Order of the Sanguine Veil

Overview

The Order of the Sanguine Veil is a secretive tradition of Blood Hunters trained to pursue enemies who cannot be confronted openly. Its members are spies, infiltrators, assassins, investigators, saboteurs, and clandestine executioners who blend the predatory discipline of the Blood Hunter with the patience and precision associated with the Rogue. They do not merely hunt monsters through wilderness or ruined places; they stalk them through courts, guild halls, criminal syndicates, military commands, temples, and crowded city streets.

A Sanguine Veil hunter studies blood as both a physical substance and an occult record. Every pulse reveals hesitation. Every wound exposes a pattern. Every drop of blood carries traces of fear, exertion, poison, lineage, corruption, and supernatural influence. Through specialized hemocraft, members of the order learn to read these signs, obscure their own presence, and strike where an enemy is most vulnerable.

Unlike common assassins, Sanguine Veil hunters are rarely motivated solely by payment. They are trained to eliminate creatures, cult leaders, corrupted officials, supernatural infiltrators, and politically protected monsters whose position makes conventional justice impossible. Some serve governments or intelligence services. Others operate as independent hunters, bound only by the order’s hidden ledgers and private judgments.

The order’s methods make its members deeply controversial. Its hunters employ deception, blackmail, poisoncraft, covert surveillance, blood tracking, and targeted killing. Even when their quarry is unquestionably monstrous, the methods of the Sanguine Veil often resemble those of the enemies they pursue. Every initiate must decide how much of their own humanity they are willing to sacrifice to reach a target who hides behind laws, armies, wealth, or public admiration.

Origins in Aetheris

The Order of the Sanguine Veil traces its beginnings to the clandestine wars fought during the first centuries following the Shadowfell incursions. During that era, shapechangers, blood-bound cultists, possessed nobles, and agents of darker powers infiltrated the governments of Ozythralis and Drakthar. Conventional Blood Hunter orders excelled at destroying monsters once those creatures were exposed, but they lacked the covert expertise necessary to identify hidden enemies embedded within powerful institutions.

According to the order’s oldest surviving accounts, its founder was an Umbric-born hunter called Veyra Sal Marrow, who discovered that corrupted blood retained subtle occult impressions even when its owner changed shape or concealed their aura. Veyra developed a method of combining blood rites with surveillance, disguise, and surgical violence. Her followers became known as the Veiled Knives, and later as the Order of the Sanguine Veil.

The order now maintains small, compartmentalized cells throughout Aetheris. Strongholds and safehouses are most commonly found in:

• The Concord of Veltrion, where hunters investigate cults, illicit soul trafficking, and supernatural corruption.
• The March of Draeven, where selected agents serve as sanctioned covert investigators and executioners.
• The Freeholds of Rhonadral, where independent Veil hunters often work as bounty hunters, private investigators, and monster-slayers.
• The Helbrann League, where mountain cantons employ them against infiltrators, cursed bloodlines, and foreign intelligence networks.
• The Republic of Aurimundus, where some operate among duelists, courtesans, privateers, and political factions.
• The Evershade Sovereignty, where the order studies Fey deceptions, replaced identities, and memory-altering predators.
• The Obsidian Hegemony and Dominion of Xathrin, where isolated cells operate under constant threat of discovery.

The order has no recognized central fortress. Instead, it maintains hidden chapterhouses known as Red Rooms. Each Red Room contains encrypted contracts, blood samples, coded genealogies, intelligence archives, false identities, alchemical equipment, and concealed escape routes. No chapterhouse possesses the order’s complete records.

Philosophy and Doctrine

Members of the Sanguine Veil believe that monsters survive by controlling what others are permitted to see. Tyrants hide behind titles. Cultists hide behind charity. Shapechangers hide behind familiar faces. Predators hide behind laws written to protect them. The order teaches that exposing such creatures is not always enough; some enemies must be removed before their influence can protect them.

The order’s central doctrine is expressed through five principles.

Blood Does Not Lie

Words, appearances, memories, and magical disguises can be manipulated. Blood retains deeper truths. A hunter must learn to read the body before trusting the face.

