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Wyrmhero
2013-09-16, 06:09 AM
While I've not played in any games that allow homebrew yet, I've been interested in making my own class for a while now, even if I don't get to use it - Maybe someone here will use it, and I'll feel good about myself. :smallsmile:

Something that I've always been a bit disappointed at with Pathfinder is that there's no real incentive to change weaponry aside from finding a magic one perhaps or switching between melee and ranged. As such, the Bloodsword was designed with that in mind.

A Bloodsword is an improviser at best, changing their weapons on the fly to face whatever opponent they are facing - A warhammer against undead, a cold sword against Fire Elementals, a bow for flying targets, and so on. They are designed to be more versatile, being proficient in any weapon they create and getting bonuses with any weapon they create, but it comes at a cost - Unlike Fighters, they get no bonus Feats and cannot access Fighter-specific Feats. Their weapons also cost them health, and changing weapons too much will lead to problems in drawn-out fights.

Aside from just being able to hit things well, I thought about a few different ideas to make them unique. A Bloodsword gets DR from first level, which slowly improves. They cannot wear armour without giving up most of their class features, which means that while they might be able to take a hit, they're going to do so quite often. For the most part, they are a martial class with a few spell-like abilities.

Role: Bloodswords perform the role of a berserk attacker quite well, trusting in their allies to heal them and keep them moderately safe. They can also fulfill the healing and archer roles, if needed, and even be a bit of a tank if they create a shield. They are good at damaging opponents, but their main strength is in their versatility and adaptability.

Alignment: Contrary to popular belief, the abilities that the Bloodsword uses to create his weapons and fuel his abilities is not inherently evil. The fundamental power behind him is that of sacrifice, which is why a small amount of blood can create whole weapons. Because of this sacrifice, the Bloodsword tends to be drawn to the extremes of morality - Evil Bloodswords see the sacrifice as a shortcut to power, whereas Good Bloodswords see it as a way to protect others at the expense of themselves.

Other Party Members: Their connection to blood can be very unnerving to people who spend a lot of time near a Bloodsword, particularly to religious characters, who can sometimes see it as unholy. Most of the reactions though will depend on the reason that the Bloodsword delved into this kind of lore.

Hit Die: d12

Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge: History (Int), Profession (Wis), Swim (Str), Survival (Wis), Use Magical Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks:2+Int

Abilities: The most important ability for a Bloodsword is of course, Constitution, so they can use their abilities more often and without fear of being too badly hurt. After that, Charisma governs the frequency and power of many of their abilities. The other physical stats are important in either order, depending on the prefered style(s) of the Bloodsword.

Starting Wealth: d6*10, but each Bloodsword starts with an athame, a ritual dagger, for free. This athame is precious to them, and whenever possible, they use it for their abilities. This athame is able to bypass the Bloodsword's own DR, as long as they're the one using it.

Proficiencies: A Bloodsword is proficient in Simple and Martial Weapons, and also Shields, but no armour.

Bloodsword
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+0|
+2| Blood Weapon, Life and Death I, DR 1/Magic

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+0|
+3| Hardened Body, Toughness

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+1|
+3| Blood Weapon (Masterwork), Bloody Visage, Life and Death II

4th|
+4|
+4|
+1|
+4| Weapon Focus (Blood Weapon) , DR 2/Magic

5th|
+5|
+4|
+1|
+4| Blood Weapon +1, Life and Death III

6th|
+6|
+5|
+2|
+5| Weapon Specialisation (Blood Weapon), Blood Siphon

7th|
+7|
+5|
+2|
+5| DR 3/Magic, Life and Death IV

8th|
+8|
+6|
+2|
+6| Blood Weapon + 2, Bleeding Strike

9th|
+9|
+6|
+3|
+6| Greater Weapon Focus (Blood Weapon), Life and Death V

10th|
+10|
+7|
+3|
+7| DR 4/Cold Iron, Recall Blood Weapon

11th|
+11|
+7|
+3|
+7| Blood Weapon +3, Infused Blood+1, Life and Death VI

12th|
+12|
+8|
+4|
+8| Hemalurgy, Greater Toughness

13th|
+13|
+8|
+4|
+8| DR 5/Cold Iron, Life and Death VII

14th|
+14|
+9|
+4|
+9| Blood Weapon +4, Improved Hardened Body

15th|
+15|
+9|
+5|
+9| Improved Critical (Blood Weapon), Infused Blood+2, Life and Death VIII

