SangoProduction
2021-12-11, 12:14 PM
Preamble: I’m now opened up to access higher opportunities. I still need to feel like I’m being productive, so here I am, back to my Spheres in Review series. This class was put on the back burner while I did my “real job.” So let’s get into it!
Google Docs Link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/196mzt7OhroQ0xCafbLR4VHA7Vj_6QapgobWknCdgCb4/edit?usp=sharing)
Post-Review Analysis:
Well… I came into this expecting a really cool class. I was super excited about it some months ago. Even got me to re-review the Blood sphere. But damn. This is garbage. It’s got no implicit synergy between Duelist or Blood sphere.
I don’t think it’s unsalvageable though. It was simply trying to pull itself in too many directions. With some refinement of what it’s actually meant to be doing it could be a really fun class.
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds.
(M) Meh: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(u) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
(G-S): Powerful talents that are almost, but not quite, universally useful or desirable.
(M-G): These are pretty reasonable talents of mediocre strength.
(N-M): It technically has a use, but the cost simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
Class Features
Note: The ratings of the Class Features here are supposed to indicate how readily you would trade it out through an archetype.
Casting (N-M)
Low Caster. Not good. At least not in general. But at least it’s a martial with a splash of casting rather than a caster that has a hard time casting.
Blended Training (G-S)
1 talent each level, and from their choice of any sphere? Amazing. Granted, probably going to be from a select few spheres, given the class theme, but any choice.
Bloodletting (N)
[Class level] bleed damage as a rider effect… eh? Not particularly noteworthy. But that’s not the actual bleed damage. That’s the cap on the damage. Yeah… You actually need to get high Charisma to minimize the number of successful hits you need to hit that maximum.
The true noteworthy part is that once you hit maximum, they are “exsanguinated,” which activates other class features. But… it’s harder to exsanguinate at level 3 than at level 2, because of this feature. So this is just horribly designed.
Hemomancy (N, F)
Blood sphere. ‘Nough said. But…fine. It’s part of the theme of the class.
Vitae (u)
Will go over in its own section. Much like the Striker, you can build up a resource and then expend it.
Autocautery (G, F)
Awesome. Flavorful. Rarely of incredible use, outside of just stopping your own Blood sphere’s blood arts from giving you blood loss. And I do believe this does open up infinite healing cheese… as though there’s not enough healing already in the Life sphere.
Burst (N-M)
Bleeding happens at the start of the turn, so we can safely ignore the bleeding portion for a bit. Effectively, it’s a move (or swift for 2 vitae) action for 1d8 damage. That’s… pretty bad. But it doesn’t have to be. If you have a non-stacking bleed effective of notable damage on them at the start of your turn, then you can Burst it, then apply it again. Or… try to apply it. You could miss. And any bleed dice are minimized.
It probably has to be bad. But there’s a modicum of a chance. Which is probably why it is quite so bad.
Bloodthirst (N)
Scent… Is not fantastic even normally. But it allows you to be preternaturally aware of things approaching you. Sometimes even track things when that’s relevant. Except this scent doesn’t even do that. You just get to smell bleeding creatures. Which… is fine if you’re trying to track down someone whom you let get away. I guess. And hey, it lets you know the general area of where an invisible dude is, if you poke him with a stick… which required knowing… ok. Anyway.
Crimson Path (u)
Given its own section
Hemolytic Arts (u)
Basically the “customization” class feature, except you get it every 3 rather than 2 levels. Given its own section
Voracity (N)
Wow. I did not come into this looking to dunk on a fun-seeming class, but they really are not giving me a lot to work with. It’s fine. You won’t complain about getting an extra 1d6 damage at the start of a fight. But you’d also happily trade it away for just about anything.
Blood Identification (N)
Even their highly specific use case of identifying blood… only works within 24 hours of the blood being spilled. Like, OK. Blood goes bad. I get it. But man, that just feels bad.
Empowered Hemomancy (N)
Oh wow. Took until level 5 to get full caster on its specialized sphere? Most classes get it immediately. But sure, take the win. You need it.
Oh, no. This is conditional, as Artistic Hemomancy made me notice. I really wanted… sigh.
Decimation (G-S)
I was really jaded by this point, and when it said “a single overwhelming attack,” and then required a martial focus and special attack action… I was expecting to rate it a hard N. But no. It’s actually really quite a good finisher. 2d4 damage / level is Good. Ignoring all resistances is nice. And adding Charisma to hit is just the cherry on top (but only if exsanguinated).
And you can regain martial focus if you slay them. But if you fail to do so… you can’t use this for another minute…
Improved Blood Control (G)
An extra -2 to their saves against blood sphere (when below max hp). Really not bad. Granted, it is the blood sphere, and the Mind sphere equivalent gets this at level 1, not level 7. And is unconditional. But lower concentration action… which you probably took the boon to get, if you planned… know what? Just call it a win.
Eternal Body (F)
Nice. Not only immune to aging, but can choose to be whatever age- … Know what? Not even going to go into that. Japan can keep their creep bait.
