PDA

View Full Version : (3.5 Base class) Sanguine Knight



Gnomes2169
2013-01-21, 05:11 AM
Please note, I am open to suggestions. As in, please help me! :smalleek: Any feedback is good feedback.

Current version: 1 2 3 4 5 6 (Major revamp) 7 8 (co-creator added) 9 (Balancing issues) 10 (Might as well add some class/ general feats and make this class more effective at its role, right?) 11 (Might as well get full saves to solidify the tank roll...) Version 12, modified as per Morph_Bark's balancing suggestions.. 13 Some more stuff 14 Epic levels added!

Note for DM's: this class is meant to be used in a medium-high magic setting, where most players have the ability to cast spells. It is meant to compete with said characters, and is much more powerful than the typical martial class because of it. Only allow players to use this in a low magic setting if you are certain they will not get carried away with it.

http://i758.photobucket.com/albums/xx222/Sir_Markus/aa/RedKnight.jpg

Class name: Sanguine Knight
Role: This class is a tank, reducing enemy damage by taking half upon himself and recovering from it in just a round or two. It also has many abilities that deal with manipulating and empowering blood.
Background information and things: Some people study the arcane, learning to harvest the essence of the universe itself to create things of wonder and beauty. Others pursue the divine, drawing upon powers that normal mortals should never be exposed to. And still others find perfection in the blade and things of great worth, maybe introspection and epiphany. The Sanguine Knight does none of the above. Instead, their studies and passion involves manipulating their physical bodies, more specifically their blood and icor. This kind of control, and the cost of it, comes quickly and from one's own body, allowing a Sanguine Knight to pursue other, simpler, subjects while he learns to control his abilities. Magics, especially those of a divine nature, actually tend to disrupt the focus required for blood manipulation, so the subjects that are most often pursued by a Sanguine Knight are ones of a martial nature, running, jumping, fighting, that sort of thing. They also seem to excel at speech crafts, learning to recognize how someone is feeling and how to talk to them due to their intimate relationship with a living body.
The more powerful Sanguine Knights are able to influence the blood of others, and have mastery so great over their own bodies that they can seemingly recover from anything, regrowing even lost limbs after a long enough time.
As adventurers: Sanguine Knights often manifest their powers early in life, as such they are usually rather young and ambitious. They also tend to see themselves as invulnerable, rushing brashly into dangerous situations because they are "assured" they will survive. Good Sanguine Knights tend to be the idealist, using their own body to protect others while their evil counterparts use it as insurance against not being killed while they do their evil things.
Characteristics: Their powers manifest very early in their life, becoming more prominent as the Sanguine Knight learns to control them. Usually, though, their control is innate and does not require years to learn. Their wounds progressively heal swifter and they gradually become harder and harder to kill.
Alignment: Having no amounts of training other than what they learned on their own, and having no organization to govern them beyond one they choose, they can be any alignment they wish. They tend to be more aligned with neutrality and evil, due to ideals of grandeur that corrupt their sense of right and wrong and delude them to their own frailty or shortcomings.
Religion: Though most Sanguine Knights are weary of the gods and worshiping them, a random blessing could really ruin a guy's day, after all, they do have some gods that they might worship. A little bit. Depending on alignment, they tend to worship gods of life, healing or power. Maybe pride or blood.
Races: Anything that lives and has blood flowing through its veins can become a Sanguine Knight, though races that tend to excel are Dwarves, half-dragons and half-giants, or anything else that has high constitution. Elven Sanguine Knights aren't unheard of, but they are still rather rare due to their innate frailty.
Other classes: Clerics and druids often have some problems with Sanguine Knights because they often shun the gods and the natural order, imposing their own will and justification for things instead. Also, Mages and Sanguine Knights tend to be at odds since Mages want to poke and prod these people to figure out how they do their thing, and despite being able to heal Sanguine Knights do not like being poked or prodded. Other classes are fine, so long as they don't go out of their way to be annoying.
Abilities: Constitution is even more important for this class than any other, since they absorb damage for their allies and almost every aspect is based off of getting the largest bonus you can. Dexterity is a close second, as it is needed for their AC and reflex saves. Charisma could replace it to help them with their speech craft skills.

Alignment: Any
HD: d12
Starting Gold: As a Fighter
Starting age: As a Fighter
Requirement: The Sanguine Knight must be a living creature with flesh and blood. If this ever becomes untrue, all class features are lost, and no further levels may be taken until the Sanguine Knight is returned to his original living status.


Level Base attack bonus Fort save Ref save Will save Class features
1 +1 +2 +0 +2 Blood Bond, Crimson revelry
2 +2 +3 +0 +3 Con +2, Vital sight, Endurance
3 +3 +3 +1 +3 Resilient blood, Adrenaline Surge
4 +4 +4 +1 +4 Cruor Blade, Diehard
5 +5 +4 +1 +4 Clear blood, Bloodlust
6 +6/+1 +5 +2 +5 Con +2, Blood walk
7 +7/+2 +5 +2 +5 Mettle
8 +8/+3 +6 +2 +6 Reinforced blood (1), Crimson Blade
9 +9/+4 +6 +3 +6 Bloody Step, Unflinchable, Battle Surge
10 +10/+5 +7 +3 +7 Con +2, Cripple
11 +11/+6/+1 +7 +3 +7 Strength of Body
12 +12/+7/+2 +8 +4 +8 Reinforced blood (2), Ichor Blade
13 +13/+8/+3 +8 +4 +8 Remove weakness, Regrow limb
14 +14/+9/+4 +9 +4 +9 Con +2, Body and Mind
15 +15/+10/+5 +9 +5 +9 Impervious to pain, Battle Euphoria
16 +16/+11/+6/+1 +10 +5 +10 Boil Blood, Reinforced Blood (3), Vampiric Blade
17 +17/+12/+7/+2 +10 +5 +10 Improved Mettle, Reflexive core
18 +18/+13/+8/+3 +11 +6 +11 Con +2, Eye of the Storm
19 +19/+14/+9/+4 +11 +6 +11 Undying
20 +20/+15/+10/+5 +12 +6 +12 Blossom of Gore, Reinforced blood (4), Sanguine Blade

Skills: Class skills for the Sanguine Knight (and, of course, their stat mods) are; Balance (dex), Bluff (cha), Climb (str), Concentration (con), Craft (int), Diplomacy (cha), Escape Artist (dex), Handle animal (wis), Heal (wis), Intimidate (cha), Jump (str), Knowledge; Nature (int), Profession (wis), Ride (dex), Sense motive (wis), Spot (wis), Survival (wis), Swim (str), Tumble (dex), Use Rope (dex)
Skill points at 1st level: (6+Int mod)*4
Skill points each level after: 6+Int mod

Class features:
Weapon and armor proficiencies: The Sanguine Knight is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and all shields and armor. He is also proficient with any object made out of blood.

Blood Bond (Su)**: At level 1, as a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity in combat, a Sanguine Knight may form a Blood Bond with a willing, sentient, living creature (who possesses blood or another similar vital liquid) adjacent to him.

Whenever his bonded partner takes damage, the Sanguine Knight may choose to suffer an amount of damage up to X (Where X is 1/2 Sanguine knight's level + his constitution modifier). The original target of the attack reduces the damage that would be dealt to them by an amount equal to that taken by the Sanguine Knight (for example: if an ally of the Sanguine Knight would take 20 damage from an attack, a level 8 Sanguine Knight with a constitution of 22 may choose to take up to 10 damage. He reduces the damage his ally takes by an amount equal to the damage he redirected to himself). The damage diverted in this manner may not exceed 1/2 of the incoming damage.

A 1st level Sanguine Knight may have a single Blood Bond active at once. He gains the ability to maintain an additional Blood Bond at 3rd level, and every 3 levels thereafter (to a maximum of 7 at 20th level).

A Blood Bond persists indefinitely, or until either the Sanguine Knight or his bound partner choose to terminate it as a free action. A Blood Bond cannot be used if either of the Sanguine Knight or its bonded target is on a different plane or dead.

At level 8, the Sanguine Knight can shift damage between bonded partners instead of absorbing it all himself. The damage can be divided any number of ways, but it must be equal to all creatures, and the Sanguine Knight must take some of the damage himself. For example, if a level 8 sanguine knight with 3 blood bonds absorbs 18 damage from an attack to one of those allies, he may divide it into thirds so that he and the other two creatures take 6 damage each. This does not increase the damage that may be absorbed from an attack, it merely redirects it to multiple targets. All targets of this split must be willing.

At level 10, all creatures that the Sanguine Knight has bonded may communicate telepathically with one another through their blood, using the Sanguine Knight as their focal point. This communication cannot be detected through normal means, and it may not be detected by a "Read thoughts" or any magical way to detect telepathic messages. Only members who have been bonded may communicate in this way, and they may only do it within 100' of the Sanguine Knight.

At level 12 the Sanguine Knight learns how to aid in making the bodies of his allies more durable and helps them heal faster. From this point on, the Sanguine Knight grants all creatures bonded to him quick healing 3 and DR 2/-. These bonuses are untyped, and stack with abilities, enhancements and spells that grant similar effects.

At level 16 the Sanguine Knight learns how to use the senses of his allies to dodge out of the way of incoming attacks. From this point on, the Sanguine Knight gains a +1 dodge bonus to his AC for every creature he has bonded. This bonus stacks with other dodge bonuses and functions within an anti-magic field, even though blood bonds are normally disabled within them.

Finally, at level 18 the Sanguine Knight knows how to perfectly bolster his allies, granting all creatures bonded to him a +2 untyped bonus to their constitution while he gains a +5 temporary hit points for creature he has bonded. Damage comes from this pool of health first and the pool is recharged at the end of the encounter. He may also, 3 times a day, spend a full round action to heal a bonded creature as per the spell Heal and instantly cure all attribute damage dealt to the target.

Crimson Revelry (Su)**: Starting at level 1 the sanguine knight's body enters a heightened state of self preservation and learns how to heal his wounds durring the chaos of combat. Each round, at the beginning of his turn, a Sanguine Knight regains 1 hit point per class level. This ability only functions if a living creature within 200ft (other than the Sanguine Knight himself) took lethal damage in the previous round. For damage to activate this ability, it must be lethal or harmful in intent: while an enemy’s attack, a trap, or an ally slashing open his side with a dagger would be sufficient to trigger this ability, a creature pricking its finger merely to draw blood is not enough.*
*Yes, this clause is to prevent player shenanigans with low-damage effects.

At level 13, this effect triggers as long as a creature other than the Sanguine Knight is damaged, it does not matter if they are alive, dead, undead or a construct*.
*And THIS tidbit was added in just in case you have a DM that hates using living things at higher levels >.>

Con +2: The Sanguine Knight's body is much tougher than any normal variant of the species, granting him a +2 to his Constitution score at level 2 and +2 every 4 levels after. This ability score boost is added in partnership with and does not consume his normal ability score bonus granted by leveling up.

Vital Sight (Su)**: A Sanguine Knight is attuned to the blood around him. At level 2 he may see living creatures within 200ft as if he had Blindsight, although this ability does not help him distinguish terrain, colors, non-living creatures, or anything else Blindsight would normally do. Additionally, he can immediately recognize if a creature within this range is unwounded (full hit points), wounded (less than full hit points but more than half), critically wounded (below half hit points), dying (-1 to -9 hit points) or dead.

Finally, a Sanguine Knight can detect blood on the ground even days after it has been shed. He may follow even the faintest trail of blood as if he had the Track feat, provided the blood has been shed within a period of time equal to one week + one week per point of his Knowledge; Nature skill.

This ability requires line of effect to function: a Sanguine Knight can feel the heartbeat of the kobold skulking in the corner, but the one behind the wall remains a mystery.

Endurance: The Sanguine Knight gains the feat Endurance at level 2.

Resilient blood (ex): The Sanguine Knight's blood and immune system are extremely resilient to all poisons and diseases, granting a +6 bonus against these at level 3.

Adrenaline Surge (ex): At level 3 the Sanguine Knight becomes more powerful as he becomes bloodied, pumping raw strength into his body via his willpower. He gains +4 Dexterity and Strength for 1 round/ level when he is reduced to 50% health (rounded down). At the end of this ability's duration the Sanguine Knight becomes winded like a Barbarian that has come out of a rage for five rounds. After he is done being winded, this ability can be used again.
At level 9 this ability becomes Battle Surge and increases the Dexterity and Strength bonus to +6. He also gains an extra +2 untyped bonus to his AC until the end of the duration.
At level 15, this ability becomes Battle Euphoria and increases Dexterity and Constitution (As Strength of Body is now in effect) bonus to +8. He also gains a +4 untyped bonus to his AC until the end of the duration.

Cruor Blade (Su)**: At level 4, the knight learns to use the blood of his enemies as a weapon. The first time each encounter that a Sanguine Knight deals lethal damage with a melee weapon to a foe that possess blood, the blood clings to his weapon, turning it into a Cruor Blade. Treat the Cruor Blade as being the Sanguine Knight’s normal melee weapon, but increase its reach by 5' and he gains a +8 untyped bonus to resist all disarm attempts made against this weapon.
At level 8, this weapon applies bleeding damage to whatever it damages equal to the Sanguine Knight's Con bonus. This effect may only be applied once per round, and applications beyond the current one only add 1/2 of the bleeding value.
At level 12, enemies that take lethal damage from this weapon are dealt 1d3+1 constitution damage from excessive bleeding (Fortitude save DC10+1/2 Sanguine Knight's level+Constitution bonus for half). This constitution damage may only apply once per round. This weapon may also be used to deliver touch attacks or spells (i.e., may be used to make touch attacks such as Shocking grasp, cripple or blood boil as a ranged touch attack).
At level 16, this weapon has a lifestealing effect, healing the Sanguine Knight for 1d6/ 5 levels damage and dealing that much extra damage per swing to all creatures. The reach range is also increased to +10'.
Finally at level 20, the Cruor Blade deals splash damage on critical hits to creatures within 10" of the target, dealing 25% of the damage rolled to each creature (after applying strength, enchantment and critical modifiers).

The weapon remains a Cruor Blade for as long as it remains in the Sanguine Knight’s grasp, or until 5 rounds have passed since it last dealt lethal damage to a target.

At level 12 the Sanguine Knight may choose to take their weapon's base damage as untyped sacrificial damage as an immediate action to coat his blade in his own blood, granting the appropriate effects listed above.

Diehard (ex): At level 4 the Sanguine Knight gains the feat Diehard, regardless of whether or not he meets the requirements.

Clear Blood (ex): At level 5, the Sanguine knight learns how to control the very flow of his blood. This further enhances the Sanguine Knight's resistance to diseases and poisons, making him immune to all normal varieties and adding a further +2 against ones of magical origin (bringing the total to +8).

Bloodlust (su): At 5th level, the Sanguine Knight is thrown into a minor frenzy at the sight of blood, hitting those already damaged harder and more often. When attacking a living enemy that has already been damaged, the Sanguine Knight gains +1 to hit and damage against it for every 10% of its maximum health it is missing. If the target is taking Bleeding damage, this bonus is increased by a further +2. This bleeding bonus may only be applied once per target enemy, regardless of how many times they are bleeding.

At level 10, add half of this attack and damage bonus when fighting enemies that are not living. (Scaling at +1 attack/ damage per every 20% of the non-living target's HP missing.)

Blood walk (su): At level 6 the Sanguine Knight moves with the blood that has been spilled, seeming to twist and jump in it at speeds that make it appear that he is phasing within it. When this character is moving towards a living creature that has taken damage this encounter, or he is following a trail of blood, he adds +30 to his base movement and may make a concentration check (DC Attacker's attack roll (+5 to the DC if moving through an occupied space)) to avoid any prompted attacks of opportunity. The Sanguine Knight may also move through spaces occupied by creatures with no penalty, as long as he is moving directly towards a damaged creature*. He cannot, however, stop on an already occupied space.

*Note, this does include special movement types such as charge or bull rush. You may move through tiles occupied by creatures while carrying out these combat maneuvers.

Mettle (ex): Beginning at 7th level, if a Sanguine Knight makes a successful Will or Fortitude save that would normally reduce the save’s effect, he suffers no effect from the spell at all. Only those spells with a saving throw entry of “partial” or “half” are affected by this ability, and only for purposes of Will and/or Fortitude saves with these descriptors.

Reinforced blood (ex): Starting at the eighth level and on every fourth level after that, the Sanguine Knight begins to reinforce the blood of his being, eventually changing the nature of his genetic structure to something greater.
-At level 8 he absorbs one point of Constitution damage from every attack that would damage it. The Sanguine Knight also becomes immune to bleeding damage (Including taking standard/ full round actions while in the negatives for hitpoints).
-At level 12 he has damage resistance 5/magic and absorbs 2 points of constitution damage. He also gains SR equal to 10+Character level. This SR can be activated or deactivated at will as a free action.
-At level 16 he absorbs 4 points of constitution damage and his blood gains his alignment*. Finally, DR is raised to 10/alignment.
-At level 20 he counts as an Intelligent Ooze** and is immune to constitution damage and drain. Finally, DR is raised to 15/alignment.
*This means that his DR is changes to /Opposed alignment(s) (A NG SK would have DR/ evil while a LE one would have DR/ Good or Chaos), his cruor blade gains an alignment (this replaces the alignment enhancement on the base weapon, if any), any weapon or item made from his blood has his alignment and he counts as a magical humanoid, if he did not before.

**Note, for the purposes of fluff and stuff, the Sanguine Knight retains his normal appearance and biology.

As a final note, all of the DR's are a Supernatural effect, and as such do not function in an AMF or Dead Magic Zone.

As a note, constitution draining is not prevented until level 20. This stat protection does not apply to any stat other than constitution.

Bloody Step (Su)**: At level 9, the Sanguine Knight may move through a wounded creature’s blood, emerging at the location of another creature. As a standard action he may teleport from any adjacent living creature with less than its maximum number of hit points to a location within 100ft that is adjacent to any living creature. If he so chooses he may make his exit a violent exit, which causes severe internal bleeding: a creature so affected must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the Sanguine Knight’s class level + the Sanguine Knight’s Constitution modifier) or take 1d6 untyped lethal damage per class level (maximum 20d6 damage at 20th level) and be stunned for 1 round. On a successful save the damage is reduced to 1/2 it's normal value.

If the creature the Sanguine Knight teleports adjacent to is unwounded, he must choose the violent exit option, and it deals 1 point of untyped lethal damage even on a successful save.

Unflinchable (ex): After dealing with pain and other damage for so long, the Sanguine Knight has grown used to the labor and distortion of high-stress situations, and can even function normally if near death. Starting at level 9, the Sanguine Knight no longer is affected by any flinching, staggering, stunning or exhaustion effects. His full attacks may not be disrupted in any way, and successful AoO do not disrupt his bull rush, grapple or trip attempts. This does not remove the need to sleep, but does remove penalties from staying up for too long.

Cripple (su): At level 10 the Sanguine Knight's skills begin to branch out into conteol of other's blood. Three times a day, after making a successful Touch attack against a living enemy, the Sanguine Knight can attempt to take control of an enemy's blood. He must succeed with a concentration check (DC10+target's level+target's fort save) to succeed. If he succeeds he may enforce his will on the target's blood at any time, twisting it painfully in their veins and giving them a -4 pain penalty to their actions and reducing their movement speed by 10'. To end this effect the Sanguine Knight must release his control or the Sanguine Knight must become incapacitated or dies. He does not need to end the effect to temporarily pause the effects. As a free action he may disable or activate a cripple that he is currently maintaining.

All targets that have supernatural/ spell/ psi-like abilities or caster levels suffer a 65% spell failure rate while under this effect. If a spell or supernatural ability takes multiple rounds to cast, or is maintained by concentrated channeling, then this 65% failure rate applies every round the effect/ spell is maintained. This attack may be delivered as part of a full attack once per round, replacing one attack in the iteration at its normal attack bonus.

Strength of Body (ex): At level 11, the strength of the Sanguine Knight begins to surge. All parts of the body are connected, meaning that the endurance and durability of the flesh is, in fact, just a different aspect of the strength of one's muscles. Understanding how to manipulate this, the Sanguine Knight replaces his Strength score with his Constitution score.