16th|
+16|
+10|
+5|
+10| DR 6/Cold Iron, Bloodsense 30ft

17th|
+17|
+10|
+5|
+10| Blood Weapon +5, Critical Focus, Life and Death IX

18th|
+18|
+11|
+6|
+11| Greater Weapon Specialisation (Blood Weapon), Traverse the Bloodline

19th|
+19|
+11|
+6|
+11| DR 7/Cold Iron, Bleeding Critical, Life and Death X

20th|
+20|
+12|
+6|
+12| Bloodsense 120ft, Sanguine Mastery, DR 10/-, Infused Blood+3 [/table]

If we are to consider the important parts of the class, the Blood Weapon and the upgrades/Feats would be most important, followed by DR, followed by Life and Death and other miscellaneous Feats.

Wyrmhero
2013-09-16, 06:10 AM
Blood Weapon
At 1st level, the Bloodsword gets the ability to create weapons out of their own blood. To do this, they must sacrifice 2 hit points, plus an additional number of hit points equal to twice the enhancement bonus of the weapon. This loss of hit points cannot be prevented.
Bloodswords are automatically proficient with any blood weapon they wield. These weapons last 1 minute per level in Bloodsword. Arrows and similar projectiles are crafted in groups of 20, but do not have to be created all at the same time (though they can only be created during that time period).
A Blood Weapon automatically turns back into blood after its allotted time is up. The Blood Weapon becomes Masterwork at third level, and then gets an enhancement bonus at fifth level, which improves every three levels after that up to level 17. Blood Weapons cannot benefit from the effects of the same Feat twice (such as Weapon Focus).
Armour interferes with the creation of a weapon and prevents it. A shield counts as a Blood Weapon, aside from tower shields. A maximum of one weapon per free hand may be created at a time. Creating a Blood Weapon or two is done as part of a move action, though ammunition can be created as part of an attack action after the initial hit-point sacrifice.
A Blood Weapon is the same size as the Bloodsword, and it must be a weapon or shield that they are proficient in. A Blood Weapon can be either one- or two-handed.

Life and Death
Whenever a spell or ability would cause the Bloodsword to regain lost health, they only gain half as much, rounded up. This does not apply to potions, fast healing, regeneration or temporary hit points.
Spells that the Bloodsword casts through Life and Death cost a number of hit points equal to the spell's level +1.
At 1st level, the Bloodsword automatically stabilises when in negative hit points. In addition to that, they may cast Stabilise or Bleed a number of times per day equal to their Charisma modifier as a spell-like ability, as if they had a caster level equal to their Bloodsword level.
At 3rd level, a Bloodsword may cast Cure Light Wounds or Inflict Light Wounds, as if they were a Cleric with a Caster Level equal to their Bloodsword Level. They may do this three times plus their Charisma modifier a day. They may not heal themselves with this spell.
This ability becomes Cure/Inflict Moderate Wounds at level five, Cure/Inflict Serious Wounds at level seven, and Cure/Inflict Critical Wounds at level nine.
At 11th level, a Bloodsword may cast Mass Cure Light Wounds or Mass Inflict Light Wounds, as if they were a Cleric with a Caster Level equal to their Bloodsword Level. They may do this three times plus their Charisma modifier a day. They may not heal themselves with this spell.
This ability becomes Mass Cure/Inflict Moderate Wounds at level thirteen, Mass Cure/Inflict Serious Wounds at level fifteen, and Mass Cure/Inflict Critical Wounds at level seventeen.
At 19th level, a Bloodsword may cast Heal or Harm, as if they were a Cleric with a Caster Level equal to their Bloodsword Level. They may do this three times a day. They may not heal themselves with this spell.

Damage Reduction
A Bloodsword's body automatically toughens from the punishment that they give themselves. At first level, they gain DR 1/Magic. Every third level after this, the DR improves. At 10th level, the DR becomes /Cold Iron. At 20th level, this becomes DR 10/-.

Toughness
At 2nd level, a Bloodsword receives the Toughness Feat.

Hardened Body
At 2nd level, whenever a Bloodsword makes a Fortitude Save against a spell or ability that has a partial effect on a success and passes, they instead ignore all effects of that spell or ability.

Bloody Visage
At 3rd level, a Bloodsword gets a bonus to their Intimidate check equal to a third of the damage they have taken, rounded down, up to a maximum of their level in Bloodsword. This bonus lasts as long as the damage does.