Knowledge Precedes the Blade

A poorly understood target is more dangerous than an undefeated one. Sanguine Veil hunters observe habits, allies, defenses, weaknesses, and escape routes before striking.

The First Wound Wins the Hunt

The opening attack should not merely injure. It should determine the rhythm of the entire confrontation by exposing weakness, disrupting concentration, or denying escape.

Secrecy Is a Weapon

A hidden hunter controls the enemy’s fear. Once the quarry understands where the attack will come from, the hunter has already surrendered an advantage.

Judgment Carries a Cost

The order does not pretend that killing from concealment is honorable in the conventional sense. Every sanctioned death must be recorded, justified, and remembered. Hunters who kill without judgment eventually become the monsters the order exists to destroy.

The central moral tension of the subclass lies between necessity and corruption. Sanguine Veil hunters are exceptionally capable of spying, coercion, ambush, and assassination. Their doctrine demands restraint, but their talents make abuse dangerously easy.

Visual Identity

Sanguine Veil hunters favor fitted, layered clothing that permits silence, rapid movement, and concealment of weapons. Dark coats, reinforced vests, hooded mantles, half-capes, soft boots, gloves, hidden scabbards, and reversible garments are common. Their equipment is rarely uniformly black; muted burgundy, ash gray, deep green, midnight blue, weathered brown, and dried-blood red are favored because they blend more naturally into urban and wilderness environments.

Many hunters wear a narrow crimson cord around one wrist, throat, weapon grip, or belt. The cord represents the boundary between disciplined judgment and indiscriminate murder. It is traditionally cut from the garment worn during the hunter’s initiation.

Their hemocraft manifests subtly. Rather than producing broad displays of crimson flame, their rites often resemble:

• Thin lines of red light running along a blade.
• Momentary afterimages trailing a weapon strike.
• Blood droplets hanging unnaturally in the air.
• Shadows darkening around an injured creature.
• Vein-like patterns briefly appearing across a target’s skin.
• A muted heartbeat audible only to the hunter.

Sanguine Veil hunters fight with economical, precise movements. They rarely trade blows unnecessarily. They reposition constantly, use terrain aggressively, isolate vulnerable targets, and exploit distraction. Rapiers, shortswords, daggers, hand crossbows, compact firearms, garrotes, concealed blades, and other easily hidden weapons are common.

Role in Aetheris

Battlefield Role

The Sanguine Veil functions primarily as a mobile striker and secondary controller. It excels at identifying one important enemy, exploiting that enemy’s vulnerabilities, and withdrawing before retaliation can be organized. Its features reward careful positioning, surprise, coordinated attacks, and opportunistic movement.

Social Role

Members frequently serve as investigators, covert operatives, bounty hunters, intelligence agents, bodyguards, counter-assassins, inquisitors, and deniable troubleshooters. Their ability to read blood and detect physiological changes also makes them formidable interrogators and trackers.

Faction Role

Governments and organizations use Sanguine Veil hunters when public intervention would create political instability. A hunter might uncover a cult within a noble house, identify a disguised infiltrator, dismantle a criminal blood trade, or eliminate a commander secretly serving an Old One.

Adventuring Role

Within an adventuring company, a Sanguine Veil hunter serves as scout, infiltrator, tracker, precision combatant, and investigator. The subclass is particularly effective when working beside Rogues, Rangers, Monks, Gunslingers, or other characters capable of exploiting distraction and battlefield positioning.

Subclass Integration

Major Polities

Concord of Veltrion

The Concord tolerates carefully supervised cells of the order. Veil hunters are occasionally attached to investigations involving soul trafficking, supernatural corruption, and enemies protected by political influence.

March of Draeven

Draeven authorities maintain one of the most formal relationships with the order. Certain hunters receive sealed warrants authorizing covert investigation and, in extreme cases, execution. Unauthorized activity is punished severely.

Freeholds of Rhonadral

The order operates openly enough to maintain private investigative offices and bounty contracts, although individual settlements vary in their acceptance. Rhonari Veil hunters tend to emphasize personal judgment and independence.

Helbrann League

Helbranni cells are disciplined and highly compartmentalized. They specialize in counterintelligence, mountain pursuit, cursed bloodlines, and the detection of supernatural infiltrators.

