Base Class: Warlock
The dark echoes of the Making run deep in Fraeland, and Arcane Energy, left over from the Elder Gods Othri and Borul, flows throughout the realms. Some study this energy and become Wizards, some have an innate ability to tap into it and live their lives as Sorcerers, meanwhile others gain the ability to harness this powersource via a pact or a deal with a god. While the resource of magic is somewhat limited and waning in the realms, there are old pagan rituals which allow one to conjure up powerful magical effects. However, anyone who uses magic must be licensed by the Temple of Vant or face the possible consequence of death at the hands of an Inquisitor, a powerful Paladin trained to hunt and kill magic users. Those Warlocks who defect from the Temple, however, often sell their souls in a pact to a demon god and become Blood Mages. These spellcasters use their own blood in order to increase the potency of their spells. They are incredibly powerful casters, but their strength comes at a great cost
A dim light pours into a room with a hooded man holding a bloody knife. A large, fresh cut upon his palm weeps blood onto the floor. A ring of runes drawn in blood circles where he stands. With a few words the runes flash and a bolt of fire flies from the man's hand. A warlock who does not follow a patron and instead delves into blood magic is called a Sanguimancer (or in some instances a Blood Mage). Sanguimancy, Blood Magic, is the art of using living blood as a conduit or component of spells. It is often taboo in most cultures and certainly frowned upon by the servants of good, although it is not inherently evil. Those who seek a quick route to power and disregard the cost of life will find this path into the arcane appealing.
Blood Mage Insanity
In order to evoke the special attritbutes which blood can add to magical effects, a warlock opens himself up to the realms of madness, insanity, and even depravity. This form is magic is not to be taken lightly. Either you or your DM can keep track of how often blood magic is used. This can be as simple as keeping a tally of how often the feature is evoked, or even keeping a total, the value of which is equal to the empowered spell's spell level. When the tally exceeds 13, your DM should have you make charisma saving throw as an insanity check. The check should exceed the tally number. In the instance of a fail, roll for an effect on the table below.
Insanity Points
Every time you envoke blood magic you gain a point of insanity. There are two ways to tally these points. Either you or your DM can keep track of them. Sometimes your DM might want to keep track of them secretly (and not tell you which method he is using).
- The added points are equal to the amount rolled on your blood dice.
- The added points are equal to your warlock level.
Insanity Checks
Whenever your insanity points are equal to 13 or greater, your DM will ask you to make an insanity check. This insanity check is a charisma saving throw with a difficulty class equal to the number of insanity points you have.
If you fail the saving throw, your insanity points return to zero and you gain either one or two of the insanity traits found on the tables below. If you are level 1-10, you gain one trait from the 1-20 table. If you are level 11-20, you gain one trait from each table.
Reducing Insanity
There are multiple ways for you to reduce your insanity. This keeps the mechanic from feeling too punitive or restrictive, but at the same time, it is a limitation intended to add gravity and weight to this powerful form of magic.
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- Whenever you take a short rest, your insanity points are reduced by 1d4.
- Whenever you take a long rest, your insanity points reduced by 1d8.
- Whenever you take damage which is not self-inflicted and your HP is reduced to 0, your insanity points reduce to zero upon being stablized or successfully passing your death saving throws.
Insanity Conditions
You may only be under the effect of 1 (levels 1-10) or 2 (levels 11-20) insanity effects at a time. If, while under an insanity condition, your insanity points reach 15 or higher, make an insanity check when your current condition(s) end. If your insanity points reach 20 or higher while under an insanity condition, you immediately gain another insanity condition as soon as the current condition(s) end.
Alternate Rules for Insanity
Gaining Insanity Points
- You gain insanity points every time you use blood magic and it is always equal to your rolled blood die amount + warlock level.
- If your HP is lowered to 0, upon being stablized or passing your death saving throws, make an insanity check on the levels 11-20 table.
Reducing Insanity Points
- Only reduce insanity points after a long rest.
- Only reduce insanity points by confessing your sins to a priest of Myt.
- Only reduce insanity points by making an offering of a small bird or rabbit at one of Myt's shrines.
