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Blood Mage
ouges in her flesh begin to close.
Prestige Class Option Two dragonborn siblings are fighting together when
he brother is struck by an arrow and falls to the ground.
Quickly, he reaches out his hand towards his sister. She
creams in agony as her life force is drained. Badly
weakened, and with only moments before being overwhelmed
y her attackers, she looks in confusion and anger as her now
ninjured brother channels his new-found vitality and
isappears
through an arcane portal.
Practitioners of blood magic have a fearsome reputation,
not wholly unearned. Whether they turn to the forbidden
art in a quest for greater power and magical understanding
or out of desperation, promising themselves that they will
only use it as a last resort, few blood mages manage to
avoid being corrupted by the powerful forces they seek
to control.

Credit: 'Blood Mage' by SineAlas on DeviantArt

Running through an alley to escape his pursuers, a
human wizard finds himself cornered. As the town guard
closes in, the wizard takes out a dagger and stabs it through
his palm. Channelling the blood flowing out of his wound, the
wizard controls the mind of one of his would-be captors,
causing the guard to turn on his comrades and giving the
fugitive time to escape.
Bleeding from dozens of wounds, a half-elf warlock
surveys the hobgoblin corpses strewn around her. Closing her
eyes, she reaches her hands out, draining her fallen foes of
their life force. She laughs quietly to herself as the cuts and
Constitution 13. ​Your body must be strong enough to
withstand the constant drain on your lifeforce that using Secrets. ​The techniques and rituals used in blood magic
blood magic entails. ​Blood Flow. ​Your character must are not widely available or easy to discover on one's own.
be of a race and creature type that has blood. A spellcaster wishing to become a blood mage must
Spellcaster. ​Blood magic is a tool used to enhance a typically find another practitioner willing to teach them or a
spellcaster's abilities. You must be able to cast at least one tome that contains the secrets of blood magic.
spell of 3rd level or higher to become a blood mage. ​Dark
Fugitives and Furtive Scholars ​Many a mage on
the run has turned to blood magic to avoid detection or
capture. Their dabbling in this taboo form of magic usually
compounds their crimes, shunting them further from society.
Meanwhile, well-regarded mages, eager to increase the
breadth of their magical understanding, occassionally begin to
study blood magic in secret. For as long as they can keep
their new hobby hidden, these mages are able to remain in
good standing, but the more they draw on their own lifeforce
to fuel their magic, the more likely they will forget their good
intentions.

Creatures with blood ​For the purpose of

blood mage class features, a creature is

considered to have blood if it is of a type other than

construct, elemental, ooze, plant, or undead and

does not have the Living Construct trait (or similar).

In your game, other creatures may be added to

this list of bloodless creatures, or specific creatures

with the listed types or traits may be considered to

have blood. If so, it may be beneficial to discuss

and enumerate these exceptions before play

starts.

Prerequisites
In order to become a blood mage, you must meet the
following prerequisites (in addition to the multiclassing
prerequisites for your existing classes):
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Blood Mage

Level Features Spells Known ----Spell

​ ​1st Slots
​ ​2nd per
​ Level---- ​3rd
1st Spellcasting, Blood Magic, Canvas of Flesh 1 2 -- -- 2nd Feast of the Fallen 2 3 -- -- 3rd Blood Rend,
Sanguine Resilience 3 4 2 -- 4th Sacrifice 4 4 3 -- 5th Blood Thrall, Maleficar, Sanguine Strength 5 4 3 2