Republic of Aurimundus

Aurimundian hunters often cultivate identities as duelists, performers, courtiers, bodyguards, or private agents. Their methods blend naturally with the Republic’s complex social and political rivalries.

Obsidian Hegemony

The order is outlawed and hunted relentlessly. Surviving cells focus on sabotage, slave liberation, intelligence gathering, and eliminating Hegemony officers involved in occult atrocities.

Dominion of Xathrin

Veil hunters are regarded as terrorists and heretics. The order considers Xathrin’s soul markets, sacrificial institutions, and blood-binding practices among its highest-priority targets.

Organizations, Guilds, and Orders

The Sanguine Veil maintains working relationships with selected thieves’ guilds, intelligence networks, privateer crews, military reconnaissance units, and monster-hunting companies. These alliances are rarely permanent. The order distrusts any organization that values secrecy without accountability.

Religious and Philosophical Movements

Some hunters honor deities associated with judgment, night, death, secrets, or vengeance. Others reject religious authority entirely, believing that mortals must take responsibility for the judgments they make rather than attributing them to divine command.

Rival Factions and Enemies

Frequent enemies include:

• The Dominion of Xathrin.
• The Obsidian Hegemony.
• The Sanguine Compact.
• The Eightfold Ledger.
• The Meridian Consortium.
• Shapechanger enclaves.
• Vampire courts.
• Corrupt intelligence services.
• Soul traffickers.
• Blood cults.
• Assassins who kill without judgment.
• Agents influenced by the Old Ones.

Playing This Subclass

Intended Playstyle

The Order of the Sanguine Veil is designed for players who enjoy:

• Setting up favorable engagements.
• Marking and pursuing priority targets.
• Coordinating with allies.
• Fighting from concealment or advantageous positions.
• Moving in and out of melee.
• Combining investigation with combat.
• Managing limited hemocraft resources.
• Exploiting reactions and battlefield timing.

The subclass is most effective when the player identifies one dangerous enemy and commits resources to controlling that creature. Blood Curse of the Open Vein creates an early opening, Crimson Exploit supplies repeatable precision damage, and Red Shadow Step allows the hunter to reposition after striking.

At higher levels, Pulse of the Quarry prevents important enemies from escaping through invisibility or concealment. Hemorrhagic Misdirection provides a strong defensive reaction and counterattack, while Execution Beyond the Veil transforms the hunter into a highly mobile late-game executioner.

Strengths

• Reliable once-per-turn precision damage.
• Excellent mobility after attacking.
• Strong pursuit and anti-invisibility tools.
• Effective synergy with Blood Curses.
• Useful infiltration and investigation abilities.
• Strong single-target pressure.
• Natural compatibility with Rogue abilities.
• Effective reaction-based defense at high levels.

Weaknesses

• Less effective against numerous weak opponents.
• Requires an active Crimson Rite for full combat performance.
• Limited protection against area effects.
• Relies on positioning and target selection.
• Several abilities compete for the bonus action.
• Reaction economy becomes crowded at higher levels.
• Hemocraft sacrifices remain dangerous.
• Limited direct protection for allies.

Tactical Identity

The Sanguine Veil should rarely remain stationary. A typical combat sequence might involve:

1. Activating a Crimson Rite before or early in combat.
2. Marking an important enemy with Blood Curse of the Open Vein.
3. Striking the marked target with Crimson Exploit.
4. Repositioning through Red Shadow Step.
5. Designating the target as a quarry.
6. Using concealment, allies, and terrain to sustain favorable attacks.
7. Escaping or counterattacking with Hemorrhagic Misdirection.
8. Invoking Execution Beyond the Veil during the decisive phase of a major battle.

Multiclass Synergy with Rogue

The Order of the Sanguine Veil is intentionally designed to complement the Rogue class.

Sneak Attack

Crimson Exploit and Sneak Attack may occur on the same qualifying weapon attack. Crimson Exploit remains limited to once per turn, while Sneak Attack follows its normal rules.

The subclass does not independently grant Sneak Attack dice, ensuring that a single-class Blood Hunter gains only moderate precision damage while a multiclass Rogue gains meaningful but investment-dependent synergy.