Eat Pain (N)
….OK, spend 1/4 of your HP to gain 2 vitae? So 1/2 of your HP just to maintain your blood control as a swift action for a single round? That seems really bloody shoddy.
Generation
Bloodletting (G): Basically a passive +1 vitae per turn, so long as you don’t miss
Relish (M): Very situational, but if you can get it to happen, +2 vitae is nice
Absorb Burst (N-M): Well, +1 vitae in exchange for ending your bleeds… I guess
Voracity (G): An extra +1 if you gain vitae and were on 0
Thrilling Bloodshed (M-G): Exsanguination = 1 vitae
Bound by Blood (C): Can’t cheese with self-binding, but sure. Basically fill to max out of combat. Except you can’t gain vitae out of combat. So just slap each other every minute or so.
Spenders
Metabolize (G): A nice set of healing, and potentially remove gold standard debuffs.
Staunch (N-M, F): Like seriously, who uses bleeding? When will this ever be useful? Why not just heal them? But it makes sense for the class.
Empower (M): +1 CL is objectively good. But it’s a low casting class. And it costs 5 vitae If you simply dipped one level into this, it would just barely make up for the CL you lost. For gestalt though? Not super useful.
Focus (G): Unconditional swift action martial focus for just 2 points of vitae. Good.
Talented Vitality (M, F): Makes thematic sense. Not incredibly useful. Except for +2 to Perception checks. Which is still meh. Even if it were passive, and innately allowed out of combat.
Hunter’s Spirit (F): “Ooo 10x move speed? That’s useless but fun.” “Oh, only to chase down a bleeding enemy… Well nevermind.”
Cerebral Severance (S)
Requires level 15, but… mental attribute bleed can quickly end a fight.
Humeral Severance (S)
Severely punishes NA spammers, and most non-SoM martial types. OK, “severely” may be severely overstating it. But against those targets, this gets them exsanguinated really quickly, and makes their attack rolls a bit worse.
Blood Rain (G-S)
Unfortunately requires level 9, but actually pretty good. A pseudo-friendly fog that also applies 1 point of bleed to every enemy for class level rounds. Probably not up to snuff for the level. But whatever.
Wetted Blade (G-S, F)
This is the most Anime-BS thing they have, and I am all here for it. They are severely missing this. Level 9 requirement though. Also I wished it originated from her target rather than her. That effectively nullifies reach. But anyway, I love the thematics of the ability.
Unstoppable Bloodletting (G-S)
This Art works double time, and is more generalistic (if I remember correctly) than any particular talent, to enable bleeding.
Femoral Severance ( [G-S] )
It’s appealing in basically one situation: Your team has the ability to force their movement. Such as via Bull Rush. If you’ve got a bull rush specialist (who actually moves them rather than shoving them into a wall… because reasons…), then this makes exsanguinating really easy.
Globen (G-S)
Quite a powerful, wide-ranging AoE that deals up to 10*Class level damage. What’s keeping it out of S tier is that it’s an unfriendly AoE (it hits allies), and is delayed at least 2 rounds. But really that’s fine because you can just spend a vitae and swift action to immediately ignite it.
Hemorrhage (G)
If Pathfinder were a competitive game, this would go straight up to S tier, because it’s giving the enemy something to think about and consider: Do you take damage, or do you take your full set of actions? As is, it’s fine. Probably doubles your bloodletting damage.
Second Heart (G)
Basically a “They have to make sure you’re dead” ability. Which is functional immortality in 99% of campaigns. Even from many of the high level one-shot abilities like Finger of Death.
Rivers of Blood (G)
Doubles the bleed limit, and potentially double bloodletting bleed? Seems pretty good.
Torrential Bleeds (G)
Unironically takes a really mediocre effect and makes it quite alright.
Empowerment (G, F)
I actually, unironically like this. It’s minor, but you’ve got a lot of minor things here that can be done as a swift action. And it fits with having control over their own body.
Explosive Tempo (M-G)
I really like the idea. Very thematic. And it’s a nice-sized friendly AoE. But it’s pretty heavily delayed. And it took your standard action, and 3 vitae. And offers no team play, as it only cares about specifically her bloodletting to proc it. But still.
Gushing Wounds (M)
Basically you have your bleeding enemies create pseudo difficult terrain, which you can spend vitae to also make it real difficult terrain, reducing the safe speed to 1/4.
But I’m having difficulty figuring out why one would care.
Blood Pool (M)
You’d… You’d think that this would be a really potent defensive tool. Like a Vladimir pool. But no. It’s a utility form. Why’s this restricted to level 6? Who knows.
Internal Burst (M)
Probably severely overrating this, because I just feel that burst is almost bad to use at all… But if you were to say it as “Spend a move action to deal 1d8 damage and sicken for a round,” that really doesn’t sound that bad. In fact it would sound quite reasonable. If only it didn’t remove your dang bleed!
Vitality (M)
Basically toughness. Except that this requires hit point damage to threaten to kill you, and then it kicks in, potentially letting you become conscious again. Oh and it disables your vitae for an hour. And can only activate once per 24 hours. Oh, level 9 requirement too. Because reasons.
Bonding Bloods (M)
I mean. It is basically a quickened spell that uses vitae instead. But… eh. You’re ending the bleed effect to do this, which removes the one bit of synergy Duelist and Blood have. Plus Blood Control is just… generally bad.
Exsanguination (M)
Free action Burst. I mean, yes. It is just free 1d8 damage. Which cost your vitae. And denies exsanguinated synergy with other features. And doesn’t even wait until they take their dang bleed damage first. But yes, it is a free 1d8 damage.
Hungry Blade (N-M)
I really just don’t see a reason to use this. It’s edging towards N, with it being actively negative to use. But not quite.
Drawn to Me (N-M)
“Meh,” was the only thing I could think when reading this. Also I would definitely make this an “option” for the Burst, rather than changing the base functionality on taking it, because it’s not a universal upgrade.
Master Their Weakness (N-M)
A conditional +2 DC to all spell effects is fine… except that Crimson Dancer is a bloody low caster! This instantly shoots up to G if dipped into. S if dipped into with Gestalt.
Throbbing Heart (N)
You know Die Hard? That feat that no one takes? This is a very slightly upgraded version of that. You don’t need it. You’ve already got Second Heart.
Artistic Hemomancy / Crimson Armaments (u)
Honestly? My opinion? I would make full CL blood sphere just innate to the class. No conditions, no resources. Just innate. I think this is the only specialized class that doesn’t do that. The vitae loss deal is neat.
Regenerative Burst / Omnidirection Burst (u)
I just can’t care about Burst stuff. Just stop.
Paths of the Crimson Dancer
Overall: Seems neat. Makes burst not quite so bad.
Initiation (M-G)
OK, I’ve been harping on about the Burst ability for a while now. Simply because it seems to go against the flow of the class… But now, is 1d8 + 1d8 / 3 levels as a move action good? If that were in a vacuum, I would say yes.
Understanding (G, F)
Now it shifts the focus of Burst from being a part of your rotation to being an execute. As in you want to ramp your damage as high as possible until you know that you would kill them, and then have it splash… to one other creature. Still. Neat.
The execute focus doesn’t fit well with the rest of what Burst is. But I mean, if you simply use it as the occasional LoS cleave for 1d8+1d8/3 levels… I mean. It’s occasionally useful.
Revelation (G-S)
OK, OK. As an immediate action, mark the target to effectively have them be exsanguinated for 1 minute for the purposes of your abilities, including Burst’s damage. That’s pretty nice.
Secret of Blood (F)
Pure fluff, basically.
Secret of Heart (G)
Free +6 to all stats, and up to +30 to all movement? What’s the catch? Well, you’ve got to execute targets with bigger stats than you. But they stay for 24 hours.
Secret of the Soul (M-G)
It’s a “Hey, you didn’t quite get the execute. Here’s a second chance at killing them” ability. It might save your decimate from ruining you for an hour.
Realization (G)
LoS, friendly AoE that also marks everyone. Once per day. After executing with a burst. As a capstone? Sure why not.
Overall: Better mobility than Scarlet Dancer, for self and team, all compressed into a single Understanding. The rest is relatively unimpressive even if you could take it as a non-Crimson Tempest. But not bad.
Initiation (M-G)
Let’s just say you can’t cheese it with ammunition-priced throwing weapons. It’s alright. You get magic enchants on your pseudo-weapon. No discount, but most pseudo-weapons don’t get any enchants. And this is available basically as soon as magic weapons are.
Understanding (G)
Mobility is really not a big deal. But boy is this a substantial amount of on demand movement, and it can work for allies as well. Basically eliminates the Climb and Acrobatics skills for the party. So it’s also a nice exploratory utility as well. Oh, and gets dying allies well out of danger.
Revelation (N-M)
Eh. Very slight battlefield control. Very slight.
Secret of Blood (G)
The writing of the ability is not the clearest. But removing someone’s move action, and dealing attack damage on a fort save, all as a non-action is nice. If that’s how one is to interpret it.
Secret of Heart (F)
You definitely already had Borne Aloft. And its duration is unlikely to have been an issue for you. So it’s basically just a free talent and the fluff that you don’t even need to have strong gusts of wind to lift you up.
Secret of Soul (M)
Eh.
Realization (G-S)
Maximizes the potential of your pseudo-weapon and gives instant synergy for your wind shrouds. That’s… nice. I feel this is worthy of its status of being a capstone.
Overall: I am unimpressed by it and its focus on mobility.
Initiation (G)
Makes it less obnoxious to exsanguinate your targets as you get into higher levels.
Understanding (M-G)
On exsanguination, reach out and hit someone else as a free action.
Revelation (M)
Free movement, I guess
Secret of Blood (G, F)
Getting to dance around to non-exsanguinated targets through teleportation is fun. But that’s strange. Only able to teleport to non-exsanguinated creatures. It does have some anti-synergy with the idea of being able to exsanguinate easier. But also… it’s a DoT. Once you max it out, you want to go to someone else. So I guess this works.
Secret of Heart (M)
If it weren’t for the fact that you can literally teleport… well, this would still be fairly mediocre. But Freedom of Movement for one round is neat.
Secret of Soul (N-M)
Nice anime-BS of getting to pass through and attack a 60-ft line of enemies. With potentially multiple lines of dashes. But only hits each creature once. And only once per day. Which is pretty lame.
Realization (M)
Huh… Why is this a capstone? Eh. Whatever.
Initiation (F)
Tiny bit of DR. But it stacks with other sources. Requires constant vitae upkeep.
Understanding (F)
Eh…? Basically a more gruesome version of Speak with Dead.
Revelation (N, F)
Makes it harder to nonmagically get rid of the rot. Guess the intention was that Rot didn’t immediately defeat regeneration, despite regeneration being natural healing. So reading this actually nerfs your character.
Secret of Blood (S)
Save or be stunned for 1d4+1 rounds. And if bloodcrazed, also makes a will save to fall under their control for the duration. If they fail the will save, the fort save doesn’t matter. But one way or the other, it’s an attack roll to force 2 saves to completely take out an enemy for 1d4+1 rounds. That’s really good.
Just… wait until level 13 to get anything good from this archetype.
Secret of Heart (G)
Spell Resistance. Neat. And gains vitae when resisting said spells.
Secret of Soul (M)
Also has Consumption take a nail bat to the target’s spell casting. Which… I mean, you could have just stunned them, and tried to control them instead, for half the vitae cost. But in a vacuum, this is cool. Not level 19 cool. But still cool.
Realization (N)
OK. I actually hate this. A highly situational “healing hate” ability should not be a capstone. If anything, they could have made this the initiation ability and instead made the healing to remove Rot scale all throughout the class levels. Because without this the healing hate is barely even a thing.
Archetypes
Briefly: This may seem like a really random archetype, but there are several potential inspirations, such as the Japanese kamaitachi. So it actually does have a reason to be.
Overall: Crimson Tempest seems to be benefiting from being “Better than base” rather than being strictly good on its own terms. Which is just strange. If it were its own class, the ratings would be much harsher.
Bloodied Whirlwind (G)
Gain weather sphere instead of blood sphere. Strict upgrade. Especially as your caster level only matters in so far as getting really potent weather, and maybe adding a few more hours to your mantles. I would just ignore shrouds, honestly.
Crackling Waves (G)
Clear skies is an objectively good mantle. The bonus for wind resistance doesn’t really matter. But hey, you’re not hurting yourself with the encouraged tactic.
Beating Winds (M)
Makes bloodletting objectively worse most of the time. But now you can use it from range... Why did this need a vulnerability to DR?
Airy Vitae (G)
Trades out incredibly mediocre vitae abilities… with also mediocre, but better abilities. Except that you are really encouraged to have Wind going for Blade Current. Which does make it a lot better, and almost like purely free vitae.
Blade Current (M)
Oh. Interesting. Well, at severity 5 (which takes 4 rounds of concentration), you would have 2d6 damage wind blades. Which is decidedly unimpressive given the effort.
I am less impressed by this in a vacuum, as much as the seemingly clear intentions for you to just be flying around and untouchably attacking people from afar, with the only counter being no-attack targeted spells.
Hurricane’s Path (N)
Well, if you had to pay a cost anywhere, it was going to have to be in the one good ability of the base class. Still decent.
Overall: Wow this is a blood mess. You did not have a high bar to pass with an archetype of the Crimson Dancer, but you managed to not even pass that.
Bared Fangs, Empty Soul (M)
I think 1d8 is the largest base bite damage you can achieve as a medium creature. So that’s pretty useful. Spending a natural attack to add +1 average damage by bumping it up to 1d10 is not the best trade I’ve ever seen. But it’s cool, and can continue to be scaled. And it only replaces Autocautery.
You have to note however, that most SoM is incompatible with natural attack spam, or even multiple weapons in general, save for perhaps the Dual Wielding sphere, so this is not ranking against natural attacks, it’s ranking against Great Sword, and 1d10 is 2 average damage less than 2d6. Which isn’t a huge failing. But it is one.
Blood Drain (<G-S>, F)
Defeats regeneration and fast healing, which is really quite a killer in the right campaign. Might even be worth a dip. It also acts as a healing sink. Although it’s still really quite minor. +10 damage, and then 10 points of healing sink by level 10 is… eh. Oh, and you get a very slight health drain.
And really, you’re probably not going to have 30 Charisma by level 10. Without going through Sage - and if you did level Sage, you don’t get the Rot point cap.
Consumptive Vitae (G-S)
Consume is twice as good as bloodletting. Devour… probably as good as relish. And Drain is just free, which is substantially better than voracity.
Gluttony (M, F)
Doubling almost nothing is still almost nothing. But it’s neat.
Consumption (N)
Losing the Scarlet Dancer’s big execute, and exchanging it for a really shoddy strength and charisma penalty is a really big cost. You gain a tiny morale bonus to your stats on execute, I suppose. But… eh?
The Forgotten Path (N--)
You are forced into the Path of the Lost Ravager. There’s a reason the path was forgotten.
Google Docs Link (https://docs.google.com/document/d/196mzt7OhroQ0xCafbLR4VHA7Vj_6QapgobWknCdgCb4/edit?usp=sharing)
Post-Review Analysis:
Well… I came into this expecting a really cool class. I was super excited about it some months ago. Even got me to re-review the Blood sphere. But damn. This is garbage. It’s got no implicit synergy between Duelist or Blood sphere.
I don’t think it’s unsalvageable though. It was simply trying to pull itself in too many directions. With some refinement of what it’s actually meant to be doing it could be a really fun class.
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds.
(M) Meh: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) Never: There’s no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign you’re playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.
Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(u) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or it’s far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.
(G-S): Powerful talents that are almost, but not quite, universally useful or desirable.
(M-G): These are pretty reasonable talents of mediocre strength.
(N-M): It technically has a use, but the cost simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
Class Features
Note: The ratings of the Class Features here are supposed to indicate how readily you would trade it out through an archetype.
Casting (N-M)
Low Caster. Not good. At least not in general. But at least it’s a martial with a splash of casting rather than a caster that has a hard time casting.
Blended Training (G-S)
1 talent each level, and from their choice of any sphere? Amazing. Granted, probably going to be from a select few spheres, given the class theme, but any choice.
Bloodletting (N)
[Class level] bleed damage as a rider effect… eh? Not particularly noteworthy. But that’s not the actual bleed damage. That’s the cap on the damage. Yeah… You actually need to get high Charisma to minimize the number of successful hits you need to hit that maximum.
The true noteworthy part is that once you hit maximum, they are “exsanguinated,” which activates other class features. But… it’s harder to exsanguinate at level 3 than at level 2, because of this feature. So this is just horribly designed.
Hemomancy (N, F)
Blood sphere. ‘Nough said. But…fine. It’s part of the theme of the class.
Vitae (u)
Will go over in its own section. Much like the Striker, you can build up a resource and then expend it.
Autocautery (G, F)
Awesome. Flavorful. Rarely of incredible use, outside of just stopping your own Blood sphere’s blood arts from giving you blood loss. And I do believe this does open up infinite healing cheese… as though there’s not enough healing already in the Life sphere.
Burst (N-M)
Bleeding happens at the start of the turn, so we can safely ignore the bleeding portion for a bit. Effectively, it’s a move (or swift for 2 vitae) action for 1d8 damage. That’s… pretty bad. But it doesn’t have to be. If you have a non-stacking bleed effective of notable damage on them at the start of your turn, then you can Burst it, then apply it again. Or… try to apply it. You could miss. And any bleed dice are minimized.
It probably has to be bad. But there’s a modicum of a chance. Which is probably why it is quite so bad.
Bloodthirst (N)
Scent… Is not fantastic even normally. But it allows you to be preternaturally aware of things approaching you. Sometimes even track things when that’s relevant. Except this scent doesn’t even do that. You just get to smell bleeding creatures. Which… is fine if you’re trying to track down someone whom you let get away. I guess. And hey, it lets you know the general area of where an invisible dude is, if you poke him with a stick… which required knowing… ok. Anyway.
Crimson Path (u)
Given its own section
Hemolytic Arts (u)
Basically the “customization” class feature, except you get it every 3 rather than 2 levels. Given its own section
Voracity (N)
Wow. I did not come into this looking to dunk on a fun-seeming class, but they really are not giving me a lot to work with. It’s fine. You won’t complain about getting an extra 1d6 damage at the start of a fight. But you’d also happily trade it away for just about anything.
Blood Identification (N)
Even their highly specific use case of identifying blood… only works within 24 hours of the blood being spilled. Like, OK. Blood goes bad. I get it. But man, that just feels bad.
Empowered Hemomancy (N)
Oh wow. Took until level 5 to get full caster on its specialized sphere? Most classes get it immediately. But sure, take the win. You need it.
Oh, no. This is conditional, as Artistic Hemomancy made me notice. I really wanted… sigh.
Decimation (G-S)
I was really jaded by this point, and when it said “a single overwhelming attack,” and then required a martial focus and special attack action… I was expecting to rate it a hard N. But no. It’s actually really quite a good finisher. 2d4 damage / level is Good. Ignoring all resistances is nice. And adding Charisma to hit is just the cherry on top (but only if exsanguinated).
And you can regain martial focus if you slay them. But if you fail to do so… you can’t use this for another minute…
Improved Blood Control (G)
An extra -2 to their saves against blood sphere (when below max hp). Really not bad. Granted, it is the blood sphere, and the Mind sphere equivalent gets this at level 1, not level 7. And is unconditional. But lower concentration action… which you probably took the boon to get, if you planned… know what? Just call it a win.
Eternal Body (F)
Nice. Not only immune to aging, but can choose to be whatever age- … Know what? Not even going to go into that. Japan can keep their creep bait.
Eat Pain (N)
….OK, spend 1/4 of your HP to gain 2 vitae? So 1/2 of your HP just to maintain your blood control as a swift action for a single round? That seems really bloody shoddy.
Generation
Bloodletting (G): Basically a passive +1 vitae per turn, so long as you don’t miss
Relish (M): Very situational, but if you can get it to happen, +2 vitae is nice
Absorb Burst (N-M): Well, +1 vitae in exchange for ending your bleeds… I guess
Voracity (G): An extra +1 if you gain vitae and were on 0
Thrilling Bloodshed (M-G): Exsanguination = 1 vitae
Bound by Blood (C): Can’t cheese with self-binding, but sure. Basically fill to max out of combat. Except you can’t gain vitae out of combat. So just slap each other every minute or so.
Spenders
Metabolize (G): A nice set of healing, and potentially remove gold standard debuffs.
Staunch (N-M, F): Like seriously, who uses bleeding? When will this ever be useful? Why not just heal them? But it makes sense for the class.
Empower (M): +1 CL is objectively good. But it’s a low casting class. And it costs 5 vitae If you simply dipped one level into this, it would just barely make up for the CL you lost. For gestalt though? Not super useful.
Focus (G): Unconditional swift action martial focus for just 2 points of vitae. Good.
Talented Vitality (M, F): Makes thematic sense. Not incredibly useful. Except for +2 to Perception checks. Which is still meh. Even if it were passive, and innately allowed out of combat.
Hunter’s Spirit (F): “Ooo 10x move speed? That’s useless but fun.” “Oh, only to chase down a bleeding enemy… Well nevermind.”
Cerebral Severance (S)
Requires level 15, but… mental attribute bleed can quickly end a fight.
Humeral Severance (S)
Severely punishes NA spammers, and most non-SoM martial types. OK, “severely” may be severely overstating it. But against those targets, this gets them exsanguinated really quickly, and makes their attack rolls a bit worse.
Blood Rain (G-S)
Unfortunately requires level 9, but actually pretty good. A pseudo-friendly fog that also applies 1 point of bleed to every enemy for class level rounds. Probably not up to snuff for the level. But whatever.
Wetted Blade (G-S, F)
This is the most Anime-BS thing they have, and I am all here for it. They are severely missing this. Level 9 requirement though. Also I wished it originated from her target rather than her. That effectively nullifies reach. But anyway, I love the thematics of the ability.
Unstoppable Bloodletting (G-S)
This Art works double time, and is more generalistic (if I remember correctly) than any particular talent, to enable bleeding.
Femoral Severance ( [G-S] )
It’s appealing in basically one situation: Your team has the ability to force their movement. Such as via Bull Rush. If you’ve got a bull rush specialist (who actually moves them rather than shoving them into a wall… because reasons…), then this makes exsanguinating really easy.
Globen (G-S)
Quite a powerful, wide-ranging AoE that deals up to 10*Class level damage. What’s keeping it out of S tier is that it’s an unfriendly AoE (it hits allies), and is delayed at least 2 rounds. But really that’s fine because you can just spend a vitae and swift action to immediately ignite it.
Hemorrhage (G)
If Pathfinder were a competitive game, this would go straight up to S tier, because it’s giving the enemy something to think about and consider: Do you take damage, or do you take your full set of actions? As is, it’s fine. Probably doubles your bloodletting damage.
Second Heart (G)
Basically a “They have to make sure you’re dead” ability. Which is functional immortality in 99% of campaigns. Even from many of the high level one-shot abilities like Finger of Death.
Rivers of Blood (G)
Doubles the bleed limit, and potentially double bloodletting bleed? Seems pretty good.
Torrential Bleeds (G)
Unironically takes a really mediocre effect and makes it quite alright.
Empowerment (G, F)
I actually, unironically like this. It’s minor, but you’ve got a lot of minor things here that can be done as a swift action. And it fits with having control over their own body.
Explosive Tempo (M-G)
I really like the idea. Very thematic. And it’s a nice-sized friendly AoE. But it’s pretty heavily delayed. And it took your standard action, and 3 vitae. And offers no team play, as it only cares about specifically her bloodletting to proc it. But still.
Gushing Wounds (M)
Basically you have your bleeding enemies create pseudo difficult terrain, which you can spend vitae to also make it real difficult terrain, reducing the safe speed to 1/4.
But I’m having difficulty figuring out why one would care.
Blood Pool (M)
You’d… You’d think that this would be a really potent defensive tool. Like a Vladimir pool. But no. It’s a utility form. Why’s this restricted to level 6? Who knows.
Internal Burst (M)
Probably severely overrating this, because I just feel that burst is almost bad to use at all… But if you were to say it as “Spend a move action to deal 1d8 damage and sicken for a round,” that really doesn’t sound that bad. In fact it would sound quite reasonable. If only it didn’t remove your dang bleed!
Vitality (M)
Basically toughness. Except that this requires hit point damage to threaten to kill you, and then it kicks in, potentially letting you become conscious again. Oh and it disables your vitae for an hour. And can only activate once per 24 hours. Oh, level 9 requirement too. Because reasons.
Bonding Bloods (M)
I mean. It is basically a quickened spell that uses vitae instead. But… eh. You’re ending the bleed effect to do this, which removes the one bit of synergy Duelist and Blood have. Plus Blood Control is just… generally bad.
Exsanguination (M)
Free action Burst. I mean, yes. It is just free 1d8 damage. Which cost your vitae. And denies exsanguinated synergy with other features. And doesn’t even wait until they take their dang bleed damage first. But yes, it is a free 1d8 damage.
Hungry Blade (N-M)
I really just don’t see a reason to use this. It’s edging towards N, with it being actively negative to use. But not quite.
Drawn to Me (N-M)
“Meh,” was the only thing I could think when reading this. Also I would definitely make this an “option” for the Burst, rather than changing the base functionality on taking it, because it’s not a universal upgrade.
Master Their Weakness (N-M)
A conditional +2 DC to all spell effects is fine… except that Crimson Dancer is a bloody low caster! This instantly shoots up to G if dipped into. S if dipped into with Gestalt.
Throbbing Heart (N)
You know Die Hard? That feat that no one takes? This is a very slightly upgraded version of that. You don’t need it. You’ve already got Second Heart.
Artistic Hemomancy / Crimson Armaments (u)
Honestly? My opinion? I would make full CL blood sphere just innate to the class. No conditions, no resources. Just innate. I think this is the only specialized class that doesn’t do that. The vitae loss deal is neat.
Regenerative Burst / Omnidirection Burst (u)
I just can’t care about Burst stuff. Just stop.
Paths of the Crimson Dancer
Overall: Seems neat. Makes burst not quite so bad.
Initiation (M-G)
OK, I’ve been harping on about the Burst ability for a while now. Simply because it seems to go against the flow of the class… But now, is 1d8 + 1d8 / 3 levels as a move action good? If that were in a vacuum, I would say yes.
Understanding (G, F)
Now it shifts the focus of Burst from being a part of your rotation to being an execute. As in you want to ramp your damage as high as possible until you know that you would kill them, and then have it splash… to one other creature. Still. Neat.
The execute focus doesn’t fit well with the rest of what Burst is. But I mean, if you simply use it as the occasional LoS cleave for 1d8+1d8/3 levels… I mean. It’s occasionally useful.
Revelation (G-S)
OK, OK. As an immediate action, mark the target to effectively have them be exsanguinated for 1 minute for the purposes of your abilities, including Burst’s damage. That’s pretty nice.
Secret of Blood (F)
Pure fluff, basically.
Secret of Heart (G)
Free +6 to all stats, and up to +30 to all movement? What’s the catch? Well, you’ve got to execute targets with bigger stats than you. But they stay for 24 hours.
Secret of the Soul (M-G)
It’s a “Hey, you didn’t quite get the execute. Here’s a second chance at killing them” ability. It might save your decimate from ruining you for an hour.
Realization (G)
LoS, friendly AoE that also marks everyone. Once per day. After executing with a burst. As a capstone? Sure why not.
Overall: Better mobility than Scarlet Dancer, for self and team, all compressed into a single Understanding. The rest is relatively unimpressive even if you could take it as a non-Crimson Tempest. But not bad.
Initiation (M-G)
Let’s just say you can’t cheese it with ammunition-priced throwing weapons. It’s alright. You get magic enchants on your pseudo-weapon. No discount, but most pseudo-weapons don’t get any enchants. And this is available basically as soon as magic weapons are.
Understanding (G)
Mobility is really not a big deal. But boy is this a substantial amount of on demand movement, and it can work for allies as well. Basically eliminates the Climb and Acrobatics skills for the party. So it’s also a nice exploratory utility as well. Oh, and gets dying allies well out of danger.
Revelation (N-M)
Eh. Very slight battlefield control. Very slight.
Secret of Blood (G)
The writing of the ability is not the clearest. But removing someone’s move action, and dealing attack damage on a fort save, all as a non-action is nice. If that’s how one is to interpret it.
Secret of Heart (F)
You definitely already had Borne Aloft. And its duration is unlikely to have been an issue for you. So it’s basically just a free talent and the fluff that you don’t even need to have strong gusts of wind to lift you up.
Secret of Soul (M)
Eh.
Realization (G-S)
Maximizes the potential of your pseudo-weapon and gives instant synergy for your wind shrouds. That’s… nice. I feel this is worthy of its status of being a capstone.
Overall: I am unimpressed by it and its focus on mobility.
Initiation (G)
Makes it less obnoxious to exsanguinate your targets as you get into higher levels.
Understanding (M-G)
On exsanguination, reach out and hit someone else as a free action.
Revelation (M)
Free movement, I guess
Secret of Blood (G, F)
Getting to dance around to non-exsanguinated targets through teleportation is fun. But that’s strange. Only able to teleport to non-exsanguinated creatures. It does have some anti-synergy with the idea of being able to exsanguinate easier. But also… it’s a DoT. Once you max it out, you want to go to someone else. So I guess this works.
Secret of Heart (M)
If it weren’t for the fact that you can literally teleport… well, this would still be fairly mediocre. But Freedom of Movement for one round is neat.
Secret of Soul (N-M)
Nice anime-BS of getting to pass through and attack a 60-ft line of enemies. With potentially multiple lines of dashes. But only hits each creature once. And only once per day. Which is pretty lame.
Realization (M)
Huh… Why is this a capstone? Eh. Whatever.
Initiation (F)
Tiny bit of DR. But it stacks with other sources. Requires constant vitae upkeep.
Understanding (F)
Eh…? Basically a more gruesome version of Speak with Dead.
Revelation (N, F)
Makes it harder to nonmagically get rid of the rot. Guess the intention was that Rot didn’t immediately defeat regeneration, despite regeneration being natural healing. So reading this actually nerfs your character.
Secret of Blood (S)
Save or be stunned for 1d4+1 rounds. And if bloodcrazed, also makes a will save to fall under their control for the duration. If they fail the will save, the fort save doesn’t matter. But one way or the other, it’s an attack roll to force 2 saves to completely take out an enemy for 1d4+1 rounds. That’s really good.
Just… wait until level 13 to get anything good from this archetype.
Secret of Heart (G)
Spell Resistance. Neat. And gains vitae when resisting said spells.
Secret of Soul (M)
Also has Consumption take a nail bat to the target’s spell casting. Which… I mean, you could have just stunned them, and tried to control them instead, for half the vitae cost. But in a vacuum, this is cool. Not level 19 cool. But still cool.
Realization (N)
OK. I actually hate this. A highly situational “healing hate” ability should not be a capstone. If anything, they could have made this the initiation ability and instead made the healing to remove Rot scale all throughout the class levels. Because without this the healing hate is barely even a thing.
Archetypes
Briefly: This may seem like a really random archetype, but there are several potential inspirations, such as the Japanese kamaitachi. So it actually does have a reason to be.
Overall: Crimson Tempest seems to be benefiting from being “Better than base” rather than being strictly good on its own terms. Which is just strange. If it were its own class, the ratings would be much harsher.
Bloodied Whirlwind (G)
Gain weather sphere instead of blood sphere. Strict upgrade. Especially as your caster level only matters in so far as getting really potent weather, and maybe adding a few more hours to your mantles. I would just ignore shrouds, honestly.
Crackling Waves (G)
Clear skies is an objectively good mantle. The bonus for wind resistance doesn’t really matter. But hey, you’re not hurting yourself with the encouraged tactic.
Beating Winds (M)
Makes bloodletting objectively worse most of the time. But now you can use it from range... Why did this need a vulnerability to DR?
Airy Vitae (G)
Trades out incredibly mediocre vitae abilities… with also mediocre, but better abilities. Except that you are really encouraged to have Wind going for Blade Current. Which does make it a lot better, and almost like purely free vitae.
Blade Current (M)
Oh. Interesting. Well, at severity 5 (which takes 4 rounds of concentration), you would have 2d6 damage wind blades. Which is decidedly unimpressive given the effort.
I am less impressed by this in a vacuum, as much as the seemingly clear intentions for you to just be flying around and untouchably attacking people from afar, with the only counter being no-attack targeted spells.
Hurricane’s Path (N)
Well, if you had to pay a cost anywhere, it was going to have to be in the one good ability of the base class. Still decent.
Overall: Wow this is a blood mess. You did not have a high bar to pass with an archetype of the Crimson Dancer, but you managed to not even pass that.
Bared Fangs, Empty Soul (M)
I think 1d8 is the largest base bite damage you can achieve as a medium creature. So that’s pretty useful. Spending a natural attack to add +1 average damage by bumping it up to 1d10 is not the best trade I’ve ever seen. But it’s cool, and can continue to be scaled. And it only replaces Autocautery.
You have to note however, that most SoM is incompatible with natural attack spam, or even multiple weapons in general, save for perhaps the Dual Wielding sphere, so this is not ranking against natural attacks, it’s ranking against Great Sword, and 1d10 is 2 average damage less than 2d6. Which isn’t a huge failing. But it is one.
Blood Drain (<G-S>, F)
Defeats regeneration and fast healing, which is really quite a killer in the right campaign. Might even be worth a dip. It also acts as a healing sink. Although it’s still really quite minor. +10 damage, and then 10 points of healing sink by level 10 is… eh. Oh, and you get a very slight health drain.
And really, you’re probably not going to have 30 Charisma by level 10. Without going through Sage - and if you did level Sage, you don’t get the Rot point cap.
Consumptive Vitae (G-S)
Consume is twice as good as bloodletting. Devour… probably as good as relish. And Drain is just free, which is substantially better than voracity.
Gluttony (M, F)
Doubling almost nothing is still almost nothing. But it’s neat.
Consumption (N)
Losing the Scarlet Dancer’s big execute, and exchanging it for a really shoddy strength and charisma penalty is a really big cost. You gain a tiny morale bonus to your stats on execute, I suppose. But… eh?
The Forgotten Path (N--)
You are forced into the Path of the Lost Ravager. There’s a reason the path was forgotten.