Insanity Tables
Insanity Table for Levels 1-20
| d100 | Effect (duration 1d10x5 minutes) |
|---|---|
| 01-10 | You hear voices in your mind, but you are compelled to speak to them out loud. |
| 11-20 | You experience vidid hallucinations and have disadvantae on ability checks. |
| 21-30 | You suffer extreme paranoia and have disadvantage on wisdom and charisma checks. |
| 31-40 | You are horribly frightened of one companion whenever they come within 10 feet and are compelled to escape their presence. This costs an action during combat. |
| 41-45 | You experience a strong delusion. Roll for a potion, you now imagine that you are under the effect of that potion. |
| 46-55 | You become overly attached to one companion, believing them to be your patron incarnate, and have disadvantage on ability checks and saving throws while more than 30 feet away from them. |
| 56-65 | You have slight amnesia. You remember who you are and where you are from, but forget the class, name, and race of all companions. |
| 66-75 | You lose the ability to communicate. No grunts, no speech, no noise, and no writing. |
| 76-85 | You experience uncontrollable laughter whenever a creature or person dies, even companions or innocents. |
| 86-90 | You do whatever a random companion tells you that isn't obviously self-destructive. Roll to decide which companion you listen to. |
| 91-95 | You experience an uncontrollable urge to eat dirt and grass. |
| 96-00 | You fall unconscious. Only a damaging blow will wake you up before the duration ends. |
Insanity Table for Levels 11-20
| d100 | Effect (duration 1d10x2 hours) |
|---|---|
| 01-10 | You become highly self-destructive and do not fear for your own safety or the safety of others. You will not outright harm yourself or others to an excessive degree, but you care less about general safety. |
| 11-20 | You become verbally aggressive to anyone who questions you. Not violent, but cruel. |
| 21-30 | You care nothing about collatoral damage. If you must burn down a city or village in order to achieve your goal, then you will. |
| 31-40 | You enjoy killing to a degree that is unhealthy, irresponsible, and possibly dangerous. You are non-aggressive to companions, however, and instead try to convince them to go along with your murderous desires. "It will be fun," you say. |
| 41-50 | You begin to obsess over dead things, even to the point that a mutilated corpse is particularly fascinating. |
| 51-60 | You are compelled to lie and hide details about everything, even issues which are of no immediate value, and especially things which might endanger yourself or your companions. |
| 61-70 | A demon, visible only to you and which may or may not actually exist (it's hard to tell), sits on your shoulder and mocks you every time you attempt to make an attack. You roll with disadvantage to hit. |
| 71-80 | Myt speaks to you directly, giving you random glimpses of future events. |
| 81-90 | You become overly protective to a random item, small enough to be held in one hand, laying on the ground in front of you. You call it "precious" and become defensive toward anyone who notices it or tries to take it from you. |
| 91-00 | You suddenly believe yourself to be under the effect of a status condition. Roll for a random condition. Anything that goes wrong you blame on the condition, even if it is just a matter of dumb luck, impossibility, or a failed ability check. |
Expanded Spell List
Blood Pact Expanded Spell List
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | ray of sickness, inflict wounds |
| 2nd | blindness/deafness, crown of madness |
| 3rd | speak with dead, stinking cloud |
| 4th | Evard's black tentacles, fire shield |
| 5th | raise dead, dominate person |
Sanguimancer Expanded Spells
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Inflict Wounds, Bane |
| 2nd | Enhance Ability, Gentle Repose |
| 3rd | Animate Dead, Speak with Dead |
| 4th | Death Ward, Control Water |
| 5th | Dominate Person, Contagion |
Blood Pact Arcana
Blood Magic
Starting at 1st level, whenever you use a spell that damages or reduces damage, you may add the level appropriate blood dice (from the table below) to the spell's effect. That same number is also taken from the caster's Max HP. After taking a long rest, roll the same level appropriate blood dice and add that number back to your Max HP. Blood magic is a risky endeavor and should be treated as such.
Blood Dice Chart
| Class Level | Blood Die |
|---|---|
| 1st | 1d4 |
| 6th | 1d8 |
| 11th | 1d10 |
| 16th | 1d12 |
| 20th | 2d12 |
Pact of Blood Boon
Blood Healing
Eldritch Invocations
Withering Touch
Prerequisite: Sanguimancer patron, 3rd Level
Your touch steals more than blood as it withers those who come into contact with your touch. Any time that you use the Life Link feature you may also empower the ability to afflict the target with Ray of Enfeeblement.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Boil Blood
Prerequisite: Sanguimancer patron
Your mastery of sanguimancy grants you some flexibility with how to use the blood drained from a target. When you use your Life Link ability you may forego the temporary hit points and boil the stolen blood within the target instead, altering the damage from d4's to d10's.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Flesh to Bone
Prerequisite: Sanguimancer patron, 5th Level
When you use your Life Link ability you can manipulate the stolen blood and bone into armor to gain the effect of Stoneskin without expending a spell slot.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Blood Letting
Prerequisite: Sanguimancer patron, Pact of the Blade
When you make a melee attack, you may choose to infuse your Life Link ability into your melee attack. If your melee attack connects, your Life Link ability immediately connects.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.
Demonic Sacrifice
Prerequisite: Sanguimancer patron, Pact of the Chain
During your Find Familiar ritual spell you may choose to sacrifice your familiar at the end of the ritual. Doing so grants you the benefits of one of the following spells which lasts until you summon another familiar, are incapacitated, the duration of the spell, or take a short or long rest: Enhance Ability, Detect Magic, Locate Object, Augury, Enlarge/Reduce. You may not use this invocation again until you finish a short or long rest.
Etched in Blood
Prerequisite: Sanguimancer patron, Pact of the Tome
You may eschew any material (less than 500 gp), verbal, or somatic component of a spell by sacrificing hit points equal to the spell's level. You may eschew more than one component per spell but each requires a different hit point investment.
For example, you wish to eschew the verbal and material components of Darkness. The total hit points lost would be 4. Since it's a second level, that's two hit points for each component.
Racing Pulse
Starting at 1st level, a Blood Mage can add their level's blood die to an ally's attack roll. The blood die value is taken from the caster's Max HP.
Blood Invocations
Blood Invocations
These special blood invocations are available only to those who are servants of Myt. Otherwise, they are considered additional invocations added to the list of Eldritch Invocations found in the PHB and follow the same rules. These invocations become available at the same time you meet its listed requirement(s).
Blood Armor
Prerequisites: The Pale Daughter patron, 5th level.
Blood Mages can cast the spell mage armor without expending a spell slot or material components. Each day this spell can be used a number of times equal to the spellcaster's charisma modifier. Blood Armor lasts for only 5 minutes. This spell can be empowered by blood magic starting at 10th level. It does not, however, use the standard blood dice.
At 10th level it can gain 1d4 to AC, 2d4 to AC at 16th level, and 3d4 to AC at 18th level. The rolls affect the caster's max HP as normal with blood magic. Blood Attunement and Burning Blood do not work in conjunction with this spell.
Disguise Wounds
Prerequisites: The Pale Daughter patron, 9th level.
Blood Mages can use simple illusion magic to hide the wound markings on their bodies which would give away the blood magic practices. This effect lasts for 8 hours and cannot be repeated until after completing a long rest. This feature only affects visual inspection of the skin, however, and is detectable by spells such as detect magic.
Erythropoiesis
Prerequisites: The Pale Daughter patron, 12th level.
Whenever a Blood Mage levels up and rolls for additional max HP, reroll any 1s or 2s.
Mind of the Inquisitor
Prerequisites: The Pale Daughter patron, 3rd level.
Blood Mages can hide the arcane aura of their blood magic which lingers around them. This disrupts Inquisitor effects such as Blood Sense and Mark of Death. This effect lasts for 8 hours and cannot be repeated until after completing a long rest.
Reinvigorate Blood
Prerequisites: The Pale Daughter patron, 5th level.
A Blood Mages can cast the spell animate dead without expending a spell slot or material components. Each day this spell can be used a number of times equal to the spellcaster's charisma modifier. The undead raised with this feature last for only four hours, after which they turn feral, must be killed, and cannot be raised again.
Transfusion
Prerequisites: The Pale Daughter patron, 18th level.
When this feature is taken, Blood Mages cannot take damage from another caster's spells which are empowered with blood magic. Instead, the Blood Mage regains hit points equal to half of the damage inflicted.
Life Link
At 6th level, a sanguimancer is familiar with how to pull living blood from another. As a standard action you may make a spell attack against a living creature of flesh and blood within 60 feet. If your spell connects, the creature suffers 3d4 necrotic damage and an additional 1d4 per every odd warlock level you possess past 6th and you gain that many temporary hit points for one hour. For example, a 9th level warlock would deal 5d4 damage and gain that many temporary hit points when using this feature.
Bad Blood
Starting at 6th level, whenever damaging blood magic is used, an extra 5 Max HP can be cut from the caster and the target must make a constitution saving throw against your warlock spell save DC, if the target fails the save then the target is poisoned. The target makes a constitution saving at the beginning of each of their turns until they pass, at which point they are no longer poisoned.
Vampiric Bleeding
At 10th level, Blood Mages regain health every time they kill a single opponent with a spell supplemented by their blood magic. The health regained is equal to damage dealt+spellcaster's level+spell level, but cannot exceed the spellcaster's max HP (as affected by their use of blood magic). At 15th level, Vampiric Bleeding also affects kills made by ally's under the influence of Racing Pulse
Tinge of Blood
Beginning at 10th level, you learn how to draw additional power from your blood magic and gain magical resilience from it. When you successfully deal damage with your Life Link or sacrifice health through Blood Arcana, you gain advantage on and resistance to transmutation and necromancy spells and effects for the next hour. Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Human Transmutation
Beginning at 14th level, you can manipulate blood and other living tissue to bring about life, once again. As an action, you choose two creatures within 60 feet of you and each other, one may be dead but the other must be living. You may transfer life from one target to the other. The living target you are transferring life from must make a Constitution save against your warlock spell save DC or suffer 6d10 points of necrotic damage. On a failed save, the target you are transferring life to receives health in the amount of damage done. On a successful save, the recipient receives no life and the damaged target only receives half damage. If the target that was to be healed was dead for no longer than 10 days, it will receive the benefit of Raise Dead.
Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Blood Attunment
Starting at 14th level, whenever blood magic is used, the damage done to the caster's max HP is halved.
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