Cunning Action

Red Shadow Step does not replace Cunning Action. A multiclass character can use Red Shadow Step after attacking while preserving their bonus action for Cunning Action, Blood Maledict, activating a Crimson Rite, or another feature.

Expertise

Veilcraft Training grants limited expertise-like benefits in one thematic skill. A Rogue multiclass can use this to broaden their expertise rather than being forced to duplicate existing choices.

Uncanny Dodge

Hemorrhagic Misdirection competes with Uncanny Dodge for the character’s reaction. This is intentional. The player must choose between dependable damage reduction and a more aggressive repositioning countermeasure.

Evasion

The subclass does not grant Evasion or any equivalent protection against area effects. A Rogue multiclass therefore retains a major defensive advantage.

Assassinate and Surprise

A multiclass Assassin can combine surprise-based attacks with Crimson Exploit, but the Sanguine Veil does not automatically create surprise or grant automatic critical hits. Successful ambushes still require planning, concealment, and favorable circumstances.

Roleplaying This Subclass

A Sanguine Veil hunter is often observant, restrained, and difficult to surprise. Members learn to watch hands, breathing, posture, exits, and signs of concealed violence. Many unconsciously position themselves with a clear route to the door.

Common personality patterns include:

• Speaking only after observing a room.
• Remembering small inconsistencies.
• Distrusting effortless charm.
• Maintaining several false identities.
• Recording every sanctioned kill.
• Cleaning and inspecting weapons ritualistically.
• Avoiding unnecessary bloodshed despite being exceptionally skilled at it.
• Treating secrets as responsibilities rather than trophies.
• Testing allies before offering complete trust.

The subclass supports several important narrative tensions.

Hunter or Assassin

The character must decide whether there is a meaningful difference between hunting monsters and murdering enemies from concealment.

Truth or Loyalty

A hunter may discover that a respected patron, ally, commander, or relative is connected to the very corruption they were trained to destroy.

Judgment or Obedience

The order’s ledger may name a target the character believes is innocent—or omit one the character knows is guilty.

Identity or Mask

Long-term infiltration can make false identities feel more comfortable than the hunter’s original self.

Restraint or Efficiency

The fastest solution is not always the right one. A hunter must decide when evidence, capture, public exposure, or mercy matters more than a clean kill.

Faction and Organization Connections

Likely Allies

• Blood Hunter orders opposing corruption and predation.
• Military reconnaissance companies.
• Counterintelligence offices.
• Ethical thieves’ guilds.
• Privateer crews targeting slavers.
• Investigators of supernatural crimes.
• Temples devoted to judgment or protection.
• Rebel movements within tyrannical nations.
• Monster-hunting companies.
• Selected bounty hunters and marshals.

Likely Patrons

• A magistrate unable to act publicly.
• A noble targeted by supernatural infiltrators.
• A temple investigating possession.
• A military intelligence commander.
• A merchant house threatened by soul traffickers.
• A liberated community seeking justice.
• A former member of the order maintaining a private network.
• A secret council within a major polity.

Common Enemies

• Vampires and blood-drinking undead.
• Shapechangers.
• Possessing spirits.
• Corrupted nobles.
• Soul traffickers.
• Slaver networks.
• Political cults.
• Assassins who target innocents.
• Intelligence agencies compromised by supernatural powers.
• The Sanguine Compact.
• The Eightfold Ledger.
• The Meridian Consortium.
• The Dominion of Xathrin.
• The Obsidian Hegemony.

Adventure Hooks

The Empty Bloodline

A prominent family’s official genealogies show no irregularities, but a Sanguine Veil archive claims that every member born during the last forty years carries the blood of an unknown nonhumanoid creature.

The Hunter in the Ledger

The characters discover that one of their own names has been entered into a Red Room’s execution ledger. The order insists the judgment is valid, but the evidence has been sealed.

The Counterfeit Corpse

A murdered diplomat’s blood does not match the body bearing their face. The real diplomat may still be alive—or may never have been human.

The Silent Chapterhouse

A Sanguine Veil safehouse has ceased responding. Inside, there are no bodies, no signs of struggle, and no bloodstains, but every mirror has been covered from the inside.

