There is Power in Blood

[The Rose Dragon]

What are the roleplaying game examples of blood having power? There is the ubiquitous Vitae in Vampire: the Masquerade / Requiem, for example, and the maho-tsukai from Legend of the Five Rings, but what other examples can be found?

The more outlandish the example, the better, but the basics should not be overlooked either.

[Darth Crater]

The sorcerer bloodlines from Pathfinder. Or, more literally, the Bloatmage PRC.

[Narren]

I recall a Blood Magus prestige class, but not where I saw it.

[Kylarra]

In Scion, the aztec pantheon specific purview relies on blood and sacrifices to garner various amounts of power. One of the higher ones allows you to sacrifice a loved one for a temporary dot of legend iirc.

[The_Snark]

^ In addition to that, bloodletting and other sacrifices can be used to pay the cost of spells for Scions of any pantheon. That rule gets forgotten about a lot, which is a shame as it's rather evocative.

The Dresden Files RPG has a similar mechanic, not nearly as obscure but still not used much because of the dangers. Harming yourself to cast a spell is okay (but still dangerous for obvious reasons); using others to fuel your spells will eventually warp your soul, even if they're willing. Kidnapping and murdering people off the streets to fuel your magic is much worse than convincing a friend to shed a few drops of blood on your behalf, but either way you are declaring to the cosmos "I am the sort of person who hurts other people for power", and when you're a wizard that sort of thing has real, concrete effects.

And while I'm sure you know this already, ghosts in Exalted can regain Essence through blood offerings. Rather reminiscent of the ghosts in the Odyssey, I've always felt.

[Ranos]

Using others to fuel your spells will eventually warp your soul, even if they're willing.

Are you sure about that ? It seems pretty consistent with the setting, but I don't remember seeing it in the book.

Oh, and Houses of the Blooded had nobles with magic blood, who could among other things use it to empower their rituals.

[SurlySeraph]

Exalted: blood empowers creatures of death (Abyssals as well as ghosts), the Dragon Kings made blood sacrifices to the UCS, blood sacrifice can be used in prayers and to empower various magic.

NWoD: in addition to Vampire there's the Stigmata Key in Geist, that magical blood river in the Underworld, sacrifices to spirits, and doubtlessly plenty of other stuff.

[Kylarra]

^ In addition to that, bloodletting and other sacrifices can be used to pay the cost of spells for Scions of any pantheon. That rule gets forgotten about a lot, which is a shame as it's rather evocative.

Yeah we don't actually have any magic user in our current group so... :(

[Erom]

If you include video game RPGs or MMORPGs there are a plethora of Necromancer classes that can take damage to power their spells, or Vampiric weapons and such that return a bonus to the user when used to draw blood.

I think the Necro spell Blood To Power from Guild Wars is particularly evocative, where a Necro draws his own blood to drastically increase an allys energy regeneration for a short time. It's interesting because it is a sacrifice of your blood to help an ally, which reverses the normal cliche somewhat.

[Doc Roc]

Shadowrun. Oh god, Shadowrun.

Also, Dragon Age spins to mind immediately.

[Bibliomancer]

I recall a Blood Magus prestige class, but not where I saw it.

Complete Arcane 3.5, page 26.

[Seerow]

Shadowrun. Oh god, Shadowrun.

Well, yes, but the books do explicitly say Blood Magic should stay out of the hands of the PCs.

[Doc Roc]

Well, yes, but the books do explicitly say Blood Magic should stay out of the hands of the PCs.

Which makes it better on one level, and so much scarier on another. Blood Mages are just... way above power-level for the system, which is shocking because it's known for almost as many bizarre things as 3.x. Which means that you sometimes run into these NPCs... who seem normal enough... and then just never stop casting.

[The_Snark]

Are you sure about that ? It seems pretty consistent with the setting, but I don't remember seeing it in the book.

Reasonably sure. I'm mostly inferring from the descriptions on the laws of magic, but there's a a bit on page 269 where the text notes that the torture or sacrifice of another sentient being is one of the worst things a wizard can do in the pursuit of magic, even (or especially) if the victim is willing.

Granted, I suspect the authors were thinking of enthralled cultists, children raised to believe that it's their glorious destiny to die for the master, and people who are being coerced by nonmagical means (like the threat of violence to family) when they wrote that passage. A friend freely offering help with a spell probably isn't as bad, but it's walking close to a grey area.

[MickJay]

Terrestrials in Exalted have some charms that require Purity (i.e. high enough Breeding score) to work. The purer/stronger one's blood, the better they work.

