Order of the Heartsmiths

"Willing to suffer whatever it takes to achieve victory." This is a widespread motive among bloodhunters. Sadly even after surviving the dangerous ritual of the Hunter's Bane, many loose their life on one of their first few missions, without ever really getting the chance to prove themselves against the darkness. The Order of the Heartsmiths aims to change this, they take their fallen brothers and sisters and prepare them for a even more dangerous ritual. Seperating the dead hearts from the body and using the carefully extracted hearts from other creatures to once again fuel their bodies with life. The ritual is not always successful and those who actually manage to return from the dead, have a heart that doesn't always agree with their own ideas and principles.

A different heart can not survive in a foreign body for long so a Heartsmith has to constantly change his heart, which also influences his character and abilities. 

Whenever you change your heart you can chose a character trait from the heart owner yourself. Or roll a "Quirk" from the table below:

Quirks

1. Always wants to walk slower or faster based one the base speed of the creature from where the heart came from.
2. Always wants to talk or read in the mother tongue of the creature from where the heart came from.
3. Tries his best to use the racial traits of the creature from where the heart came from. (For example: Dragonborn breathattack, Darkvision, flight)
4. Always adjusts his height when walking through doors or climbing over things based of the creature from where the heart came from.
5. Feels insecure about his "new" body.
6. Is feeling extremly happy to be alive again.
7. Gets romantically attracted to creatures based of the creature from where the heart came from. (For example: Dragonborns, Goblins, Trolls)
8. Gets the urge to do what is usual for the creature from where the heart came from.(For example: singing, digging, swimming, using magic, fear of sunlight)
9. Gets emotionally attached to the friends and family from the character where the heart came from.
10. Is unhappy with his new skin color or becomes racist towards skin colors that are different based of the creature from where the heart came from.
11. Has the urge to continue the last wish or goal from the creature from where the heart came from.
12. Is angry at the person that killed the creature from where the heart came from.
13. Has a traumatic fear of dying again.
14. Feels humiliation that he was killed.
15. Gets really intereseted into every new thing he wasn't able to do previously.
16. Distrusts the people that killed him and his friends.
17. Is unhappy with his name and wants to change it to something more fitting based of the creature from where the heart came from.
18. Wants to gain/lose weight based on the weight of the creature from where the heart came from.
19. Is happy or unhappy with his species lifespan based of the creature from where the heart came from.
20. Still feels very dextrous, strong, charismatic based of the creature from where the heart came from. 

A new pulse

Beginning at 3rd level, your character has died, is about to die or was struck with a curse that will eventually kill him. Joining the heartsmiths is rarely something you do out of free will and more a last resort. Your old heart has been removed and a new one has taken it's place, while you have a beating heart in your chest you are considered a living creature and may use your Bloodhunter abilities as usual. You learn how to use the special powers of the heartsmith order to extract hearts out of dead creatures and implant it into yourself.

Heart extraction:

To take a creatures heart you must first kill it without destroying or damaging its heart. So mostly without crushing, poisoning or attacking the chest area. To extract a heart from a creature you have to make a medicine roll with a DC of 8 + the highest number on your hemocraft die. Your DM may increase this DC if the heart was damaged. On a fail the DC increases by 2 for the chosen heart. You can only have one heart at a time implanted. You may only implant a humanoid heart of a species with roughly the same size as yourself. You can carry a number of hearts equal to your constitution modifier with you(minimum 1) and keep them protected from decay as long as you are not dead. 

Heart duration:

The duration how long a heart can function before it dies depends on your previous alignment.

1. If your new heart has the same alignment as the previous: D10+4 Days
2. If your new heart has the same basic alignment as the previous(Good, Evil, Neutral or Unaligned): D8+3 Days
3. If your new heart has the same secondary alignment as the previous(Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic): D6+2 Days
4. If your new heart has a different alignment as the previous: D4+1 Days

Heart abilities

Your alignment changes based on the heart that is implanted into you. You gain the following abilities depending on the heart you have:

Good:

You gain temporary Hitpoints based on your character level, you regain these Hitpoints after you complete a long rest.

Lawful

You have a pool of healing power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can restore a total number of hit points equal to your Bloodhunter level × 5

Neutral: 

You have a pool of healing power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool you can expend 5 hit points to cure the target of one disease or neutralize one poison affecting it. You can cure multiple diseases and neutralize multiple poisons with a single use of Lay on Hands, expending hit points separately for each one.

