Blood Mage Class (Highly Experimental)

[Oramac]

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE READ!!

Hey all. I'm just experimenting here with various ideas and thoughts tumbling around in my head. Figured I'd put it out there for feedback. I noticed that full caster spell-level progression is always half your level rounded up. So I figured, why use a table at all? (I know, I know, it limits the number of slots). Again, this is highly experimental.

Let me reiterate: this will most likely never see play. I'm well aware it's probably six different kinds of overpowered. Again, this is a thought experiment for myself and just to have some fun with different mechanics. Please leave feedback, but keep this in mind.

UPDATE: After feedback, I've updated the Blood Mage. It is now effectively a half-caster. And in the spirit of experimentation with new mechanics, I removed subclasses entirely. Blood Rites are now a combined Invocation/Subclass progression for the Blood Mage.

Blood Mage

A high elf surveys the battlefield, draining her own lifeblood to fuel incredible powers against her enemies.

As a sturdy dwarf walks across the land, his life energy sows restorative energy into the land around him.

Charging headlong into battle, a screaming green dragonborn uses her own blood to cut down her enemies.

The Power of the Mind and Body

Blood mages are some of the most misunderstood people in the world. Those who practice this ancient art willingly sacrifice their own life essence to create some of the most powerful magic in any world, but it comes with a cost. By expending the power of their very being, these blood mages reduce their ability to withstand the toils of time. Many a blood mage has fallen for lack of rest.

Unusual and Unique

Their unique way of accessing the magic of the world causes both awe and fear in those who witness it. Blood magic is often seen as a sacrilege, or an afront against the more well-understood methods of magical manipulation. On many worlds, it is outright banned, and even on worlds that it is allowed, those who practice this rare and misunderstood art are often feared or ridiculed.

Creating a Blood Mage

When creating a Blood Mage, consider why you've chosen to pursue this magical discipline. Were you trained by a mentor? Or did you discover this amazing power on your own? Perhaps you are a member of a secretive sect of blood mages, or your family passes down these secrets as heirlooms to the next generation. Or you may have been a doctor or medic for your local community before learning to use your own lifeblood to fuel your magic.

Quick Build

You can build a Blood Mage quickly by following these suggestions. First, Constitution should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity. Second, choose the Acolyte or Sage background.

SIDEBAR

Playing the Blood Mage

The blood mage is an advanced class and is intended for experienced players that want to try something new and different.

It uses rules and mechanics that deviate, sometimes radically, from those presented in the handbook.

================================================== ===================
LevelProficiencyFeatureCantrips KnownSpells KnownMax Spell Level
1+2Blood Casting, Harmful Blood421
2+2Blood Rites (2)431
3+2Blood Rites (3)441
4+2Ability Score Increase551
5+3Recover Vitality562
6+3Blood Rites (4)572
7+3Blood Rites (5)582
8+3Ability Score Increase592
9+4Blood Rites (6)5103
10+4Blood Rites (7)6113
11+4Blood Rites (8)6123
12+4Ability Score Increase6123
13+5Blood Rites (9)6134
14+5Blood Rites (10)6134
15+5Blood Rites (11)6144
16+5Ability Score Increase6144
17+6Efficient Blood6155
18+6Blood Rites (12)6155
19+6Ability Score Increase6155
20+6Blood Master6155
================================================== ===================

Multiclassing and the Blood Mage

If your group uses the optional rule on multiclassing in the Player's Handbook, here's what you need to know if you choose blood mage as one of your classes.

Ability Score Minimum. As a multiclass character, you must have an Constitution score of at least 13 to take a level in this class, or to take a level in another class if you are already a blood mage.

Proficiencies Gained. If blood mage isn't your initial class, here are the proficiencies you gain when you take your first level as a blood mage: healer's kit or alchemy kit.

Spellcasting. Your Blood Casting does not confer any benefit or penalty when multiclassing. You treat your levels of blood mage as a single-class character of that level, and do the same for other classes with which you take levels.

Class Features

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d6 per Blood Mage Level

Hit points at 1st level: 6 + your Constitution modifier

Hit points at higher levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per Blood Mage level after first.