[The Rose Dragon]

Terrestrials in Exalted have some charms that require Purity (i.e. high enough Breeding score) to work. The purer/stronger one's blood, the better they work.

That's more about genetics and less about blood, though. I'm talking about the actual liquid that runs through one's veins, not metaphorical meanings.

[MickJay]

Just remembered, one of the zombie-raising spell from Call of Cthulhu requires the caster to put an ounce of his own blood in the corpse's mouth, before bringing it to life with a kiss (and with magic, obviously)

Houses of the Blooded was already mentioned, but Blood is one of the major themes in the game. Pretty much all of the (mostly illegal, but lots of nobles still use it) sorcery is fueled with caster's blood.

[Lord Raziere]

4E DnD has a paragon path for wizards called Blood Mage.

[The Rose Dragon]

4E DnD has a paragon path for wizards called Blood Mage.

Well, what does it do? How does it live up to its name?

[Kylarra]

Well, what does it do? How does it live up to its name?

It deals extra damage by dealing damage to yourself.

[Boci]

Well, what does it do? How does it live up to its name?

Spend an action point to make an attack and deal 10 ongoing damage.
Inflict upon themselves a minor (1d10) or major (2d10) wound to add a like amount of damage to one of their spells.
Second wind causes nearby enemies to take physchic damage (more if they are currently suffering from an effect you caused) and take ongoing fire damage.
Encounter power area effect deal damage + until your next turn creatures take 1d6 damage per square moved.
Daily power to spend healing surge as minor action to regain encounter power instead of hp.
Daily power, area effect, 6d6+int mod psychic damage, and 10 pogoing psychic damage and stunned (save ends both).

[Occasional Sage]

Unknown Armies has horrific .blood-and-flesh magic. If nobody beats me to it, I'll dig out the basic book tonight and do some paraphrasing.

[randomhero00]

Unknown Armies has horrific .blood-and-flesh magic. If nobody beats me to it, I'll dig out the basic book tonight and do some paraphrasing.

In the anime darker than black, the protagonist runs up against someone almost as good as himself...he cuts himself and flings blood at his opponents, of which he can then detonate to massive effect.

Oh, and dresdon files. (where he sacrifices a certain someone to kill off a bloodline)

[golentan]

I seem to remember a rule in Traveller where you could inflict damage voluntarily to boost your PSI if you were a psychic, pushing beyond your limits. Though it was more "using life force" than blood, it has a number of thematic similarities.

Naruto D20 has a Blood based Metachakra feat chain.

Warhammer has some nasty torture based stuff IIRC with dark elf magic.

[AtomicKitKat]

In addition to the D&D Blood Magus(of which the 4e version looks to be an expy. It originally appeared in Tome & Blood before reprinting in Complete Arcane), 3.x had Tainted Scholar(one of the "secrets" is to prick yourself for power, similar to the Blood Magus), plus the Magic in the Blood Feat.

[mikau013]

This thread might be useful:

All about blood (3.5)

[Marillion]

In 7th Sea, the Montaigne (that is, French) sorcery is called Porte, and is a limited form of teleportation. Like all sorceries, it is passed down in the noble bloodlines, but Porte especially fits the theme. A Porte mage can mark an item with his blood, and if the blooding succeeds the sorcerer can at any time open a bloody, screaming hole in reality connected to that item. Apprentices can only bring the item to themselves, but Adepts and Masters can make the hole large enough that they can go inside the hole and come out at any item they have bloodied. It is very important, however, that your eyes remain closed in the Walkway, for strange and terrible creatures reside in this plane, and once you open your eyes you are theirs forever. One NPC Porte mage was born blind; he spends much of his time conversing with these things.

Also, a Porte mages hands are eternally stained red with the blood of the universe; you can tell how powerful the sorcerer is by far up his arms the blood reaches. On Apprentices, the blood only covers their fingers; Adepts, to their wrists; Masters, to their elbows; and the Praisse family (which the aforementioned NPC belongs to) are known for their especially powerful magic and are bloody almost to the shoulders. This being 17th century *ahem* "France", most nobles elect to wear gloves to cover this up.

In addition, (Spoilered for Secret Society)

Spoiler

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Alvara Arcienega, the head of the Invisible College, has devised a way to distill sorcery out of the sorcerers blood. Through this process, he creates potions that when imbibed (or, in certain cases, thrown at someone) have various effects. Of course, being a wanted man, and nobles of any country generally being very unwilling to donate blood in the quantities he needs, he needs to take this blood very...discretely...

[bobthehero]

Following the thrend in video games, in Diablo 2 the first offensive ''spell'' the paladin get is sacrifice, he coats his blade with his blood to hurt more and fight better.