Chaotic: 

You can use your bonus action to give a willing creature that you can see advantage and another willing creature that you can see disadvantage.

Neutral: 

While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

Lawful

You can use your action to touch a willing humanoid and perceive through its senses until the end of your next turn. As long as the creature is on the same plane of existence as you, you can use your action on subsequent turns to maintain this connection, extending the duration until the end of your next turn. While perceiving through the other creature’s senses, you benefit from any special senses possessed by that creature, and you are blinded and deafened to your own surroundings.

True: 

On your turn, you can use a bonus action to regain hit points equal to 1d10 + your bloodhunter level. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Chaotic: 

You learn one additional blood curse of your choice, and you can choose one of the blood curses you know and replace it with another blood curse

Evil

Your weapon attacks score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

Lawful

You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with your weapon.

Neutral 

You can reroll one of your damage die once per turn. You must take the new roll.

Chaotic 

When you amplify a blood curse you can choose a creature within 60feet that you can see to take the hemocraft damage instead of yourself. The creature takes the damage if it fails a constitution save against your Hemocraft DC.

Unaligned

You can add your proficiency modifier to your initiative. You may choose the secondary ability your heart grants to you from the list above.

Change of Heart

To change your heart you must first take your previous heart ouf your chest to implant a new one. If your heart is taken out of your chest you become undead for 1 hour before you completely die. During this time the following rules apply:

1. Undead Fortitude: If damage reduces the unliving to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the unliving drops to 1 hit point instead.
2. You no longer have to eat, drink or breath. 
3. You may only use your Blood Maledict once per short or long rest. 

You manifest the power of the heartsmith to replace your heart, you may keep the previous heart if it still has duration left. This ritual takes 10min to complete and you can change your heart 2 times per long rest.

Undying

If you fail all 3 death saves and your character dies, your currently implanted heart is destroyed. However another creature can implant a new heart into you with a successful medicine check with a DC of 10 + the highest number on your hemocraft die. On a fail the DC increases by 2 for the chosen heart. You can only have one heart at a time implanted. If you get revived without a heart you change into your undead state.

Rite of the Grave

When you join this order at 3rd level, you learn the Rite of the Grave esoteric rite (detailed below).

Rite of the Grave. Your rite damage is necrotic damage. While the rite is active, you gain the following benefits:

• Your weapon sheds shadows around you giving you advantage on stealth checks.
• You can add your proficiency modifier while skinning or disemboweling creatures with your weapon. (For example to gain dragonscales or new hearts)
• If you bring a creature to 0 hitpoints with your weapon it automatically looses one death save. 

Master of hearts

Upon reaching 7th level, You can now implant none humanoid hearts of a species with roughly the same size as yourself or bigger. Bigger hearts automatically adjust to your size. You can now also change your hearts 4 times per long rest.

You can now add your proficiency modifier to the amount of hearts that you can carry with you.

Second heartbeat

Beginning at 11th level, your skills as a heartsmith have increased greatly and you are able to implant two hearts into your chest at once and use the alignment abilites granted by them. You may not implant a heart with the same alignment twice.

Walking dead

At 15th level, you gain greater control over your undead state.

If your heart is taken out of your chest you can stay undead for half the duration of your previous heart before you completely die. During this time the following rules apply:

1. Undead Fortitude: If damage reduces the unliving to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the unliving drops to 1 hit point instead.
2. You no longer have to eat, drink or breath and you are immune to disease 
3. You may use your Blood Maledict as usual. 

 

Heart breaker

Upon reaching 18th level, You can change your heart unlimited amount of times per long rest.

You also gain the Blood Curse of the Heartbreaker for your Blood Maledict feature. This does not count against your number of blood curses known.

Blood Curse of the Heartbreaker 

Prerequisite: 18th level, Order of the Heartsmiths

You must chose one of your implanted hearts, this heart will be destroyed no matter if the target fails or succeeds it's save. As an action, you target a creature with a heart that you can see within 30 feet of you that creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw. On a fail the creature suffers D10 times (Chosen heart duration) necrotic damage. For example, if the chosen heart has a duration of six days left before it dies the damage would be 6*D10. On a success the creature suffers half the amount of damage.

Amplify. Both of your implanted hearts are sacrificed, the target must make two Constitution saving throws. However per successful save the target makes, you suffer the same amount of damage as the target.