The Last Witness

An elderly former assassin possesses evidence connecting a beloved ruler to the Meridian Consortium. Several factions want the witness dead, while the order demands that the truth be verified before action is taken.

The Crimson Masquerade

A vampire court has infiltrated a diplomatic gathering in Aurimundus. The hunters must identify the vampires without provoking a war among the attending nations.

Notable NPCs

Ilyra Venn, the Thirteenth Witness

Species: Umbric Elf
Homeland: Ozythralis
Role: Senior investigator and keeper of a hidden Red Room

Ilyra has spent more than a century investigating supernatural infiltration within noble and mercantile families. She never accepts a contract based solely on accusation and demands three independent forms of evidence before authorizing a killing.

She fights with a narrow rite-inscribed rapier and carries dozens of sealed glass vials containing blood samples from unresolved cases. Ilyra is respected for her discipline but criticized for allowing dangerous targets to remain free while she seeks proof.

Garrick Vaun

Species: Arden Rhyd
Homeland: Drakthar
Role: Former military scout and Hegemony resistance operative

Garrick specializes in extracting prisoners, destroying intelligence archives, and eliminating Hegemony officers involved in blood rituals. He wears a weathered green field coat over lightweight armor and carries a compact rifle fitted with a bayonet.

He is courageous, practical, and deeply loyal to his companions, but his hatred of the Obsidian Hegemony often strains the order’s demand for impartial judgment.

Mirelle Savaine

Species: Human
Homeland: Republic of Aurimundus
Role: Duelist, social infiltrator, and counter-assassin

Mirelle maintains the public identity of a fashionable fencing instructor. She moves among salons, embassies, theaters, and dueling societies, watching for assassins, cult recruiters, and supernatural predators.

She is charming, theatrical, and apparently frivolous, but her private ledgers are among the most detailed intelligence records in the Republic.

Balance Notes

Intended Role

Primary: Striker
Secondary: Scout, controller, and investigator

Damage Profile

Crimson Exploit adds one Hemocraft Die of damage once per turn under conditional circumstances. This is significantly less than full Sneak Attack scaling and requires a rite-bearing weapon.

At 18th level, the damage increases to two Hemocraft Dice during a limited-duration capstone. The expanded critical range applies only to the designated quarry and requires advantage, preventing it from becoming a universal passive benefit.

Survivability

The subclass gains mobility at 7th level and meaningful reaction-based damage reduction at 15th level. It does not receive broad resistance, permanent Armor Class bonuses, Evasion, or passive damage reduction.

Its survivability depends on positioning, concealment, movement, and intelligent reaction use.

Utility

Veilcraft Training and Pulse of the Quarry provide strong investigation, tracking, infiltration, and anti-concealment utility. These abilities are deliberately specialized rather than universally applicable.

Resource Economy

The subclass uses several overlapping resources:

• Blood Maledict uses.
• Amplification costs.
• Crimson Rite activation.
• Proficiency-bonus uses of Pulse of the Quarry.
• Proficiency-bonus uses of Hemorrhagic Misdirection.
• One long-rest use of Execution Beyond the Veil.

This encourages meaningful tactical decisions without requiring a completely separate resource system.

Comparison to Similar Subclasses

Compared with an assassination-oriented Rogue, the Sanguine Veil has:

• Lower burst damage.
• Better access to supernatural tracking.
• Greater dependence on self-sacrifice.
• More reliable anti-invisibility tools.
• Stronger integration with curses.
• Fewer general skill benefits.
• No automatic surprise-based critical hit.

Compared with other Blood Hunter orders, the Sanguine Veil has:

• Greater mobility and infiltration.
• Lower transformation or companion potential.
• Stronger single-target pursuit.
• Less sustained defense.
• More conditional damage.
• Greater out-of-combat investigative utility.

Multiclass Risk Assessment

A Blood Hunter/Rogue multiclass can combine Crimson Exploit and Sneak Attack, but the combination remains constrained by:

• Weapon requirements.
• Crimson Rite activation.
• Once-per-turn limits.
• Positioning or curse requirements.
• Split class-level progression.
• Competition for bonus actions.
• Competition for reactions.
• Hemocraft self-damage.