Remove weakness: Becoming ever stronger, the Sanguine Knight can change the state of his body, removing most weak points with the precision of a surgeon. At level 13 the Sanguine Knight permanently gains an ability to negate 75% of all critical hits and sneak attacks. This ability does not stack with the armor and shield enchantment Fortification.

Regrow limb (su): At level 13 if the Sanguine Knight somehow loses a limb and survives the encounter, he may spend the next ten minutes regrowing that limb. He goes into a trance-like state of concentration during this time. At the end of this process, the limb will be fully regrown and usable. This does not heal any damage dealt from the loss of the replaced limb.

Body and Mind (ex): At level 14, the strength of the Knight's body can be used to reflect his inner world's stability, forcing those that wish to attack his mind to get through that instead of his willpower. The Sanguine Knight gains the feat Steadfast determination (http://dndtools.eu/feats/players-handbook-ii--80/steadfast-determination--2761/), but with the added effect that he cannot fumble will saves as well.

Impervious to pain (ex): After being hit and punished so many times, the Sanguine Knight has become not only used to pain, but almost welcomes it when it comes. At level 15, this gives him an immunity to the effects of pain, physically or magically induced (Immunity to spells/ enchantments like agony, pain, maiming, overwhelming, etc and mundane effects like being cut, massive damage, torture, etc. Your DM decides what constitutes a "pain" effect, but the above effects are certainly on the list).

Blood Boil (su): Three times per encounter at level 16 the Sanguine Knight may make a touch attack against a living enemy to, literally, boil their blood. This ability deals 14d8+level+Con mod damage to the target and knocks it unconscious for 3 rounds. A fortitude save (DC10+1/2 level+Con) is allowed for half damage and to remain conscious, though the creature will be staggered instead. This attack may be delivered as part of a full attack once per round, replacing one attack in the iteration at its normal attack bonus.

Improved Mettle (ex): At 17th level, a Sanguine Knight’s mettle ability improves. He still takes no effect on a successful Will or Fortitude save that has the “partial” or “half” descriptor, but henceforth he takes only the partial effect or half the damage on a failed save.

Reflexive core (ex): At level 17, the Sanguine Knight's body becomes the perfect vessel of movement and form as he finally masters every last part of it. From this point on, he adds his Constitution modifier to all dexterity based skills and gains a dodge bonus to his armor class and reflex saves equal to half his constitution modifier (rounded down).

Eye of the Storm (su): At level 18 a Sanguine Knight has such mastery over his blood that he may manifest it in the air around him as a swift action, creating multiple shifting, slashing rings to protect himself from harm and damage those that would try to get too close. This active ability grants a +5 bonus to AC and deals 8d8+Sanguine Knight level+Con mod points of untyped damage each round to enemies that are in melee distance and lasts 1 round for every 2 levels of Sanguine Knight. He may use Eye of the Storm once per encounter.

Undying (ex): The greatest of Sanguine Knights do not fall from one or even one hundred blows. Their body's durability allows them to hold on to life long past the point where any lesser man or woman would have fallen apart, allowing him to stand at the gates of hell themselves and keep on fighting. The Sanguine Knight is not killed once he reaches -10 hit points, instead his threshold is equal to 10+2*Con Score. Spells that would kill the Sanguine Knight in one blow (Such as Disintegrate and Power Word Kill, Finger of Death, etc) only set him to -20 HP as long as he was in the positive before the spell affected him. Spells such as petrify which change the composition of the character without technically "killing" him will still have their full effect.

If the Sanguine Knight does reach a point where he would die, instead he may absorb up to 30 health from every blood bonded ally and instantly heal himself of that much damage. He may not reduce an ally below 1 health with this ability.

Blossom of Gore (Su)**: Once per encounter, as a full-round action, a Sanguine Knight may pull the essence from his enemies and feast upon it, bolstering his own strength and potentially creating ensnaring fields of splattered viscera. All living opponents within a 30ft radius must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the Sanguine Knight’s class level + the Sanguine Knight’s Constitution modifier) or be immediately reduced to -10 hit points. If even a single enemy fails this save, the Sanguine Knight regains hit points sufficient to return him to his normal maximum number of hit points, and all opponents within a 15ft radius of a creature who has failed its save must succeed on a Reflex save (at the same DC) or be immobilized for 3 rounds. A successful Reflex save reduces this to a single round.

A successful Fortitude save against the first effect results in 10d6 points of untyped lethal damage, although this damage cannot reduce a target below -1 hit points.

**Denotes a skill that (at least conceptually (Cruor blade only)) was created by Djinn_in_Tonic

Class/ new feats
Blood of my Blood
Requirements: Blood Bond, +6 BAB, Neutral or Good character
Effect: The maximum damage that can be absorbed by a Blood Bond is doubled, though only up to 3/4 of incoming damage can be diverted in this way. You may link one more target via Blood Bond than you normally are allowed to.
Normal: You may only take up to 1/2 level+con modifier, up to 1/2 of an attack's damage maximum.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you do, gain another bond and add 5 to the maximum amount of damage you can absorb (it still cannot go higher than 3/4 of the damage dealt).

Heart of my Heart
Requirements: Blood of my Blood, +9 BAB
Effect: The Sanguine Knight may split off up to 10 points of his Crimson Revelry to one blood-bonded target every round as a free action. This target may be changed at any time, though only one target may be affected at any one time.
Normal: Only you benefit from Crimson Revelry.

Soul of my Soul
Requirements: Heart of my Heart, +12 BAB
Effect: If at any time a Blood Bonded ally is targeted by an effect that requires a saving throw and the Sanguine Knight has a higher base value, he may replace their base save with his. This is a free action. Only one base save may be modified per turn.
Normal: Your base saves are only usable by you.

You're going to regret that
Requirements: Sanguine Knight level 6
Effect: Your blood becomes a powerful acid, damaging those that come in contact with it. Enemies that strike you in melee range are dealt 1d6/3 level+Con retaliation damage. This damage is acidic in nature, and can be affected by energy resistances or immunities.
Normal: Your blood is normal and does not damage anything that is not specifically harmed by the blood of your race.

All blood is sort of the same...
Requirements: Sanguine Knight level 9
Effect: Crimson Revelry activates even if you are the only one to have taken damage last turn.
Normal: You only heal from Crimson Revelry if a creature other than yourself has taken damage this turn.

Natural healer
Requirements: 18 Constitution, some form of natural healing over time*
Effect: All incoming healing is increased by your Con modifier. *Healing over time such as Regeneration from a spell or racial feature, Crimson revelry or Quick healing are only increased by 1/2 of your con modifier rounded down. This does not add to life stealing effects.
Normal: You only heal the amount rolled or the amount regenerated normally, without applying your con modifier.

Blood Weapon
Requirements: A race with blood, 16 con
Effect: A weapon made of your own blood is formed at the cost of 5 health. You must be proficient with the chosen manifested weapon. It counts as a masterwork version of the manifested weapon and has its critical range improved as if it had the improved critical feat applied to it (This does not stack with the feat improved critical). At level 1 this is a normal masterwork weapon, at level 3 you may apply any +1 enchantment. Every 3rd level afterwords, the enchantment bonus is increased by another +2, to a maximum of +11 at level 18.
This weapon manifests at the same rate you may draw a different weapon, and this feat is modified by quick draw.
Normal: You must rely on normal weapons instead.

Life Feast
Requirements: Sanguine Knight, +9 BAB
Effect: You passively consume some of the damage you deal to other creatures, healing 1d6+1 health every time one of your blows lands. This effect is not modified Natural Healer.
Normal: Your attacks do not heal you without the Vampiric enchantment.

Scent of Blood
Requirements: Bloodlust
Effect: The Sanguine Knight gains +2 Attack and Damage on a target enemy for every effect they are bleeding from. This includes bleeding damage over time, and constitution damage from bleeding.
Normal: You only gain the bonus once, no matter how many times they are bleeding.

War bonds
Requirements: +6 BAB, Blood Bond class feature, Neutral or Evil alignment.
Effect: The Sanguine Knight's attacks become more viscous as he bonds with his allies, using some part of their strength as his own. For every bond the Sanguine Knight possesses, he deals 1 extra damage on all melee attacks. Additionally, the Sanguine Knight may form one additional bond.

Shield me
Requirements: +9 BAB, War Bonds, Neutral or Evil alignment
Effect: When the Sanguine Knight takes damage from a source he is aware of, he may split off a number of the damage dealt to all of his allies instead of taking it himself equal to the amount of damage that he could absorb from them. The damage diverted must be divided equally among all bond members. Damage diverted cannot reduce the targets of the blood bond below 1 HP.
Normal: Blood Bonds can only divert damage to the Sanguine Knight, not away.

Bloody tyrant
Requirements: +12 BAB, Shield me, Neutral or Evil alignment
Effect: Forcing his will on a creature, the sanguine knight may force a blood bond on an unwilling creature. The sanguine knight may make a touch attack against a living creature, who must make a fortitude save (DC 10+Sanguine knight's con bonus+1/2 level) or become little more than the sanguine knight's pain puppet. The creature is treated as if they are under the effects of the Cripple ability, and is dealt 1/4 of the damage the sanguine knight receives. Bloody tyrant may be used once per encounter.
Special: The sanguine knight must have an open blood bond to use this ability.


HD: d12
Skill points/ level: 6+int

LevelClass featuresCon progression
21Blood bond (8)--
22----
23Bonus feat--
24--+2
25Blood Bond (9)--
26Bonus feat--
27----
28----
29Bonus feat, Blood Bond (10)--
[tr]30--[td+2[/td]

Blood Bonds: The Sanguine Knight continues to gain blood bonds, increasing the base bonds he may hold. At level 21 and every 4 levels after, the Sanguine Knight gains a new blood bond, increasing their base number of bonds to create and give out (as marked in the table, the number does not take into account additional bonds from Blood of my Blood or War Bonds).

Bonus feats: At level 23 and every third level after, the Sanguine Knight may choose a new epic-level feat that he qualifies for to take as a bonus feat. Bonus feats may be selected from the epic barbarian list, or any feat present in the class list/ epic progression class list.

Con progression: The Sanguine Knight continues to gain a constitution bonus. At level 24 and every 6 levels afterwords, he gains a further +2 bonus to his con that stacks with all other sources.


Blood shared is blood strengthened
Requirements: Blood bond (7 beings) Class Feature. Base Con 25.
Benefit: You gain +1 Con for every 3 beings you have a Blood Bond with.
Special: The Constitution Bonuses from the Sanguine Knight Class and Inherit Bonuses from con books do not count when calculating the Con score to qualify for this feat.

Master of the Blooded Blade
Requirements: Sanguine Blade class feature.
Benefit: The reach bonus granted by the Curor blade is increased by 5ft per 5 points of Constitution Modifier. Additionally, the bleed damage is doubled and cannot be healed by normal means, and it bypasses immunity to bleeding damage, albeit at half the normal rate. The bleed damage is treated as ability damage for methods of removing it, however immunity to ability damage does not prevent or remove it. This only affects the Hitpoint bleeding damage, the constitution damage remains unmodified.

Permanency of Blood
Requirements: Sanguine Knight, level 24
Benefit: The Sanguine Knight and all creatures bonded by him are treated as if under the effects of the spell indomitability (http://dndtools.eu/spells/spell-compendium--86/indomitability--3895/) at the beginning of every encounter. This effect only happens once per person per encounter, but does not prevent the further application of indomitability from a magic, supernatural or psionic source.

Sigil of blood
Requirements: Blood Bond class feature, Crimson revelry class feature or a source of natural healing (regeneration, fast healing, etc), Level 21
Benefit: You may place a visible mark of blood on a creature that you have bonded. When active, this mark will writhe and twist, as if alive. Whenever you benefit from the effects of Crimson Revelry or any natural healing, your marked ally will heal with you. You may place three sigils at any time, though only one per creature. These sigils will disappear once a marked creature or the sanguine knight they are linked to die.
Additionally, the Sanguine Knight gains Fast Healing 2 for every active sigil, or increases their already present fast healing by 2.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time, you may place 2 additional sigils.

Blood calls to blood
Requirements: Sigil of Blood
Benefit: The Sanguine Knight may, as a free action, teleport to a square adjacent to any creature that has one of his blood sigils. This effect may be used any number of times in a round, including during a full attack (allowing the Sanguine Knight to, say, attack multiple enemies adjacent to his allies but not each other). The sanguine Knight may teleport between planes or any distance with this effect.

And a thank you to Tempestfury for getting me to start on this section, as well as providing me with the first two epic feats of this class! (Blood shared is blood strengthened and Master of the blood blade)

Special thanks to Djin_in_Tonic, who greatly helped/ co created this project. :smallbiggrin:

CinuzIta
2013-01-21, 05:30 PM
So, these look like an interesting class! Personally, I would play it. Now:

1. Weapon and armor proficiencies: I guess that you intended light shield as the 2nd level proficiency right? :)

2. Regenerate: for semplicity sake, you could simply state that he gains Fast Healing X at level X, instead of writing "At level X, this ability allows the Regenerator to heal up to X points of lethal damage done to him at the beginning of each combat round and one combat round after battle concludes". These imply that he continue to regenerate even after the encounter has long ended but you could simply specify that the ability cease its functioning one round after the battle.

3. Trace Blood: I'm not an expert in tracking abilities, but maybe these is too specific. Maybe you could change it so that the Regenerator is able to determine the creature's type (and subtype maybe).

4. Blood Bullets: by certain rules, pistols' rounds deals both Piercing and Bludgeoning damage, I think you could do the same with these. Also, does the Regenerator has to create the Blood Bullets before the combat? Or is it a swift action? Or a standard one? Or what else?

5. Taunting Aura: I'd raise its radius to 20ft. Also, you should specificy what incredibly magical creatures are. To me, even a Gnome is one of them :P
Also, how could the Regenerator add a caster level to the DC since he's not a spellcaster?

6. Toxic Blood: why those DC? Why not putting DC 10/15 +Regenerator level instead?

7. Regrow Limb: it seems to me like three weeks are too much. I mean, tehre are spells that make your limbs regrow instantly, why should the Regenerator take that long? I'd say change it to one week.

8. Impervious to pain: ahm, it might just be me being tired, but what do you intend by "pain effects"? Do you mean lingering damages? Critical hits?

9. Eye of the storm: does the spinning bullets deal damage to enemies who attack the Regenerator when he use Eye of The Storm? Or is some sort of damage-dealing-aura (in wich case, you should specify the radius)?

10. Epic Blood: about the enchantments, I guess you intended "Freedom of Movement" in place of "Freedom". Also, you could consider an additional enchantment, like Fortification (being moderate or heavy it's up to you, I'd say Heavy Fortification is fitting). Also, do you intend that the blood bullets gain the characters alignment or any alignment the character wants them to be?


Anyhow, it's really a nice class, as I said I'd love to play it! What about simply naming it Bloodied?

Gnomes2169
2013-01-21, 06:08 PM
So, these look like an interesting class! Personally, I would play it. Now:

1. Weapon and armor proficiencies: I guess that you intended light shield as the 2nd level proficiency right? :)

2. Regenerate: for semplicity sake, you could simply state that he gains Fast Healing X at level X, instead of writing "At level X, this ability allows the Regenerator to heal up to X points of lethal damage done to him at the beginning of each combat round and one combat round after battle concludes". These imply that he continue to regenerate even after the encounter has long ended but you could simply specify that the ability cease its functioning one round after the battle.

3. Trace Blood: I'm not an expert in tracking abilities, but maybe these is too specific. Maybe you could change it so that the Regenerator is able to determine the creature's type (and subtype maybe).

4. Blood Bullets: by certain rules, pistols' rounds deals both Piercing and Bludgeoning damage, I think you could do the same with these. Also, does the Regenerator has to create the Blood Bullets before the combat? Or is it a swift action? Or a standard one? Or what else?

5. Taunting Aura: I'd raise its radius to 20ft. Also, you should specificy what incredibly magical creatures are. To me, even a Gnome is one of them :P
Also, how could the Regenerator add a caster level to the DC since he's not a spellcaster?

6. Toxic Blood: why those DC? Why not putting DC 10/15 +Regenerator level instead?

7. Regrow Limb: it seems to me like three weeks are too much. I mean, tehre are spells that make your limbs regrow instantly, why should the Regenerator take that long? I'd say change it to one week.

8. Impervious to pain: ahm, it might just be me being tired, but what do you intend by "pain effects"? Do you mean lingering damages? Critical hits?

9. Eye of the storm: does the spinning bullets deal damage to enemies who attack the Regenerator when he use Eye of The Storm? Or is some sort of damage-dealing-aura (in wich case, you should specify the radius)?

10. Epic Blood: about the enchantments, I guess you intended "Freedom of Movement" in place of "Freedom". Also, you could consider an additional enchantment, like Fortification (being moderate or heavy it's up to you, I'd say Heavy Fortification is fitting). Also, do you intend that the blood bullets gain the characters alignment or any alignment the character wants them to be?


Anyhow, it's really a nice class, as I said I'd love to play it! What about simply naming it Bloodied?

1. Yes, yes I did. :smalltongue: I'll just go specify that...

2. It does continue one round after combat, but I can see your point. Also, doesn't Fast healing have a rounds limit? The regeneration effect goes the entire encounter, as long as there is danger.

3. Actually, I basically just took the normal tracking ability, gave the Regenerator the ability to stalk it long after it normally wouldn't be able to be traced and added the ability to identify what species the blood is from. Type and subtype might work better, though. In fact, that works far, far better that what I was thinking of, consider that edit copy-pastad.

4. Creating blood bullets replaces your normal attacks per round, giving you a ranged hail storm of blood that you direct with your mind instead of swinging your sword. And I made the distinction so that a player could have some ability to damage a creature that would be resistant to one damage type or the other (Basically the Regenerator is making the bullets either round with a nice backspin, or pointed and launched like a corkscrew).

5. The radius probably should be increased, otherwise it would take very careful placing to use this at all. On to the caster level thing, I was thinking that since this is more of a manipulation effect and arcane casters are very practiced at manipulation, that their levels could be combined with the Regenerator levels to make the idea of a battlecaster/ damage soaker hybrid more possible. It's probably a silly idea anyway and I should change it to a charisma bonus instead.

6. They were some random DCs that I threw in at about 3 in the morning. My brain wasn't making any sense. :smallbiggrin: I'm also thinking that the Regenerator's Con bonus could be added to the challenge rating, since the potency of this poison does depend on the strength of his blood.

7. I was thinking a week at first too, but then thought that it might be a bit much... but if you think it would work, then so be it. A week it is! No wait, a week and a day! Why a day? Because.

8. Immunity to pain would grant him immunity to all spells like Pain, Agony and the like, as well as any maiming penalties or heavy damage penalties caused by weapons or weapon enchantments. It's a narrow school to be immune to, but it does make this class a bit more resilience in battle.

9. Eye of the storm is a way to store blood bullets, using them as a free action instead of replacing your attacks from the round with them. While they are waiting to be used, the bullets fly around his body and form a minor force field, giving him a +2 deflection bonus to his AC.

10. There is a spell and enchantment (at least in version two) names freedom that gives you immunity to all movement-hindering effects, so I was referencing that when I made that enchantment option. Fortification might be an option, but at that level he probably has found an amulet, belt, gauntlet, ring, pair of boots or helmet that gives him it, and if I remember correctly the effect doesn't stack. Maybe I should increase the damage reduction though? 3 seems to be a bit small for a lvl 20 enchantment...
Blood bullets would gain the alignment of their user, I'll be sure to denote that.

As for the name, Bloodied could work but I'm not certain about it just yet... Maybe Juggernaut would work (if it isn't taken yet, at least...)

Any other feedback/ comments/ edits that you can think of?

CinuzIta
2013-01-21, 06:45 PM
2. As far as I know, no..if it's not specified then it works like a passive ability that is always active..you could anyway limit it to battles only

4. So if they replace normal attacks and can be created with swift actions, how is a 20th level Regenerator supposed to shoot 7 bullets, if he only has 4 attacks per round?

