Blood Mage Prestige Class Option Running through an alley to escape his pursuers, a human wizard finds himself cornered. As the town guard closes in, the wizard takes out a dagger and stabs it through his palm. Channelling the blood flowing out of his wound, the wizard controls the mind of one of his would-be captors, causing the guard to turn on his comrades and giving the fugitive time to escape. Bleeding from dozens of wounds, a half-elf warlock surveys the hobgoblin corpses strewn around her. Closing her eyes, she reaches her hands out, draining her fallen foes of their life force. She laughs quietly to herself as the cuts and gouges in her flesh begin to close. Two dragonborn siblings are fighting together when the brother is struck by an arrow and falls to the ground. Quickly, he reaches out his hand towards his sister. She screams in agony as her life force is drained. Badly weakened, and with only moments before being overwhelmed by her attackers, she looks in confusion and anger as her now uninjured brother channels his new-found vitality and disappears through an arcane portal. Practitioners of blood magic have a fearsome reputation, not wholly unearned. Whether they turn to the forbidden art in a quest for greater power and magical understanding or out of desperation, promising themselves that they will only use it as a last resort, few blood mages manage to avoid being corrupted by the powerful forces they seek to control. Fugitives and Furtive Scholars Many a mage on the run has turned to blood magic to avoid detection or capture. Their dabbling in this taboo form of magic usually compounds their crimes, shunting them further from society. Meanwhile, well-regarded mages, eager to increase the breadth of their magical understanding, occassionally begin to study blood magic in secret. For as long as they can keep their new hobby hidden, these mages are able to remain in good standing, but the more they draw on their own lifeforce to fuel their magic, the more likely they will forget their good intentions. Creatures with blood For the purpose of blood mage class features, a creature is considered to have blood if it is of a type other than construct, elemental, ooze, plant, or undead and does not have the Living Construct trait (or similar). In your game, other creatures may be added to this list of bloodless creatures, or specific creatures with the listed types or traits may be considered to have blood. If so, these exceptions should be discussed and enumerated before play starts. Prerequisites In order to become a blood mage, you must meet the following prerequisites (in addition to the multiclassing prerequisites for your existing classes): Constitution 15. Your body must be strong enough to withstand the constant drain on your lifeforce that using blood magic entails.

Must have blood. Your character must be of a race and creature type that has blood.

Spellcaster. Blood magic is a tool used to enhance a spellcaster's abilities. You must be able to cast at least one spell of 3rd level or higher to become a blood mage.

Dark Secrets. The techniques and rituals used in blood magic are not widely available or easy to discover on one's own. A spellcaster wishing to become a blood mage must typically find another practitioner willing to teach them or a tome that contains the secrets of blood magic.

Blood Mage ----Spell Slots per Level---- Level Features Spells 1st 2nd 3rd 1st Blood Magic, Canvas of Flesh Charm Person 2 -- -- 2nd Feast of the Fallen Tasha's Hideous Laughter 3 -- -- 3rd Blood Thrall, Sanguine Resilience Hold Person 4 2 -- 4th Crimson Strength Enthrall 4 3 -- 5th Blood Tide, Maleficar Hypnotic Pattern, Vampiric Touch 4 3 2 Class Features As a blood mage, you gain the following class features Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d8 per blood mage level

1d8 per blood mage level Hit Points per Level: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constituion modifier per blood mage level Proficiencies Weapons: Daggers Saving Throws: None

None Skills: None Equipment When you take your first level of blood mage, you acquire a dagger if you did not have one already. Blood Magic Preparing and Casting Spells The Blood Mage table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You automatically prepare all blood mage spells that are available for you to cast, as indicated in the Blood Mage table. Casting a blood mage spell doesn't remove it from your list of prepared spells. Casting Spells Using Blood Magic Alternatively, you may cast a spell that does not require costly material components and that you know and have prepared using blood magic (it need not be a blood mage spell). The spell slot level used to cast a spell this way must be a level for which you have spell slots and may not be higher than your blood mage level. In order to cast a spell using blood magic, you must be holding a melee weapon that deals slashing or piercing damage and have a free hand. If you do not have a free hand before casting the spell, you may sheath or stow the weapon in order to fulfill these requirements (sheathing or stowing the weapon occurs during the action of casting the spell, but still counts as interacting with an object if it otherwise would). When you cast a spell using blood magic, you cut into your flesh to bring forth your blood. You ignore any somatic and material components of the spell and you do not expend a spell slot. Instead, you take necrotic damage as indicated in the Blood Magic Spellcasting table and your hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction cannot be reduced or negated in any way and lasts until you finish a long rest. This necrotic damage cannot be reduced or negated in any way and bypasses temporary hit points and other protective effects that have a hit point total. Blood Magic Spellcasting Slot Level Necrotic Damage 1st 2d8 2nd 3d8 3rd 5d8 4th 6d8 5th 7d8 Spellcasting Ability Constitution is your spellcasting ability for your blood mage class features, blood mage spells, and spells you cast using blood magic since the power of your magic comes from expending your own life force. You use this ability whenever a blood mage class feature, blood mage spell, or a spell you cast using blood magic refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use this ability's modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a blood mage class feature, blood mage spell, or spell you cast using blood magic 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 If you have a spellcasting focus granted by one of your other classes, you may also use it as a spellcasting focus for your blood mage spells.