The strongest interaction is likely a Rogue using Sneak Attack and Crimson Exploit on the same hit. Because Crimson Exploit scales only with the Hemocraft Die rather than class level or Sneak Attack dice, the multiclass receives useful synergy without producing disproportionate damage.

Summary

The Order of the Sanguine Veil is a covert Blood Hunter tradition devoted to exposing and eliminating enemies who conceal themselves behind disguises, institutions, influence, or supernatural deception. Its members combine hemocraft with stealth, investigation, mobility, and precision attacks.

Mechanically, the subclass centers on Crimson Exploit, a once-per-turn rite-enhanced strike that rewards advantage, teamwork, concealment, and Blood Curse use. Later features allow the hunter to reposition after attacking, designate and pursue a quarry, turn incoming attacks into counteroffensive opportunities, and briefly become a teleporting executioner capable of denying escape.

The order is designed to work naturally alongside the Rogue class without reproducing its defining progression. A multiclass character can combine Sneak Attack, Expertise, Cunning Action, and other Rogue abilities with Sanguine Veil hemocraft, but must still manage split progression, crowded actions, reactions, and the dangerous costs of blood magic.

“A locked door is not protection. A loyal guard is not protection. A spotless name is not protection. When the blood remembers what you have done, the Veil will find you.”

Optional Subclass Techniques

These optional techniques may be introduced as subclass-specific training options, order secrets, feats, rewards, or replacements for suitable Blood Hunter customization choices at the Game Master’s discretion.

Veinreader’s Appraisal

As an action, you examine a creature you can see within 30 feet. If the creature is below its hit point maximum, you learn one of the following pieces of information of your choice:

• Whether its current hit points are above or below half its maximum.
• Whether it is poisoned, diseased, charmed, frightened, or exhausted.
• Whether it possesses resistance or immunity to the damage type of your active Crimson Rite.
• Whether it is under the effect of a curse, possession, shapechanging effect, or blood-based magic.

You can use this technique a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

Scarlet Feint

When you take the Attack action and attack with a rite-bearing weapon, you can replace one attack with a feint directed at a creature within your weapon’s reach.

The next attack roll made against that creature by someone other than you before the beginning of your next turn has advantage.

If that attack hits, you can use your reaction to move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks from the target.

Quietus Toxin

During a short or long rest, you can use a poisoner’s kit and a small quantity of your blood to prepare one dose of hemocraft toxin.

As a bonus action, you can apply the toxin to one weapon or three pieces of ammunition. The next creature hit by the treated weapon or ammunition must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your Hemocraft save DC or suffer one of the following effects of your choice until the beginning of your next turn:

• Its speed is reduced by 10 feet.
• It cannot take reactions.
• It has disadvantage on the next concentration check it makes.
• It cannot regain hit points.

The toxin loses potency when you finish your next long rest.

You can create one dose per long rest.

Red Ledger

When you spend at least 10 minutes observing a creature, studying its possessions, searching its residence, or investigating a scene connected to it, you can create a mental profile of that creature.

For the next 24 hours, you have advantage on the first Deception, Insight, Investigation, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, or Survival check you make directly against or concerning that creature.

You can maintain a number of profiles equal to your Intelligence modifier, with a minimum of one.

Shadowed Transfusion

When an allied creature within 5 feet of you takes damage, you can use your reaction and lose hit points equal to one roll of your Hemocraft Die. Reduce the damage the ally takes by twice the amount of hit points you lost.

You can then exchange spaces with the ally, provided both creatures are willing and neither is incapacitated.

This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Crimson Exploit

You learn to convert momentary distraction and exposed weakness into a precise hemocraft assault.

Once per turn when you hit a creature with a weapon bearing your active Crimson Rite, you can deal additional damage equal to one roll of your Hemocraft Die if at least one of the following conditions is true:

• You had advantage on the attack roll.
• Another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy is not incapacitated, and you did not have disadvantage on the attack roll.
• The target is affected by one of your Blood Curses.
• You were hidden from the target immediately before making the attack.

The additional damage is the same type as the rite damage inflicted by the weapon.

If you possess the Sneak Attack feature, Crimson Exploit can be triggered by the same attack as Sneak Attack. Crimson Exploit does not count as Sneak Attack, does not increase the number of times you can use Sneak Attack, and does not alter Sneak Attack’s weapon requirements.

