incentives to try to focus on offensive abilities and try to end combat encounters as soon as possible. I think with this class I created a fair amount of incentives to let things stretch out to rounds 3-5 more frequently, which seems like the sweet spot.
There are a couple of prestige classes that are vaguely similar to this niche (Holy Vindicator, Pain Taster), the problem is that, uh, I just don’t like the execution on some of the ideas.
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Without further ado, here is a google doc to the bloodletter. I set it up pretty much the same way that published character classes are set up. The first six pages overview the class, the rest is supporting materials (Rapture Powers, Spell List, a few random Feats I thought of).
Here are some design notes, which I am writing assuming that you have read and understood everything. My goal in posting this here is to get feedback and make this class better.
I really like where I landed on Ecstasy. It’s not massively complex, it’s powerful, and it captures the core of the class pretty effectively. I think the scaling is pretty unlikely to change as well.
I think Consecrated Flesh and Implacable are both pretty much as they should be. My aim is to make it so that Charisma is the most important stat for a bloodletter, and to do that I needed to give it to multiple passive stats. Since I want the bloodletter to be a fundamentally defensive class, which does not wear armor, I landed on AC, CMD and one save, rather than on stats like attack or damage. I like giving +2 AC by level 3, rather than +5 AC over 20 levels, as this better matches the AC provided by armor.
Mar Flesh. This class really needs to not wear armor, which is problematic on multiple levels. This is a real solution to one of those problems. Between Consecrated Flesh and Mar Flesh, I think I have a melee class that doesn’t wear armor which also functions at a basic level. Also, this ability seems very thematic.
Fresh Scars seems really cool. There isn’t any upside to using it on it’s own, so the only reason you would use it is to enable other synergies, which I think has a nice quality.
Delight (+improved and greater). Having non action healing over time is important for this class. Passive healing is an elegant reward for taking damage (since it doesn’t do anything except when you’re damaged). I compared this to the Lay on Hands ability at a few different levels. My goal was to make it a tiny bit less powerful than that ability, and I think I succeeded. In general, when you have 1 enemy bleeding you get less healing, and when you have 2 enemies bleeding the healing is comparable. This ability is conditional and requires set up, but also doesn’t take actions or depend on uses per day. I think it’s overall a slightly weaker version of LoH, but it’s difficult to compare.
It’s also possible this ability is too powerful, as I think LoH is arguably too good.
Some aspects of spellcasting:
I think 4th level casting is good. There’s only one other 3/4 bab recreational caster out there (the Medium), so this is an underexplored niche. Also, 4th level casting is, in my view, generally the most fun type of casting.
I especially like the ‘pain’ cycle of spells that reward you for walking around at 3/4 HP and the Climax spells which reward you for getting down to 1/4 HP.
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Bloodletting is a hard ability. First of all, if you compare it to any published ability that inflicts bleed damage, it seems massively overpowered. I’m of the opinion (and so are people who write class guides) that all of the published options to make things bleed are not usable because they’re too weak.
That being said, I’m still not sure bloodletting works as intended. It’s a lot of damage for a class that is supposed to be defensive, and there are some things (melee only, once per round, concentration checks) I’m not sure about.
Hemorrhage, Essence Bleed. Bleed damage does not work very well as published. That is fine since even if bleed worked, it’s given at too weak of a rate for anyone to care. These two abilities make bleed damage functional, but they might also make it a little too hard to cure. Also, I want to find ways to make these abilities (esp Hemorrhage) easier to read.
Damage Reduction is another ability that incentivises getting hit (it doesn’t do anything unless you get hit). I also like the idea that this class has low AC and relies on other characteristics to survive. With that being said, 1/2 level might not be perfect.
I feel alright about the Rapture Powers. There’s a pretty large number of them, and since I tried to avoid terrible trap options, there might actually be more viable Rapture Powers than viable Rogue Talents or Rage Powers. I think they all fit within the mechanical definition of the class reasonably tightly, and are mostly pretty flavorful. I don’t think I got the power level spot on with all of them, though.
Inured/Purify line. These are fundamentally flavor matching abilities, like Bravery. They don’t do very much, but they make the class behave the way you would expect in niche scenarios. I think some of this is good, I’m just not sure this is the best execution of these two abilities. Maybe we should have more/fewer bonuses, or different numbers.
Exsanguinate. Ecstasy is your modest but highly functional reward for getting low on HP, which is cool. It’s also important to have a big flashy reward for getting low, which is what this is (the Climax spells do this also). That being said, the amount of bleed damage inflicted and the number of uses per day are both open questions for me. I tried to push the ceiling on this ability a little bit, and in exchange give you only a few uses per day. It’s possible, though, that this would be better if it could be used Cha mod times per day, and did less bleed damage.
Healing half max HP and reducing further healing for a few rounds is straight from Darkest Dungeon, and I think it’s the best part of this ability. I like that this gives healing, since what you really want when you get low on HP is to not die. I also like that it makes you bounce off low HP, but in a way that leaves you vulnerable. I think the healing/healing reduction offered does a lot to help deliver on the promise of risk/reward, and makes it so that you don’t get worn out too easily by a long adventuring day.
Caster Level. I want this class to be able to use casting offensively (a small number of times per day), and full caster level is one way to deliver on that. Still, not sure full caster level is appropriate since Level -3 is more typical.
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Spell list. Making a spell list is very difficult. It’s really easy for me to see why spellcasting tends to be broken more than other abilities, because it’s just hard to make 100 balanced spells at every level. I would love to double the size of the current spell list
Spellcasting restrictions, as in the criteria for feeling like a bloodletter spell. Are team buffs ok? How about healing spells? Do all of the brand new spells need to have some type of downside, additional cost, or condition for casting?
Base Rapture pool powers. The key with these three is to reinforce the idea that this is a class that thrives on hardship. That being said, I’m once again not confident in the execution, especially for the ability that gives an extra attack. I wanted to make that ability cause flat footed, but unfortunately the flat footed condition doesn’t mean that much to a bloodletter.
D10 hit dice. Maybe d12 would be better. Once again, I want a melee class that doesn’t wear armor and likes to get hit by attacks. D12 might have too much synergy with stuff like DR and passive healing, though. Also it’s nice to avoid stepping on the toes of the Barbarian.
Deathless I am not especially happy with.
Feats, Enchantments, Items, other supporting materials. This stuff is hard work.
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What would be helpful for others to do is any of the following:
Feedback on whether or not this concept seems fun. It might be a little too complicated to be fun?
Feedback on how usable and readable a specific ability is
Making sample characters at a specific level to compare to other classes e.g. a 5th level bloodletter compared to a 5th level paladin
Ranking abilities based on how powerful they seem
Helping me make new spells, feats, Rapture Powers, etc, since I need a large number of these
If I had to guess, I would say that I will most likely never play this class. It would be very gratifying to know that someone else did and found it enjoyable. Whether or not that happens, I have quite enjoyed the process of design.