Oath of Blood

An oath of blood can be taken for many different gods. Countless gods under all manner of domain appreciate an offering of life force, whether their followers’ own or taken from a sacrifice. When a Paladin takes the oath of blood they dedicate their entire being, soul, mind, and flesh in service to their god. In return for sacrifices the Paladin receives power over the liquid life force of themselves and their foes, being able to siphon energy from their enemies to sustain themselves in battle or tap into their own precious lifeblood and use that energy to harm their enemies at the cost of their own well being.

 

Tenets:

Duty: Your oath was forged from your own blood, carrying it out is more important than your life, failing to fulfill your sworn duty forfeits your life. 

Sacrifice. Your deity demands regular blood sacrifices, either from your own blood or that of your enemies. Those include offerings of your blood to cast blood rituals. Those sworn to an oath by blood often have a keener sense of the worth of sacrifice, some willing to sacrifice anything to achieve what they’ve sworn to do.

Channel Divinity

When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Thirst for Blood. As a bonus action, using your channel divinity, you become overtaken with a thirst for blood. For 1 minute, once on your turn when you successfully hit a creature with a melee attack, you heal yourself by an amount of hitpoints equal to 1 + your proficiency modifier. Starting at level 11, the amount of healing received increases to 2 + your proficiency modifier. This effect is not triggered on undead, constructs, or creatures that are dead prior to the attack.

 

Sacrificial Smite. Using your Channel Divinity, you may sacrifice your own blood to increase the power of the attack when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack. You may add a number of d8 necrotic damage up to a total of 1/2 your paladin level (rounded up) to the attack. For each d8 of damage you choose to add, you take 5 necrotic damage. The damage you take cannot be reduced by any means. 

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Oath of Blood Spells

Blood Ritual

Starting at level 3, you can use your blood to enact rituals. Using this feature you can cast any spell with the ritual tag from the Cleric Spell list or your Oath of Blood expanded spell list, the spell must be a level which you can cast, can be no higher than 5th level, and must be cast as a ritual. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Constitution Modifier (minimum of 1) and regain all expended uses after finishing a long rest. Each time you cast a spell using this feature, you take damage equal to 1d6 per spell level of the ritual spell.

Aura of Exsanguination

Starting at 7th level you’ve learned to manipulate the blood in a creature’s body, while conscious, once per round, when a creature within 10 ft of you hits with an attack you can choose to either increase or decrease the damage of the attack by your Charisma modifier (minimum of 1). The damage can be reduced to a minimum of 0.

 At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

Absorb Life

Starting at 15th level, whenever you reduce an enemy to 0 hp through a melee weapon attack or a melee spell attack, you can choose to gain temporary hitpoints equal to your Paladin level. These temporary hit points last until you finish a long rest. While you have these temporary hitpoints, you have advantage on Constitution Saving Throws. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma Modifier (minimum of 1) and regain all expended uses after finishing a long rest.

Aspect of Ichor

At 20th level, you gain the ability to tap into the lifeblood of the gods themselves and channel it through your body giving you incredible power. As an action, you project a sphere of Ichor with a 30 foot radius centered on yourself for 1 minute, granting the following benefits:

While enemy creatures are within 30 feet of you, their movement speed is halved.

When a creature within 30 feet of you is targeted by an attack or effect that deals damage, you can use your reaction to change the target of that attack to another creature within 30ft of you, regardless of the attack’s normal range. The new target can be the attacker. Any damage taken by the new target from this ability is Necrotic.

Once you use this feature, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.