Weapon Focus (Blood Weapon)
At 4th level, the Bloodsword receives the Weapon Focus Feat for Blood Weapons.

Weapon Specialisation (Blood Weapon)
At 6th level, the Bloodsword receives the Weapon Specialisation Feat for Blood Weapons. In addition, summoning Blood Weapons is now a swift action.

Blood Siphon
At 6th level, the Bloodsword receives the ability to cast Vampiric Touch as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to three plus their Charisma modifier as a spell-like ability, as if they had a caster level equal to their Bloodsword level. If the target is Bleeding (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Bleed), the spell does additional damage equal to the Bloodsword's character level (this damage is not added to the Bloodsword's health). This costs four hit points.

Bleeding Strike
At 8th level, when the Bloodsword rolls a Critical Threat using a Blood Weapon, the target takes Bleeding (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Bleed)damage equal to the weapon's critical multiplier during each of their turns, even if the Threat is not confirmed (the attack must still hit). A Heal check of DC 15 stops this.

Greater Weapon Focus (Blood Weapon)
At 9th level, the Bloodsword receives the Greater Weapon Focus Feat for Blood Weapons.

Recall Blood Weapon
At 10th level, a Bloodsword may return a Blood Weapon back to their body as part of a move action, regaining as many hit points that were used to make it as temporary hit points. This counts as a swift action. Unused ammunition returns half the hit points used to make them if there is more than half of the ammunition either unused or unbroken and nearby. All ammunition in that bundle is recalled at once.
In order to Recall a Blood Weapon, the Bloodsword must be able to sense their blood somehow, and be within sixty feet of it. There must be an unbroken path to the Bloodsword, though this path doesn't have to be straight. The path may not require the blood going more than sixty feet away from the Bloodsword en route. Broken ammunition cannot be recalled.

Infused Blood
At 11th level, the Bloodsword may apply any enchantment(s) to a weapon they create up to a +1 enhancement bonus. This must be chosen when they create the weapon. At 15th level this increases to +2, and at 20th level it increases to +3. This enhancement bonus makes the weapon cost more health to summon.

Hemalurgy
At 12th level, a Bloodsword no longer takes damage from Bleeding (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Bleed)effects. If the Bloodsword is poisoned, any weapon they create while being poisoned is treated as being poisoned in a similar manner. Bleed and Stabilise become swift actions.
In addition, whenever an enemy attempts to drain health from the Bloodsword and add it to their own, they instead take damage equal to the amount they would have otherwise gained. After that damage is calculated, the Bloodsword takes only half damage from that spell or spell-like ability.

Greater Toughness
At 12th level, the Bloodsword gains an extra hit point per level.

Improved Hardened Body
At 14th level, if the Bloodsword fails a Fortitude Save where there is an effect that is diminished on a pass, they are only affected by the partial result of that spell.

Improved Critical (Blood Weapon)
At 15th level, the Bloodsword receives the Improved Critical Feat for Blood Weapons.

Bloodsense
At 16th level, the Bloodsword is able to detect all blood within 30ft. This functions similarly to Blindsense, but only with regards to creatures with blood and ambient blood. At level 20, this improves to 120ft.

Critical Focus
At 17th level, the Bloodsword receives the Critical Focus Feat.

Traverse the Bloodline
At 18th level, a Bloodsword may travel from one patch of liquid blood (the amount required can be stored in a standard-size vial) belonging to a living being to the body of the original owner or one of their direct blood relations, provided all the links in-between are still alive. In this way, parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren are all viable, but not spouses or in-laws. The Bloodsword must make a Fortitude save equal to 10 plus the hit dice of the being they are travelling to, or fail and become fatigued. Either way, the blood is used up.
The Bloodsword may choose to exit violently or peacefully. If it is violently, then the being who the Bloodsword is exiting must make a Fortitude Save equal to 10 plus the Bloodsword's level plus their Charisma modifier, or take 6d6+6 untyped damage and become flat-footed.
This ability may be used three times a day. This ability does allow the user to travel across planar boundaries. Any onlookers to the display are Sickened on a failed Fort Save (DC 20), including the victim of the Traverse Bloodline ability but excluding the Bloodsword. This ability is a move action, and costs one hit point for each hit die of the owner of the blood.
A Bloodsword's blood cannot be used with this ability, even by another Bloodsword. Any blood used for this ability must have been harvested within a week of use.