When you amplify a Blood Curse against a creature, you can use Crimson Exploit against that creature until the end of your next turn even if none of the normal triggering conditions are met.

Action Type: Passive
Uses: At will, once per turn
Duration: Instantaneous
Scaling: Uses your Hemocraft Die
Damage Type: Matches your active Crimson Rite

Design Intent

Crimson Exploit gives the subclass a Rogue-like precision-damage rhythm without reproducing the full scaling of Sneak Attack. A multiclass Rogue can combine the two features, but doing so requires an active Crimson Rite and favorable positioning or a committed hemocraft resource.

Veilcraft Training

You gain proficiency in the following skills:

• Deception
• Investigation
• Sleight of Hand
• Stealth

You also gain proficiency with thieves’ tools, the disguise kit, or the poisoner’s kit. If you are already proficient with your chosen tool, you instead gain proficiency with another tool from the list.

In addition, you can use Wisdom in place of Intelligence when making Investigation checks related to the following:

• Bloodstains.
• Wounds.
• Methods of death.
• Hidden creatures.
• Concealed weapons.
• Signs of forced entry.
• Supernatural predation.

You can examine a bloodstain that you can see within 5 feet as a bonus action. When you do, you learn whether the blood came from a humanoid, beast, monstrosity, fiend, fey, undead, aberration, celestial, dragon, or another broad creature type determined by the Game Master. You also learn whether the blood was shed within the last hour, day, week, month, or longer ago.

This examination does not reveal a creature’s identity unless you are already familiar with that creature’s blood.

Action Type: Passive; bonus action to examine blood
Uses: At will
Duration: Instantaneous
Scaling: None

Blood Curse of the Open Vein

You gain the Blood Curse of the Open Vein. This Blood Curse does not count against the number of Blood Curses you know.

Blood Curse of the Open Vein

As a bonus action, you mark a creature you can see within 30 feet. The next time you or one of your allies hits the creature with a weapon attack before the beginning of your next turn, the attack deals additional damage equal to one roll of your Hemocraft Die.

After the triggering attack, the target cannot take reactions until the beginning of its next turn.

Amplify

The mark lasts for 1 minute. Once during each of your turns when you hit the marked creature with a rite-bearing weapon, you can move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks from that creature.

The amplified curse ends early if you are incapacitated or if you amplify this curse against another creature.

Action Type: Bonus action
Uses: Uses Blood Maledict
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Until the beginning of your next turn; 1 minute when amplified
Scaling: Uses your Hemocraft Die

Red Shadow Step

You have learned to move through the brief moments of confusion created by pain and fear.

Immediately after you deal damage to a creature with Crimson Exploit, you can move up to half your speed. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from the creature damaged by Crimson Exploit.

Alternatively, when a creature affected by one of your Blood Curses ends its turn within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to move up to half your speed. This movement does not provoke opportunity attacks from the cursed creature.

You can move through the space of a creature affected by one of your Blood Curses during this movement, treating that space as difficult terrain. You cannot end your movement in an occupied space.

If you begin this movement while hidden, you remain hidden unless the movement brings you into a position where you are clearly visible or you otherwise fail to satisfy the conditions for hiding.

Action Type: Passive after Crimson Exploit; reaction after a cursed creature’s turn
Uses: The passive movement is at will. Reaction movement uses your reaction.
Duration: Instantaneous
Scaling: Movement equals half your speed

Rogue Synergy

A character with Cunning Action retains meaningful advantages. Red Shadow Step does not grant a general bonus-action Dash, Disengage, or Hide. Instead, it provides conditional movement tied specifically to hemocraft and precision attacks.

Pulse of the Quarry

Your awareness of blood, breath, and heartbeat allows you to perceive prey even through concealment.

As a bonus action, choose one creature that meets at least one of the following conditions:

• It is affected by one of your Blood Curses.
• You have damaged it with a rite-bearing weapon within the last minute.
• You possess a fresh sample of its blood.
• It is below its hit point maximum and within 30 feet of you.

For 1 minute, or until you use this feature against another creature, that creature becomes your quarry.

