Order of Cytomancy

 

Where other blood hunters carve their power from the power of hemocraft, the Cytomancers turned their gaze futher inwards. They control not just blood alone, but much more deeper into the architecture beneath it. Cells, marrow, sinew, and the bone... the complex weave that binds flesh to one's soul. They are hunters who chart the living body the way a wizard charts the ley lines of the world, and who have discovered that the two are not so different after all.

To a Cytomancer, a creatures body is a never-ending arsenal to be used. Cytomancer study what they call the the Anima Et Corpus for the soul expresses itself through flesh, and the flesh animated by soul. Through rigorous study and the forbidden rites of hemocraft, they learn to reach into the essence of others and make their own flesh rebel against them. They can force a heart to stop mid-beat, to seize a limb that refuses to obey, to unravel the song that keeps a foe standing. Their enemies fall not to fire or steel but to the rebellion of their own flesh.

To the Cytomancer, the veil between the natural and the supernatural is just another layer of the living architecture to be read, mapped, and rewritten. Where the common anatomist sees magic, the Cytomancer can see what truly lies beneath. They see the animating principle that persists in entities that never drew breath, the ectoplasmic network that gives shape to spirits and shades, the infernal or celestial humors that course through a fiend's borrowed flesh, the arcane marrow that beats at the heart of a construct or elemental. Every supernatural being, no matter how alien or incorporeal, is still a system. Through forbidden study and cataloguing spirit-tissue, charting possession pathways, diagramming the metaphysical organs of things that should not have organs, the Cytomancer perfects their craft until the supernatural anatomy is no longer a mystery.

 

 

Arsenal of Blood and Bone

At 3rd level, You have learned to reshape your own living tissue, blood and bone into a weapon to use as your scalpel for battle. Whenever you take the Attack action or make an Opportunity Attack, you can manifest a Scalpel in your free hand and make the attack with that weapon. You can only manifest one weapon at a time

While manifested, it counts as a simple melee weapon with the light property with which you are proficient, and you choose its form each time you summon it. It could appear a serrated bone blade, a chitinous whip, a calcified maul, a needle-thin injector, or similar organic shapes. While the Scalpel is manifested, you gain the following benefits:

• The weapon deals slashing, piercing or bludgeoning damage (your choice) equal to twice your Hemocraft die.
• Whenever you attack with the weapon, you have the option of using your Hemocraft modifier for the attack and damage rolls instead of using Strength or Dexterity.
• The Scalpel is considered a valid target for your Crimson Rite features, and can be activated with a Bonus Action as normal. Once you activate a Crimson Rite on your Scalpel, you don't need to activate that rite again when you manifest a new Scalpel. The rite remains active until you finish a short or long rest.
• The weapon has the thrown property with a range of 20/40 feet. When thrown, the weapon dissolves after the attack resolves, and you can manifest a new one on your next attack as normal.

Rites of Cytomancy

Starting at 3rd level, your study of the Anima Et Corpus has taught you to reach into living systems and introduce precise, surgical changes. You gain proficiency with the herbalism kit. You also gain a pool of Cytomancy Points equal to your Bloodhunter level. You can expend Cytomancy Points to produce one of the following effects

• Paralytic Touch (2 Points). Once per turn, when you hit a creature that is Huge or smaller with your Scalpel, the target falls prone and is be unable to stand until the end of its next turn.

• Necrosis Touch (X Points). Once per turn, when you hit a creature with your Scalpel, you may expend any number of Cytomancy Points up to your proficiency bonus to flood the target's tissue with destabilizing energy forcing their cells to attack themselves. The target takes an additional 1d6 necrotic damage per point expended.

• Analgesic Touch (3 Points). As an action, you touch a creature within 5 feet of you, and it gains temporary hit points equal to two rolls of your Hemocraft die.

You regain all your Cytomancy Points after a long rest.

Corpus Mastery

At 7th level, Your command of the body has deepened, allowing your craft to reach beyond the limitations of mortal biology and into the animating essence of all living, and unliving, things.

• Universal Substrate. Your Blood Curses and Rite of the Cytomancer effects can affect creatures without blood, including undead, constructs, elementals, and other beings normally immune to blood-based effects.

• Efficient Recovery. You regain all expended Cytomancy Points when you finish a short or long rest.

• Reflexive Recalibration. When you make a saving throw, you can use your reaction to expend 2 Cytomancy Points and add one roll of your Hemocraft die to the result. You can do this after seeing the initial roll but before knowing whether it succeeds or fails.

• Expanded Disruption. When you use your Rite of the Cytomancer feature, you can expend 1 additional Cytomancy Point to target a second creature within 5 feet of the original target with the same Interference.

Anima Mastery

Starting at 11th level, you have moved beyond the mere disruption of living systems. Where lesser Cytomancers interrupt and repair, you now command and control by rewriting the vital runes of Anima.

• Litany of Restoration. As a bonus action, you can expend up to 5 Cytomancy Points to suffuse your allies with healing energy. Choose a number of creatures equal to the points spent, each within 30 feet of you. Each creature regains hit points equal to two rolls of your Hemocraft die + your Hemocraft modifier as their wounds knit closed and their systems stabilize.

• Litany of Dominion. As an action, you can expend 5 Cytomancy Points to seize direct control of a creature's body. The target must be within 30 feet of you. You maintain control for up to 1 hour, and you must maintain concentration on this effect as if concentrating on a spell. If you wish to extend the duration beyond 1 hour, you take damage equal to one roll of the target's Hit Dice for each additional hour. Concentration cannot be broken by damage you take from using this ability.

  When you activate this ability, choose one of the following variants:

  • Sorcerer's Chain. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Hemocraft modifier). On a failure, they fall under your control and during each of the target's turns, you can use your reaction to force it to use its action to cast a spell of your choice (expending the target's spell slots as normal) and move it up to half its speed.

  • Warrior's Chain. The target must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Hemocraft modifier). On a failure, they fall under your control and during each of the target's turns, you can use your reaction to force it to use its action to attack a target within its range and its full movement. The target cannot cast spells while under this effect.

  This ability is treated as a 6th-level spell for the purposes of effects such as dispel magic.

Greater Rites of Cytomancy

At 15th level, Your body is no longer a fixed thing but a fluid system, constantly rewriting itself in response to harm

You gain the following benefits:

Perfected Substrate. You have advantage on saving throws against the Charmed and Frightened Condition, and you are immune to the poisoned condition. Additionally, your Scalpel's damage increases to three rolls of your Hemocraft die instead of two.

Autonomic Rewriting. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to expend 3 Cytomancy Points and reduce the damage by an amount equal to Blood Hunter Level as body shifts and relocates biomass and accelerates healing to keep moving forward.

Blood Curse of Hexed Transfusion

At 18th level. You have mastered the final technique of Cytomancy, the ability to transfer vitality itself from one vessel to another. You gain the Blood Curse of the Hexed Transfusion for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn’t count against your number of blood curses known.

         Blood Curse of Hexed Transfusion

As an action, you curse a living creature that you see within 30 feet that has 100 hit points or fewer. That creature dies instantly as you seize control of its cardiac rhythm and bring it to a halt. You then transfuse its life essence into a creature that has died within the last hour and is within 30 feet, returning that creature to life with hit points equal to the slain creature's remaining hit points before death.

Amplify. When you use this curse, creatures within 30 feet of the slain creature take damage equal to the number of hit points it had before it died.