Bleeding Critical
At 19th level, the Bloodsword receives the Bleeding Critical Feat.

Sanguine Mastery
At 20th level, a Bloodsword may summon or recall Blood Weapons as a free action. These weapons last for an hour. As a free action, a Bloodsword may cause a target within 60ft to start bleeding; they take 2d6 Bleeding (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Bleed) damage during each of their turns until a successful Heal check is made or the Bloodsword is unconscious or stops the effect. The DC for this is 15. The Stabilise and Bleed spells may be cast as a free action, and require neither verbal nor somatic components.
In addition to this, whenever a Bloodsword lands a critical hit, they gain temporary hit points equal to the damage dealt by that attack. These temporary hit points do not stack with any more that are granted by further criticals - only the largest number of temporary hit points are applied.

This is my first homebrew, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Wyrmhero
2013-09-17, 03:46 AM
Changelog

Version 1.0 - 16/9/13
Posted

Version 1.01 - 17/9/13
Posted Changelog.
Made some miscellaneous additions regarding the things I'm not sure about.
Added the reactions of other classes.
Edited the class features to clarify a few things.

Version 1.02 - 19/9/13
More clarifying edits

Version 1.03 - 19/9/13
Sigh. Yet more clarifying edits

Important Areas to PEACH:
I'm not sure about the Feats that I grant the class. They get quite a few which are either alright or decent Feats for a Fighter to take, so I'm not sure if it makes them sufficiently different. Also, the Critical Feats are a bit too late in my opinion, but I'm not sure where I would move them.
There's also a bit of a question over their Saves - I keep flitting over whether Reflex or Will should be Good. Both have their arguments. They fight without heavy armour, and Dex is important for them, but arguably this class should have a high Will score as well, since they're about sacrifice and the strength to make that sacrifice...
Getting Heal/Harm at level 19 is a bit questionable as well as it is currently - As it is currently, it shouldn't become broken with massive Charisma boosts, but should it be? It's 'only' a sixth level spell, after all. Should it replace Cure/Inflict Critical Wounds at level 19? And how about the Mass version? I think it's too strong to be given, but they're hardly going to break into Tier 2 with it, or anything.
Finally, a different name for Hardened Body would be appreciated. For that matter, if anyone can think of a better name for the class...

Jormengand
2013-09-20, 12:59 PM
What action does it take to create the blood weapon?

Sanguine Mastery presents problems - you may make as many people as you like bleed without using up any action?

Hardened Body and Improved Harden Body both do the same thing - I assume Improved Harden Body is meant to act like Improved Evasion?

You can have an utterly ridiculous intimidate by level 20 - you can easily get it over 50.

There is nothing to stop you creating a Colossal Greatsword out of your blood and dropping it on someone's face, nor is there anything to stop you making a great bombard out of your blood and producing 20 cannonballs for a relatively low HP cost - oh, and you're proficient with a cannon made out of your own blood.

"If the Bloodsword is poisoned, any weapon they create while being poisoned is treated as being poisoned in a similar manner." This is a nice touch, but it will be overlooked by most players and only really taken into account by people who want to abuse it.

Things making a Bloodsword bad (half healing, and you can't use one of the Bloodsword's other abilities on it) should be removed. Hit point costs are trivial beyond first-second level, and should be increased. The Blood weapon is awful when not abused, given that the average fighter is running around with a +8-equivalent weapon by level 20 and you're stuck with +3 (to give you an idea, if you look at my Mechanical Warrior, one of the forty things it can do by level 20 is make a +6 weapon with a 3d6 damage die).

DR/Cold Iron? Are you a demon now?

Bloodswords would be pretty nice healers if they could actually heal themselves. Given their inevitable charisma modifier of at least +10 if you want to build them like that, they're kicking out a number of high-level spells which is basically going to tell the wizard to go and sit in the corner.

What the hell is Blood Damage? Just make it untyped if you don't want people to be immune to it.



I apologise for the harsh criticism, but as written you can drop stupid numbers of greatswords of tremendous size on people at first level, spit out ridiculous amounts of healing to anything except you, and kill anything you like as a free action by level 20.

Wyrmhero
2013-09-20, 04:49 PM
What action does it take to create the blood weapon?