While a creature is your quarry:

• You know the direction of the creature while it is within 300 feet of you and on the same plane of existence.
• The creature gains no benefit against you from being invisible.
• The creature cannot gain advantage against you solely because it is hidden or unseen.
• You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception), Wisdom (Survival), and Intelligence (Investigation) checks made to locate, identify, or follow it.
• Your attacks against it ignore half cover.
• When you deal Crimson Exploit damage to it, you can reroll the Hemocraft Die and use either result.
• You can attempt to Hide from the quarry while only lightly obscured by dim light, smoke, mist, foliage, crowds, or similar visual interference.

You can designate a quarry a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

If you use this feature on a creature affected by an amplified Blood Curse, you do not expend a use.

Action Type: Bonus action
Uses: Proficiency bonus per long rest; free against a creature under your amplified Blood Curse
Duration: 1 minute
Range: Initial target must satisfy one of the listed conditions
Scaling: Uses proficiency bonus and Hemocraft Die

Hemorrhagic Misdirection

You can transform an enemy’s successful attack into an opening for a lethal counterstroke.

When a creature you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the attack’s damage by an amount equal to:

One roll of your Hemocraft Die + your Intelligence modifier + your Blood Hunter level

You can then move up to 10 feet without provoking opportunity attacks from the attacker.

If this movement causes you to enter an area of dim light, darkness, heavy obscurement, or cover from the attacker, you can immediately attempt to Hide as part of the same reaction.

If the triggering attacker is affected by one of your Blood Curses, you can make one weapon attack against it at the end of this movement, provided it is within your weapon’s range. On a hit, the attack can trigger Crimson Exploit even if you have already used Crimson Exploit during the current turn.

You can use Hemorrhagic Misdirection a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, regaining all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

You can amplify a Blood Curse affecting the attacker as part of this reaction. When you do, you do not expend a use of Hemorrhagic Misdirection, but the normal cost and restrictions of amplifying the Blood Curse still apply.

Action Type: Reaction
Uses: Proficiency bonus per long rest; free when combined with amplification
Trigger: You are hit by an attack from a creature you can see
Duration: Instantaneous
Scaling: Hemocraft Die, Intelligence modifier, and Blood Hunter level

Special Limitation

The additional attack granted by Hemorrhagic Misdirection cannot trigger another reaction attack, movement effect, or feature that would grant an additional weapon attack during the same reaction.

Execution Beyond the Veil

You have perfected the order’s final discipline: the art of appearing only when the killing stroke is already inevitable.

As a bonus action, you enter the Executioner’s Veil for 1 minute. The effect ends early if you are incapacitated.

While the Executioner’s Veil is active, you gain the following benefits:

Veiled Motion

You can take the Hide action as a bonus action.

When you deal Crimson Exploit damage, you can teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. The destination must be in dim light, darkness, behind cover, within smoke or mist, or within 5 feet of a creature affected by one of your Blood Curses.

This teleportation does not provoke opportunity attacks.

Unerring Exploit

Crimson Exploit deals two rolls of your Hemocraft Die instead of one.

Once on each of your turns, when you miss your quarry with a weapon attack bearing an active Crimson Rite, you can reroll the attack roll. You must use the new roll.

Silent Execution

When you hit your quarry with a weapon attack while you have advantage on the attack roll, the attack scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20.

If the target is below half its hit point maximum, the attack scores a critical hit on a roll of 18, 19, or 20 instead.

Sever the Escape

A creature damaged by your Crimson Exploit cannot take reactions, teleport, become invisible, or change shape until the beginning of your next turn.

Bloodless Vanishing

When a creature within 30 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you can immediately attempt to Hide without using an action, provided you satisfy the normal conditions for hiding.

Once you use Execution Beyond the Veil, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

You may use it a second time before finishing a long rest by immediately losing hit points equal to three rolls of your Hemocraft Die. This hit point loss cannot be reduced or prevented in any way. Once you invoke it through this sacrifice, you cannot do so again until you finish a long rest.

Action Type: Bonus action
Uses: Once per long rest; one additional use through hemocraft sacrifice
Duration: 1 minute
Scaling: Crimson Exploit increases to two Hemocraft Dice