Blood Magus (3.5 Base Class, PEACH)

[Sypher667]

My first homebrew. Let me know what you think.

"That which runs through you will run you through."
~ Vladimir, a Blood Magus

Blood Magus

Wizards gain power from studying, Sorcerers from their personality and force of will. Not so for the Blood Magi. The power they wield comes from within, but from the blood, not the mind. They use their blood as a medium for their magicks, and use their control over the blood to help sustain them, and even bring themselves back from the dead.


HD: d6
Skill List: Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int)
Skill points per level: 4+Int
Abilities: Charisma is important for the spell casting Magus. Constitution grants more health to fuel the abilities available, as well as increase the potency of those abilities. Dexterity is useful for both the AC of the unarmored caster, as well as the accuracy of the Transfusion ability.
Alignment: Any

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|0lvl|1st|2nd|3rd|4th|5th|6th|7th|8th|9th

1st|

+0

|

+2

|

+0

|

+2

|Durable Casting, Toughness, Blood casting|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

2nd|

+1

|

+3

|

+0

|

+3

|Staunch, Recover (2, 1/day)|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

3rd|

+2

|

+3

|

+1

|

+3

|Scarification, Transfusion 1d6|6|5|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

4th|

+3

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Thicker than Water 1|6|6|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

5th|

+3

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Blood Draught, Transfusion 2d6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

6th|

+4

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Recover (3, 1/day), Bloodseeking Spell|6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

7th|

+5

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Transfusion 3d6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-|-

8th|

+6/1

|

+6

|

+2

|

+6

|Recover (3, 2/day), Thicker than Water 2|6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-|-

9th|

+6/1

|

+6

|

+3

|

+6

|Conversion (1st), Transfusion 4d6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-|-

10th|

+7/2

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|Recover (4, 2/day)|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-|-

11th|

+8/3

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

| Transfusion 5d6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-|-

12th|

+9/4

|

+8

|

+4

|

+8

|Thicker than Water 3|6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-|-

13th|

+9/4

|

+8

|

+4

|

+8

|Conversion (2nd), Transfusion 6d6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-|-

14th|

+10/5

|

+9

|

+4

|

+9

|Recover (5, 3/day)|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-|-

15th|

+11/6/1

|

+9

|

+5

|

+9

|Transfusion 7d6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-|-

16th|

+12/7/2

|

+10

|

+5

|

+10

|Thicker than Water 4|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3|-

17th|

+12/7/2

|

+10

|

+5

|

+10

|Conversion (3rd), Transfusion 8d6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4|-

18th|

+13/8/3

|

+11

|

+6

|

+11

|Recover (6, 3/day)|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|5|3

19th|

+14/9/4

|

+11

|

+6

|

+11

|Transfusion 9d6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|4

20th|

+15/10/5

|

+12

|

+6

|

+12

|Recover (6, 4/day), Thicker than Water 5, Reform|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6|6[/table]


Class Features
The following are class features of the Blood Magus

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Blood Magi are proficient with all simple weapons, and no armor.

Spells
The blood magus casts as a sorcerer, and uses Charisma for bonus spells and save DCs. His spells known are also as the sorcerer.

Durable Casting
Blood magi may subtract their class level from all incoming damage for purposes of making concentration checks, to a minimum of 0, at which point no check is needed. Due to this ability, the blood magus need not make checks when casting spells, or when using Bloodseeking Spell (see below). This only applies to spells cast as a blood magus, or PrCs that are advancing blood mage.

Blood Casting
As part of casting spells, blood magi must pay a special price. They must pay a number of hit points equal to the spell level. Doing so is part of the casting, and requires no special action. This damage bypasses DR. In addition, they may not cast any spell whose blood cost would bring them to less than 0 HP. This only applies to spells cast as a blood mage, or PrCs that are advancing blood mage.

Toughness
Blood magi gain Toughness as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Staunch (Ex)
Beginning at 2nd level, a blood magus automatically stabilizes if he falls below 0 HP. In addition, he now dies at -10 HP or -(his CON score), which ever is farther from 0.