5. As you said it's a silly idea, because a non spellcaster character would have his dc reduced! :) In my opinion you could use Con for the dc here, representing how strongly is his blood feeled by other people

9. So you're saying that, being now blood bullets free attacks, a character when he gain these ability is able to do 9 attacks per round? That seems to me quite overpowered :s

10. I'm quite sure you're referring to Freedom of Movement:) anyway, you could insert the Heavy fortification option..it is always useful, and not everyone may find an object with that enchantment in his career.
I'd say that, if you have to rise DR, you shouldn't take it higher then DR 5..the character is already able to wear heavy armors and he also have a good fast healing..

Gnomes2169
2013-01-21, 09:03 PM
2. As far as I know, no..if it's not specified then it works like a passive ability that is always active..you could anyway limit it to battles only

4. So if they replace normal attacks and can be created with swift actions, how is a 20th level Regenerator supposed to shoot 7 bullets, if he only has 4 attacks per round?

5. As you said it's a silly idea, because a non spellcaster character would have his dc reduced! :) In my opinion you could use Con for the dc here, representing how strongly is his blood feeled by other people

9. So you're saying that, being now blood bullets free attacks, a character when he gain these ability is able to do 9 attacks per round? That seems to me quite overpowered :s

10. I'm quite sure you're referring to Freedom of Movement:) anyway, you could insert the Heavy fortification option..it is always useful, and not everyone may find an object with that enchantment in his career.
I'd say that, if you have to rise DR, you shouldn't take it higher then DR 5..the character is already able to wear heavy armors and he also have a good fast healing..

2. I edited the wording of Regeneration, go ahead and check it out.

4. The ability is manifesting the bullets instead of giving you your normal attack round, in other words it's a different attack set that uses your BAB-5 for the hit bonus. This attack set increases by one attack every 3 levels, and is limited to 8 attacks at 23rd level (Sort of like flurry of misses blows, but rising indirectly from your normal number of attacks). At level 20, you would get 7 bullets at (20-5) +15 to hit. At level 1, you would get 1 bullet at (1-5) -4 to hit. In other words, this ability is really only around for the mid to end game, where it can be used effectively.

5. Well, it really is more of a charisma ability, as it is a Taunt instead of just being intimidating.

9. No, Eye of the Storm has to be activated outside of combat or it consumes your entire round in combat, it does not reduce the manifestation time of the bullets themselves. It just gives you a way to store the bullets during short breaks in combat and gives them a use other than purely offensive. The free action release is only if you were currently using eye of the storm and have the bullets pre-manifested before going into a new encounter. I'll be sure to make that a little clearer...

10. Good points on the Heavy Fortification and the DR, I think those will be some of my last edits... And the name is down to three choices; Bloodied, Regenerator and Juggernaut. Which do you think fits best?

CinuzIta
2013-01-22, 03:35 PM
2. I edited the wording of Regeneration, go ahead and check it out.

4. The ability is manifesting the bullets instead of giving you your normal attack round, in other words it's a different attack set that uses your BAB-5 for the hit bonus. This attack set increases by one attack every 3 levels, and is limited to 8 attacks at 23rd level (Sort of like flurry of misses blows, but rising indirectly from your normal number of attacks). At level 20, you would get 7 bullets at (20-5) +15 to hit. At level 1, you would get 1 bullet at (1-5) -4 to hit. In other words, this ability is really only around for the mid to end game, where it can be used effectively.

5. Well, it really is more of a charisma ability, as it is a Taunt instead of just being intimidating.

9. No, Eye of the Storm has to be activated outside of combat or it consumes your entire round in combat, it does not reduce the manifestation time of the bullets themselves. It just gives you a way to store the bullets during short breaks in combat and gives them a use other than purely offensive. The free action release is only if you were currently using eye of the storm and have the bullets pre-manifested before going into a new encounter. I'll be sure to make that a little clearer...

10. Good points on the Heavy Fortification and the DR, I think those will be some of my last edits... And the name is down to three choices; Bloodied, Regenerator and Juggernaut. Which do you think fits best?

2. Well, it sounds much better now, but the correct ability name is Fast Healing (if you wanted to do something like this (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Fast_Healing), at least...)

4. Ah okay, I didn't understand it was some sort of flurry of blows. In my opinion though the class shouldn't get 7 attacks at 20th level, where the monk only has 5..

5. Aye, Charisma should work better

9. So creating an Eye of Storm in combat is a full round action, and its function is to only provide the character with an ac bonus right? you should specify both these things in my opinion

10. Ah, name choice is always the worst part! To tell the truth, I don't know. You should just chose the name that you like more! [by the way, what about Bloodmarked as a name? Y'know, just to make the choice more difficult for you!:smallbiggrin:]
I personally vote for Bloodmarked!

Gnomes2169
2013-01-22, 05:32 PM
2. Well, it sounds much better now, but the correct ability name is Fast Healing (if you wanted to do something like this (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Fast_Healing), at least...)

4. Ah okay, I didn't understand it was some sort of flurry of blows. In my opinion though the class shouldn't get 7 attacks at 20th level, where the monk only has 5..

5. Aye, Charisma should work better

9. So creating an Eye of Storm in combat is a full round action, and its function is to only provide the character with an ac bonus right? you should specify both these things in my opinion

10. Ah, name choice is always the worst part! To tell the truth, I don't know. You should just chose the name that you like more! [by the way, what about Bloodmarked as a name? Y'know, just to make the choice more difficult for you!:smallbiggrin:]
I personally vote for Bloodmarked!

9. I'll be sure to add that note.

10. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! >:U *Cough cough* Um... Bloodmarked it is.

Also, I edited the Hit die so that the class can fill in its tank roll better. Now the bonus health actually brings the health of the Bloodmarked to the point where it makes a superior tank to your average fighter/ barbarian/ paladin.

CinuzIta
2013-01-22, 05:43 PM
are you satisfied with it? Do you consider it to be completed? I really like these class, congrats to you!

One minor note: you should change the class name in the skills entry..there, it is still called Regenerator:)

Gnomes2169
2013-01-22, 07:23 PM
are you satisfied with it? Do you consider it to be completed? I really like these class, congrats to you!

One minor note: you should change the class name in the skills entry..there, it is still called Regenerator:)

In fact I am happy with this class. I would like to get some more reviews for actual balancing, though... :smallwink:

aoihfudjnamocih FIXED! >:U

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-23, 03:10 AM
First things first: a disclaimer to avoid some of the designer/critic situations I've seen arise -- I'm sorry if my writing style comes off as harsh or caustic. I have a rather blunt critiquing style, but rest assured that I wouldn't be commenting in the first place if I weren't actually trying to help. If I tear apart your creation, it's because I want to see you rebuild it better: it's a comment on a single version of a creation, and in no way a comment on you as a person or a designer. With that in mind, here are my thoughts: hopefully they'll prove of some utility to you.



Background information and things: The Bloodmarked are the far distant descendents of a particular man that made a deal with a certain arch demon. The deal was that the man would never be struck down by any blade at the cost of his soul and the lives of his first three children...

First things first. Not to spoil your dreams, but why the heck is this a base class, of all things? This level of hyper-specificity makes for great prestige classes (as does the Blood Warrior and/or Blood Mage concepts), but it's more conceptually specific than any base class I can think of. My first recommendation is that, even if the class is mechanically well done, you'd be better served by making this class a level 1 feat (for descendents of this demon-dealing man) and an associated Prestige Class.


HD: d10, d12 at lvl 10, 2d6 at lvl 21 (epic class level only)

This is very clumsy, especially when you hit multiple dice per level (especially since 2d6 isn't an improvement on d12 in terms of numbers: it's only more likely to end up in the mid-ranges of the 1-12 spectrum). I'd just give it a d12 right off the bat, or work the extra hit points into class features rather than expanding class hit dice: it's more graceful, easier to remember, and less cumbersome in general.


Class Table

I'm a little puzzled by the strong Reflex save, but whatever. Doesn't make or break anything. :smallbiggrin:


Skills: Class skills for the Bloodmarked (and, of course, their stat mods) are; Bluff (cha), Climb (str), Concentration (con), Diplomacy (cha), Intimidate (cha), Jump (str), Knowledge; Blood (int), Knowledge; Life (int), Sense motive (wis), Swim (str)
Skill points at 1st level: (4+Int mod)*4
Skill points each level after: 4+Int mod

Knowledge (Blood) and Knowledge (Life) are not actual Knowledge skills and, if they were, they are respectively so niche and so ambiguously vague that neither is of particularly great utility.


At level 2, the Bloodmarked gains proficiencies with normal shields, at level 3 he gains proficiency with light armor, medium at 6 and heavy at 9.

Is there any reason you don't just give these right away? I'm not sure what you gain by denying the class access to this level of equipment for only a few levels.


Regenerate (su): The Bloodmarked's body reacts to danger, healing itself incredibly quickly while in the midst of combat and for a short time after. At level 1, this ability grants the Bloodmarked a Fast Healing like effect that lasts the entire encounter, with a base value of 2hp/round. At level 5, this effect increases to 5hp/ round, and increases by 5 every fifth level beyond that, capping at 20hp/ round at level 20.

This ability also increases his normal healing rate as well, but by quite a bit less. While out of combat, this ability heals 1 lethal damage an hour for every two levels of the Bloodmarked.

I suspect you'll find this makes the class effectively invincible from around level 1 to maybe level 6. I'd strongly consider putting a per/encounter cap on this ability, or flattening out the scaling and having the ability come online at a later level. I do really like the in-combat limitation though: that's a nice way around the old "infinite healing" problem.


Trace blood (su): A Bloodmarked may follow any trail of blood that is less than a month old, an can make an identification check (DC 5+1/day old) to identify what creature type and subtype the blood is from.

Huh. Interesting ability, albeit extremely niche. You might want to spell out what an Identification Check is though...is that DC level + d20? Or Intelligence + d20? Or Survival + 20? What are we adding to this die roll?


Blood bullet (su): Focusing his blood and sacrificing a small part of his own body, the Bloodmarked may manifest a golf ball sized orb of blood that he may psychically launch at an enemy. Manifesting a bullet deals one point of lethal damage to the Bloodmarked, deals 1d6+1 piercing or bludgeoning (One or the other must be chosen) damage with a critical threat range of 20 (x2) and can be launched effectively over 20ft. At level one, the Bloodmarked can make one bullet. At level three, he can create two and gains one every third level after, capping at 8 at level 26. Using this ability replaces his normal attacks per round and each bullet has -5 to its to hit, though it uses his top BAB value.

Putting aside the oddity of what appears to be a tanky melee class firing off balls of blood for no real reason (seriously: where does this ability come from, lore-wise?), I'm not sure quite how this works: as written, you always seem to take a full-round action to attack with up to 8 bullets, each at an attack bonus of (your ranged attack bonus -5). Is this correct? If so, the damage is pitiful for the cost compared to what you COULD have done with that round: you're looking at multiple attack rolls to deal 8d6+8 damage, which the Warlock is basically doing on a single attack roll.


Bonus health: The Bloodmarked's body is far more durable than any normal mortal creature's. this ability provides a permanent bump to the Bloodmarked's health every second level. From level 2-8 this bonus is +2, level 10-18 it's +3, level 20-28 it's +4 and at level 30+ it's +5. This bonus health is a permanent raise and occurs independently from the Bloodmarked's Constitution score.

This is how you should deal with the increasing class Hit Die issue: just tie that extra 1 point per level into this system. That said, this ability feels...incredibly boring, honestly. Useful, yes, but I'm really not enthused about it at all.


Blood shield (su): At level two, the Bloodmarked may use his blood to create a medium shield. This shield counts as a normal medium shield with a +1 bonus. Manifesting this power deals two lethal damage to the Bloodmarked. This ability lasts 2 combat rounds every level of Bloodmarked. This ability can only be used if you are not already using a shield.

Seems that I'd almost always be better off with an actual magic shield, as I can pick my bonuses, and, more importantly, I can ALWAYS have my normal shield up.

Also, you don't say what sort of action it is to manifest the shield. Standard? Move? Swift? Full?


Resilient blood: The Bloodmarked's blood and immune system are extremely resilient to all poisons and diseases, granting a +6 bonus against these at level 3.

So by level 3 I have in-combat Fast Healing, bonus HP, a piece of equipment, some saves against uncommon attack forms and I can fire off blood-bolts for normal damage. Seems like this class is currently just a stat-boosting junkie: I'm not seeing a lot of unique identity thus far, which concerns me. No real abilities have hooked me and drawn me in.


Blood armor (su): This ability manifests a suit of armor that the Bloodmarked is proficient with. Each suit of armor has its own bonus and health cost, though all of them have a maximum dexterity bonus of 5 and a -3 armor check penalty.
{table=head]Armor type |Manifestation cost |AC bonus |Damage reduction |Hardness |Durability
Light armor |2 |+3 |0 |6 |5
Medium armor|4 |+5 |0 |7 |7
Heavy armor|6 |+7 |1 |9 |11
[/table]
Manifestation duration is the same length as the Blood shield.
This ability can only be used if you are not wearing any armor.

Again: normal armor is more reliable, and more customizable. This is nice because I can put off buying that nice armor for a while, but it's not actually that good.


Clear Blood: Further enhances the Bloodmarked's resistance to diseases and poisons, making him immune to all normal varieties and adding a further +2 against ones of magical origin (bringing the total to +8).

Meh. Improvements to a useful ability, but they're flat immunities and save bonuses, which don't excite players much.


Store blood: Learning to channel blood that was recently separated from his body, the Bloodmarked is able to store his blood in potion bottles and vials. The Bloodmarked may use this blood once to reduce the health cost of a blood manifestation by one point of health, or to create a blood bullet. He may have up to five bottles of his blood at a time. This stored blood lasts for one day before becoming unusable. Filling each vial still costs one point of health, so you do not escape paying for anything. You may only use up to two vials per manifestation. Stored blood may be drunk or applied to weapons like a normal potion or poison.

This is an effectively worthless ability: I can now, by planning ahead of time, prevent an amount of damage small enough that my in-combat fast healing would have healed it in a single round anyway. That makes it extraneous, and introducing bookkeeping for an extraneous mechanic is never a good idea (you have to track all the vials, so you've got extra paperwork to do).


Blood walk (su): The Bloodmarked passively gains +25 base move speed while following a trail of blood, starting at level 6.

Extraordinary niche, and a bit nonsensical. How does this work? Why is this useful? We're at level 6, and my only non-equipment, non-stat/save/hp-boosting ability is the ability to shoot balls of blood. Not looking good.


Taunting aura (su): Something about the Bloodmarked infuriates his foes, making him more of a target or threat than other enemies. At level 7, this passive ability causes hostile creatures and neutral animals who fail a saving throw (DC10+Bloodmarked level+Charisma mod) to target the Bloodmarked instead of any of his allies. Clerics and druids get a -5 to their saving throw, as the Bloodmarked's lineage makes them far more hostile towards the Bloodmarked from the get go. This ability affects a 20 foot area and does not work on outsiders, mindless monsters or magical creatures with higher converted hd than the Bloodmarked.

Firstly, standard saves are (10 + 1/2 class level + modifier), not (10 + full class level + modifier). I'd also remove the class clauses, as there are both Cleric and Druid sects that would love demon contracts, blood magic, and so forth: further, -5 is a huge penalty, and should probably go.

Finally, I'm concerned for the flavor of the class, because you can't tel me WHY a Bloodmarked infuriates his foes. Is it just to give him a tanking ability, or is there a logical, sensible reason that fits with the theme of the class?


Curative or Toxic blood (en): At level 9 the Bloodmarked must choose whether his blood will be toxic or whether it will be curative. Restrictions and abilities of both listed below:
Curative: The blood of the Bloodmarked that is stored in potions may be used to heal the wounds of allies, infusing them with a lesser form or regeneration for a short amount of time. In addition, the nature of the Bloodmarked's blood now causes poisoning damage to Demons and Undead each time they are damaged by/ drink the Bloodmarked's blood. Both effects last for 1 round every level of Bloodmarked, to a cap of 15 rounds each. At level 14, the potency of this effect is increased dramatically. This effect can only be used by a good or neutral character. Effect table listed below:
Level |Regeneration infusion |Lingering damage |Duration
9-13 |2 |1 |1 round/ lvl, max 15
14+ |5 |3 |1 round/ lvl, max 15
Toxic: The Bloodmarked's blood becomes excessively powerful neurotoxin toxic to all other living creatures, dealing lingering damage to anything that drinks or is damaged by this blood and forcing them to make a saving throw against being poisoned and confused (DC8+Bloodmarked level+Con mod) for 1 round every 3 Bloodmarked levels. At level 14, the effects of this poison are increased, the confusion becomes berzerking and the DC save is set to (DC13+Bloodmarked level+Constitution modifier). This effect can only be used by a neutral or evil character. To make things easier, here's a helpful table~
{table=head]Level |Poison damage |Secondary effect |Duration |DC save
9-13 |4 |Confusion |1 round/ 3 lvl |8+lvl+con mod
14+ |10 |Berzerking |1 round/ 3 lvl |13+lvl+con mod[/table]

Standardize your save DCs unless you have a very good reason not to.

You have no limit to daily uses of Curative Blood, so this is infinite healing for your allies.

Does Toxic Blood apply on your Blood Bolts? If so, it's INCREDIBLY strong, because you're forcing saves against several save-or-sucks each round, every round (and that would be very overpowered). Otherwise it's hard to damage things with your blood, and this ability is probably relatively useless.

I think overall this ability is cumbersome and a bit awkward, and I think that's due to the wording and the chosen mechanics. It could probably be cleaned up and simplified significantly if you didn't mind losing some of the little fiddly mechanical bits (which I personally feel don't work well anyway...).


Hd boost: The Bloodmarked, starting at level 10, rolls a d12 for health when leveling up. This continues until level 21, where the Bloodmarked begins to roll a 2d6 instead.

I've already discussed this: cut it. If you have to give out extra health, do it elsewhere. Don't futz with the Hit Die when it's already been set.


Intimidating aura (su): Enemies affected by the Bloodmarked's taunting aura who fail their saving throws must make a moral save against the Bloodmarked (DC 12+1/2 Bloodmarked's level+Intimidate skill) or receive a -4 to their actions against him from being terrified. This penalty only affects them while they are targeting the Bloodmarked, though it will last the entire encounter. If this ability would affect them again, the penalty becomes -6, where it then maxed out.

Quite powerful, but probably not hugely out of line. Oh. Wait. Yes it is, because Intimidate scales INSANELY well. Use Charisma modifier instead and use a base of 10, and then this save DC is actually using the correct formula (remember: 10 + 1/2 class level + ability modifier is standard for Base Classes).


Enchanted blood (en): At level 13 the Bloodmarked's manifested armor and shield gain a +1 (+2 for the shield) enchantment. His armor may also be enchanted by one of the following affects:
-Fire resistance: Fire damage is reduced by 8 points from every source.
-Cold resistance: Cold damage is reduced by 8 points from every source.
-Acid resistance: Acid damage is reduced by 8 points from every source.
These damage absorbing abilities are permanent enchantments that may be changed if the Bloodmarked spends eight hours concentrating. Only one of the above enchantments may be in effect at a time. In addition to gaining this enchantment bonus, the Bloodmarked's blood bullets count as magical weapons for the purpose of bypassing protection, though they do not receive the +1 bonus of the armor.

As a final effect, the Bloodmarked now also absorbs one incoming point of constitution damage before being affected.


Way to little, way to late. I've been rocking better magical armor than this for several levels now, and there isn't much incentive to switch.

Also, you should specify if the Constitution Damage reduction is on a per-attack, per-round, or per-whatever-you-want basis.


Regrow limb (su): At level 13 if somehow the Bloodmarked loses a limb and somehow survives the encounter, he may spend the next week regrowing that limb. He goes into a trance-like state of concentration during this time. At the end of this week, the limb will be fully regrown and useable.

Impervious to pain: After being hit and punished so many times, the Bloodmarked has become not only used to pain, but almost welcomes it when it comes. This gives him an immunity to the effects of pain, physically or magically induced (Immunity to spells/ enchantments like agony, pain, maiming, overwhelming, heavy battle damage, etc).