It's crafted as part of a move action, and it does say that in the text - It's just a bit hidden, I fear. It's meant to be analogous to drawing a weapon.


Hardened Body and Improved Harden Body both do the same thing - I assume Improved Harden Body is meant to act like Improved Evasion?

Yeah, sorry. I think I copied and pasted it but forgot to change it. My bad. :smallredface:


You can have an utterly ridiculous intimidate by level 20 - you can easily get it over 50.

The intimidate bonus is capped by your Bloodsword level, so you can get a maximum bonus from it of 20. I don't think that's massively overpowered, considering a Bard gets half-level to all Knowledge checks. Maybe cap it at 30 HP for half-Bloodsword level as a maximum?


There is nothing to stop you creating a Colossal Greatsword out of your blood and dropping it on someone's face, nor is there anything to stop you making a great bombard out of your blood and producing 20 cannonballs for a relatively low HP cost - oh, and you're proficient with a cannon made out of your own blood.

Yeah, my bad on the stupid weapons being able to be made. Does changing it to 'listed on the simple, martial or exotic weapon or ammunition table' work? And the idea that you can create over-large weapons was something I overlooked. The Bloodsword should be able to create weapons one size larger at fifth level, but no bigger. It was something I addressed later, so I forgot to specify it then.


"If the Bloodsword is poisoned, any weapon they create while being poisoned is treated as being poisoned in a similar manner." This is a nice touch, but it will be overlooked by most players and only really taken into account by people who want to abuse it.

Yeah, this idea was pretty much just a nice idea I had. It made perfect sense to me, since poison is carried by blood. I don't know whether it can be abused particularly, and while it's not massively important, it's just a bit of flavour.


Things making a Bloodsword bad (half healing, and you can't use one of the Bloodsword's other abilities on it) should be removed. Hit point costs are trivial beyond first-second level, and should be increased. The Blood weapon is awful when not abused, given that the average fighter is running around with a +8-equivalent weapon by level 20 and you're stuck with +3 (to give you an idea, if you look at my Mechanical Warrior, one of the forty things it can do by level 20 is make a +6 weapon with a 3d6 damage die).

Level 20 should give you a +8 equivalent weapon, with +5 being a bonus and the +3 to spend on magical abilities for the weapon, which puts it at the same as the Fighter. Or do you mean a Fighter going around with an effective +13 weapon, with +5 as a bonus and +8 for abilities?

Hit point costs, I would like suggestions how to scale that better, if you have any ideas. As for half-healing, it was a flavour thing, but if you think it's too much, I can remove it without any complaints on my part.


DR/Cold Iron? Are you a demon now?

I wasn't aware that DR/Cold Iron was specifically for demons. I thought Fey got it as well? Essentially, it was just a 'level up' of the DR, since Magic is a +1 weapon and Cold Iron is a +3 equivalent weapon.


Bloodswords would be pretty nice healers if they could actually heal themselves. Given their inevitable charisma modifier of at least +10 if you want to build them like that, they're kicking out a number of high-level spells which is basically going to tell the wizard to go and sit in the corner.

The idea that they couldn't heal themselves was because it takes a bit of HP to cast the spell, and it was perhaps counter-intuitive to make them hurt themselves to heal themselves, particularly when the theme is sacrifice.

I haven't played in a particularly high level game, so I admit that I may have misjudged their spell-like abilities. I didn't think it was particularly broken though, since it was 'just' healing/mass healing or harming, which, while effective, is not particularly versatile. The Bloodsword might be able to cast Mass Inflict Critical Wounds at level 17 a lot of times per day, but a Wizard has ninth level spells at that point.

Still, as I say, if it is indeed too powerful, I wouldn't be particularly aware of it. So what do you think should be done to kerb the ridiculous charisma modifier bonus spells?


What the hell is Blood Damage? Just make it untyped if you don't want people to be immune to it.


Sanguine Mastery presents problems - you may make as many people as you like bleed without using up any action?

I agree that I need to clarify blood damage. It was meant to be Bleeding (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Bleed)damage, which is a condition that a creature with blood can suffer in which you take damage each turn. Only the highest effect takes place, so you can't just say 'As a free action, you take 50x 2d6 damage during your turns'. Should blood damage be corrected to untyped damage, but can only be dealt to creatures with blood?


I apologise for the harsh criticism, but as written you can drop stupid numbers of greatswords of tremendous size on people at first level, spit out ridiculous amounts of healing to anything except you, and kill anything you like as a free action by level 20.

