Scarlet Soul - Sorcerer

For some sorcerers, magic does not merely flow through their veins, it is the very red current echoing through flesh and bone. Whether born of an ancient curse, an alchemical experiment, or a lineage steeped in forbidden rites, these sorcerers wield their own vitality as fuel for arcane power, casting spells by sacrificing their own health rather than drawing on traditional spell slots.

Each incantation is etched into flesh and pulse alike. Such practitioners are feared and misunderstood, often mistaken for necromancers. Yet the truth is more unsettling: blood magic is not drawn from death, but from life itself. Where others conserve their strength, sorcerers of the Scarlet Soul spend it freely, gambling their own survival for moments of overwhelming power.

To walk this path is to live perpetually on the edge of collapse, to master not only magic, but the precise and terrible calculus of how much blood a spell is truly worth. This is a path best suited to sorcerers who thrive on risk, precision, and the trust of allies willing to keep them standing.

Hemocraft

Starting at 1st level, your own blood becomes the conduit for your spellcasting and can be used as a spellcasting focus. You learn and prepare spells as normal for a sorcerer, but you no longer have access to spell slots. Before trying to cast a spell, you take damage equal to the corresponding spell level within in the Spell Cost table you are casting. This damage ignores temporary hit points, resistance, and immunity, and does not require a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration. If this damage would reduce you below 1 hit point, nothing happens. The action also isn't expended and until the end of your turn, you only cast cantrips.

Spell Cost

Spell Level	Hit point cost
1st	2 (1d4)
2nd	5 (2d4)
3rd	10 (4d4)
4th	12 (5d4)
5th	15 (6d4)
6th	20 (8d4) - Reduces hitpoint maximum
7th	22 (9d4) - Reduces hitpoint maximum
8th	25 (10d4) - Reduces hitpoint maximum
9th	30 (12d4) - Reduces hitpoint maximum

Furthermore, you learn additional spells at certain sorcerer levels, as shown in the Scarlet Soul Spells table below. Each spell counts as a sorcerer spell for you and does not count against the number of sorcerer spells you know. You cannot target yourself with any spell that restores hit points.

Scarlet Soul Spells

Sorcerer Level	PREPARED SPELLS
1st	Armor of Agathys, Inflict Wounds
3rd	Aid, Ray of Enfeeblement
5th	Life Transference, Vampiric Touch
7th	Blight, Elemental Bane
9th	Enervation, Bigby's Hand

*Note: This feature doesn't give the correct spells as described above, as i do not have access so all on this site. I have instead assigned alternative spells which you get with the free 2014 version, if you wish to have the correct spell list as intended, then feel free to swap around however you like :-)

High-Level Hemocraft (6th Level and Higher)

When you cast a spell of 6th level or higher, the strain of the magic physically weakens you. Instead of taking damage, your maximum hit points are reduced by an amount equal to the damage that would have been rolled for casting the spell. This reduction lasts until you finish a long rest, and cannot be removed by any other means.

Sorcery Points (Scarlet Soul)

When you gain access to sorcery points as normal for a sorcerer. However, rather than interacting with spell slots, your sorcery points are fueled directly by your vitality. When converting between hit points and sorcery points you convert one to one, each spell level is treated as 2d4. For example, converting 3 sorcery points restores 6d4 hit points, and creating those 3 sorcery points similarly costs 6d4 hit points.

Flexible Casting

You can convert sorcery points and hit points back and forth using the following options:

• Creating Sorcery Points. As a bonus action on your turn, you can take damage equal to the appropriate number of d4s to gain sorcery points.
• Restoring Hit Points. As a bonus action on your turn, you can expend sorcery points to regain hit points equal to the appropriate number of d4s.

Thick-Blooded

At 1st level, your blood runs thick with unnatural vitality, reinforcing your body against the strain of your magic.

• Your hit point maximum increases by 1 for each sorcerer level you have.
• Whenever you finish a short rest, you regain one Hit Die, and you regain one additional Hit Die when you finish a long rest.

The number of bonus Hit Die increases as you gain levels in this class, with two at 6th level, three at 11th level, and four at 17th level.

Scarlet Locus

At 6th level, you learn to anchor magic within your own spilled blood. As a bonus action, you can take 1d4 necrotic damage to bloodlet following similar rules to your spellcasting, creating a small pool of your blood on a surface within 15 feet of you. The pool covers a 5-foot square.

• If the area is significantly disturbed, for example by a Thunderwave or a creature using an action, the blood pool is dispersed.
• When within 120 feet the pool extends your senses, granting you blindsight within 5 feet of it. Creatures perceived through the pool count as visible to you for the purpose of casting spells, and are treated as being within the range of touch. When you cast a spell with a range of touch in this way, the blood pool is treated as the point of contact.
• While the pool exists, you may use it as the point of origin for a spell you cast, provided you are within range of the spell, within 120 feet of the pool, and can see the target.
• The blood pool disperses immediately after the spell is cast.
• You can have a number of active blood pools equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum of one).

The maximum distance at which you can originate spells from a blood pool increases, to 300 feet at 14th level, and 1 mile at 18th level.

Vital Sense

At 6th level, your awareness of blood beyond your own sharpens, each heartbeat echoing with information.

• You have advantage on all Skill Checks to find creatures whose blood you have touched.
• You can sense the presence of any bloodied creature (a creature at or below half its hit point maximum) within 60 feet of you, as if you had Blindsight.

This range increases to 300 feet at 14th level.

Crimson Harvest

Starting at 14th level, you can reclaim vitality from the recently dead. As a bonus action, you drain the blood from a creature that has been dead for no more than 1 hour and is within 15 feet of you, leaving behind a withered husk. Roll 4 of the creature's Hit Die (dice + constitution modifier), you restore hit points equal to the result to either yourself or one creature of your choice within 15 feet of you. Once you healed with this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again.

Alternatively, instead of immediately restoring hit points, you can store the creature’s blood within yourself. The stored blood lasts until your next long rest, and you can have only one stored portion of blood at a time. While you have stored blood, you can use a bonus action to expend it and restore hit points in the same manner.

Sanguine Ascendance

At 18th level, when your own blood is spilled, your power surges uncontrollably. The first time you become bloodied (reduced to half your normal hit point maximum or fewer) after finishing a rest, you enter a blood frenzy. This state lasts for 1 minute, until you choose to end it early, or till you are restored to full hit points. While in a blood frenzy:

• Once per turn, when you cast a spell using your Hemocraft, the spell is treated as if cast at one level higher without paying the additional cost.
• At the start of each of your turns, all creatures of your choice within 15 feet of you take 1d8 + your spellcasting ability modifier necrotic damage. You regain hit points equal to half the total damage dealt.

Once you enter a blood frenzy, you cannot do so again until you finish a short rest or are restored to full hit points.