School of Hemalurgy (2014)

Servant of Iniquity. Defiler. Heretic. Criminal. Evil. Whispered about in the dark around a dying fire, those who practice the forbidden art of hemalurgy are described as many things, and are outcasts to all but their own. 

Whether it was to sate a desire for power, revenge, or some other strong emotion, you have turned toward the forbidden study of blood magic. Those who do so understand the burden it carries, as they are feared and pursued anywhere they are identified as one of its practitioners.

Will you become a feared servant of the art, leaving nothing but mangled, exsanguinated bodies in your wake? Or will you become a paragon of change and reason, attempting to dispel the stigma behind the magic?

Blood Extraction

Beginning at 2nd level, you are able to store up the magic from a creature's blood that is killed near you. When storing magic in this way, the blood from the creature is densely compressed into a tiny hema-sphere that orbits your body until used. These hema-spheres allow you to power your spells and abilities to devastating effect. You may have a number of hema-spheres orbiting you equal to your proficiency bonus, and any not used at the end of a long or short rest are lost.

As a reaction, whenever a creature dies within 30ft of you, you may use your reaction to magically extract the blood from their bodies infuse it with magic, and then compress it into a tiny hema-sphere that magically orbits you. If you are the one to land the killing blow on a creature, you are able to extract enough blood for two hema-spheres, or if you are at a distance greater than 30ft, you may instead ignore the distance requirement in place of gathering an extra hema-sphere.

Blood Rituals

Select one blood ritual from the list below. You gain additional blood rituals at level 6, 10, and 14.

Blood Empowerment

When casting a spell that requires a damage roll, you may expend two hema-spheres to increase the size of the damage dice rolled (d6 becomes d8, etc.)

Blood Enhancement

When you roll damage for a spell, you may expend 1 hema-sphere to add your Intelligence modifier to the result of the damage roll.

You can use Blood Enhancement even if you have already used a different blood ritual option during the casting of the spell.

Blood Explosion

When you cast a spell that has a single target and requires an attack roll, you may instead choose to target an additional number of creatures equal to the hema-spheres you expend to perform this blood ritual. The additional targets must be within 5 feet of each other as well as the original target, and an attack roll must be made for each target. On a successful hit, roll damage by decreasing the damage die size by one (d8 becomes d6, etc.) and apply the result to all affected creatures.

Crimson Quickening

As a bonus action, you may perform a blood ritual and expend five hema-spheres to gain the effects of the haste spell without requiring concentration or additional components. The target of the spell must be self, you may use your second action without any restrictions that are normally imposed by the spell, and your attack rolls and Save DC increase by 1 for the duration. When the effect wears off, you are lethargic for two rounds instead of one, but may move up to half your speed each round.

Malediction

As a bonus action, you may expend two hema-spheres to perform a blood ritual to increase your spell save DC by 1 and give one target creature disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws for 1 minute.

Crimson Recovery

Beginning at 2nd level, you may absorb your enemy's lifeblood to strengthen yourself.

Using a bonus action, you may expend hema-spheres to roll a number of hit die equal to the hema-spheres expended, subtracting them from your available pool. Additionally, if you land the killing blow on a creature the same turn you use this feature, you may roll an additional hit die without subtracting the extra die from your pool, or expending an additional hema-sphere.

Iron-Blood Fortification

Starting at 6th level, you are able to divert a small amount of the magic contained in your hema-spheres to bolster your health. For every hema-sphere you have, you gain 4 temporary hit points. These temporary hit points remain until they are used or a hema-sphere is used or lost, and you regain the maximum possible whenever you gain a new hema-sphere.

Shield of Scarlet

Beginning at 10th level, you can shift your hema-spheres in front of an attack, potentially nullifying any damage.

Each time a creature targets you with an attack, you may choose to shift your hema-spheres in front of it.

Roll a d20. WIth one hema-sphere orbiting you, a 15 or higher must be rolled to shift the attack to the hema-sphere, and the number decreases for each hema-sphere you have orbiting you.

A hema-sphere's AC equals 9 + your Dexterity modifier. If an attack hits a hema-sphere, it is destroyed. It can only be destroyed using this feature if an attack successful hits it. It ignores all other damage and effects.

Sanguine Siphon

Starting at 14th level, your mastery of hemalurgy allows you to siphon the blood directly from living creatures.

As an action, choose up to six creatures you can see within range, each of which must succeed on a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC or take 24 (4d12) necrotic damage. You then regain hema-spheres equal to the number of failed saves/2, in addition to any you would gain normally if a creature is killed via this feature. On a success, a creature takes half damage, with no additional effect.

Performing this feature is exhausting and risky. Each time you perform this feature more than once per long rest, you take one level of exhaustion. Levels of exhaustion gained in this way take an additional day of rest to remove.