Variant Rule: Daggers and Blood Magic Because daggers are central to the iconography of blood magic, you may want to relax some of the blood magic spellcasting rules when the blood mage is using a dagger in order to encourage their use. Using this variant rule, you do not need to be holding the dagger you use for your blood magic as long as it is readily available. In casting the spell, you are assumed to draw the dagger, cut yourself, and then sheath or stow it, but doing so does not count as interacting with an object. Canvas of Flesh The repeated mutilation of your flesh has caused your body to develop regenerative powers. When you take your first level of this class, any scars that are less than a year old heal completely. Whenever you take a short or long rest, any cuts, gouges, or other superficial wounds that are less than 24 hours old heal completely on finishing the rest. You may concentrate on a specific wound at the beginning of the rest to have your healing powers ignore it during that rest. Feast of the Fallen At 2nd level, your mastery of blood magic allows you to draw out the life force from the recently deceased. As an action, you drain nearby corpses and your hit point maximum increases by 1 for each hit die from each corpse affected by this ability up to your usual hit point maximum. In order to gain this benefit from a corpse, the following conditions must be met: Most of the corpse must be within 60 feet of you (the corpse does not otherwise need to be intact) The corpse must be from a creature that has blood

The corpse must have been dead for less than 24 hours

The corpse must be of a Small or larger creature

The corpse cannot have been affected by this ability before At 4th level, you have become an expert in this dark form of sustenance. This ability now uses a bonus action instead of an action. At 5th level, you can shape the life force of the dead into healing energies. When you use this ability, you may choose to regain an amount of hit points equal to the amount by which your maximum hit points increased (your hit point maximum is restored before you regain hit points). You cannot regain hit points in this way again until you finish a long rest. Feast of the Fallen and Unconscious Creatures Feast of the Fallen only affects creatures who are dead. Generally, when a monster is reduced to 0 hit points, they are considered dead, but this may be handled differently. Therefore, it is important to clarify how monsters and NPCs reduced to 0 hit points will be treated before a player decides whether to take levels in this class. Blood Thrall At 3th level, your mastery of your own blood extends to the blood of others. As an action you perform the steps in using blood magic to cast a spell with a 3rd level spell slot. Choose a creature with blood you can see within 30 feet. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, the creature's will is partially subsumed under your own. For the duration of this effect, the creature must spend its turn trying to attack the nearest creature it can sense that is hostile to you and may

not willingly attack or endanger you or your allies. Roll initiative for the creature, which has its own turns (you do not reroll initiative if the creature was already in the initiative order). You must concentrate on this ability as if concentrating on a spell. If your concentration is broken, the effect ends. Otherwise, the effect ends after 1 minute. At the end of each of the creature's turns, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. If the creature succeeds on its initial saving throw or when the effect ends, the creature takes 3d6 necrotic damage. At 4th level, you drain the life-force of your thrall. Whenever the creature affected by Blood Thrall fails a save against the effect, it takes 1d6 necrotic damage. Sanguine Resilience At 3rd level, your blood rejects mundane ailments. You are immune to diseases. Any diseases you already had are cured. Crimson Strength At 4th level, your study and practice of blood magic has fortified your life force to unnatural levels. Your Constitution increases by 2 and your maximum Constitution score is now 22 unless it was already 22 or higher. Blood Tide At 5th level, you have learned to extend the reach of your blood control to multiple targets. As an action you perform the steps in using blood magic to cast a spell with a 5th level spell slot. Choose any number of creatures with blood you can see within 30 feet. The creature(s) must make a Constitution saving throw. Any creature that fails the saving throw is stunned as it struggles to regain control of its circulatory system. You must concentrate on this ability as if concentrating on a spell. If your concentration is broken, the effect ends. Otherwise, the effect ends after 1 minute. At the end of each of the creature's turns, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success. On a failed save it takes 1d6 necrotic damage. Maleficar At 5th level, you have mastered blood magic, but your mastery has changed you. You gain the following flaw: I am persecuted because of my greatness Blood Mages & Multiclassing As a prestige class, levels in blood mage are only available through multiclassing. Blood mages are considered full casters, the equivalent of wizards, for the purposes of multicasting spell slots.