Class Features
Spellcasting Ability ​Constitution is your spellcasting ability for your blood mage As a blood mage, you gain
the following class features
class features, blood mage spells, and spells you cast using ​Hit Points
blood magic since the power of your magic comes from expending your own life force. You use this ability whenever
a ​Hit Dice: ​1d8 per blood mage level
blood mage class feature, blood mage spell, or a spell you cast ​Hit Points per Level: ​1d8 (or 5) + your Constituion
modifier
using blood magic refers to your spellcasting ability. In per blood mage level
​ eapons: ​Daggers
addition, you use this ability's modifier when setting the ​Proficiencies W
saving throw DC for a blood mage class feature, blood mage spell, or spell you cast using blood magic and when
making an attack roll with one. ​Saving Throws: ​None
Spell save DC ​= 8 + your proficiency bonus + your ​Skills: ​None
​ hen you take your first level of blood mage, you acquire a
Constitution modifier ​Equipment W
Spell attack modifier ​= your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier
dagger if you did not have one already.
Spellcasting Focus ​Spellcasting
You can use a small amount of your own blood as a spellcasting focus for your blood mage spells. Your practice
manipulating the energies of your blood has unlocked another source of spellcasting. See chapter 10 of the PHB for
the general rules of spellcasting and the end of this class description for the blood mage spell list.
Spell Slots ​The Blood Mage table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and
higher. To cast one of these blood mage spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all
expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher ​The Spells Known column of the Blood Mage table shows
when you learn blood mage spells of your choice of 1st level and higher. Each of these spells must be of a level for
which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 3rd level in
Credit: Steve Argyle
this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the blood mage spells you know and replace
it with another spell from the blood mage spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
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Blood Magic
Through the study of forbidden rituals you have learned to harness your blood to fuel your spellcasting. Any spell
that does not require costly material components and that you know or have prepared can be cast using blood
magic (it need not be a blood mage spell). If the spell restores hit points, you do not gain hit points when the spell is

cast in this way. ​Variant ​Magic Rule:

​ ​
Daggers and Blood Because daggers are central to the

iconography of blood magic, you may want to relax some of the blood magic spellcasting rules when the

blood mage is using a dagger in order to encourage their use. Using this variant rule, you do not need to be
In order to cast a spell using blood magic, you must be ​holding the dagger you use for your blood magic as
holding a melee weapon that deals slashing or piercing ​long as it is readily available. In casting the spell,
damage and have a free hand.

you are assumed to draw the dagger, cut yourself, When

​ you cast a spell using blood magic, you cut into your

and then sheath or stow it, but doing so does not flesh
​ to bring forth your blood. You ignore any somatic and

count as an object interaction. ​material components of the spell and you do not expend a spell slot. Instead, you
take necrotic damage as indicated in the Blood Magic Spellcasting table. This necrotic damage cannot be reduced
or negated in any way and bypasses
Canvas of Flesh
temporary hit points and other effects that have a hit point
The repeated mutilation of your flesh has caused your body total. In addition, your hit point maximum is reduced by
an
to develop regenerative powers. When you take your first amount equal to the damage taken. This reduction cannot
be
level of this class, any scars that are less than a year old heal reduced or negated in any way and lasts until you
finish a
completely. Whenever you take a short or long rest, any cuts, long rest.
gouges, or other superficial wounds that are less than 24 The spell slot level used to cast a spell this way must be a
hours old heal completely on finishing the rest. You may level for which you have spell slots and may not be higher
concentrate on a specific wound at the beginning of the rest than your blood mage level.
to have your healing powers ignore it during that rest. ​Blood Magic Spellcasting
Slot Level Necrotic Damage
Feast of the Fallen
1st 9 (2d8)
At 2nd level, your mastery of blood magic allows you to draw out the life force from the recently deceased. As an
action, ​2nd 14 (3d8)
you drain nearby corpses and your hit point maximum 3 ​ rd 4th 23 (5d8) 27 (6d8)
increases according to the size and hit dice of the dead creatures (as indicated in the Feast of the Fallen table) up to
your usual hit point maximum. ​5th 32 (7d8)
For example, using the ability on three Kobold corpses would increase your hit point maximum by 6, while using the
Credit: 'blood magic....ooor ..so i started drawing a head' by nebezial on DeviantArt
ability on the corpse of a Young Red Dragon would increase your hit point maximum by 34.
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In order to gain this benefit from a corpse, the following
to the damage taken. This reduction cannot be reduced or conditions must be met:
negated in any way and lasts until the creature finishes a long
Most of the corpse must be within 60 feet of you (the corpse does not otherwise need to be intact) The corpse must
be from a creature that has blood The corpse must have been dead for less than 24 hours The corpse cannot have
been affected by this ability before
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rest. You regain hit points equal to the damage taken.
On a successful save, the creature does not take damage, and you do not regain any hit points. Even if they
succeed on the saving throw, the creature is aware that you have used this ability on them.
At 5th level, you revel when the spark of life is extinguished or diminished. If the creature is killed or knocked ​Feast
of the Fallen
Corpse Size Hit Point Increase
unconscious by this ability and you regain hit points, you regain an additional 2d8 hit points.