Cool. Fits the regeneration theme.


Eye of the Storm (su): Creating his normal maximum of blood bullets outside of combat, the Bloodmarked can now store these projectiles in rapidly orbiting rings around his body for 3 minutes/ 4 levels. While these bullets orbit, they provide the Bloodmarked with a +2 deflection bonus to armor class. At any time as a free action, the Bloodmarked may fire any or all of these bullets at specified targets.

Note, this ability does not change the manifestation time of Blood Bullets, it merely gives you a way to store bullets made outside of combat and a way to use them other than offensively. Also note, you can only have one set of bullets manifested per round, so if you launch the bullets as your free action, you cannot create more the round you launch them (though you can attack normally). Also while using this ability, you cannot manifest any more bullets for a second set to fire at enemies.

You can activate this ability in combat, though it is a full round action.

Interesting. Definitely weak for the level you get it, but it gives the blood bullets some more utility.


Mystic blood (en): Increases the bonus to the Bloodmarked's shield and armor by a further +1, bringing the bonus to +2 (+3 for the shield). Resistance to constitution damage increases to 2 as well, and the armor check penalty of blood armor is reduced by 1.

Still behind magic armor, and still less customizable. I'm still likely to not use this class feature.


Epic blood (en): Further adds +2 to the enchantment bonus of the Bloodmarked, bringing the total, and final, enchantment bonus of his armor to +4 and his shield to +5. In addition, it allows him to enchant his armor with one of the following two effects in addition to the original enchantment from the magic blood feature.
-Freedom of Movement: Grants the Bloodmarked immunity to the effects of anything that would trap, slow or otherwise hinder his normal movement.
-Damage reduction 5: Reduces all incoming damage by 5 points.
-Heavy Fortification: The armor is enchanted as if it has the effect of Heavy Fortification.
One or the other can be used in combination with an elemental resistance listed above, and it takes eight hours to switch this enchantment as well once one is chosen (so if you wanted to change both, it would take 16 hours of concentration to do so). As a final bonus, constitution damage resistance is raised to 3 and Blood Bullets gain an alignment bonus when bypassing protections. (Alignment of the bullets is the same as the alignment of the creator)

Alright...this is passable, but I've still got magic armor sitting by, so now all I have is a quandary: is this ability good enough to put aside my armor? It's questionable.


*******

Closing Thoughts: This class lacks a real identity, and it lacks a centralized concept for how it is supposed to play. It feels like a brawling tank, yet gains ranged attacks. It could feel like a blood-mage, but it seems designed to wade into combat. The abilities work at cross purposes.

The largest issue is that this lack of focus leaves it no real place in the system: it's to specific to be a base class, but doesn't have enough identity to be a good prestige class. This is largely because almost all of the abilities are passive, and many are behind-the-scenes. This class doesn't have much to DO, and doesn't direct players towards using its abilities in interesting ways.

I'd either cut the blood shield and blood armor abilities, or I'd focus the class around using them, and make everything else take second priority to this blood tank that manifests weapons and armor from living ichor. Alternatively, focus on the blood bullets and give us a martial/magical blood mage who wades into combat pulling blood from itself and from its foes and weaving that into melee-range spells and effects.

There's some potential here, but you really need to figure out what you want this to be: what IS a Bloodmarked, why is it a base class (or why should it be a base class instead of a prestige class), and what is its "signature" concept? Give me those, and we can take a look towards tweaking this to bring out the best in the concept, rather than being a haphazard approach to many differing concepts at once.

I think, with a bit of work, you can polish this class up to be something much better than it already is. :smallbiggrin:

-The Djinn

Gnomes2169
2013-01-23, 01:05 PM
So many things to quote. :smalltongue:


First things first: a disclaimer to avoid some of the designer/critic situations I've seen arise -- I'm sorry if my writing style comes off as harsh or caustic. I have a rather blunt critiquing style, but rest assured that I wouldn't be commenting in the first place if I weren't actually trying to help. If I tear apart your creation, it's because I want to see you rebuild it better: it's a comment on a single version of a creation, and in no way a comment on you as a person or a designer. With that in mind, here are my thoughts: hopefully they'll prove of some utility to you.

As I said, I'm looking for critiques. Therefore, thank you.


First things first. Not to spoil your dreams, but why the heck is this a base class, of all things? This level of hyper-specificity makes for great prestige classes (as does the Blood Warrior and/or Blood Mage concepts), but it's more conceptually specific than any base class I can think of. My first recommendation is that, even if the class is mechanically well done, you'd be better served by making this class a level 1 feat (for descendents of this demon-dealing man) and an associated Prestige Class.

More because I wanted to make a base class than anything. Honestly, the first time I posted this it was a dumbed down version of a class I had already made, which used its blood as a weapon and just kept taking hits. I think I should go back to that, aye? (Pretty sure this gives a response further down the line as well... I'll get into more detail down there, I guess)


This is very clumsy, especially when you hit multiple dice per level (especially since 2d6 isn't an improvement on d12 in terms of numbers: it's only more likely to end up in the mid-ranges of the 1-12 spectrum). I'd just give it a d12 right off the bat, or work the extra hit points into class features rather than expanding class hit dice: it's more graceful, easier to remember, and less cumbersome in general.

This is another thing I was leery about, so I think that either a D10 or D12 would work... with D12 working better.


I'm a little puzzled by the strong Reflex save, but whatever. Doesn't make or break anything. :smallbiggrin:

Reflex is his weakest save, what are you talking about? :smalltongue:


Knowledge (Blood) and Knowledge (Life) are not actual Knowledge skills and, if they were, they are respectively so niche and so ambiguously vague that neither is of particularly great utility.

Yeah, not really too excited about those either. I'll just make it Knowledge (Nature) and that should really cover them both. Now I'm stuck with what kind of knowledges I should give him other than that... if anything.


Is there any reason you don't just give these right away? I'm not sure what you gain by denying the class access to this level of equipment for only a few levels.

It's so that you don't end up killing yourself the first round of combat and to balance out his Regenerative effect. Heavy armor at level 1 + 2hp of automatic healing will make you pretty much invincible. Though I guess I could give him medium armor proficiency... And give a heavy armor proficiency to him when he gets his manifest armor skill.


I suspect you'll find this makes the class effectively invincible from around level 1 to maybe level 6. I'd strongly consider putting a per/encounter cap on this ability, or flattening out the scaling and having the ability come online at a later level. I do really like the in-combat limitation though: that's a nice way around the old "infinite healing" problem.

Or maybe I could do an encounters/ day cap? At earlier levels you'll be running around like a deranged monkey stomping kobolds and goblins alike, often having multiple battles per day. Maybe a sensible limit would be 1encounter/day/3 levels?


Huh. Interesting ability, albeit extremely niche. You might want to spell out what an Identification Check is though...is that DC level + d20? Or Intelligence + d20? Or Survival + 20? What are we adding to this die roll?

That would probably become your Nature check + a d20 roll.


Putting aside the oddity of what appears to be a tanky melee class firing off balls of blood for no real reason (seriously: where does this ability come from, lore-wise?), I'm not sure quite how this works: as written, you always seem to take a full-round action to attack with up to 8 bullets, each at an attack bonus of (your ranged attack bonus -5). Is this correct? If so, the damage is pitiful for the cost compared to what you COULD have done with that round: you're looking at multiple attack rolls to deal 8d6+8 damage, which the Warlock is basically doing on a single attack roll.

This will be changing, since I'ma make over the class's roll to make him much more generalized. And I should also probably be making a higher growth for this ability... if I end up keeping it at all. (Seeing as it will be more of a blood manipulation class, and the lore will have to change to correspond with it.)


This is how you should deal with the increasing class Hit Die issue: just tie that extra 1 point per level into this system. That said, this ability feels...incredibly boring, honestly. Useful, yes, but I'm really not enthused about it at all.

It's not really supposed to be interesting, just useful. Like you said. :smalltongue:


Seems that I'd almost always be better off with an actual magic shield, as I can pick my bonuses, and, more importantly, I can ALWAYS have my normal shield up.

Also, you don't say what sort of action it is to manifest the shield. Standard? Move? Swift? Full?

Again: normal armor is more reliable, and more customizable. This is nice because I can put off buying that nice armor for a while, but it's not actually that good.

I'm afraid that these will have to go, though I will have something that deals with manifesting blood your armor and shield really won't depend on it.


So by level 3 I have in-combat Fast Healing, bonus HP, a piece of equipment, some saves against uncommon attack forms and I can fire off blood-bolts for normal damage. Seems like this class is currently just a stat-boosting junkie: I'm not seeing a lot of unique identity thus far, which concerns me. No real abilities have hooked me and drawn me in.

I'll see if I can't get this to change. :smallwink:


Meh. Improvements to a useful ability, but they're flat immunities and save bonuses, which don't excite players much.

Another one of those, "It's just supposed to be useful" abilities. :smalltongue:


This is an effectively worthless ability: I can now, by planning ahead of time, prevent an amount of damage small enough that my in-combat fast healing would have healed it in a single round anyway. That makes it extraneous, and introducing bookkeeping for an extraneous mechanic is never a good idea (you have to track all the vials, so you've got extra paperwork to do).

True, unless you take the Toxic Blood ability (which you can use to poison your weapons/ poison drinks/ poison the floor/ POISON EVERYTHING), it doesn't do too much. At least, in the current incarnation. It would probably be better just to note that you can store blood and get rid of this ability all together.


Extraordinary niche, and a bit nonsensical. How does this work? Why is this useful? We're at level 6, and my only non-equipment, non-stat/save/hp-boosting ability is the ability to shoot balls of blood. Not looking good.

This ability would make more sense (lore wise) if I changed the function of the class. I should also change the description to read, "When this character is moving towards a living creature that has taken damage this encounter, or it is following a trail of blood, it adds +25 to its base movement and may make a concentration check (DC10+Attacker's BAB/ level/ whatever I should use) to avoid any prompted attacks of opportunity. The Bloodmarked may also move through spaces occupied by creatures with no penalty, as long as he is moving directly towards the damaged creature. He cannot, however, stop on an already occupied space." This would make it a useful combat ability, add a little flavor and more importantly give it a strategic effect for wading into the enemy to either taunt a whole batch of them from their center, or to close in and harass the mage/ cleric of the party.


Firstly, standard saves are (10 + 1/2 class level + modifier), not (10 + full class level + modifier). I'd also remove the class clauses, as there are both Cleric and Druid sects that would love demon contracts, blood magic, and so forth: further, -5 is a huge penalty, and should probably go.

Finally, I'm concerned for the flavor of the class, because you can't tel me WHY a Bloodmarked infuriates his foes. Is it just to give him a tanking ability, or is there a logical, sensible reason that fits with the theme of the class?

Well, in this incarnation it's just to make him a bigger tank. There will be an explanation soon enough, worry not.

Oh, and the save will be made regular. And the drug addicted hippies of death Druids and Clerics will not have worse saves.


Standardize your save DCs unless you have a very good reason not to.

You have no limit to daily uses of Curative Blood, so this is infinite healing for your allies.

Does Toxic Blood apply on your Blood Bolts? If so, it's INCREDIBLY strong, because you're forcing saves against several save-or-sucks each round, every round (and that would be very overpowered). Otherwise it's hard to damage things with your blood, and this ability is probably relatively useless.

Standardizing away.

Curative blood is supposed to be a way to get cheep potions of regeneration, so I think I'll just set that limit to 2/day/4 lvls. Wouldn't want to run the cleric out of a job after all, would we?

Toxic Blood is the reason why I'm thinking of just discarding Blood Bolts, because as you say it is very strong. Ways that you could deal damage with your blood include: Poisoning a weapon/ piece of food with your toxic blood, making a weapon out of your blood and putting an IV in someone's arm to force your blood in them. The last one is impractical, but the others could work.


I think overall this ability is cumbersome and a bit awkward, and I think that's due to the wording and the chosen mechanics. It could probably be cleaned up and simplified significantly if you didn't mind losing some of the little fiddly mechanical bits (which I personally feel don't work well anyway...).

I think Curative could just be cut entirely, since that is really just a pain in my behind and I'm refocusing this class to be more offensive anyway.


I've already discussed this: cut it. If you have to give out extra health, do it elsewhere. Don't futz with the Hit Die when it's already been set.

It shall be cut shorter than the plants in my lawn (which is made of dead grass and snow)


Quite powerful, but probably not hugely out of line. Oh. Wait. Yes it is, because Intimidate scales INSANELY well. Use Charisma modifier instead and use a base of 10, and then this save DC is actually using the correct formula (remember: 10 + 1/2 class level + ability modifier is standard for Base Classes).

Alright, Charisma not intimidate. Your point has been made.


Way to little, way to late. I've been rocking better magical armor than this for several levels now, and there isn't much incentive to switch.

Also, you should specify if the Constitution Damage reduction is on a per-attack, per-round, or per-whatever-you-want basis.

Still behind magic armor, and still less customizable. I'm still likely to not use this class feature.

Alright...this is passable, but I've still got magic armor sitting by, so now all I have is a quandary: is this ability good enough to put aside my armor? It's questionable.

The blood enhancements will be changed a bit, mostly because I'm adding a weapon to the mix, so they will become more complex and have more enchantments. Also, these things will be coming at a much earlier time, to keep up with magical weapons and equipment... there will most likely be more as well.


Cool. Fits the regeneration theme.

What I was going for. :smallwink:


Interesting. Definitely weak for the level you get it, but it gives the blood bullets some more utility.

Oh, but this will be modified so hard...



Closing Thoughts: This class lacks a real identity, and it lacks a centralized concept for how it is supposed to play. It feels like a brawling tank, yet gains ranged attacks. It could feel like a blood-mage, but it seems designed to wade into combat. The abilities work at cross purposes.

The largest issue is that this lack of focus leaves it no real place in the system: it's to specific to be a base class, but doesn't have enough identity to be a good prestige class. This is largely because almost all of the abilities are passive, and many are behind-the-scenes. This class doesn't have much to DO, and doesn't direct players towards using its abilities in interesting ways.

I'd either cut the blood shield and blood armor abilities, or I'd focus the class around using them, and make everything else take second priority to this blood tank that manifests weapons and armor from living ichor. Alternatively, focus on the blood bullets and give us a martial/magical blood mage who wades into combat pulling blood from itself and from its foes and weaving that into melee-range spells and effects.

I'm trying focus on more of a blood-based melee tank, so maybe not the mage (though tbh, draining an enemy completely of blood sounds like a fun thing to do...). Making modifications to what he can manifest, changing eye of the storm to be something that could be rather frightening and maybe adding hybrid abilities that require touch attacks would give this class more distinction and more of a niche of its own.


There's some potential here, but you really need to figure out what you want this to be: what IS a Bloodmarked, why is it a base class (or why should it be a base class instead of a prestige class), and what is its "signature" concept? Give me those, and we can take a look towards tweaking this to bring out the best in the concept, rather than being a haphazard approach to many differing concepts at once.

I think, with a bit of work, you can polish this class up to be something much better than it already is. :smallbiggrin:

-The Djinn

And now I have allot of work to do. :smalltongue: Thank you for the comment, and I'll see if I can't make something a little more interesting to play.

absolmorph
2013-01-23, 03:26 PM
Why not just give the equipment a flat +1 per 4 levels, with an additional +1 to be used solely for enchantments?

Why restrict the healing ability to combat? Heck, why not just give the bloodmarked fast healing instead of a "Fast Healing like effect"?

You've still got the weird HD, which is just kind of blech. Either stick with a d12 all the way, and just give an increasing bonus per die or... Actually, if you want to increase their HP pool, just give a scaling bonus per HD. Like, +1 at level 1, and +1 per 5 class levels or something. That'd give them a total of +100 at level 20, and is much easier to calculate.

Why do you cap the blood bullets at level 26?

What kind of shield do they manifest, light or heavy?

Why a bonus of 25 feet while following a trail of blood? Why not 20 or 30, to keep with the norm of multiples of 10 for speed bonuses (and, generally, speed)?

What does "berzerking" do?

Basically, there's not really anything encouraging them to use any of the active class features. A fighter can do most things at least as well.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-23, 03:34 PM
Absol, while I'd love to answer all of your questions... about half of them won't make sense in a few hours and the other half won't apply. (Right now, I'm doing a major revamp/ edit). As to the health point suggestion, I want the class to be more tanky but not that much more tanky. :smalltongue:

And you know what's funny?


Why not just give the equipment a flat +1 per 4 levels, with an additional +1 to be used solely for enchantments?

I'm doing this. Right now. :smalltongue:

PEACH
2013-01-23, 06:17 PM
Class features:
Weapon and armor proficiencies: The Bloodmarked is only proficient with one handed simple and martial weapons, and has no proficiencies with armor or shields.

At level 2, the Bloodmarked gains proficiencies with normal shields, at level 3 he gains proficiency with light armor, medium at 6 and heavy at 9.

Eh. The problem is, as I'll point out later on, that the armor and shields you can create flat out suck at all points, so you want this armor as soon as possible.


Regenerate (su): The Bloodmarked's body reacts to danger, healing itself incredibly quickly while in the midst of combat and for a short time after. At level 1, this ability grants the Bloodmarked a Fast Healing like effect that lasts the entire encounter, with a base value of 2hp/round. At level 5, this effect increases to 5hp/ round, and increases by 5 every fifth level beyond that, capping at 20hp/ round at level 20.

This ability also increases his normal healing rate as well, but by quite a bit less. While out of combat, this ability heals 1 lethal damage an hour for every two levels of the Bloodmarked.

Not bad, but not amazing. The amount of out of combat healing is pretty low and it wouldn't really hurt to let them just have full powered fast healing all the time. I also don't know if regenerate is a great term considering there are already regeneration effects. I think that at level 1 it may be problematic, but after that the fast healing shouldn't prevent people from breaking you down because, well, 2 HP/round or 5 HP/round post 5 are not significantly hard to get past with focus.


Trace blood (su): A Bloodmarked may follow any trail of blood that is less than a month old, an can make an identification check (DC 5+1/day old) to identify what creature type and subtype the blood is from.

Flavorful.


Blood bullet (su): Focusing his blood and sacrificing a small part of his own body, the Bloodmarked may manifest a golf ball sized orb of blood that he may psychically launch at an enemy. Manifesting a bullet deals one point of lethal damage to the Bloodmarked, deals 1d6+1 piercing or bludgeoning (One or the other must be chosen) damage with a critical threat range of 20 (x2) and can be launched effectively over 20ft. At level one, the Bloodmarked can make one bullet. At level three, he can create two and gains one every third level after, capping at 8 at level 26. Using this ability replaces his normal attacks per round and each bullet has -5 to its to hit, though it uses his top BAB value.

This is... absolutely terrible. It's got awful damage, a very poor to-hit (-5 early on is awful), its range is pathetic, and you have no way to add your ability modifiers to it, and it costs you (minor) amounts of HP. This needs absolutely massive buffs to be worth using at any point instead of just grabbing a martial weapon.


Bonus health: The Bloodmarked's body is far more durable than any normal mortal creature's. this ability provides a permanent bump to the Bloodmarked's health every second level. From level 2-8 this bonus is +2, level 10-18 it's +3, level 20-28 it's +4 and at level 30+ it's +5. This bonus health is a permanent raise and occurs independently from the Bloodmarked's Constitution score.

Meh. It'd be easier to just increase their constitution score every so many levels, especially since having a big pool of hit points is a lot less valuable than the fort saves that provides once your hit point pool gets big enough. The fact that the hit die for this class already vary later makes the bonus HP also seem redundant.


Blood shield (su): At level two, the Bloodmarked may use his blood to create a medium shield. This shield counts as a normal medium shield with a +1 bonus. Manifesting this power deals two lethal damage to the Bloodmarked. This ability lasts 2 combat rounds every level of Bloodmarked. This ability can only be used if you are not already using a shield.


Well it's not bad when you get it, but a +1 shield rapidly drops off in value past that point.


Resilient blood: The Bloodmarked's blood and immune system are extremely resilient to all poisons and diseases, granting a +6 bonus against these at level 3.

Not bad.


