Homebrew Bloodcursed Species Details

"That family lives in the house up in the valley. Nobody ever sees them really, humans by the look of it. Parents tell stories to their children about the family kidnapping kids and eating them, scare them from running. Not sure what to think of them, but honestly I feel bad for them. They haven't done anything, have they?"

-Sybil Portman, Human historian documenting her small home village

 

A Generational Burden

Bloodcursed humans come from families that trace back their history to an ancestor who contracted the "curse" they possess. In reality, the curse is likely a genetic disorder or perhaps even an evolutionary trait. The idea of it being a curse can be traced back to the fear of vampires held by many races, which their relation to blood ties them to. Although unproven, many believe that these humans if not vampires themselves are the children of them. 

Many found to have developed this were cast out from their societies to take the potential danger with them. Many of these people survived a life out in the country on their own, some even forming small communities for them specifically. Unfortunately, these settlements often find themselves the victims of attacks from superstitious humans that mean to destroy their attempts at rising up.

A Blessing and a Curse

The change in their bodies has made the Bloodcursed develop abilities similar to many predators in nature. Cultural traditions that are found within these communities see warriors and people of notable achievement compare themselves to these predators and getting tattoos of them (IE: Mark of the Owlbear, Mark of the Wolf, Mark of the Shark, etc.)

Developing a heightened sense of smell and an understanding of blood itself is part of it. This makes them incredible trackers, able to find a bleeding creature that has made it miles ahead of them. With training and discipline, a Bloodcursed can find even the most hidden of creatures. Additionally, this acute hunting instinct has also given them a degree of darkvision for them to use.

However, one major downside of these changes lay in their diet. Bloodcursed, due to their body needing different nutrients to humans have changed their digestive systems. Bloodcursed are much more carnivorous than normal humans. While theoretically they can eat non-meat, it will be incredibly difficult for them to digest and get nutrients from. This also contributes to another group of these people being nomadic and following herds to slowly pick them off. Another solution has been oceanside settlements, since fish seems to be able to also satiate their needs.

Finally, another benefit is that due to their unique cardiovascular system they have certain health benefits from it. Poison is generally less effective on them due to their livers being more developed and effective at filtering out toxins. Their blood is also thicker, meaning poisonous effects are able to be stalled for a small time.

Bloodcursed Traits

Bloodcursed are similar to normal humans, but due to years of isolation and their curse they have some differences.

Darkvision

 You have darkvision up to 60ft

Poison Resistance

You gain a resistance to poison damage.

Additionally, if you are given the poison status effect through non-magic methods, you are able to stave it off for 1 minute in combat or 10 outside of com

Blood Sense

Upon finding blood, you can use your sense to track the person the blood belongs to and where they might be.

Identification: At DM discretion, you can use this feature to identify the source and time the blood was left. This could be discovering the race of the source, discovering how long it has been since it was left there, and possibly even connecting people to each other if two related people's blood have been identified (this could also mean connecting blood to the same person if two separate pools have been identified.

Smell: Smelling the blood gives you the scent of the person like a hound, utilizing it to find the person. With the DM's discretion, the scent can be tracked by you. The scent is strongest 6 hours after it has been left there. Within 7-24 hours, you have advantage on Investigation (INT) checks to follow the sense. Past a day, it is up to the DM the difficulty of the check.

Carnivorous

Due to your digestive system, you need to eat meat or fish to properly get nutrients. While eating non-meat is not necessarily toxic to you or even harmful, it can have negative effects on you. If you consume too much non-meat at once, at DM's discretion you may receive a level of exhaustion due to the over-exertion of your stomach and intestines.

Drinks and products derived from non-meat do not tie into this. Items such as beer, chocolate, milk, eggs, etc. Specifically this applies to items like vegetables or other fiber filled items.

Ability Score Increase

You choose an ability score to increase by 1.
Your Constitution score increases by 1.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and one extra language of your choice. Humans typically learn the languages of other peoples they deal with, including obscure dialects. They are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elvish musical expressions, Dwarvish military phrases, and so on.