Small 1xHD Medium 1XHD Large 2XHD ​Players, Characters, and Sacrifice ​The blood mage's

Sacrifice feature can be an important tool in their arsenal, but it also has the Huge
​ 3XHD Gargantuan 5XHD

potential to anger not just the target character, but that character's player. For this reason, it is important that

​ 4th level, you have become an expert in this dark form of ​mage discuss the
anyone wishing to play a blood At

choice with their group and set expectations for this feature's use. Remember: ​"​It's ​sustenance. This ability
now uses a bonus action instead of

what my character would do​" ​is never an excuse. an

​ action.
At 5th level, you can shape the life force of the dead into healing energies. When you use this ability, you may
choose to regain an amount of hit points equal to the amount by which your maximum hit points increased (your hit
point maximum is restored before you regain hit points). You cannot regain hit points in this way again until you
finish a long rest.

Feast ​Unconscious of
​ the Fallen ​Creatures and
​ ​Feast of the Fallen only affects creatures who

are dead. Generally, when a monster is reduced to 0 hit points, they are considered dead, but this may be

handled differently. Therefore, it is important to clarify how monsters and NPCs reduced to 0 hit points will be

treated before a player decides whether to take levels in this class.

Blood Rend
Starting at 3rd level, you can cast the blood mage spell Blood Rend using blood magic. You can't cast it otherwise
unless it is one of your spells known.
Sanguine Resilience
At 3rd level, your blood rejects mundane ailments. You are immune to diseases. Any diseases you already had are
cured. ​Sacrifice
At 4rd level, your drive for power engenders betrayal. As an action, you reach out to an allied creature with blood
you can see within 60 feet. The creature does not need to be an ally if they are currently under the effects of a Blood
Rend spell or a Blood Thrall spell that you cast. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw.
On a failed save, the creature takes 4d8 necrotic damage and their hit point maximum is reduced by an amount
equal
Credit: 'Blood Mage' by weremoon on DeviantArt ​Blood Thrall
Starting at 5th level, you can cast the blood mage spell Blood Thrall using blood magic. You can't cast it otherwise
unless it is one of your spells known.
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Maleficar
2nd Level
Blindness/Deafness ​At 5th level, you have mastered blood magic, but your
Calm Emotions ​mastery has changed you. You gain the following flaw:
Crown of Madness I am persecuted because of my greatness
Enthrall ​Sanguine Strength
Hold Person Ray of Enfeeblement
At 5th level, your study and practice of blood magic has
Suggestion
fortified your life force to unnatural levels. Your Constitution increases by 2 and your maximum Constitution score is
now 22 unless it was already 22 or higher.
3rd Level
Bestow Curse Blood Rend Feign Death ​Blood Mages & Multiclassing ​Vampiric Touch ​As a prestige

class, levels in blood mage are only available through multiclassing. Blood mages are considered full

casters, the equivalent of wizards, 5th

​ Level
Blood Thrall ​for the purposes of multicasting spell slots.

