October 30, 2015

Blood Magus

Sorcerous Origin
Comments from the Finger: In honor of the best holiday on the planet, we're taking a break from the Magitech Update in favor of something a little more Halloween appropriate.

**Another one from Cesrawr, and a highly requested one at that!**

Blood Magus

Blood Magi are formerly deceased spellcasters who, when returned to life, gain an understanding of their blood’s importance, bequeathed by their close call. They learn to evoke magic from this vital fluid that sustains their lives.

Thicker Than Water
At 1st level, your hit point maximum increases by 1 and increases by 1 again whenever you gain a level in this class.

Homunculus
At 1st level, you learn the spell find familiar and can cast it as a ritual. The spell doesn't count against your number of spells known. When you cast the spell, you can only choose the special form of a homunculus to be summoned. Additionally, when you take the Attack action, you can forgo one of your own attacks to allow your familiar to make one attack of its own.
     Beginning at 6th level, you can cast spells which target only your familiar through your homunculus as if it had cast the spell targeting itself. This spell may affect other creatures, as long as the homunculus is the point of origin of the spell and is also being affected by the spell. A spell cast in this way uses your spellcasting ability and DC, but is concentrated on by your homunculus.
     The statistics for a homunculus can be found in the Monster Manual pg. 188.

Blood Draught
By 6th level, you can draw your blood into arcane might. As a bonus action on your turn, you can choose to lose a number of hit points to regain expended sorcery points or empower your spells. You regain 1 expended sorcery point for every 5 hit points sacrificed. Alternatively, until you complete a short rest, you gain a +1 bonus on your spells' damage, up to your Charisma modifier, for every 5 hit points sacrificed, to each creature that takes damage from your spells. Hit points lost in this way cannot be recovered until you complete a long rest.

Blood Walk
Starting at 14th level, once per round you can use 15 feet of your movement to step magically into one creature within your reach and emerge from a second creature you can see within 60 feet of the first creature, appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the second creature. Both creatures must be bigger than you or of equal size. This movement does not provoke Opportunity Attacks.
A creature who is unwilling to be the entry location for the blood magus may choose to make a Dexterity saving throw to stop the effects of this feature. Constructs, elementals, and undead are immune to the effects of Bloodwalk.

Awaken Blood
Beginning at 18th level, you gain the ability to bestow momentary consciousness on an opponent’s blood, causing the blood to attempt to free itself, all at once. As an action you can choose a creature within 10 feet to make a Constitution saving throw. Constructs, elementals, and undead automatically succeed this saving throw. On a failed save, the change in blood pressure disrupts the victim's tissues, dealing 10d10 points of force damage and stunning the target until the end of its next turn. After using this feature, you may not use it again until you finish a long rest.



Changelog 12/13/15: Blood Draught: Applies to each creature that takes damage from your spell.

22 comments:

  1. This is really good, and keeps the original flavor intact very well. Probably my favorite of the outside work so far.
    Long-time reader, keep the content flowing! This is some good stuff.

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    1. Thank you! this is one of my favorites that I've made, and I'm actually playing it in a campaign right now

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    2. Can you explain the homunculus targeting system? The way it's worded confuses me.

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  2. I really like it but maybe give it some extra spells so then it can be on par with the storm sorcerer. Other than that I really like it.

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    1. If only there were more blood-themed spells in this edition

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    2. I think the power of blood draught makes up for not having extra spells. sacrifice 25 hp to add 5 damage to your spells, add that to a twin spell magic missile and as fluff have all the darts be red droplets of blood.

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    3. Nail, I believe Twinned Spell cannot be applied to Magic Missile, as Twinned specifies "a spell that targets only one creature", and MM can target several. Even if you choose only one create to attack, MM is still capable of targeting more, therefore is does not meet the requirements of Twinned.

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  3. Currently playing this class with a little multiclassing and I am in love with this class. The homunculus is surprisingly useful and blood draught is amazing. In role play it's always a conversation starter as to why I injure myself for the sake of magic, in combat it makes me a force not to be taken lightly (however fragile I may be).

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    1. Awesome! Do you think the Hit Point trade in Blood Daught is about right?

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  4. Yes it's working great and the hp Loss is just enough to make me think about doing it instead of it just always being on. The cap is a good idea to because the munchkin in me sooooo wants to go as low as I can and just blast things for insane damage.

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  5. Hello, great subclass! I just have a question about Blood Draught's bonus damage. Say I sacrifice 25 hp to have +5 damage on spell, and I cast magic missile - is the damage applied to each magic missile (effectively becoming, for example, 5d4+30)? For something like Fireball, I assume the damage is simply 8d6+5, as it is one projectile.

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    1. Great question, and I've clarified this answer within the class itself: you deal this bonus damage to each creature that takes damage from your spell.

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  6. I love it and I'm looking forward to playing it. I'm gonna go for as much hitpoints as I can, even if my Charisma ends up lower then 14. Anyway, this is just my opinion, I'm not even sure, but I would *maybe* put the cost of Blood draught to 4 hitpoints instead od 5. That's just me, sorry if this was rude or insulting. I swear, I can never decide what to play frok Vecna. Everything is awsome.

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    1. Criticism is (almost) never insulting -- feel free to give us feedback whenever!

      When I did the math on this one, I found that I wanted the value somewhere between 4 and 5 hp for Blood Draught. Both are good values for the trade; I simply went with the latter to make math easier for people.

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  7. This is a really cool idea. I always liked the concept of Blood Magic in Dragon Age, although this isn't nearly as OP. But wouldn't the DMG in the "Awakened Blood" feature be Necrotic seeing how its disrupting the body's vital functions?

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  8. I thought about it as 'the blood is forcibly trying to remove itself', and you end up with something similar to heavy internal bruising. Therefore bludgeoning damage.

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  9. Hello! I really like your archetypes. Great job! I have a question about the homunculus...it can concentrate on spells that target itself and other creatures? For example, if I want to cast hex and I don't want to concentrate on it, my homunculus will be affected as well?

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    1. This feature only works if you're casting spells which target only your familiar (the wording could probably use an improvement.) So, if you cast hex targeting your familiar, your familiar can concentrate on it, though I'd personally be using it to buff my familiar.

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    2. OH! Now I see...I was only thinking using it offensively, but buffing your familiar and another creature seems really useful. Thanks!

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    3. Hi! I love this class but the homunculus confuses me. You can cast spells that only target your homunculus but they also effect creatures around it? That sounds like its contradicting itself. Can you give some examples to help clear up my confusion?

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  10. Another confused petitioner here asking for a greater explanation
    as to clarity/utility of the familiar targeting. Buffing a homunculus, even if it can sustain its own concentration, doesn't floor me as an option. Maybe I'm not getting creative enough. Maybe Blood Component, letting the Magus cast without components or focus? I love the rest of the class.

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