Blood armor (su): This ability manifests a suit of armor that the Bloodmarked is proficient with. Each suit of armor has its own bonus and health cost, though all of them have a maximum dexterity bonus of 5 and a -3 armor check penalty.
{table=head]Armor type |Manifestation cost |AC bonus |Damage reduction |Hardness |Durability
Light armor |2 |+3 |0 |6 |5
Medium armor|4 |+5 |0 |7 |7
Heavy armor|6 |+7 |1 |9 |11
[/table]
Manifestation duration is the same length as the Blood shield.

You get this before you are proficient with the armor it provides you. That should really be fixed. Anyway, the armor is pretty good because of the dexterity bonus, but not amazing because you can buy something close to that for full plate later and actually enchant it well.


Clear Blood: Further enhances the Bloodmarked's resistance to diseases and poisons, making him immune to all normal varieties and adding a further +2 against ones of magical origin (bringing the total to +8).

Again, good without being super great.


Store blood: Learning to channel blood that was recently separated from his body, the Bloodmarked is able to store his blood in potion bottles and vials. The Bloodmarked may use this blood once to reduce the health cost of a blood manifestation by one point of health, or to create a blood bullet. He may have up to five bottles of his blood at a time. This stored blood lasts for one day before becoming unusable. Filling each vial still costs one point of health, so you do not escape paying for anything. You may only use up to two vials per manifestation. Stored blood may be drunk or applied to weapons like a normal potion or poison.

This seems very minor, since it's essentially just a floating pool of five hit points on a class that should reasonably have hundreds.


Blood walk (su): The Bloodmarked passively gains +25 base move speed while following a trail of blood, starting at level 6.

This would be a lot better if there was explicitly a point where you drew blood so it wasn't purely DM interpretation; even just "every successful attack on a creature that can bleed by a bloodmarked is assumed to draw blood" would work.


Taunting aura (su): Something about the Bloodmarked infuriates his foes, making him more of a target or threat than other enemies. At level 7, this passive ability causes hostile creatures and neutral animals who fail a saving throw (DC10+Bloodmarked level+Charisma mod) to target the Bloodmarked instead of any of his allies. Clerics and druids get a -5 to their saving throw, as the Bloodmarked's lineage makes them far more hostile towards the Bloodmarked from the get go. This ability affects a 20 foot area and does not work on outsiders, mindless monsters or magical creatures with higher converted hd than the Bloodmarked.

Scaling factor is off (half level, not level), and it should explicitly be considered mind affecting. Affecting specific classes is also something I really hate; it is annoying when mechanics explicitly say "you really hate that dude, even if your character should not."


Curative: The blood of the Bloodmarked that is stored in potions may be used to heal the wounds of allies, infusing them with a lesser form or regeneration for a short amount of time. In addition, the nature of the Bloodmarked's blood now causes poisoning damage to Demons and Undead each time they are damaged by/ drink the Bloodmarked's blood. Both effects last for 1 round every level of Bloodmarked, to a cap of 15 rounds each. At level 14, the potency of this effect is increased dramatically. This effect can only be used by a good or neutral character. Effect table listed below:
Level |Regeneration infusion |Lingering damage |Duration
9-13 |2 |1 |1 round/ lvl, max 15
14+ |5 |3 |1 round/ lvl, max 15

This is really terrible; it's OK out of combat healing (that you can self apply, which gets around your previously mediocre out of combat healing), but that's it.


Toxic: The Bloodmarked's blood becomes excessively powerful neurotoxin toxic to all other living creatures, dealing lingering damage to anything that drinks or is damaged by this blood and forcing them to make a saving throw against being poisoned and confused (DC8+Bloodmarked level+Con mod) for 1 round every 3 Bloodmarked levels. At level 14, the effects of this poison are increased, the confusion becomes berzerking and the DC save is set to (DC13+Bloodmarked level+Constitution modifier). This effect can only be used by a neutral or evil character. To make things easier, here's a helpful table~
{table=head]Level |Poison damage |Secondary effect |Duration |DC save
9-13 |4 |Confusion |1 round/ 3 lvl |8+lvl+con mod
14+ |10 |Berzerking |1 round/ 3 lvl |13+lvl+con mod[/table]

On the bright side, this is broken as hell. Forcing multiple saves per round at ridiculously inflated save DCs for save or die effects is pretty bad. Granted, "berzerking" isn't actually a status effect and so it needs to be defined, but if it's anything like confusion it is not something you should hand out with enhanced DCs and multiple times a round.

Make the DC 10+1/2 level+con mod, make it only affect a singular target once per round, and define berzerking and it will be much more reasonable, while still being powerful. The lingering damage is also pretty significant since it's actually about as much damage as you'll do per round with the initial impact, which highlights how awful your blood bullets are at hurting things more than anything.


Hd boost: The Bloodmarked, starting at level 10, rolls a d12 for health when leveling up. This continues until level 21, where the Bloodmarked begins to roll a 2d6 instead.


Basically more passive HP boosts. Kind of meaningless and changing HD is silly; I'd replace both of these with con boosts, as I've said.


Intimidating aura (su): Enemies affected by the Bloodmarked's taunting aura who fail their saving throws must make a moral save against the Bloodmarked (DC 12+1/2 Bloodmarked's level+Intimidate skill) or receive a -4 to their actions against him from being terrified. This penalty only affects them while they are targeting the Bloodmarked, though it will last the entire encounter. If this ability would affect them again, the penalty becomes -6, where it then maxed out.


Well this one's got a sort of reasonable save (besides being 2 higher than normal, which should probably be chanced). Since your taunting aura (if it doesn't state it) should definitely be a once/day thing as is standard, the repeat affliction thing is irrelevant, and this should be a fear effect as defined, though simply giving them a relevant fear status is probably a lot easier.


Enchanted blood (en): At level 13 the Bloodmarked's manifested armor and shield gain a +1 (+2 for the shield) enchantment. His armor may also be enchanted by one of the following affects:
-Fire resistance: Fire damage is reduced by 8 points from every source.
-Cold resistance: Cold damage is reduced by 8 points from every source.
-Acid resistance: Acid damage is reduced by 8 points from every source.
These damage absorbing abilities are permanent enchantments that may be changed if the Bloodmarked spends eight hours concentrating. Only one of the above enchantments may be in effect at a time. In addition to gaining this enchantment bonus, the Bloodmarked's blood bullets count as magical weapons for the purpose of bypassing protection, though they do not receive the +1 bonus of the armor.

Your bullets are supernatural, so I am pretty sure they already count as magic. Even ignoring that: The enchantment is bad, you are getting items way too late, and your bullets are still terrible.


As a final effect, the Bloodmarked now also absorbs one incoming point of constitution damage before being affected.

This is the strongest part of this, and even then I'd argue that at level 13 immunity to ability damage wouldn't be unreasonable.


Regrow limb (su): At level 13 if somehow the Bloodmarked loses a limb and somehow survives the encounter, he may spend the next week regrowing that limb. He goes into a trance-like state of concentration during this time. At the end of this week, the limb will be fully regrown and useable.

Flavor, nothing more.


Impervious to pain: After being hit and punished so many times, the Bloodmarked has become not only used to pain, but almost welcomes it when it comes. This gives him an immunity to the effects of pain, physically or magically induced (Immunity to spells/ enchantments like agony, pain, maiming, overwhelming, heavy battle damage, etc).

Not bad.


Eye of the Storm (su): Creating his normal maximum of blood bullets outside of combat, the Bloodmarked can now store these projectiles in rapidly orbiting rings around his body for 3 minutes/ 4 levels. While these bullets orbit, they provide the Bloodmarked with a +2 deflection bonus to armor class. At any time as a free action, the Bloodmarked may fire any or all of these bullets at specified targets.

Note, this ability does not change the manifestation time of Blood Bullets, it merely gives you a way to store bullets made outside of combat and a way to use them other than offensively. Also note, you can only have one set of bullets manifested per round, so if you launch the bullets as your free action, you cannot create more the round you launch them (though you can attack normally). Also while using this ability, you cannot manifest any more bullets for a second set to fire at enemies.

You can activate this ability in combat, though it is a full round action.

A +2 deflection bonus to AC is pretty bad, but it's still better than attacking with (non toxin) blood bullets, so I guess it helps with defense. Really, a feature that is directly anti-synergistic with your (intended) primary attack mechanism is a terrible thing; this should be a passive or changed so it does not affect your damage output.


Mystic blood (en): Increases the bonus to the Bloodmarked's shield and armor by a further +1, bringing the bonus to +2 (+3 for the shield). Resistance to constitution damage increases to 2 as well, and the armor check penalty of blood armor is reduced by 1.

Well Armor Check Penalty is pretty irrelevant since you are proficient with your armor and you can bring it up nearly at will. The enhancement bonuses are still really behind the curve.


Epic blood (en): Further adds +2 to the enchantment bonus of the Bloodmarked, bringing the total, and final, enchantment bonus of his armor to +4 and his shield to +5. In addition, it allows him to enchant his armor with one of the following two effects in addition to the original enchantment from the magic blood feature.
-Freedom of Movement: Grants the Bloodmarked immunity to the effects of anything that would trap, slow or otherwise hinder his normal movement.
-Damage reduction 5: Reduces all incoming damage by 5 points.
-Heavy Fortification: The armor is enchanted as if it has the effect of Heavy Fortification.
One or the other can be used in combination with an elemental resistance listed above, and it takes eight hours to switch this enchantment as well once one is chosen (so if you wanted to change both, it would take 16 hours of concentration to do so). As a final bonus, constitution damage resistance is raised to 3 and Blood Bullets gain an alignment bonus when bypassing protections. (Alignment of the bullets is the same as the alignment of the creator)

Armor and shields are still massively behind the damage curve, and aligned weapons at 20th just isn't cutting it because they don't actually hurt anything.

Overall, this class suffers from two major problems. The first is that their primary attack mechanism sucks, having basically zero damage, explicitly not bypassing protections until far after you are assumed to have had them at least five or ten levels ago (a +1 weapon by level 3 isn't that far fetched, and you get a magic +0 1d6 weapon at level 13?) and having no real alternative effects besides one that is clearly overpowered except against foes immune to mind-affecting attacks.

The second is that every other class feature is either bonus HP or really bad free gear (the Soulknife problem), so essentially you have no other class features. Like, all the class features for blood armor and shield could be removed and this class would be no weaker except maybe from levels 3 to 5 where a +1 shield isn't necessarily assumed.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-23, 10:38 PM
Aaaaaaaand I'm done with all the things! I think the class is just a bit different now, so I'm hoping there will be a secondary review. (Note, there are a few points where I basically just ask for some help... please address those with some input.)


Eh. The problem is, as I'll point out later on, that the armor and shields you can create flat out suck at all points, so you want this armor as soon as possible.

Check it out now. :smallwink:


Not bad, but not amazing. The amount of out of combat healing is pretty low and it wouldn't really hurt to let them just have full powered fast healing all the time. I also don't know if regenerate is a great term considering there are already regeneration effects. I think that at level 1 it may be problematic, but after that the fast healing shouldn't prevent people from breaking you down because, well, 2 HP/round or 5 HP/round post 5 are not significantly hard to get past with focus.

That's what I was thinking, at level 20 you get 20 HP... but you are also fighting enemies that deal 20+ damage per shot, so it's just a way to keep yourself from dying after turn 2-3.


Flavorful.

Especially with strawberries.


This is... absolutely terrible. It's got awful damage, a very poor to-hit (-5 early on is awful), its range is pathetic, and you have no way to add your ability modifiers to it, and it costs you (minor) amounts of HP. This needs absolutely massive buffs to be worth using at any point instead of just grabbing a martial weapon.

It's also gone. Forever.


Meh. It'd be easier to just increase their constitution score every so many levels, especially since having a big pool of hit points is a lot less valuable than the fort saves that provides once your hit point pool gets big enough. The fact that the hit die for this class already vary later makes the bonus HP also seem redundant.

While I agree and want to implement this... I don't know how this ability would level up. +1 con every second level is way too high, +1/ 3 sounds a little better, but still sort of high, and +1/4 means that I will have 3 abilities rising on an incremental level of 4, which makes the 4th level seem just a bit redundant.


Well it's not bad when you get it, but a +1 shield rapidly drops off in value past that point.

Again, edited.


Not bad.

http://venturebeat.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/obama-not-bad.jpg


You get this before you are proficient with the armor it provides you. That should really be fixed. Anyway, the armor is pretty good because of the dexterity bonus, but not amazing because you can buy something close to that for full plate later and actually enchant it well.

Edited, now you start with the right proficiencies. :3


Again, good without being super great.

A delicate balance that one should not tip without becoming a wizard. :smallwink:


This seems very minor, since it's essentially just a floating pool of five hit points on a class that should reasonably have hundreds.

That would be gone. Completely.


This would be a lot better if there was explicitly a point where you drew blood so it wasn't purely DM interpretation; even just "every successful attack on a creature that can bleed by a bloodmarked is assumed to draw blood" would work.

How about, "Any living creature that has been damaged this encounter." :smallwink: I won't say to check it out again, I'm certain you get the picture.


Scaling factor is off (half level, not level), and it should explicitly be considered mind affecting. Affecting specific classes is also something I really hate; it is annoying when mechanics explicitly say "you really hate that dude, even if your character should not."

It's to scale now, and there is no discriminatory anything in it.


This is really terrible; it's OK out of combat healing (that you can self apply, which gets around your previously mediocre out of combat healing), but that's it.

I didn't want to deal with it and I'm focusing on more offensive tasks with this class, so it's gone.


On the bright side, this is broken as hell. Forcing multiple saves per round at ridiculously inflated save DCs for save or die effects is pretty bad. Granted, "berzerking" isn't actually a status effect and so it needs to be defined, but if it's anything like confusion it is not something you should hand out with enhanced DCs and multiple times a round.

Make the DC 10+1/2 level+con mod, make it only affect a singular target once per round, and define berzerking and it will be much more reasonable, while still being powerful. The lingering damage is also pretty significant since it's actually about as much damage as you'll do per round with the initial impact, which highlights how awful your blood bullets are at hurting things more than anything.

The bullets themselves are gone, so that in and of itself makes this ability a hella lot less broken. Berzerking is defined, so that should take care of the problems here...


Basically more passive HP boosts. Kind of meaningless and changing HD is silly; I'd replace both of these with con boosts, as I've said.

Yeah, it's just rolling a d12 now. And I'm still curious as to how you would implement that con boost ( and also why it would automatically cancel out the bonus hp, since I'm gearing towards as much hp as possible).


Well this one's got a sort of reasonable save (besides being 2 higher than normal, which should probably be chanced). Since your taunting aura (if it doesn't state it) should definitely be a once/day thing as is standard, the repeat affliction thing is irrelevant, and this should be a fear effect as defined, though simply giving them a relevant fear status is probably a lot easier.

Taunting aura is sort of an... aura... I don't know how one makes charges for an effect that is explicitly ongoing at all times. :smalltongue: Making it a single charge would actually ruin how effective the ability is, maybe instead it could be once a day for X amounts of turns? (Where "X" is 1/ x levels)


Flavor, nothing more.

Regrowing your arm is flavor? :smalltongue:


A +2 deflection bonus to AC is pretty bad, but it's still better than attacking with (non toxin) blood bullets, so I guess it helps with defense. Really, a feature that is directly anti-synergistic with your (intended) primary attack mechanism is a terrible thing; this should be a passive or changed so it does not affect your damage output.

Eye of the Storm has been changed rather allot, moving up the ladder and becoming a bladestorm-like ability.


Overall, this class suffers from two major problems. The first is that their primary attack mechanism sucks, having basically zero damage, explicitly not bypassing protections until far after you are assumed to have had them at least five or ten levels ago (a +1 weapon by level 3 isn't that far fetched, and you get a magic +0 1d6 weapon at level 13?) and having no real alternative effects besides one that is clearly overpowered except against foes immune to mind-affecting attacks.

The second is that every other class feature is either bonus HP or really bad free gear (the Soulknife problem), so essentially you have no other class features. Like, all the class features for blood armor and shield could be removed and this class would be no weaker except maybe from levels 3 to 5 where a +1 shield isn't necessarily assumed.

This should be changed rather allot, now I'm certain their will be some calls to balance things out and maybe one or two abilities that really don't belong. But I think that these problems that you pointed out should be fixed now...

absolmorph
2013-01-23, 10:47 PM
Regenerate (su): The Bloodmarked's body reacts to danger, healing itself incredibly quickly while in the midst of combat and for a short time after. At level 1, this ability grants the Bloodmarked a Fast Healing like effect that lasts the entire encounter, with a base value of 2hp/round. At level 5, this effect increases to 5hp/ round, and increases by 5 every fifth level beyond that, capping at 20hp/ round at level 20.

This ability also increases his normal healing rate as well, but by quite a bit less. While out of combat, this ability heals 1 lethal damage an hour for every two levels of the Bloodmarked.
Why have it jump up every few levels, and why not just be fast healing?


Trace blood (su): A Bloodmarked may follow any trail of blood that is less than a month old, an can make an identification check (d20+Knowledge (Nature))) of DC 5+1/day old to identify what creature type and subtype the blood is from.
Decent fluff ability, but kind of wonky application.


Blood Weapon (su): Using the blood in his body as a swift action, the Bloodmarked can create a weapon that has the charictaristics of a short sword, though its appearance and damage type can vary between a slashing, stabbing or bludgeoning weapon.. This weapon's base damage increases to 1d8 damage at fourth level, and increases to 1d10 at level 8.

At level 12 the Bloodmarked learns where best to strike his enemies, raising this weapon's critical threat range by 1. At level 16 the Bloodmarked knows how to hit these points for even greater damage, increasing the critical multiplier by 1 (bringing it to x3). Finally, learning the placement of every nerve in any being's body, the Bloodmarked at level twenty raises the threat range of this weapon by 2 (Bringing the total range increase to +3). This weapon falls apart if it leaves the Bloodmarked's hand, and it costs 2 health to manifest.
I can see the critical range of this weapon getting big later on; with either Improved Critical or Keen, you can threaten a crit half the time.


Bonus health: The Bloodmarked's body is far more durable than any normal mortal creature's. This ability provides a permanent bump to the Bloodmarked's health every second level. From level 2-8 this bonus is +3, level 10-18 it's +4, level 20-28 it's +5 and at level 30+ it's +6. This bonus health is a permanent raise and occurs independently from the Bloodmarked's Constitution score.
I still don't really like how you implemented this ability (a flat bonus per HD/class level makes more sense, I think, even if you bump in up around level 10 so you still get around the same HP), but whatever. Not all that great of an ability.


Blood shield (su): At level two, the Bloodmarked may use his blood to create a medium shield. This shield counts as a normal medium shield with a +1 bonus. Manifesting this power deals two lethal damage to the Bloodmarked. This shield exists only so long as the Bloodmarked is holding it, and for no longer than 8 hours. Manifesting this armor counts as an immediate action, and can be performed during another creature's turn.
So... What's a medium shield? Is this like a light shield, giving a +1 shield bonus to AC, or a heavy shield, giving a +2 bonus?


Resilient blood: The Bloodmarked's blood and immune system are extremely resilient to all poisons and diseases, granting a +6 bonus against these at level 3.
Alright, this is okay.


Blood in the Water: The Bloodmarked gains the feat Blood in the water automatically at this level, even if he does not meet the prerequisites.
Source for the feat?


Blood armor (su): This ability manifests a suit of armor that the Bloodmarked is proficient with. Each suit of armor has its own bonus and health cost, though all of them have a maximum dexterity bonus of 5 and a -3 armor check penalty.
{table=head]Armor type |Manifestation cost |AC bonus |Damage reduction |Hardness |Durability
Light armor |2 |+3 |0 |6 |5
Medium armor|4 |+5 |0 |7 |7
Heavy armor|6 |+8 |1 |9 |11
[/table]
Manifestation duration is the same length as the Blood shield.
This ability can only be used if you are not wearing any armor.
It's better to note the duration for this ability in its own entry, to minimize cross-referencing. Otherwise fine, though dull.