Blood Rend ​3rd-level enchantment

Casting Time: ​1 action ​Range: ​30 feet ​Components: ​S, V, M (a drop of blood) ​Duration: C​ oncentration, up to 1
minute
Choose a creature with blood you can see within range. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a
failed save the creature is considered grappled and incapacitated as its blood rebels against its control. At the
beginning of each of the creature's turns, it takes 1d6 necrotic damage as the contest between wills rends its
lifeforce.
At the end of each of the creature's turns, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success.
If the creature succeeds on its initial saving throw or when the effect ends, the creature takes 3d6 necrotic damage.
At Higher Levels. ​When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can target one additional
creature for each slot level about 3rd. The creatures must be within 30 feet of each other when you target them.
Blood Thrall ​5th-level enchantment
Casting Time: ​1 action ​Range: ​30 feet ​Components: ​S, M, V (a drop of blood) ​Duration: C ​ oncentration, up to 1
minute
Choose a creature with blood you can see within range. The creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a
failed save the creature's will is partially subsumed under your own. For the duration of this effect, the creature must
Credit: 'Blood mage' by KarinaMacGill on DeviantArt
spend its turn trying to attack the nearest creature it can sense that is hostile to you and may not willingly attack or
Blood Mage Spell List
endanger you or your allies. Roll initiative for the creature, which has its own turns (you do not roll initiative if the
1st Level
Bane
creature was already in the initiative order).
At the end of each of the creature's turns, it can repeat the ​Charm Person
saving throw, ending the effect on a success. ​Command
If the creature succeeds on its initial saving throw or when ​Dissonant Whispers
the effect ends, the creature takes 3d6 necrotic damage. ​Ray of Sickness Sleep
class design by Axertz ​Tasha's Hideous Laughter
v0.3
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Clarifications
may not draw the morning star during the turn they cast the spell.This section is meant to help in understanding the
mechanics of the blood mage. It is not part of the rules for the blood mage class and any contradictions between this
section and the rules should be resolved in favor of the rules.

Rend and Blood Thrall ​Blood Rend and Blood Thrall are class
Design Notes Blood
​
features of the blood ​Blood Magic Spell Slot Examples
A character with 5 levels in wizard and 2 levels in blood
mage that happened to be implemented as spells (similar to a warlock's Eldritch Blast or a paladin's Smite spells).
mage may use blood magic to cast spells using 1st or 2nd
The spells may be compared to Hold Person/Monster and level spell slots. Even though they have 3rd level spell
Dominate Person/Monster, but the differences are important. slots, their blood mage level is not high enough to cast
The two spells affect a set of creatures broader than the spells with 3rd level spell slots using blood magic.
Person spells but narrower than the Monster spells. Hold Person/Monster inflicts the Paralyzed condition (much A
character with 9 levels of warlock and 5 levels of blood
stronger than Grappled + Incapacitated) but does no damage. mage may use blood magic to cast spells using spell
slots
Dominate Person/Monster allows the creature to be of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 5th level. They have 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
instructed, but does no damage and is less useful in combat. level spell slots from their levels in blood mage and 5th
While Blood Rend and Blood Thrall will typically be cast level spell slots from their levels in warlock, but no 4th
using blood magic, there are a couple of ways that they could level spell slots.
be added to a blood mage's known spells. First, Blood Rend can be chosen as the blood mage's spell when
reaching level ​Blood Magic Spellcasting Examples
A blood mage is holding a glaive (and nothing else). They take a hand off of the glaive so that they have a free
hand. They cast a spell using blood magic. As part of casting the spell, they cut themselves with the glaive. They
may grab
5 in the class. At this point it can be cast using either blood magic or spell slots.
Blood Thrall is too high level to be chosen by a blood mage, but a bard could choose the spell (or Blood Rend) using
its magical secrets feature. the glaive with their free hand after casting the spell (using an object interaction).
A blood mage is holding a longsword and a shield and