No, some parts are fair, since I haven't actually explained them properly in places by accidentally overlooking them. A few parts are perhaps based on more obscure rules than people usually use, which might explain your confusion over bleeding damage. I appreciate the help :smallsmile:

I shall make the clarification edits now, though I'll leave the other parts alone for now.

ArcturusV
2013-09-24, 12:54 AM
Nitpicky perhaps, but I'm not familiar with PF so that' left me in kind of a lurch as far as knowing how things work and what's a generally "Acceptable" power level for Warrior-Caster Hybrids.

But I promised a return, so here I am.

Blood weapons: This is an odd question, but it came up as I was reading it. Does this mean that you cannot create a two handed weapon with this ability? It seems like you might have been intending that it can only make one handed weapons/shields without actually stating it.

DR and Demonhood:

As odd as this MAY sound... I"m wondering if DR is really the right way to go. Have you considered possibly energy resistances instead? I mention this because... the point of the Bloodsword is to bleed himself, a lot. That doesn't strike me as "tough". In fact being able to bleed himself FASTER at higher levels, and for more and greater effects seems to suggest he'd be easier to wound. However the fact that his blood is magic, and used to working with magic, and magic flowing through it... might mean he's harder to effect by spells. You might use SR instead I suppose. Though I never much cared for SR. Either it is trivially easy to bypass (5+HD sorts, so any caster that's a threat to you pretty much automatically passes), or enemies have an Autowin against SR anyway (Spells not effected by it). Tying in with his resistance against Healing magics it just kinda makes sense to me to go in that direction.

Bloody Visage:

A clarification on how it works. Do you mean a bonus equal to 1/3 the difference between their Max HP and Current HP (As in if you started a fight with 3/9 HP you'd have a +2 bonus right out of the gate), or is this a per round deal like "I just took 13 damage that round all totaled, my next turn I get a +4 to Intimidate"?

Bleeding Strike:

Unless PF works differently... this could lead to an odd occurance by the way it's written on triggering on a Threat, but not a Confirmation. That being that it'd be possible (With the rule set i"m familiar with) to trigger a threat, still miss entirely (e.g: If you rolled a 19 on a 19-20 threat, it's not an auto hit), but cause the target to bleed. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

Infused Blood:

I kind of feel that this ability comes a bit too late. At level 11 a +1 Equivalent Enchantment probably isn't that good. At least compared to what I know. A lot of them at +1 are situational, niche, and better off at lower levels. Not to mention it capping off at +3 means you're losing out on some really decent enhancements out there. Potentially. Still, system not known so I might be off base here.

Traverse the Bloodline:

Usually for an effect like the sickened you'd see a lower Save DC on it probably fixed. That'd make sense to me as it sounds like the Sickened is just from a "Ew, that's gross" visual rather than from any sort of supernatural attack in and of itself. So I'd almost put a fixed DC on it like 15-20.

That said, the ability is still pretty damned powerful. Unlimited range, etc. While the "blood bond" family is thematic it opens up kind of weird questions. Like can you use the blood of say, a brother of a bloodsword (Or your own)? What happens with Half-Kin (My mother's other son from a different father)? How thin can the connection be before it's no longer considered of the same bloodline? For example, your cousin's son (Thus your blood to your father, to his sister's, to her kid's, to that child's kid)?

It's just one of those abilities that I imagine will probably involve a lot of Question and Answer sessions at the table. Plus potential DM screw as say... you used your brother's blood to fall back to your "safe house" and your DM tells you that your Brother actually was captured by the bad guys and you just jumped into the heart of a huge ambush.


Sadly I can't be too much more help, just no system mastery to work off of. But I hope you appreciated. I didn't mean to tear anything down, but just point out things that leaped up to me.

Wyrmhero
2013-09-24, 04:36 AM
Blood weapons: This is an odd question, but it came up as I was reading it. Does this mean that you cannot create a two handed weapon with this ability? It seems like you might have been intending that it can only make one handed weapons/shields without actually stating it.