Empowered blood (su): At fourth level, all manifested items created by the Bloodmarked's blood gain a +1 enchantment bonus, as well as a +1 enchantment effect. This bonus increases every fourth level, up to a +5 bonus and +5 enchantment effect at level 20, allowing you to choose better or at least more varied effects as you level up. There are some enchantments that are restricted, however:
-For Shields: Animated (This item cannot leave your hand without dissolving), Wild (No shapeshifting with this class), Undead controlling (They are not living, thus out of your ability to influence), Any of the Greater elemental resistances.
-For armor: Undead controlling (It's not alive, thus beyond your power to influence), Wild (You can't shape shift), Any of the Greater elemental resistances.
-For the weapon: Vorpal (Congrats, your heart got a critical hit. You just killed yourself with your vorpal blood. :smalltongue:), Dancing (This item cannot leave your hand without falling apart), Throwing (See; Dancing) and Spell storing (You don't have any, so it's sort of worthless anyway. :smalltongue:).
Note, you can change the enchantments that you have equipped by concentrating for 8 hours on each piece of equipment. So if you want to change everything, you are going to have to sit around for a full day doing so.
Okay, so, I understand nixing Dancing and Throwing, and sort of Undead Controlling (corpses can still have blood, y'know, and that's your actual schtick, not living things), but what's the justification for banning Wild, Spell-storing, Vorpal (it's on the WEAPON, not all of your blood), and the greater elemental resistance enchantments?
Multi-classing is a thing.


Other benefits of this class perk include:
-At level 8 you absorb one point of Constitution damage from every attack that would damage it.
-At level 12 you have damage resistance 5/ normal weapons and absorb 2 points of constitution damage.
-At level 16 you absorb 4 points of constitution damage and your blood gains your alignment (This influences your armor and weapons, but makes you vulnerable to your opposite). Finally, your DR against normal weapons is increased to 10.
-At level 20 you count as an outsider for the purpose of spells and are immune to constitution damage. Finally, DR against normal weapons (if any are still showing up?) is 15.
This should be a totally separate class feature.
Also, the DR you listed is penetrated by "normal" weapons and applies to whatever doesn't qualify as normal. Perhaps you want DR x/magic, which is penetrated by magical weapons.


Clear Blood: Further enhances the Bloodmarked's resistance to diseases and poisons, making him immune to all normal varieties and adding a further +2 against ones of magical origin (bringing the total to +8).
Still not very interesting, but an understandable feature.


Blood walk (su): At level 6 the Bloodmarked moves with and blood that has been spilled, seeming to twist and jump in it at speeds that make it appear that he is phasing within it. When this character is moving towards a living creature that has taken damage this encounter, or it is following a trail of blood, it adds +30 to its base movement and may make a concentration check (DC10+Attacker's BAB) to avoid any prompted attacks of opportunity. The Bloodmarked may also move through spaces occupied by creatures with no penalty, as long as he is moving directly towards the damaged creature. He cannot, however, stop on an already occupied space.
An... Odd ability, that seems to be justified as "Hey! Blood! I like that stuff! I'll chase it!"


Taunting aura (su): Something about the Bloodmarked tugs at the blood of his foes, making him appear to be more of a target or threat than other enemies. At level 7, this passive ability causes hostile creatures and neutral animals who fail a saving throw (DC10+1/2 level+Charisma mod) to target the Bloodmarked instead of any of his allies. This ability affects a 20 foot area and does not work on outsiders, mindless monsters or magical creatures with higher converted hd than the Bloodmarked.
Poorly worded. What 20 foot area does it effect? What makes a creature "magical"?


Target Weakpoint: Sacrificing some of his time to act and attack, the Bloodmarked may study a living opponent to ensure that he will deal damage through their defenses. This ability sacrifices the last attack (or attacks, if applicable) for this round and adds their BAB to the Blood Marked's first attack as an insight bonus. The maximum bonus and subtraction the Bloodmarked can receive from this ability is equal to his level/2. This ability requires 10 int to be used.
Er... you do realize that you just get extra attacks at a -5 penalty for every 5 points of BAB past 1 you have, right? So they all have the same BAB.


Toxic blood (en): The Bloodmarked's blood becomes excessively powerful neurotoxin toxic to all other living creatures, dealing lingering damage to anything that drinks or is damaged by this blood, and forces them to make a saving throw against being poisoned and confused (DC10+1/2 Bloodmarked level) for 1 round every 3 Bloodmarked levels. At level 14, the effects of this poison are increased, the confusion becomes berzerking and the DC save is set to (DC10+1/2 Bloodmarked level+Constitution modifier). This effect can only be used by a neutral or evil character. To make things easier, here's a helpful table~
{table=head]Level |Poison damage |Secondary effect |Duration |DC save
9-13 |4 |Confusion |1 round/ 3 lvl |10+1/2 lvl
14+ |8 |Berzerking* |1 round/ 3 lvl |10+1/2 lvl+con mod[/table]

*Berzerking is a confusion like effect that removes the chance of standing around and doing nothing, adding that percentile to the chance of attacking a random target instead.
So... Okay. Weird, and incredibly powerful, because you're essentially forcing a save with every attack at risk of basically being useless afterward.
Also randomly restricted by alignment.


Cripple (su): Three times a day, after making a successful Touch attack against a living enemy, the Bloodmarked can attempt to take minor control of an enemy's blood. He must succeed with two concentration checks (DC10+1/2 level+Fort save and a DC10+1/2 level+Will save) to succeed. If he fails either, this ability has no affect. If he succeeds, however, he may enforce his will on the target's blood, twisting it painfully in their veins and giving them a -2 pain penalty (would fall under the misc category) to their actions until they make a successful will or fort save to remove it (DC 10+Bloodmarked level*), the Bloodmarked releases his control or the Bloodmarked dies, is knocked unconscious or falls asleep. Casters suffer from a 50% spell failure rate while under this effect.

*I have no idea what else I would add to the save DC here, and having just 1/2 of the character level would make this ability essentially worthless against everything but a rogue at later levels (since the max DC with 1/2 level is 20). I am perfectly willing to make it another 10+1/2 level+a stat mod if someone can tell me what I should use.
How does the Bloodmarked retain control? When can the target make saves to get rid of it?


Bloodlust: The Bloodletter is thrown into a minor frenzy at the sight of blood, hitting those already damaged harder and more than usual. When attacking a living enemy that has already been damaged, the Bloodmarked gains +2 to hit and damage against it. If the target is taking Bleeding damage, this bonus is increased by a further +2.
Random name change, otherwise weak and kind of dull.


Intimidating aura (su): Enemies affected by the Bloodmarked's taunting aura who fail their saving throws must make a moral save against the Bloodmarked (DC 10+1/2 Bloodmarked's level+Charisma bonus) or receive a -4 to their actions against him from being terrified. This penalty only affects them while they are targeting the Bloodmarked, though it will last the entire encounter. If this ability would affect them again, the penalty becomes -6, where it then maxed out.
What's a moral save? Do you mean Will?
Why not just apply a fear effect?


Fortified blood: At level 13 the Bloodmarked's blood permanently gains the Fortification (medium) enchantment as a natural ability.
Dull, but acceptable.


Regrow limb (su): At level 13 if somehow the Bloodmarked loses a limb and somehow survives the encounter, he may spend the next week regrowing that limb. He goes into a trance-like state of concentration during this time. At the end of this week, the limb will be fully regrown and useable.
Shorten how long this takes or just get rid of it.
Seriously.


Impervious to pain: After being hit and punished so many times, the Bloodmarked has become not only used to pain, but almost welcomes it when it comes. This gives him an immunity to the effects of pain, physically or magically induced (Immunity to spells/ enchantments like agony, pain, maiming, overwhelming, heavy battle damage, etc).
Weak, though flavorful.


Blood Boil: Three times a day at level 16 the Bloodmarked may make a touch attack against a living enemy to, literally, boil their blood. This ability deals 6d8+caster level damage to the target, staggers the target and causes them to suffer from the effects of exhaustion for 3 days. A fortitude save (DC10+1/2 level+Con) is allowed to escape exhaustion and cut damage in half.
This class has no caster level. Also, why not have this be per encounter (this applies to all limited-use abilities, actually)?


Eye of the Storm (su): At level 18 a Bloodmarked has such mastery over his blood that he may manifest it in the air around him, creating multiple shifting, slashing rings to protect himself from harm and damage those that would try to get too close. This active ability (usable 2/ day) grants a +3 bonus to AC and deals 3d6 points of slashing damage each round to enemies that are in melee distance, reflex save for half (DC 15+1/2 level). This blood gets the enchantment bonus that all of his blood manifestations receive only for the purposes of overcoming damage resistances. This ability, when activated, deals 5 points of damage to the Bloodmarked and has a duration of 1 round/ 3 levels.
Kind of weak, but at least it's interesting.


Blood Nova: Achieving the ultimate mastery of his blood, the Bloodmarked can fire a ring of sharpened blood from his body, cutting all creatures around him. At the cost of 10 health, the Bloodmarked launches a ring that strikes everything within a 30" radius of him for 10d8 physical damage (Reflex save DC 32* for half). This ability can be used 2/ day. Half of the kills this ability scores (rounded down) will count towards the Cleave of Greater Cleave feats (if you have taken them).

*Because I have too many things that are so variable. A simple flat save DC just so I don't have to shoot myself in the face.
This... Is actually an interesting ability. I'd actually enjoy using this ability.

Okay, universal criticisms:

Saves. Make them 10 + 1/2 class level + one ability modifier that's used for all of them. Having a bunch of variation makes it harder to keep track of. I recommend using Constitution. I honestly don't care if you don't want variable saves; having a single DC to keep track of for all the saves my enemies make (so I just need to know if they're making a Fort, Ref, or Will save) is far easier, and it's a standard calculation.
This class doesn't really actually have any interesting active abilities to use from turn to turn. It's mostly just attacking and trying to get them to fail their save against Toxic Blood.
The way you're trying to make this a tanking class is all over the place and isn't really working well. Figure out what kind of abilities you want it to have and come up with good ways to use that.


Some suggestions:

Make the capstone like a huge Whirlwind attack, and make it usable more often to make up for the lower damage.
An enemy with flight and a ranged attack kills this class. Give it some way to fight back (blood bullets are a flavorful way to do this.
Just give it fast healing equal to its class level. Seriously. It's not that overpowering.
Instead of forcing enemies to focus on the character, let them punish enemies who attack their allies (an aura that lets them deal damage when someone makes an attack that doesn't include them would do this fine).
Make Toxic Blood just deal ability damage; it's much less of a pain to mess with. Deal 2 Str damage to start, increase it to 4 Str damage at level 14. Bam. More useful, and less rolling.
Note which system this class is meant for somewhere in your first post. Like, near the top would be great.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-24, 12:04 AM
Why have it jump up every few levels, and why not just be fast healing?

Flavor, mostly. And also the effect outside of battle is much different, so that's what I've got. *Shrug*


Decent fluff ability, but kind of wonky application.

Wonky is good. :smallwink:


I can see the critical range of this weapon getting big later on; with either Improved Critical or Keen, you can threaten a crit half the time.

If a DM has a problem with it, they can house rule this sucker to ensure that Keen cannot be taken, and as a balancing measure the second critical boost can be lowered to 1 very easily (though that is the level 20 boost).


I still don't really like how you implemented this ability (a flat bonus per HD/class level makes more sense, I think, even if you bump in up around level 10 so you still get around the same HP), but whatever. Not all that great of an ability.

I'm toying with how to implement a con boost every few levels instead of this ability, though I'm not sure how I would do that. Every 4th level is already rather filled with... everything... so a suggestion would be helpful.


So... What's a medium shield? Is this like a light shield, giving a +1 shield bonus to AC, or a heavy shield, giving a +2 bonus?

Heavy, I'll change that. (Used to the 2.0 system of buckler, light, heavy, tower...)


Source for the feat?

Blah, I'll just write what it does.


Okay, so, I understand nixing Dancing and Throwing, and sort of Undead Controlling (corpses can still have blood, y'know, and that's your actual schtick, not living things), but what's the justification for banning Wild, Spell-storing, Vorpal (it's on the WEAPON, not all of your blood), and the greater elemental resistance enchantments?
Multi-classing is a thing.

Actually, you cannot cross class to druid and keep any of the supernatural abilities of this class so... no, wild is not possible. Spell-storing might work... I'll add that one back in. As for Vorpal, that's entirely for balancing reasons. The crit range of your manifested weapon can be rather high, so having an ability with the raw power of Vorpal would basically ensure multiple kills (and extra actions if you have the Greater Cleave feat).

The Greater Elemental resistances are simply too expensive to be used. (A half step above the +5 enchantment costs).


This should be a totally separate class feature.
Also, the DR you listed is penetrated by "normal" weapons and applies to whatever doesn't qualify as normal. Perhaps you want DR x/magic, which is penetrated by magical weapons.

What would you call it? And if it grows at the same rate and because the class's blood is becoming more magical, I see no reason why it should be another growing ability. The mistake shall be fixed...


An... Odd ability, that seems to be justified as "Hey! Blood! I like that stuff! I'll chase it!"

Traveling in and too blood does fit thematically though, if you think about how much this class revolves around the stuff.


Poorly worded. What 20 foot area does it effect? What makes a creature "magical"?

A 20" radius around the Bloodmarked (I thought that was a given, as an aura is automatically attached to either an item and or a being). Anything with the word "Magical" literally in its creature type or subtype (ex: Magical humanoid/ beast/ plant/ you get the picture).


Er... you do realize that you just get extra attacks at a -5 penalty for every 5 points of BAB past 1 you have, right? So they all have the same BAB.

Shuuuuuush. I'll adjust it to just removing the last attack and adding its modifier to your first attack (Or maybe the last two, since that last attack constantly is being reset).


So... Okay. Weird, and incredibly powerful, because you're essentially forcing a save with every attack at risk of basically being useless afterward.
Also randomly restricted by alignment.

That alignment restriction shouldn't be there. XD The other one has a duration of 2 rounds.


How does the Bloodmarked retain control? When can the target make saves to get rid of it?

Once he takes control, he can keep it until either being thrown off by a powerful force of will or bodily rejection. Asking how he does that gets you the same answer as asking how magic works.

The target may make saves at the beginning of each of their rounds. I'll be sure to mark that.


Random name change, otherwise weak and kind of dull.

Stupid names...


What's a moral save? Do you mean Will?
Why not just apply a fear effect?

I do believe there is still a moral concept in D&D, and that it is somehow based off of your will save and charisma, but to simplify things I could just make it a pure will save. As for fear, that affects the enemy's actions against other people as well and this ability is only supposed to affect attacks, skills and abilities used against him specifically.


Shorten how long this takes or just get rid of it.
Seriously.

Why? Honestly, a week does seem like a reasonable amount of time for regrowing an entire arm or leg. And I don't see a need to get rid of regenerating a limb from a class that specializes in regenerating.


This class has no caster level. Also, why not have this be per encounter (this applies to all limited-use abilities, actually)?

Because most class abilities are per-day, and that makes them easier to balance/ scale. I guess I could make them per encounter, but that would be quite a bit harder to balance.


This... Is actually an interesting ability. I'd actually enjoy using this ability.

Whaaaaaaaaaa?!?! :smalltongue:


Okay, universal criticisms:

Saves. Make them 10 + 1/2 class level + one ability modifier that's used for all of them. Having a bunch of variation makes it harder to keep track of. I recommend using Constitution. I honestly don't care if you don't want variable saves; having a single DC to keep track of for all the saves my enemies make (so I just need to know if they're making a Fort, Ref, or Will save) is far easier, and it's a standard calculation.
This class doesn't really actually have any interesting active abilities to use from turn to turn. It's mostly just attacking and trying to get them to fail their save against Toxic Blood.
The way you're trying to make this a tanking class is all over the place and isn't really working well. Figure out what kind of abilities you want it to have and come up with good ways to use that.

1. Saves. Honestly, there are many abilities where a single save type just doesn't make sense (For instance taunting aura doesn't really relate to his constitution, while charisma doesn't really apply to the strength of his will/ body when being applied to cripple). Players may be lazy, but neither they nor a DM are stupid and everyone HATES having things dumbed down to the point where they don't make sense. Plus this way the class sort of has to diversify and choose what it wants to focus in (Do I want a powerful taunt? Better AC with my high dex cap? etc)
2. Abilities to use turn to turn, Cripple, Blood Boil, Blood Nova, Taunting aura (becoming an active ability), and Target Weakpoint. All of them have strategic (if not very "Interesting") uses and set the Bloodmarked apart from the fighter's "I hit them with my sword" strategy. Could it use more? Probably. Could those maybe come from feats? Isn't that what gives the Fighter any kind of flavor whatsoever?
3. Self healing, the aura and a con bonus (gonna add that somewhere) should be more than enough for a respectable tank. Damage absorb and the ability to create its own armor are just helpful additions to this job.


Some suggestions:

Make the capstone like a huge Whirlwind attack, and make it usable more often to make up for the lower damage.
An enemy with flight and a ranged attack kills this class. Give it some way to fight back (blood bullets are a flavorful way to do this.
Just give it fast healing equal to its class level. Seriously. It's not that overpowering.
Instead of forcing enemies to focus on the character, let them punish enemies who attack their allies (an aura that lets them deal damage when someone makes an attack that doesn't include them would do this fine).
Make Toxic Blood just deal ability damage; it's much less of a pain to mess with. Deal 2 Str damage to start, increase it to 4 Str damage at level 14. Bam. More useful, and less rolling.
Note which system this class is meant for somewhere in your first post. Like, near the top would be great.

1. I would LOVE to have more uses of a Blood Nova (which is basically a sharp fireball... made of blood... Don't see how I can make that into a whirlwind attack...)
2. Or the player could, you know, pick up a crossbow. That would be more effective, have farther range and not complicate this class any more than it has to.
3. The whole point of the aura is to keep allies from being harmed at all, instead having the Bloodmarked soak up all that damage (which it can handle).
4. But what it has isn't exactly fast healing, and this is more of a stylistic flavor thing for me.
5. The confusion effect will most likely go, since that would be a hassle, but the damage is flat and easily recorded. So instead making it deal damage and drop strength, or just drop strength, would probably be a way to make the class better.
6. The system I am using is in the thread name. Seriously.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-24, 12:20 AM
Feedback 2: The Feedbackening!



Haggle (cha)

Is this for 3.5? Haggle isn't a skill in 3.5. :smalltongue:


Regenerate (su): The Bloodmarked's body reacts to danger, healing itself incredibly quickly while in the midst of combat and for a short time after. At level 1, this ability grants the Bloodmarked a Fast Healing like effect that lasts the entire encounter, with a base value of 2hp/round. At level 5, this effect increases to 5hp/ round, and increases by 5 every fifth level beyond that, capping at 20hp/ round at level 20.

Any reason this isn't 1hp/level/round? That gets you the same end results, only with nicer scaling.


Blood Weapon (su): Using the blood in his body as a swift action, the Bloodmarked can create a weapon that has the charictaristics of a short sword, though its appearance and damage type can vary between a slashing, stabbing or bludgeoning weapon.. This weapon's base damage increases to 1d8 damage at fourth level, and increases to 1d10 at level 8.

At level 12 the Bloodmarked learns where best to strike his enemies, raising this weapon's critical threat range by 1. At level 16 the Bloodmarked knows how to hit these points for even greater damage, increasing the critical multiplier by 1 (bringing it to x3). Finally, learning the placement of every nerve in any being's body, the Bloodmarked at level twenty raises the threat range of this weapon by 2 (Bringing the total range increase to +3). This weapon falls apart if it leaves the Bloodmarked's hand, and it costs 2 health to manifest.

So we end up with a one handed weapon that begins at 1d6 (19-20x2) and ends at 1d10 (16-20x3) before Improved Critical. That could be a bit concerning, as those are some crazy base weapon stats. Improved Critical brings that critical range to 12-20, which is worrying.


Bonus health: The Bloodmarked's body is far more durable than any normal mortal creature's. This ability provides a permanent bump to the Bloodmarked's health every second level. From level 2-8 this bonus is +3, level 10-18 it's +4, level 20-28 it's +5 and at level 30+ it's +6. This bonus health is a permanent raise and occurs independently from the Bloodmarked's Constitution score.

Better. I still don't like this as a class feature, but it's at least a bit cleaner.


Blood in the Water: The Bloodmarked gains the feat Blood in the water automatically at this level, even if he does not meet the prerequisites.

If it isn't from the Player's Handbook, cite your feat sources in homebrew. Not necessary, but it's a good practice to get into.


Empowered blood (su): At fourth level, all manifested items created by the Bloodmarked's blood gain a +1 enchantment bonus, as well as a +1 enchantment effect. This bonus increases every fourth level, up to a +5 bonus and +5 enchantment effect at level 20, allowing you to choose better or at least more varied effects as you level up. There are some enchantments that are restricted, however:
-For Shields: Animated (This item cannot leave your hand without dissolving), Wild (No shapeshifting with this class), Undead controlling (They are not living, thus out of your ability to influence), Any of the Greater elemental resistances.
-For armor: Undead controlling (It's not alive, thus beyond your power to influence), Wild (You can't shape shift), Any of the Greater elemental resistances.
-For the weapon: Vorpal (Congrats, your heart got a critical hit. You just killed yourself with your vorpal blood. :smalltongue:), Dancing (This item cannot leave your hand without falling apart), Throwing (See; Dancing) and Spell storing (You don't have any, so it's sort of worthless anyway. :smalltongue:).
Note, you can change the enchantments that you have equipped by concentrating for 8 hours on each piece of equipment. So if you want to change everything, you are going to have to sit around for a full day doing so.


I think it's much cleaner if you just deny Dancing, Throwing, and Animated: having the other abilities isn't likely, as players will avoid enhancements they can't use. It also saves you almost three paragraphs of text.


Other benefits of this class perk include:
-At level 8 you absorb one point of Constitution damage from every attack that would damage it.
-At level 12 you have damage resistance 5/ normal weapons and absorb 2 points of constitution damage.
-At level 16 you absorb 4 points of constitution damage and your blood gains your alignment (This influences your armor and weapons, but makes you vulnerable to your opposite). Finally, your DR against normal weapons is increased to 10.
-At level 20 you count as an outsider for the purpose of spells and are immune to constitution damage. Finally, DR against normal weapons (if any are still showing up?) is 15.


These are all independent abilities, and should be written as such. They're definitely not related to the previous class feature in the slightest.


Blood walk (su): At level 6 the Bloodmarked moves with and blood that has been spilled, seeming to twist and jump in it at speeds that make it appear that he is phasing within it. When this character is moving towards a living creature that has taken damage this encounter, or it is following a trail of blood, it adds +30 to its base movement and may make a concentration check (DC10+Attacker's BAB) to avoid any prompted attacks of opportunity. The Bloodmarked may also move through spaces occupied by creatures with no penalty, as long as he is moving directly towards the damaged creature. He cannot, however, stop on an already occupied space.

Much better. Now I know what this ability actually does. :smalltongue:


Taunting aura (su): Something about the Bloodmarked tugs at the blood of his foes, making him appear to be more of a target or threat than other enemies. At level 7, this passive ability causes hostile creatures and neutral animals who fail a saving throw (DC10+1/2 level+Charisma mod) to target the Bloodmarked instead of any of his allies. This ability affects a 20 foot area and does not work on outsiders, mindless monsters or magical creatures with higher converted hd than the Bloodmarked.

How long does this last? Are they entitled to a save each round? If they successfully save, are they immune (I would suggest maybe saying "yes" to that last one, although if you don't want them to be you can skip including text about immunities(.


Target Weakpoint: Sacrificing some of his time to act and attack, the Bloodmarked may study a living opponent to ensure that he will deal damage through their defenses. This ability sacrifices the last attack (or attacks, if applicable) for this round and adds their BAB to the Blood Marked's first attack as an insight bonus. The maximum bonus and subtraction the Bloodmarked can receive from this ability is equal to his level/2. This ability requires 10 int to be used.

Why does this ability require intelligence? Just cut that. I know it LOGICALLY requires intelligence, but this class isn't a caster: you don't go into it expecting to buff your casting stats. It's unnecessary mechanically to require a minimum intelligence score.

Also, sacrifices the last attack or attacks? What exactly is a last attacks, plural. There's always a SINGLE last attack.


Toxic blood (en): The Bloodmarked's blood becomes excessively powerful neurotoxin toxic to all other living creatures, dealing lingering damage to anything that drinks or is damaged by this blood, and forces them to make a saving throw against being poisoned and confused (DC10+1/2 Bloodmarked level) for 1 round every 3 Bloodmarked levels. At level 14, the effects of this poison are increased, the confusion becomes berzerking and the DC save is set to (DC10+1/2 Bloodmarked level+Constitution modifier). This effect can only be used by a neutral or evil character. To make things easier, here's a helpful table~
{table=head]Level |Poison damage |Secondary effect |Duration |DC save
9-13 |4 |Confusion |1 round/ 3 lvl |10+1/2 lvl
14+ |8 |Berzerking* |1 round/ 3 lvl |10+1/2 lvl+con mod[/table]

*Berzerking is a confusion like effect that removes the chance of standing around and doing nothing, adding that percentile to the chance of attacking a random target instead.

Holy heck is this still overpowered. A multi-round extreme save-or-suck tied to every attack you make. Geeze. This is rather insane, and should be toned down quite a bit.


Cripple (su): Three times a day, after making a successful Touch attack against a living enemy, the Bloodmarked can attempt to take minor control of an enemy's blood. He must succeed with two concentration checks (DC10+1/2 level+Fort save and a DC10+1/2 level+Will save) to succeed. If he fails either, this ability has no affect. If he succeeds, however, he may enforce his will on the target's blood, twisting it painfully in their veins and giving them a -2 pain penalty (would fall under the misc category) to their actions until they make a successful will or fort save to remove it (DC 10+Bloodmarked level*), the Bloodmarked releases his control or the Bloodmarked dies, is knocked unconscious or falls asleep. Casters suffer from a 50% spell failure rate while under this effect.

Alright. Save DC is problematic: we use the standard save DC because it is designed to scale approximately equal to save progressions, meaning you retain an approximately equal chance against a given opponent if both of you level equally. That's intended: use the formula. It works. I'd maybe suggest +Charisma or +Constitution for this ability.

That said, I don't think I'd waste an attack giving a -2 penalty that requires TWO additional checks to apply, and then gets a save (which I'd guess seems to be each round). Then again, it oddly completely gimps casters, so it MIGHT be worth it against them alone.



Bloodlust: The Bloodletter is thrown into a minor frenzy at the sight of blood, hitting those already damaged harder and more than usual. When attacking a living enemy that has already been damaged, the Bloodmarked gains +2 to hit and damage against it. If the target is taking Bleeding damage, this bonus is increased by a further +2.

Useful, but very boring. Numbers go up, numbers go down. Life goes on.


Intimidating aura (su): Enemies affected by the Bloodmarked's taunting aura who fail their saving throws must make a moral save against the Bloodmarked (DC 10+1/2 Bloodmarked's level+Charisma bonus) or receive a -4 to their actions against him from being terrified. This penalty only affects them while they are targeting the Bloodmarked, though it will last the entire encounter. If this ability would affect them again, the penalty becomes -6, where it then maxed out.

This makes my aura have 2 saves attached, apparently each round. This might be a bit high to have always on, but I'd have to see it in play. Combined with Toxic Blood, however, this leads to perma-confusion and an automatic victory.

Also, bear in mind that a strong save at level 12 is a +8, meaning you can, at level 12, take a strong save's base value down to the level of a level 1 character. Seems a little high when it first comes online, given that it's an AoE that is applied freely.


Fortified blood: At level 13 the Bloodmarked's blood permanently gains the Fortification (medium) enchantment as a natural ability.

...your BLOOD gains this ability? How about you just give a 50-75% chance to negate critical hits? Cut the reference to Fortification entirely.


Blood Boil: Three times a day at level 16 the Bloodmarked may make a touch attack against a living enemy to, literally, boil their blood. This ability deals 6d8+caster level damage to the target, staggers the target and causes them to suffer from the effects of exhaustion for 3 days. A fortitude save (DC10+1/2 level+Con) is allowed to escape exhaustion and cut damage in half.[/quote]

Bit of damage (use class level, not caster level...you have no caster level) and another debuff, meaning we've debuffed out opponents into the stratosphere. Now we've got an extra effective -3 to all Strength and Dexterity based checks and rolls...these penalties are stacking a little to high.


Eye of the Storm (su): At level 18 a Bloodmarked has such mastery over his blood that he may manifest it in the air around him, creating multiple shifting, slashing rings to protect himself from harm and damage those that would try to get too close. This active ability (usable 2/ day) grants a +3 bonus to AC and deals 3d6 points of slashing damage each round to enemies that are in melee distance, reflex save for half (DC 15+1/2 level). This blood gets the enchantment bonus that all of his blood manifestations receive only for the purposes of overcoming damage resistances. This ability, when activated, deals 5 points of damage to the Bloodmarked and has a duration of 1 round/ 3 levels.

3d6 damage a round is pitiful at level 18. It needs to be said. But it's not a BAD ability...just not good material for an almost-capstone.


Blood Nova: Achieving the ultimate mastery of his blood, the Bloodmarked can fire a ring of sharpened blood from his body, cutting all creatures around him. At the cost of 10 health, the Bloodmarked launches a ring that strikes everything within a 30" radius of him for 10d8 physical damage (Reflex save DC 32* for half). This ability can be used 2/ day. Half of the kills this ability scores (rounded down) will count towards the Cleave of Greater Cleave feats (if you have taken them).

10d8 damage in a 30ft radius is slightly better than a level 10 caster using fireball. This capstone is very weak, slightly funky (save DC, which you REALLY should change, and Cleave procs contribute to this being odd), and ultimately disappointing after 20 levels.


******

Conclusion: You have a few more active abilities, which is nice. But the class itself isn't really any more cohesive than it used to be. My mind is dancing around what I feel the core problem is, and I'm having trouble pinning it down. I think the class is still suffering from an identity crisis as it tries to do many things at once.

Question: Mind if I try a bit of homebrew myself and see what I can do with this? Trying my own hand at a concept can help me see what I'm finding awkward about other versions of the same concept.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-24, 12:51 AM
Feedback 2: The Feedbackening!

Is this for 3.5? Haggle isn't a skill in 3.5. :smalltongue:

Fair enough point, I should probably nix that. :smalltongue:


Any reason this isn't 1hp/level/round? That gets you the same end results, only with nicer scaling.

As I've said, it's more of a stylistic choice. But since it seems that this is a common request, I think I'll change it. But it's going to be called regeneration gosh darnit, and it will not have the same effect outside of battle. :smalltongue:


So we end up with a one handed weapon that begins at 1d6 (19-20x2) and ends at 1d10 (16-20x3) before Improved Critical. That could be a bit concerning, as those are some crazy base weapon stats. Improved Critical brings that critical range to 12-20, which is worrying.

Yes, and I should probably change that. Either reduce the lvl 20 crit increase or remove it entirely.


Better. I still don't like this as a class feature, but it's at least a bit cleaner.

I'm trying to think of a way to turn it into a con bonus. Any suggestions ofr how I should do that?


If it isn't from the Player's Handbook, cite your feat sources in homebrew. Not necessary, but it's a good practice to get into.

Ah, sorry. I thought that was in some common handbook somewhere. I changed the description to explain what this feature does.


I think it's much cleaner if you just deny Dancing, Throwing, and Animated: having the other abilities isn't likely, as players will avoid enhancements they can't use. It also saves you almost three paragraphs of text.

Fair enough. And I guess the DM can rule on Vorpal anyway...


These are all independent abilities, and should be written as such. They're definitely not related to the previous class feature in the slightest.

Well damn, now I need to think of a new name for them. :smallconfused:


Much better. Now I know what this ability actually does. :smalltongue:

And do you like it/ does it make sense? :smalltongue:


How long does this last? Are they entitled to a save each round? If they successfully save, are they immune (I would suggest maybe saying "yes" to that last one, although if you don't want them to be you can skip including text about immunities).

It lasts for 1 turn and they roll for x rounds (where x is 1 round/ 3 levels)


Why does this ability require intelligence? Just cut that. I know it LOGICALLY requires intelligence, but this class isn't a caster: you don't go into it expecting to buff your casting stats. It's unnecessary mechanically to require a minimum intelligence score.

Also, sacrifices the last attack or attacks? What exactly is a last attacks, plural. There's always a SINGLE last attack.

Alright, fair enough. And it sacrifices the last attack that would be made the round this turn is activated.


Holy heck is this still overpowered. A multi-round extreme save-or-suck tied to every attack you make. Geeze. This is rather insane, and should be toned down quite a bit.

Confusion is now a strength penalty, and the damage has been lowered slightly.


Alright. Save DC is problematic: we use the standard save DC because it is designed to scale approximately equal to save progressions, meaning you retain an approximately equal chance against a given opponent if both of you level equally. That's intended: use the formula. It works. I'd maybe suggest +Charisma or +Constitution for this ability.

That said, I don't think I'd waste an attack giving a -2 penalty that requires TWO additional checks to apply, and then gets a save (which I'd guess seems to be each round). Then again, it oddly completely gimps casters, so it MIGHT be worth it against them alone.

Constitution should work for this one... and I don't see what's so odd about not being able to cast spells while your blood is literally twisting your veins. :smalltongue:


Useful, but very boring. Numbers go up, numbers go down. Life goes on.

Purdy much.


This makes my aura have 2 saves attached, apparently each round. This might be a bit high to have always on, but I'd have to see it in play. Combined with Toxic Blood, however, this leads to perma-confusion and an automatic victory.

Also, bear in mind that a strong save at level 12 is a +8, meaning you can, at level 12, take a strong save's base value down to the level of a level 1 character. Seems a little high when it first comes online, given that it's an AoE that is applied freely.

The penalty only applies to rolls against the Bloodmarked, and with Toxic Blood gimped and a time and activation limit to taunting aura automatic victory is still the job of the mage/ cleric/ druid. :smallbiggrin:


...your BLOOD gains this ability? How about you just give a 50-75% chance to negate critical hits? Cut the reference to Fortification entirely.

Might be better, but I can't name. XD If I get a name then this will be pretty much implemented in an instant.


Bit of damage (use class level, not caster level...you have no caster level) and another debuff, meaning we've debuffed out opponents into the stratosphere. Now we've got an extra effective -3 to all Strength and Dexterity based checks and rolls...these penalties are stacking a little to high.

This is only to one target, Taunting aura only really affects enemies that are attacking or saving against the Bloodmarked (who doesn't really have anything that would require them to make a reflex save besides his last two abilities) and of course the enemies that fail their rolls against Toxic Blood no longer go berserk or confused. The debuffs are rather allot less harsh than they used to be. :smallwink:


3d6 damage a round is pitiful at level 18. It needs to be said. But it's not a BAD ability...just not good material for an almost-capstone.

So what you're saying is... throw more dice at it until it can one shot a Terasque? :smalltongue: How about 6d6 damage? (It does hit everyone in melee and can poison them, after all)


10d8 damage in a 30ft radius is slightly better than a level 10 caster using fireball. This capstone is very weak, slightly funky (save DC, which you REALLY should change, and Cleave procs contribute to this being odd), and ultimately disappointing after 20 levels.

Also at level 20, you become an Outsider, get some kind of nasty boost to your Blood weapon and most likely get some more con. The damage itself could be buffed, the cleave thing could go away (that was just an odd afterthought anyway) and I'll make it a normal (but very hard) save.



******

Conclusion: You have a few more active abilities, which is nice. But the class itself isn't really any more cohesive than it used to be. My mind is dancing around what I feel the core problem is, and I'm having trouble pinning it down. I think the class is still suffering from an identity crisis as it tries to do many things at once.

Question: Mind if I try a bit of homebrew myself and see what I can do with this? Trying my own hand at a concept can help me see what I'm finding awkward about other versions of the same concept.[/quote]

Sure, go ahead. Anything that will help you understand or help you focus with your suggestions.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-24, 02:53 PM
Decided to just remove Toxic Blood entirely, and replace Taunting/ Intimidating aura with two new active abilities, or just to remove them as well. I feel that this does help with focusing the class a bit more. Another idea that I've been toying with is just turning this into a prestige class, though I'd have to look at some examples for one of those...

Also, figured out how to implement the Constitution growth idea.

Oh, and Cripple now only has one saving throw attached to it, so that should be a bit more useful.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-25, 06:36 PM
Alright...some thoughts.

Tried my hand at the concept and damn is it hard to flesh out a 20 level class with interesting, active, and flavorful blood/tank themed abilities without causing massive ability bloat without a nice containing system.

I debated a Blood Point based resource system for selectable abilities, but that was more effort that I wanted to put in. I think it's the best way to make such a class though.

Anyway, I think I did find a few things that might be useful for you. Here are my takes on a tanking feature, the in-combat healing feature, the ability to track blood trails, and a capstone feature for the class.

For Tanking -- Blood Bond
Rather than force opponents to attack you, I felt it might be more graceful to mitigate damage to your allies. In effect, you're still preventing damage to your team by absorbing it yourself, but it feels less forced and cuts down on the number of saves in large combats. It's also nicely flavorful, unlike the stretch you had to include to enable blood-based taunting. Take a look:


Blood Bond (Su): As a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, a Sanguine Knight may form a Blood Bond with a willing, sentient, living creature (who possesses blood or another similar vital liquid) adjacent to him. Both the Sanguine Knight and the target take a single point of Constitution damage, and a Blood Bond is formed between the two.

Whenever his bonded partner takes damage, the Sanguine Knight may choose to suffer an amount of damage up to half of the damage dealt. The original target of the attack reduces the damage that would be dealt to them by an amount equal to that taken by the Sanguine Knight (for example: if an ally of the Sanguine Knight would take 20 damage from an attack, the Sanguine Knight may choose to take up to 10 damage. He reduces the damage his ally takes by an amount equal to the damage he redirected to himself).

A 1st level Sanguine Knight may have a single Blood Bond active at once. He gains the ability to maintain an additional Blood Bond at 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter (to a maximum of 5 at 20th level).

A Blood Bond persists indefinitely, or until either the Sanguine Knight or his bound partner choose to terminate it as a free action.



For Tracking -- Vital Sight
I needed a nice way to tell if creatures were wounded or not for a later class ability (which I'll show at the end), and this seemed a nice way to allow blood-based tracking, increase awareness of enemies, and judge health levels.


Vital Sight (Su): A Sanguine Knight is attuned to the blood around him. He may see living creatures within 120ft as if he had Blindsight, although this ability does not help him distinguish terrain, colors, non-living creatures, or anything else Blindsight would normally do. Additionally, he can immediately recognize if a creature within this range is unwounded (full hit points), wounded (less than full hit points but more than half), critically wounded (below half hit points), dying (-1 to -9 hit points) or dead.

Finally, a Sanguine Knight can detect blood on the ground even days after it has been shed. He may follow even the faintest trail of blood as if he had the Track feat, provided the blood has been shed within a period of time equal to one week + one week per class level.

This ability requires line of effect to function: a Sanguine Knight can feel the heartbeat of the kobold skulking in the corner, but the one behind the wall remains a mystery.

Healing -- Crimson Revelry
As stated, I loved the in-combat healing. I upped the numbers a bit, but required blood to be drawn for the ability to function...and it can't be your blood.


Crimson Revelry (Su): Each round, at the beginning of his turn, a Sanguine Knight regains 2 hit points per class level. This ability only functions if a living creature within 30ft (other than the Sanguine Knight himself) took lethal damage in the previous round. For damage to activate this ability, it must be lethal or harmful in intent: while an enemy’s attack, a trap, or an ally slashing open his side with a dagger would be sufficient to trigger this ability, a creature pricking its finger merely to draw blood is not enough.*

*Yes, this clause is to prevent player shenanigans with low-damage effects.


Capstone -- Blossom of Gore
I kept the idea of a blood nova, but changed it a bit: it's now basically an AoE Save-or-Die once an encounter, and, if it works, it really kicks everyone in the teeth. It basically causes enemies to explode, and sends their veins and other gory bits flying around entangling things.


Blossom of Gore (Su): Once per encounter, as a full-round action, a Sanguine Knight may pull the blood from his enemies and feast upon it, bolstering his own strength and potentially creating ensnaring fields of splattered viscera. All living opponents within a 30ft radius must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the Sanguine Knight’s class level + the Sanguine Knight’s Constitution modifier) or be immediately reduced to -10 hit points. If even a single enemy fails this save, the Sanguine Knight regains hit points sufficient to return him to his normal maximum number of hit points, and all opponents within a 15ft radius of a creature who has failed its save must succeed on a Reflex save (at the same DC) or be immobilized for 3 rounds. A successful Reflex save reduces this to a single round.

A successful Fortitude save against the first effect results in 10d6 points of untyped lethal damage, although this damage cannot reduce a target below -1 hit points.

Transportation -- Bloody Step
Here's a nice little thing pulled in part from the Blood Magus class. I felt it appropriate. This is also what Vital Sight's ability to find wounded enemies is for.


Bloody Step (Su): A Sanguine Knight may move through a wounded creature’s blood, emerging at the location of another creature. As a standard action he may teleport from any adjacent living creature with less than its maximum number of hit points to a location within 100ft. that is adjacent to any living creature. If he so chooses he may make his exit a violent exit, which causes severe internal bleeding: a creature so affected must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ the Sanguine Knight’s class level + the Sanguine Knight’s Constitution modifier) or take 1d6 untyped lethal damage per class level (maximum 20d6 damage at 20th level).

If the creature the Sanguine Knight teleports adjacent to is unwounded, he must choose the violent exit option, and it deals 1 point of untyped lethal damage even on a successful save.



*****

I also played around with turning the character into a blood-based form (gaining the Ooze type) at 20th level, as it seemed appropriate. Thinks like damage reduction and/or critical hit immunity / disease immunity / poison immunity could be folded into this progression.

The weapon/armor deal was giving me trouble. I stumbled across an idea that I half liked, but didn't put in the effort to fully realize: perhaps it will be of use to you. I called it the Cruor Blade, and it was going to add blood-based effects to your attacks (possibly bleeding damage, extra reach from a blood-formed blade, and so forth).


Cruor Blade (Su): The first time each encounter that a Sanguine Knight deals lethal damage with a melee weapon to a foe that possess blood, the blood clings to his weapon, turning it into a Cruor Blade. Treat the Cruor Blade as being the Sanguine Knight’s normal melee weapon, except that blah blah blah ability unfinished (possibly gains more abilities as you level?)

The weapon remains a Cruor Blade for as long as it remains in the Sanguine Knight’s grasp, or until 5 rounds have passed since it last dealt lethal damage to a target.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-25, 07:27 PM
Tried my hand at the concept and damn is it hard to flesh out a 20 level class with interesting, active, and flavorful blood/tank themed abilities without causing massive ability bloat without a nice containing system.
Don't have to tell me bro. Don't have to tell me.

Is there any reason why the name in all of those is Sanguine Knight*? :smalltongue: Do you mind if I use these to replace certain abilities (... as in all of the abilities covered here?) with the ones that you have listed? I think I may be able to do something for Cruror blade (Add a short ranged effect to the melee weapon's normal reach or something, some extra damage, allowing you to use Blood Boil/ cripple with the weapon, etc, and probably making it a level 5 ability). Oh, and the ooze thing... totally just stole that :smalltongue: (Look under Reinforced Blood.)

*Note, I think this is a far better name**. XP
**Also note, I sort of want to use that name and sort of don't want to have to go through and edit the name again. :smalltongue: And if I'm allowed to use these features, you will be sited for your ideas and given the title "Co-creator***" because you would have sort of made half of the class. :smalltongue:
***Totally not a bribe

Just one question about Blood Bond, is the constitution damage permanent or until a certain amount of time has passed?

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-25, 07:40 PM
Don't have to tell me bro. Don't have to tell me.

Basically, I confirmed my opinion that this should be a prestige class. :smallbiggrin:


Is there any reason why the name in all of those is Sanguine Knight*?

You answered this yourself. I think it's a better name. :smalltongue:


Do you mind if I use these to replace certain abilities (... as in all of the abilities covered here?) with the ones that you have listed?

That's why they're here! Just put a note that credits me with them, if you don't mind, and be warned that they may show up in a creation of mine if I ever decide to actually do a blood-based prestige class. :smallsmile:


I think I may be able to do something for Cruror blade (Add a short ranged effect to the melee weapon's normal reach or something, some extra damage, allowing you to use Blood Boil/ cripple with the weapon, etc, and probably making it a level 5 ability). Oh, and the ooze thing... totally just stole that :smalltongue: (Look under Reinforced Blood.)

Awesome. I thought that ability had potential, but I just wasn't up for exploring it just then.


*Note, I think this is a far better name**. XP
**Also note, I sort of want to use that name and sort of don't want to have to go through and edit the name again. :smalltongue: And if I'm allowed to use these features, you will be sited for your ideas and given the title "Co-creator***" because you would have sort of made half of the class. :smalltongue:
***Totally not a bribe

Hey, bribes are good. :smalltongue:

Gnomes2169
2013-01-25, 07:45 PM
Just in case this was missed, does the Constitution damage last until the end of Blood Bond's duration, or is it temporary? Also, can stat damage be passed through it, or just lethal/ non lethal?

Djinn_in_Tonic
2013-01-25, 07:48 PM
Just in case this was missed, does the Constitution damage last until the end of Blood Bond's duration, or is it temporary? Also, can stat damage be passed through it, or just lethal/ non lethal?

As written, Blood Bonds damage heals normally (although you might want to specifically state that). It's just a small penalty for making bonds mid-combat.

Also, it's purely lethal and nonlethal damage. Stat damage cannot be shared.

Gnomes2169
2013-01-25, 09:00 PM
Alright, that should about do it. Moved some skills around, rewrote some others and just did some general maintenance. Any final questions, comments or concerns? If not, then I might actually want to submit this to the compendium...

Gnomes2169
2013-02-02, 07:34 PM
So yeah, just a little note about the update. Set a cap to Crimson Revelry (because that was a bit much healing) and added some more description to Adrenaline Rush and modified some of the wording. I think this is ready to be submitted into the tiering thread.

Gnomes2169
2013-08-27, 04:01 PM
Aaaand might as well see if anyone wants to do a final peach of this. Already got it tiered, but some feedback/ impressions might be nice to get from our homebrewing community here. (Also, getting to a second page would be nice... :smalltongue:)

Gnomes2169
2014-05-16, 01:25 AM
And there we go, epic levels/ progression starting to get added in, and some epic feats tossed in there as well. It should be noted that a few things may have changed since last you looked, so some new feedback might be nice.

ForzaFiori
2014-05-17, 02:35 AM
This looks awesome. :smallbiggrin: I'm subscribing, and will let you know how it plays if I manage to get it into a game.

Gnomes2169
2014-05-17, 05:06 PM
Heh, thank you. I'm play testing it for the second time (made some rather major edits in my first game)... and I would suggest that, if you go into epic levels, your DM not allow you to take the Eternal Hero epic destiny, since in my first play through that made me literally immortal, and by extension, that made my party (all casters besides me) pretty much immortal as well :smalltongue:

Raging Ghost
2014-05-18, 07:20 PM
If I understand Crimson Revelry correctly, it's pretty much "I gain health based on my class level on kill" until Level 13, right?

Gnomes2169
2014-05-18, 10:41 PM
Crimson Revelry is more of an in-combat fast healing if a living creature is damaged near you (including allies)... you do not need to kill the target to proc it. At level 13, it procs if any creature other than you takes damage, not just living ones. Hope that clears it up!

Raging Ghost
2014-05-20, 10:04 AM
Crimson Revelry is more of an in-combat fast healing if a living creature is damaged near you (including allies)... you do not need to kill the target to proc it. At level 13, it procs if any creature other than you takes damage, not just living ones. Hope that clears it up!

Thanks. :)

Also, I'm working on translating this in French, so I can show it to my DM and hope he approves it.

Also, which kind of ichor is this class about? The blood of the gods or the foul-smelling watery discharge from a wound or ulcer? I would, as well, appreciate it if you put the measurements in metric. That would help me a lot in my translating efforts.

Gnomes2169
2014-05-20, 10:50 PM
The ichor would be any kind of blood or vital fluids in a creature's veins/ body. As for the conversions, 5 feet converts to 5 meters in 3.5 because everything is done in increments of 5's in 3.5... as far as I know. If movement translates 5ft:1meter for a metric conversion, then that should simplify the math for you as well, but I believe you still go by 5's...

Raging Ghost
2014-05-23, 01:45 PM
The ichor would be any kind of blood or vital fluids in a creature's veins/ body. As for the conversions, 5 feet converts to 5 meters in 3.5 because everything is done in increments of 5's in 3.5... as far as I know. If movement translates 5ft:1meter for a metric conversion, then that should simplify the math for you as well, but I believe you still go by 5's...

Thanks for the tip.

Also, if I make my sanguine knight epic, I can still choose the class' regular feats with the bonus feats I gain by leveling up, right?

Gnomes2169
2014-05-23, 11:32 PM
Yes, you should be able to do so.

Raging Ghost
2014-06-02, 06:40 PM
All right. Anyway, I finished translating this class in French. It took three days, but it was worth it. Why? Because I persuaded my DM to consider the class for a future campaign.

andreichekov
2014-06-02, 09:21 PM
Can you add the levels to the ability descriptions please? I would love to critique this, but there is a huge amount of text to scroll through every couple seconds to find out what level you whatever I'm reading about, and I am objectively lazy. Nevertheless, these are question you have to answer if you want your class to perform as a tank.

Do you have a way to make enemies want to attack you? If yes, continue, well done.
If not, do you have a way to force them to attack you? If yes, continue, well done.
It not, you are not a tank, you are just tough.

Do you have a way to escape Force Cage? If yes, continue, well done.
If not, do you have something that you can do inside Force Cage?

Do you have a way to survive Save or Suck and Save or Die effects?
If you are meant to be taking all the attacks (tank), then why do you have a poor reflex save? You are going to need a good reflex save to fight dragons and a bunch of other things.

Gnomes2169
2014-06-03, 08:57 AM
Can you add the levels to the ability descriptions please? I would love to critique this, but there is a huge amount of text to scroll through every couple seconds to find out what level you whatever I'm reading about, and I am objectively lazy. Nevertheless, these are question you have to answer if you want your class to perform as a tank.

I can do this, yes. When I have time to, at least...


Do you have a way to make enemies want to attack you? If yes, continue, well done.
If not, do you have a way to force them to attack you? If yes, continue, well done.
It not, you are not a tank, you are just tough.

The thing you may have missed is the first class ability, Blood Bonds. It is literally an ability that absorbs damage being thrown at the sanguine knight's allies, and with the feat Blood of my Blood, the ability can absorb up to 3/4 of all incoming damage. If that doesn't count towards me being a tank, then I'm really not sure what would in this case (as the definition of "tank" in most terms would be the person with the highest health and/or armor that takes hits for his allies... and taking 1/2 of every hit (normally) does fit the bill).

It also has intimidate as a class skill (to drive enemies away) and the ability cripple could be a rather creative way to force a minionmancer's minions to attack the Sanguine knight, since it doesn't go away until the knight dies, and that spell failure is nasty...


Do you have a way to escape Force Cage? If yes, continue, well done.
If not, do you have something that you can do inside Force Cage?
If an injured creature is next to the sanguine knight and there is a creature outside of the force cage, yes. He can use Bloody Step to escape AND deal damage to a living enemy at the same time.
Things the knight can do in force cage: Continue the use of Blood Bonds, as stated before, use Bloody Step, continue healing himself with Crimson Revelry, use whatever items he has (anklets of Translocation can be one of them, and likely very, very common one for people who can't teleport normally) and, of course, shoot a bow at people if there is absolutely nothing else that can be done. So it's basically an overpowered mundane class with its own escape mechanism and a few other nice things... I'm sorry it's not an overpowered (any level 1-9) caster class. :smalltongue:


Do you have a way to survive Save or Suck and Save or Die effects?
If you are meant to be taking all the attacks (tank), then why do you have a poor reflex save? You are going to need a good reflex save to fight dragons and a bunch of other things.

Let's see... every single save or die with a saving throw (besides, like, two) are either a Fort save (con based class) or Will save (The class gets con to will)... and then it gets Mettle at level 7 and Improved Mettle at level 17. So what save or dies? And for those last two Ref save or dies... at level 17, the class gets 1/2 of its con to ref saves on top of whatever dex bonus the character normally has, and at level 19 the class is immune to death from save or dies unless it gets knocked into the negatives as far as HP is concerned.

And reflex saves are low simply because the class does not need them past level 5. It has more HP than any other class in the game, in fact, more HP than most monsters you will encounter with a similar number of hit dice, and the damage from the reflex save effects you are talking about doesn't really do too much to that. Heck, with Crimson Revelry, that's going to be gone in two rounds anyway (unless your DM is mean and gives all casters a rod of maximized, empowered, greater, chaining fireball... but that's not a typical DM practice. :smalltongue:) Also, the aforementioned 1/2 con to reflex saves is an amazing bonus to the save, and that by itself is typically enough to lower damage from a fireball or lightning bolt down to 1/2. If you get a ring of evasion, you are basically immune to all damaging magic with a save by level 17 because of this and Improved Mettle.

Is it starting to sound like a tank yet? :smalltongue:

andreichekov
2014-06-03, 04:21 PM
I didn't actually read most of the class, because there were no numbers next to abilities.

Each of those questions is the sort of question that I ask myself when designing a tank class. If you can answer them with a yes or some sort, the job is done.

Technically, your fist ability forces enemies to attack you because you are taking damage from their attacks, and there is nothing that they can say about it.

Gnomes2169
2014-06-03, 09:10 PM
The numbers are actually in the text, and ~80% of the abilities had them before I added the remaining 20% in. But the rest are numbered now, and they sort of were in level order before... (heck, they were in "order of appearance" before if you were just straight reading the table down the line left to right...) That should make it easier for you to read what's there.

andreichekov
2014-06-05, 05:38 PM
This class is good.
Would you be willing to submit it to The Den (http://www.tgdmb.com/) for others there to use? (and possibly add to the forum homebrew pdf?)

Gnomes2169
2014-06-06, 12:01 AM
Well, I don't have an account on the Den, though I would not be opposed to making one or just having you copy-pasta things yourself... I'm not too territorial about things as long as I (and Djinn) get the credit for it somewhere in there.

Gnomes2169
2014-07-19, 12:43 AM
I suppose I should mention that, based on my second playtest, I have decided that the Sanguine Knight needs full BAB... because it needs to be able to hit things, being fully mundane and all. :smalltongue: However, to balance this, I made the bleeding an con damage only work on the first hit on a creature each round. They still are potent abilities and they do still stack, however, they no longer become massive in 1 round if you get lucky. (And you really did have to get lucky...)

Raging Ghost
2014-08-05, 05:50 PM
I suppose I should mention that, based on my second playtest, I have decided that the Sanguine Knight needs full BAB... because it needs to be able to hit things, being fully mundane and all. :smalltongue: However, to balance this, I made the bleeding an con damage only work on the first hit on a creature each round. They still are potent abilities and they do still stack, however, they no longer become massive in 1 round if you get lucky. (And you really did have to get lucky...)

Okay, so on my translation, I need to change my BAB, bleeding/con damage and perks, right?

Gnomes2169
2014-08-05, 08:32 PM
Just the BAB and how many times you may apply con or bleeding damage. The perks should still work just as well.

Raging Ghost
2014-09-01, 02:07 PM
Just the BAB and how many times you may apply con or bleeding damage. The perks should still work just as well.

I was asking for the perks since you added ''Blood calls to Blood''.

Gnomes2169
2014-09-03, 10:12 AM
Well yes, the feat Blood Calls to Blood would need to be translated too I suppose... So yeah, go ahead with that!

Dayaz
2014-09-04, 10:33 PM
I'm wanting to test this out in a pbp game, but one of the DMs rules is that the homebrewer has to agree to watch the game develop to help refine their class, I guess.

On PEACH, tho, I did think of one minor thing that could give you infinite healing pretty early. The Ability that lets you heal as long as something close to you is taking damage, you could give one of your allies a dart, which deals 1 point of damage, and have them continually stab another part member with it, while siphoning the 1 point (or whatever, but I don't imagine I would give the dart to a actually strong person) of damage to yourself. So they wouldn't take actual damage, but you would fulfill the requirement enough to activate your fast healing.

The recruitment for the homebrew game I wanted to test this class in is here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369269-The-Pit-of-Calamity-%28Homebrew-testing-dungeon-crawl-Always-recruiting%29&p=18060006#post18060006), for ease of watching it.

Gnomes2169
2014-09-05, 07:36 AM
I'm wanting to test this out in a pbp game, but one of the DMs rules is that the homebrewer has to agree to watch the game develop to help refine their class, I guess.

On PEACH, tho, I did think of one minor thing that could give you infinite healing pretty early. The Ability that lets you heal as long as something close to you is taking damage, you could give one of your allies a dart, which deals 1 point of damage, and have them continually stab another part member with it, while siphoning the 1 point (or whatever, but I don't imagine I would give the dart to a actually strong person) of damage to yourself. So they wouldn't take actual damage, but you would fulfill the requirement enough to activate your fast healing.

The recruitment for the homebrew game I wanted to test this class in is here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369269-The-Pit-of-Calamity-%28Homebrew-testing-dungeon-crawl-Always-recruiting%29&p=18060006#post18060006), for ease of watching it.

You can take 1/2 damage rounded down, so actually the 1 hp dart strategy doesn't work. (I know it isn't ecplicitely stated, but it's how damage and literally everything in 3.5 works when it comes to numbers. You cannot have fractions, and you round down).

And I'll be sure to watch, thank you for the link! Any other homebrew being used this game?

Dayaz
2014-09-05, 10:57 AM
You can take 1/2 damage rounded down, so actually the 1 hp dart strategy doesn't work. (I know it isn't ecplicitely stated, but it's how damage and literally everything in 3.5 works when it comes to numbers. You cannot have fractions, and you round down).

And I'll be sure to watch, thank you for the link! Any other homebrew being used this game?

Oooh, rounded down... still, giving 6 damage to an ally over 6 rounds would net +60 hp to a level 10 SK, so I would still use the trick and just pay for a small to medium healing potion.

I have a feat idea, but it would probably have to be a fairly high level feat because of how powerful it would be with another one of your feats (I'd look at that feat for it's name but on replying on my phone lol), but maybe a feat where you can force an unfriendly creature into a blood bond with you?

Gnomes2169
2014-09-05, 11:23 AM
Ah, to be combined with Blood of my Blood and Shield Me (I think... On my phone too, so I'll have to look it up XD)? That feat would be overpowered when combined with those two, since blood of my blood allows you to divert up to 3/4 of the incoming damage (while also giving you an extra bond to play with), and shield me lets you divert up to your maximum blood bond value to a bonded creature... Though it cannot reduce the creature to fewer than 1 hp. Still, if you managed to lock a creature down so that it could only attack you, things would get out of hand. (At high levels, you likely have equal or greater HP than most of the critters you are fighting, so forcing them to take 3/4 of the damage they are dealing miiiight lead to overkill... :P)

It's why I didn't add the feat myself, because believe me, I thought of it a while ago... Though maybe I could replace the text of bloody tyrant (which is basically worthless) with this jyst for the overpowered lols... Hmmmmmmmmmm...

Dayaz
2014-09-05, 11:40 AM
Maybe make it to where you can only use the forcibly bonded one to take 1/4 of any amount you try to give him? Like, he hits someone for 40, and you could redirect like 10 to him. Not enough to break the game, but enough to fit the theme and give the mook another reason to want the SK dead first, thus helping with it's tank roll

Gnomes2169
2014-09-05, 07:33 PM
Instead of redirecting the damage, I have it so that the target is dealt 1/4 of the damage the sanguine knight is dealt while also being crippled. That way, the sanguine knight doesn't become immortal, but the feat is worth taking as the capstone of the feat chain.