Proficiencies

Class Group Mage

Primary Ability Constitution

Armor: None

Weapons: daggers, quarterstaff

Tools: Healer's Kit or Alchemy kit

Saving Throws: Constitution, Intelligence

Skills: Choose two from Arcana, History, Medicine, Nature, Perception, and Religion

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

- a dagger
- (a) a component pouch or (b) a spellcasting focus
- (a) a Dungeoneer’s pack or (b) an Explorer’s Pack

Blood Casting

See chapter 10 for the general rules of spellcasting.

Cantrips

At 1st level, you know four cantrips of your choice from the Blood Mage spell list. You learn additional cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the blood mage table.

Casting Spells

The blood mage does not use spell slots to cast spells. Instead, to cast a spell you know, you must expend blood mage hit dice equal to the level at which you cast the spell. For example, if you cast *armor of agathys* at 1st level, you would expend one blood mage hit die. However, if you cast *armor of agathys* at 3rd level, you must expend three blood mage hit dice. Hit dice expended to cast spells are unavailable for any other use, and are recovered at the end of a long rest. If a spell you cast consumes its material component, you must still provide material components for that spell.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the Blood Mage spell list. The Spells Known column of the blood mage table shows when you learn more blood mage spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level no higher than the level listed in the Max Spell Level column of the Blood Mage table. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn new spells of 1st or 2nd level. Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the spells you know and replace it with another spell from the blood mage spell list, which also must be of a level no higher than the level listed in the Max Spell Level column of the Blood Mage table.

Spellcasting Ability

Constitution is your spellcasting ability for your blood mage spells, since the power of your magic relies on your incredible fortitude and the blood in your veins. You use your Constitution whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Constitution modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a blood mage spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier

Spellcasting Focus

You can use an arcane focus (found in chapter 5) as a spellcasting focus for your blood mage spells. Many blood mages prefer to use a small talisman as a focus, though you may choose whatever fits your character.

Harmful Blood

You are able to harm your enemies with your Blood Casting. When you expend hit dice to cast a blood mage spell that damages a single target, you may roll the hit dice and the spell deals additional damage equal to the total rolled.

Blood Rites

In your study of blood magic and its intricacies, you have discovered Blood Rites, fragments of knowledge that imbue you with an abiding magical ability.

At 2nd level, you gain two Blood Rite options of your choice. Your Rite options are detailed at the end of the class description. You gain one additional Blood Rite at each of the levels listed in the Blood Mage class table.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the rites you know and replace it with another rite that you could learn at that level.

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Recover Vitality

Beginning at 5th level, you can recover your vitality more quickly. When you complete a short rest, you regain hit dice expended via your Blood Casting or Blood Rites features equal to half your proficiency bonus, rounded down. When you regain these hit dice, you may roll them and gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice the total rolled.

Once used, you must complete a long rest before you may benefit from this feature again.

Efficient Blood

At 17th level, you've learned to channel your life force into an oft-used spell, enabling you to cast it more efficiently. Choose one Blood Mage spell of 1st level. You may cast this spell as a 1st level spell at-will, requiring no hit dice. You must still provide material components if those components are consumed by the spell, and if you cast the spell at a higher level, you must still expend hit dice as normal.

Blood Master

Upon reaching 20th level, you have gained mastery over manipulating your own blood magic. You gain 4 additional hit dice.

Additionally, when you roll initiative, you regain 2 hit dice expended via your Blood Casting feature, up to a maximum of 6 recovered between long rests.

Blood Rites

The Blood Rites presented here are shown in alphabetical order. If a Rite has prerequisites, you must meet them to learn it. You can learn the Rite at the same time that you meet its prerequisites.

NOTE: Many of these probably need updated prerequisites. I haven't gotten that far yet, but it's on the list. I also have ideas for many more that I just haven't put on paper yet.

Area Control

When you cast a blood mage spell that affects an area and neither restores hit points nor deals damage, you can choose a number of friendly creatures within the area equal to your constitution modifer. The chosen creatures are immune to the effects of the spell.

Blood Adept

Your control over your spellcasting increases. When you cast a blood mage spell that requires concentration and neither restores hit points nor deals damage, roll the hit dice used to cast the spell. You gain a bonus to constitution saving throws to maintain concentration on the spell equal to half the number rolled (rounded down, minimum 1).

Blood Arcanum

*Prerequisite: 11th level blood mage*

Upon learning this Rite, you gain a magical secret called an arcanum. Choose one 6th-level spell from the wizard spell list as this arcanum.