No, two-handed weapons are possible as well. Sigh. I'm really bad at writing these abilities, aren't I? :smalltongue:


As odd as this MAY sound... I"m wondering if DR is really the right way to go. Have you considered possibly energy resistances instead? I mention this because... the point of the Bloodsword is to bleed himself, a lot. That doesn't strike me as "tough". In fact being able to bleed himself FASTER at higher levels, and for more and greater effects seems to suggest he'd be easier to wound. However the fact that his blood is magic, and used to working with magic, and magic flowing through it... might mean he's harder to effect by spells. You might use SR instead I suppose. Though I never much cared for SR. Either it is trivially easy to bypass (5+HD sorts, so any caster that's a threat to you pretty much automatically passes), or enemies have an Autowin against SR anyway (Spells not effected by it). Tying in with his resistance against Healing magics it just kinda makes sense to me to go in that direction.

I could do SR instead of DR, but it means that you end up with a potential melee character who is incredibly easy to hit and deal damage, while I've been trying to prevent the latter. I suppose if I removed DR for SR, I could then allow Light Armour instead... Thoughts?

Also, thematically the DR is actually bypassed by their athame (see the money they start out with :smalltongue:), but I can see why it might be a bit strange. The idea was making a larger sacrifice for a bigger effect, but yes it would be strange.


A clarification on how it works. Do you mean a bonus equal to 1/3 the difference between their Max HP and Current HP (As in if you started a fight with 3/9 HP you'd have a +2 bonus right out of the gate), or is this a per round deal like "I just took 13 damage that round all totaled, my next turn I get a +4 to Intimidate"?

It's not for the next turn, it's whenever you have taken damage. And yes, the bonus is equal to 1/3rd the difference between max and current HP, so if you had 100 HP at level 10, and lost 30, you would get +10 to Intimidate until you were healed (since 10 is the limit at level 10, it wouldn't increase if you were hurt again).


Unless PF works differently... this could lead to an odd occurance by the way it's written on triggering on a Threat, but not a Confirmation. That being that it'd be possible (With the rule set i"m familiar with) to trigger a threat, still miss entirely (e.g: If you rolled a 19 on a 19-20 threat, it's not an auto hit), but cause the target to bleed. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

Actually no, it's another obscure rule that barely ever comes up, but in Pathfinder if you roll an attack which misses, then it can never be a critical threat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Critical-Hits). Will add that in clarification.


I kind of feel that this ability comes a bit too late. At level 11 a +1 Equivalent Enchantment probably isn't that good. At least compared to what I know. A lot of them at +1 are situational, niche, and better off at lower levels. Not to mention it capping off at +3 means you're losing out on some really decent enhancements out there. Potentially. Still, system not known so I might be off base here.

What sort of thing might you suggest then? Perhaps I could use the Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife)progression rate? (though I would like it to go up to +10 instead of +9, if anything)


Usually for an effect like the sickened you'd see a lower Save DC on it probably fixed. That'd make sense to me as it sounds like the Sickened is just from a "Ew, that's gross" visual rather than from any sort of supernatural attack in and of itself. So I'd almost put a fixed DC on it like 15-20.

Ah right, okay. I'm not too clued up on statuses like that, since I haven't encountered them as they're played in-game.


That said, the ability is still pretty damned powerful. Unlimited range, etc. While the "blood bond" family is thematic it opens up kind of weird questions. Like can you use the blood of say, a brother of a bloodsword (Or your own)? What happens with Half-Kin (My mother's other son from a different father)? How thin can the connection be before it's no longer considered of the same bloodline? For example, your cousin's son (Thus your blood to your father, to his sister's, to her kid's, to that child's kid)?

The ability states that you can't use your own blood, or the blood of any other Bloodsword for that matter. It works for direct antescendants and descendants, but I haven't decided about siblings, through parents. I'm not sure. Thoughts on that?


It's just one of those abilities that I imagine will probably involve a lot of Question and Answer sessions at the table. Plus potential DM screw as say... you used your brother's blood to fall back to your "safe house" and your DM tells you that your Brother actually was captured by the bad guys and you just jumped into the heart of a huge ambush.

Frankly, if your DM screws you over like that, then potentially misunderstanding this ability is the least of your problems, in my opinion. That is just pure Diabolous Ex Machina, if it's not built up in any way. Having said that, you should definitely inform the DM of whose blood you have if you intend to make a quick getaway (note that it would just be yourself escaping via this method). I've also added a limit to the freshness of the blood.


Sadly I can't be too much more help, just no system mastery to work off of. But I hope you appreciated. I didn't mean to tear anything down, but just point out things that leaped up to me.

No no, it's all good. Need to get these things sorted, after all :smallsmile: