Order of the Syphonic

“THE PROCESS OF THE HUNTER’S BANE IS A PAINFUL, SCARRING, AND SOMETIMES FATAL EXPERIENCE…”

- Matthew Mercer

To be a Blood Hunter is to be a person that, more often than not, puts themselves in great peril. The split decisions they are frequently cornered into could mean the difference between life or death. It’s no secret that many who take this path in life soon find themselves with lasting injuries and/or significant conditions.

If a Blood Hunter wasn’t born with a disability, it is highly likely they will, at some point, develop one – as will any adventurer who lives a dangerous life, fraught with monsters and oftentimes lethal magics. Over the years, an order of Blood Hunters has formed, focused on coming to terms with their disabilities and chronic illnesses and how they can continue to work with them. 

The Order of the Syphonic.

Learning to manage their chronic pain levels and dabbling in Psionic Magics to provide them with a disability aid when on the hunt. These Blood Hunters seek not to ‘cure’ themselves, but to continue their lives and their life’s work: hunting monsters.

 

High Threshold

Upon joining this order at 3rd level, you have a higher pain threshold than most and have experience in knowing how to manage chronic pain in ways that work best for you. This doesn’t mean your pain has subsided, or that you hurt any less, but you’ve started to notice that your methods of pain management are having an effect on your Crimson Rites and Blood Curses. When you activate your Rite for the first time that day, you gain 1HP back when you roll your hemocraft die. You can only use this feature for a single Crimson Rite once per long rest. When you amplify a Blood Curse for the first time that day, you gain 1HP back when you roll your hemocraft die. You can only use this feature for a single Blood Curse once per long rest. As you level in this class, the amount of hit points you regain from both Rites and Curse amplifications increases. At 8th level you gain back 2HP, at 13th 3HP, and at 18th 4HP.

Empathic Weapon

At 3rd level, you learn how to siphon some of the chronic pain you experience daily into your weapon whenever you activate your Crimson Rite. Your Combat Wheelchair is also considered as a weapon and your Crimson Rites can apply to it. This process doesn’t reduce your own chronic pain levels at all. Instead, it imbues your weapon with some of your experience.

Whilst your Rite is active, you gain the additional effects for the duration:

• • You have resistance to piercing damage.
• • Whenever you roll full damage on your hemocraft die, you can roll it again and add the additional damage as psychic.

Exerted Barrier

Starting at 7th level, you have started to weave your magical talents into a form that can carry echoes of your chronic pain. Your Order has tapped into the secrets of Psionic Magics, referred to as your psi, developing them in a way that allows you to work with your chronic illness and/or disability. Your pain isn’t reduced, nor is it ‘cured’ using such magic, but it acts as an aid, assisting you in combat.

At the beginning of every day, you roll a single d12 and add nothing to it. This is your chronic pain level (CPL) die and is a representation of your chronic pain. The number you roll indicates your pain level for that day until you roll it again the next. A 12 means you are in significant pain, whereas a 1 means you are having a ‘good day’ (this doesn’t mean you aren’t in pain, just that it’s manageable). Make note of the number you roll on your character sheet at the beginning of each day.

When you next take damage, you use your reaction to throw up a protective barrier formed by psionic magic and your pain and reduce the damage taken by the number you rolled on your CPL die that day.

Much like Blood Curses, this feature can be amplified by spending a number of your hit points determined by your hemocraft die. Your High Threshold feature still applies to this.

You can use this feature once per day.

At 15th level, you can use this feature twice per day.

Amplify. You sling the damage your barrier absorbs back at a creature within 30ft of you. This creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, the DC determined by your hemocraft save DC. On a success, the creature only takes half damage. When you throw this damage back, it is converted into psychic damage by the psionic nature of your barrier’s magic.

At 15th level, this amplification doubles the amount of damage sent back to the target. Additionally, you also gain knowledge of one Blood Curse of your choosing so long as you meet any prerequisites it has. This doesn’t count against your number of Blood Curses known.

Psi Affinity

At 11th level, you centre yourself, focusing on your areas of pain and projecting them into your psi to create echoes that you magically imbue into your fighting style. When you next successfully hit a target creature, you use your bonus action to blast them with your psi, letting them briefly experience some semblance of the pain levels you feel every day, overwhelming them.

The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw – the DC the same as your hemocraft save DC – or take 4d8 psychic damage. If the creature fails, it must continue to make the save at the beginning of each of its turns, taking an additional 1d8 psychic damage until it succeeds.

You can use this feature once per long rest.

Brand of Suffusion

Beginning at 15th level, your Brand of Castigation becomes imbued with your psi, allowing you to aggravate a foe’s wounds in battle. Whenever you next successfully deal damage to a branded creature using your Crimson Rite, your weapon deals an additional amount of psychic damage equal to one roll of your hemocraft die plus your chronic pain level die score for the day.

Exhaustive Wave

At 18th level, you learn to exert what little grasp you have left on your pain-echoing psi as death comes to claim you. When you are next reduced to 0 hit points, you unleash a great wave of energy from your person in a 30ft radius. Every hostile creature within range must make a Wisdom saving throw – the DC equal to your hemocraft save DC – or take 5d10 psychic damage and become stunned until the end of their next turn as a blast of pure pain suddenly hits them. If they succeed, they take half damage and aren’t stunned.

After this, you don’t necessarily fall unconscious. Instead, you can choose to drop to 1 hit point and take 1 point of exhaustion. If you choose to fall unconscious instead, you immediately succeed 1 death save and continue to make death saving throws as normal at the start of your next turn, not taking a point of exhaustion.