You can cast your arcanum spell once without expending a spell slot. You must finish a long rest before you can do so again. You may also cast your arcanum spells using blood mage hit dice, as normal.

At higher levels, you gain more wizard spells of your choice that can be cast in this way: one 7th-level spell at 13th level, one 8th-level spell at 15th level, and one 9th-level spell at 17th level. You regain all uses of your Blood Arcanum when you finish a long rest

Blood Healing

You gain the ability to channel your blood essence into restorative spells. You gain the *cure wounds* and *healing word* spells. They count as blood mage spells for you, and do not count against your total number of spells known.

Additionally, when you expend hit dice to cast *cure wounds* or *healing word*, you may roll the expended hit dice and the spell restores additional hit points equal to the total rolled.

Blood Siphon

You are able to siphon a creature's blood into yourself. As an action, expend and roll a number of blood mage hit dice up to your constitution modifier, and choose a creature you can see within 30 ft. to make a constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes necrotic damage equal to twice the amount rolled, and you regain hit points equal to the total rolled. You may cause this damage and regain hit points on each of your subsequent turns as an action, requiring no saving throw. You must concentrate on this effect (as if concentrating on a spell), and the effect ends if you are ever more than 30 ft from the target, or take an action other than using this Rite. Once used, you must complete a long rest before using Blood Siphon again.

Bloody Retribution

You're able to punish those that would harm you. When you are hit with a melee attack, you may use your reaction to expend and roll hit dice up to your constitution modifier. The attacking creature takes necrotic damage equal to the amount rolled plus your necromancer level. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your constitution modifier, and must complete a long rest before using it again.

Blood Rush

When you cast a Blood Mage spell using your Blood Casting feature, you may roll the expended hit dice and your walking speed increases by an amount equal to the total rolled (minimum 5 ft.) until the end of your current turn.

Once used, you cannot benefit from this Rite again until you move 0 feet on your turn.

Bloody Words

*Prerequisite: 11th level blood mage; Blood Healing Rite*

When you cast *healing word* using your Blood Healing Rite, hostile creatures between you and the target take necrotic damage equal to the amount rolled on the hit dice, as the expended blood creates a mystical link between you and your ally.

Cantrip Adept

You are more easily able to cast your simplest spells. When you cast a Blood Mage cantrip that requires an action, you may choose to cast it as a bonus action instead. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your constitution modifier, and must complete a long rest before using it again.

Controlled Blood

Your control over your blood spells heightens. When you cast a blood mage spell that neither restores hit points nor deals damage, you may reduce the number of hit dice needed to cast the spell by one, to a minimum of zero.

You may use this feature twice, and regain expended uses upon completion of a long rest.

Magical Lethargy

*Prerequisite: 6th level blood mage*

When you use your Harmful Blood feature, you may force the target to make a constitution saving throw. On a failure, the creature cannot take reactions until the end of its next turn, and on its next turn it may take an action or a bonus action, not both. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your constitution modifier, and must complete a long rest before using it again.

Perfect Blood Healing

*Prerequisite: 3rd level blood mage; Blood Healing Rite*

You learn to more easily cast restorative spells. When you cast *cure wounds* or *healing word* using your Blood Healing Rite, you regain hit points equal to half the total amount restored, rounded down. You may use this feature a number of times equal to your constitution modifier, and must complete a long rest before using it again.

Perfect Control

*Prerequisite: 18th level blood mage*

Your ability to control your spells is at its peak. When you cast a blood mage spell that requires concentration and neither restores hit points nor deals damage, you may invoke this feature to ensure you maintain the spell. For the duration of the spell, your concentration cannot be broken by any means (including damage). You may still choose to end your concentration early.

Once used, you must complete a long rest before using this Rite again.

Perfected Blood

*Prerequisite: 13th level blood mage; Blood Healing Rite*

You learn to more easily cast restorative spells. When you cast *cure wounds* or *healing word* using your Blood Healing Rite, roll a d6. On a 6, that casting of the spell does not consume hit dice to cast.

Revitalizing Blood

*Prerequisite: 9th level blood mage*

You learn to use your own life essence to return another to life. You learn the *revivify* spell, it counts as blood mage spell for you, and it does not count against your total number of spells known

Ritualistic Blood

You gain the knowledge to cast ritual spells. You learn two spells from any spell list that have the ritual tag, and may cast them as rituals.

Additionally, when you cast a spell gained via this Rite as a ritual, you may expend a Blood Mage hit die at the completion of the ritual. Upon expending the hit die, select one of the following options, which affects the spell in various ways.

- The spell duration is doubled for this casting of the spell
- This casting of the spell does not require concentration, but its duration is halved
- The spell's range is doubled for this casting of the spell




- Chill Touch
- Control Flames
- Dancing Lights
- Encode Thoughts
- Fire Bolt
- Friends
- Frostbite
- Gust
- Infestation
- Light
- Lightning Lure
- Mage Hand
- Magic Stone
- Mending
- Message
- Mind Sliver
- Minor Illusion
- Prestidigitation
- Produce Flame
- Ray of Frost
- Sapping Sting
- Shocking Grasp
- Sword Burst
- Toll the Dead




- Armor of Agathys
- Arms of Hadar
- Bane
- Cause Fear
- Charm Person
- Chromatic Orb
- Comprehend Languages
- Detect Magic
- Detect Poison and Disease
- Disguise Self
- False Life
- Fog Cloud
- Grease
- Ice Knife
- Identify
- Inflict Wounds
- Mage Armor
- Magic Missile
- Ray of Sickness
- Silent Image
- Tasha’s Caustic Brew
- Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
- Thunderwave
- Witch Bolt




- Alter Self
- Blindness/Deafness
- Crown of Madness
- Darkness
- Darkvision
- Detect Thoughts
- Hold Person
- Invisibility
- Levitate
- Locate Object
- Mind Spike
- Mirror Image
- Misty Step
- Phantasmal Force
- Ray of Enfeeblement
- See Invisibility
- Shadow Blade
- Silence
- Spider Climb
- Suggestion
- Tasha’s Mind Whip
- Vortex Warp
- Web




- Bestow Curse
- Counterspell
- Dispel Magic
- Enemies Abound
- Fear
- Fly
- Hypnotic Pattern
- Life Transference
- Nondetection
- Sending
- Slow
- Stinking Cloud
- Tongues
- Vampiric Touch
- Wall of Sand




- Arcane Eye
- Banishment
- Blight
- Charm Monster
- Compulsion
- Confusion
- Dimension Door
- Elemental Bane
- Fire Shield
- Freedom of Movement
- Greater Invisibility
- Hallucinatory Terrain
- Locate Creature
- Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
- Phantasmal Killer
- Raulothim’s Psychic Lance
- Vitriolic Sphere




- Antilife Shell
- Contagion
- Danse Macabre
- Dispel Evil and Good
- Dominate Person
- Enervation
- Geas
- Hold Monster
- Legend Lore
- Mislead
- Modify Memory
- Negative Energy Flood
- Rary’s Telepathic Bond
- Scrying
- Seeming
- Synaptic Static
- Telekinesis
- Temporal Shunt
- Wall of Force

[Amechra]

I'm well aware it's probably six different kinds of overpowered.


Nah, this is actually pretty severely underpowered, since you're effectively a hyper-focused caster (like the Wizard) with a fraction of the Wizard's staying power and far less effective HP (because, while you are Con-SAD, you're also spending all of your natural HP recovery on spells). Let's draw up a table of the number of hit-dice you can recover per day (ignoring your 20th level feature, since capstones generally come into play too late to matter):



Level

HD Recovered
Greedy Spell Use

Half Caster?



1
1
one 1st
one 1st


2
2
two 1st
two 1st


3
3
one 1st, one 2nd
three 1st


4
3
one 1st, one 2nd
three 1st


5
4
one 1st, one 3rd
two 2nd


6
4
one 1st, one 3rd
two 2nd


7
5
one 1st, one 4th
one 1st, two 2nd


8
5
one 1st, one 4th
one 1st, two 2nd


9
7
one 2nd, one 5th
one 1st, two 3rd


10
7
one 2nd, one 5th
one 1st, two 3rd


11
8
one 2nd, one 6th
one 2nd, two 3rd


12
8
one 2nd, one 6th
one 2nd, two 3rd


13
9
one 2nd, one 7th
one 1st, two 4th


14
9
one 2nd, one 7th
one 1st, two 4th


15
10
one 2nd, one 8th
one 2nd, two 4th


16
10
one 2nd, one 8th
one 2nd, two 4th


17
12
one 3rd, one 9th
one 2nd, two 5th


18
12
one 3rd, one 9th
one 2nd, two 5th


19
13
one 4th, one 9th
one 3rd, two 5th



Now, obviously, you can dip into your deeper HD reservoir to cast spells (which comes out to... roughly one extra spell of your highest level. What a great trade for HD that you're only going to get back if your campaign incorporates quite a bit of breathing room!), and you can be more conservative with the spells you're casting... but the point remains that your resource pool is going to be unusually shallow for a D&D character. Controlled Blood does ameliorate this, and the capstone does suddenly give you way more resources... but overall, you're going to be a very anemic (heh) caster.

If we cap out the maximum spell level at what a half-caster could achieve, however, the resource pool looks way less limited. Making them a "half caster" would also mean that you'd have more of a budget for neat blood magic features and cool unique spells (your current spell list is pretty boring, since it reads as "generically good arcane caster", not "deadly blood mage sacrificing their vitality for greater power"). Something to think about.

(For reference, a half-caster gets 41 spell levels per day by 20th level, while a full caster without an Arcane-Recovery-esque feature gets 89. You get... a bit more than half of what the half-caster gets, for a much steeper cost.)

...

It's a cool idea, but they really need some extra oomph to work. I like the idea of giving them some Warlock-style "overpowered" cantrip action to mess around with. Also, I feel like you could lean way more heavily into the blood magic flavoring, but that's partially because I finished reading Blood is Mine (https://bloodismine.com/comics/1) relatively recently, and that (sadly unfinished) comic goes some pretty crazy places when it comes to "blood magic".

[JNAProductions]

Blood Master can be cheesed by just entering minor combats to quickly regain all Hit Dice. Should be changed to "Recover 2 Hit Dice, up to a max of X," where X is 6 or something.

Other than that... Amechra said good words.

[Oramac]

Stinkin work getting in the way of gaming! Anyway...


Nah, this is actually pretty severely underpowered...(which comes out to... roughly one extra spell of your highest level

Thanks! I suppose I was thinking that casting two of your highest level spells carried more power with it than that. But I do see your point. There is a pretty massive trade off there (which was the whole idea). But perhaps there's more needed to sweeten the pot, so to speak.

I'm not sure how I feel about the half-caster idea. Mechanically it makes sense, but I'm not seeing it thematically. I'll play around with it and see what I can do.


Blood Master can be cheesed by just entering minor combats to quickly regain all Hit Dice. Should be changed to "Recover 2 Hit Dice, up to a max of X," where X is 6 or something.

Good catch!! Thanks!

[Old Harry MTX]

Yes, as JNA said Blood Master has the same "bag of rats" problen of all this vampire-like feature. You could also introduce a limitation on dice regained depending on the CR of the fight.

Also, since you spend Hit Dice to cast, I would like to see more mechanics that let you roll them and use the results, i feel always weird when you use dice as tokens and not as real dice.

[WarrentheHero]

I like the concept - who doesn't; everyone loves blood magic! But it looks like you've patterned it pretty heavily off of the Wizard Class - with the exception of choosing your subclass at 3rd instead of 2nd level, it follows Wizard progression exactly.

So my suggestion is to simply close the gap and make this into a Wizard subclass and allow them to burn HD into bonus spell slots? That might still be too good of a trade; Wizards love spell slots, so maybe they also take damage from burning their HD? Turns them high-risk-high-reward but with the potential to be a gattling gun of spellcasts. Something like:

Blood Magic
Beginning at 2nd level, you become able to pull power from your own blood to fuel your spells. As an action on your turn, you can spend two of your hit dice to regain a 1st-level spell slot. When you spend hit dice this way, roll them, and you take Necrotic damage equal to half the total rolled. This damage bypasses resistance and immunity, and cannot be prevented or transferred in any way. You can spend and roll additional hit dice when you do this; for each additional die, the slot you regain is one level higher, to a maximum of 5th level. You cannot use Blood Magic to gain a slot of a level higher than you normally posses.

And then other features could have options (similar to the Hunter subclass for Ranger where each subclass-feature lets you choose from three options) to express the ideas of your subclass concepts.

[Amechra]

Thanks! I suppose I was thinking that casting two of your highest level spells carried more power with it than that. But I do see your point. There is a pretty massive trade off there (which was the whole idea). But perhaps there's more needed to sweeten the pot, so to speak.