Recover (Su)
When a blood magus of 2nd level or higher falls below 25% HP, he gains fast healing 2 for a number of rounds equal to 3+CON mod. The fast healing increases to 3 at 6th level, 4 at 10th, 5 at 14, and 6 at 18th. This ability functions 1/day at 2nd level, 2/day at 8th, 3/day 14, and 4/day at 20th, but never more than once per hour.

Scarification
As the Complete Arcane Blood Magus

Transfusion (Su)
At 3rd level, the blood magus learns to use his blood offensively. By spending one point of HP per d6 of damage, he may make a ranged touch attack as a standard action. If the attack hits, then on the beginning of the blood mage's following turn, he recovers an amount of health equal to half the damage dealt, plus his CON mod. He may deal at most 1d6 damage upon gaining this ability, increasing by 1d6 every other level.

Thicker than Water (Ex)
The Blood Magus gains DR 1/bludgeoning, increasing by 1 every 4 levels.

Blood Draught
As the Complete Arcane Blood Magus, except that he may store a number of spell levels equal to his level+Con mod.

Bloodseeking Spell (Su)
As the Complete Arcane Blood Magus

Conversion (Su)
At 9th level, blood magi begin to see a new way to use blood in their magic. They may spend hit points to recover a spell of up to 1st level. They may recover up to 2nd level spells at 13th level, and 3rd level spells at 17th. The amount spent equals twice the spell level plus twice the number of times this ability has been used that day.

Reform
At 20th level, when the blood magus dies, he leaves no corpse, but only a pool of blood. This blood may be collected and contained with 10 minutes of work., and a sufficiently large container (DM's discretion). This must be done within 1 hour of the magus's death. If the blood was gathered, the blood magus reforms and comes back to life in 24 hours. The blood magus is revived at -9 hp, with all spent spell slots, as well as uses of Recover. Once revived, he begins to heal normally, and may rest upon gaining consciousness as normal. This effect does not result in level loss.

Notes:

Spoiler

Show

My intent was to take the Blood Magus from Complete Arcane, and make it into a base class. The idea was a caster who uses his life force to cast spells, and as such has some healing abilities built in. I considered making his casting CON based, but decided that I didn't want a SAD class, so I gave him some CON based abilities instead.

Also, I left out the descriptions for Blood Draught, Scarification, and Bloodseeking Spell due to my lack of knowledge about what I can/cant post legally. I figured it was better to be on the safe side there.

[Grinner]

Staunch
Beginning at 2nd level, a blood magus automatically stabilizes if he falls below 0 HP. In addition, he now dies at -10 HP or -(his CON score), which ever is lower.

Cool class, but what's up with Staunch? Seems like that may be a fairly severe drawback.

Edit: Ooo. Also, found a bug.

Reform
At 20th level, when the blood magus dies, he leaves no corpse, but only a pool of blood. This blood may be collected and contained with 10 minutes of work., and a sufficiently large container (DM's discretion). This must be done within 1 hour of the magus's death. If the blood was gathered, the blood magus reforms and comes back to life in 24 hours. The blood magus is revived at -9 hp, with all spent spell slots, as well as uses of Recover. Once revived, he begins to heal normally, and may rest upon gaining consciousness as normal.

As written, if the Blood Magus possesses a Constitution score of 9 or less, then he'll automatically die after reforming. Then, assuming the blood pool remains contained, he'll revive again 24 hours later, only to die, again. This will continue infinitely.

[Sypher667]

Cool class, but what's up with Staunch? Seems like that may be a fairly severe drawback.

Better phrasing would have been "whichever is farther from 0". Consider it changed.

[Grinner]

Oh, I see what you meant now.

[Lither]

I think that this class would work better with Improved Toughness rather than Toughness as it's bonus feat. Being a class that relies on hitpoints, Improved Toughness provides a (slight) bonus to hitpoints that relies on level rather than a static bonus.

I like this class.

[Sypher667]

I think that this class would work better with Improved Toughness rather than Toughness as it's bonus feat. Being a class that relies on hitpoints, Improved Toughness provides a (slight) bonus to hitpoints that relies on level rather than a static bonus.

Ive been debating that choice myself for a while now. From the lower level perspective, the extra 2 hp at first level is probably the better choice. But once we get to higher levels, they become surpassed quickly. I am, however, considering upgrading toughness to improved toughness at 4th level, though that might be a bit much.

I like this class.

Glad you think so.