It does... but contrast it with the Warlock, which (for the longer half of its progression) gets to cast two of its highest level spells per short rest — until 11th level, the Blood Mage has strictly fewer spell slots than a Warlock does in any day where the party takes at least one short rest. If a standard spellcaster is a car and a Warlock is a motorcycle, the blood mage is a unicycle — you gave up way too much for not much benefit.


I'm not sure how I feel about the half-caster idea. Mechanically it makes sense, but I'm not seeing it thematically. I'll play around with it and see what I can do.

Bear in mind that, after 6th level, most spells aren't clean thematic fits for such a physical/single-target spellcaster. If you did something like build the 3rd level features for Medical Mal/Practice into the core of the class, you'd still have that strong "spellcaster" flavor without having to dilute the mechanical niceness of "you cast spells by spending hit-dice equal to their level". If you want them to have that more powerful kind of magic... ritual casting requiring buckets of blood seems like a more flavorful way of getting that across.

Because the thing is that, right now, you have the strong incentive to ignore your higher level spell slots in order to spread out your power. A Blood Mage that pretends to be a half-caster (or even a third-caster!) is going to function way better than one that actually tries to use the maximum spell level they can access. Making them a half-caster would literally just be you being more honest with any player who wanted to sit down and play one.

[Oramac]

UPDATE! After feedback, I've updated the Blood Mage in the OP. It is now effectively a half-caster. And in the spirit of experimentation with new mechanics, I removed subclasses entirely. Blood Rites are now a combined Invocation/Subclass progression for the Blood Mage.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Sometimes it's fun to just throw out zany ideas and see what happens.

[Amechra]

Looking over the changes, they look pretty good (I especially like how Blood Magic's HD recover more quickly)... except I feel like you're still being a little overly conservative. A lot of the features that cost hit dice are self-limiting (you don't get a lot of hit-dice! And this goes double for any Blood Rites that cost HD, since the features that boost how quickly you can recover HD don't affect them). Ones that stand out:



Harmful Blood: While this seems like an awesomely powerful feature, it translates to... +1d6 damage per spell level when casting leveled spells that target a single guy. Since you're positioning these guys as casters first and foremost, it'd be fine if this was at-will — you're "competing" with Rangers and Paladins, who get Extra Attack and a bunch of features that power up their non-spellcasting nonsense. On top of that, you have to be pretty high level before your number of uses are meaningfully fewer than the number of spells you can cast per long rest.
Blood Healing should probably also be at-will, for a lot of the same reasons (Blood Adept, on the other hand, is effectively going to be "you can't fail Concentration checks" once you get past 1st level spells, especially since you're a Con-based caster with proficiency in Con saves — it probably needs a nerf/alternate benefit? Maybe base it off Blood Rush, which is pretty neat (if a little inconsistent))
Bloody Retribution would honestly be pretty middling (despite being conceptually cool) even if you made it at-will, since it costs "real" hit-dice. Add to that the fact that you're actually not all that durable despite being Constitution focused (d6 HD, no armor proficiencies, and Mage Armor costing a hit-die to cast add up to being made out of tissue paper), and I can't really see taking it. Maybe if it was connected to another Blood Rite that made you tankier?
Magical Lethargy/Perfect Blood Healing are pretty neat, but I think it'd be cleaner if you moved the limit on uses to those Rites instead of keeping them on the core features.

[Oramac]

And this goes double for any Blood Rites that cost HD, since the features that boost how quickly you can recover HD don't affect them).

Thanks for pointing that out. Things that return hit dice were intended to do it for both Blood Casting and Blood Rites, but didn't say so. I've updated that.

Harmful Blood:Blood Healing Updated as suggested. Good point.

Blood Adept Dropped the bonus to half, rounded down. The intent here is to strongly encourage use of control and area spells, rather than damaging spells. Kinda leaning into the whole "god wizard" thing without actually being a wizard.

Blood Rush Inconsistent, how? I did update it so it's got a 5 ft. minimum bonus. I also thought about just making it 10x your proficiency bonus, but that seemed like way too much.

Bloody Retribution This was originally a 10th level feature, at which point it's nearly identical in damage to an equal level hellish rebuke. As a (potential) second level Rite, it probably does need a boost.

Magical Lethargy/Perfect Blood Healing Again, changed as suggested.

Thanks again for the feedback! The more I look at this, the more I kinda want to actually playtest it.