Canvas ​and Maleficar of

​ Flesh, Sanguine Resilience, ​These are ribbons. casts a spell using
blood magic. As part of casting the spell, they cut themselves with the sword. They must then sheath or stow the
sword in order to meet the
Only One Resource ​With the exception of Feast of the Fallen's 5th level heal, the requirement of having a
free hand. Because they used
only resource blood mage features use is hit points. This both their object interaction to sheath or stow the sword,
they
decreases the amount of accounting for the player and keeps may not draw the sword using an object interaction
during
the class focused on its central theme. the turn they cast the spell.
Spell List ​Using the 'Daggers and Blood Magic' Variant Rule:
The spell list is drawn from the enchantment and
A blood mage is holding a quarterstaff (and nothing else) and also has a dagger readily accessible. Before casting
necromancy schools. No spells specific to one class or spells with a primarily beneficial effect were included.
the spell, they take a hand off of the quarterstaff so that they have a free hand. They cast a spell using blood magic.
As part of casting the spell, they draw the dagger, cut themselves with it, and then sheath or stow the dagger. They
may grab the quarterstaff with their free hand after casting the spell (using an object interaction).
Balance ​The hit point cost of casting using blood magic is high and is designed to be balanced by itself.
Feast of the Fallen is balanced around the assumption that the player will not have access to a steady supply of
fresh corpses above those generated by a typical adventuring day.
A blood mage is holding a morning star and a shield and also has a dagger readily accessible. Before casting the
spell, they stow the morning star so that they have a free hand. They cast a spell using blood magic. As part of
casting the spell, they draw the dagger, cut themselves with it, and then sheath or stow the dagger. Because they
used their object interaction to stow the morning star, they
Sacrifice ​Sacrifice is balanced by the expectation that the player will have only a limited number of allies
(upsetting this expectation can be a fun way to build an evil NPC).
Sacrifice also functions as a partial refund mechanism for Blood Rend and Blood Thrall. This combination is not
trivial to pull off as it requires at a minimum two rounds and two sets of saving throws. When the combination is
successful, it can make the two spells much more cost effective. This is intentional and is meant to be a strength of
the class. Note also that Sacrifice's bonus healing at 5th level conflicts with the gauranteed final damage of Blood
Rend and Blood Thrall.
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Constitution as a Spellcasting Ability
Very flavorful for a vengeance paladin. Constitution as a spellcasting ability is too strong if it is a characters only
spellcasting ability. A blood mage must choose which spellcasting ability to focus on or make themselves weaker
elsewhere to maximize both.
Ranger ​Perhaps potential abuse (in both senses) involving Sacrifice and the Animal Companion.
Sanguine Strength and ASIs ​Taking the blood mage class sacrifices an ASI, either because
Rogue (Arcane Trickster) ​No specific interactions come to mind.
a player takes 1-4 levels in the class and gets no ASI from it or because they take 5 levels in the class and get one
ASI but miss out on a second they would have gotten later if they didn't multiclass. In other words, Sanguine
Strength is primarily there to prevent the 5th level of the class from having too high an opportunity cost. The increase
to the ability's maximum score will be relevant only if the score is
Sorcerer ​Heightened Spell can make casting spells using blood magic less frustrating.
Creating extra spell slots with sorcery points combined with blood magic casting leads to an extraordinary number of
spells cast per day.
eventually maximized, in which case see previous section.

Warlock ​Musings ​Minimum on

​ ​
Level Classes
​ ​Required to Multiclass
​ lass Level
No specific interactions come to mind. ​Wizard C
Note that damage from blood magic casting bypasses an ​Bard Cleric 5 5
abjuration wizard's ward and a necromancer's Inured to Undeath feature.
Druid 5 Fighter* 13 Monk** 11 Paladin 9 Ranger 9 Rogue*** 13 Sorcerer 5 Warlock 5 Wizard 5
​ he only class that can potentially cast
* Eldritch Knight ** Way of the Four Elements *** Arcane Trickster ​Bard T
Blood Thrall with spell slots (see Blood Rend and Blood Thrall section). ​Cleric ​A life cleric's efficient healing can be
a benefit to the blood mage (either as a multiclass or as another party member), but the benefit is still gated by Feast
of the Fallen and the opportunity cost of using spell slots on healing spells. In general it will be hard to figure out the
character motivation for this multiclass ​Druid ​If you want to play Merril, this is the multiclass for you. ​Fighter
(Eldritch Knight) ​The necromancy and enchantment spells from the blood mage class add some breadth to the
​ o specific interactions come to
evocation and abjuration focused eldritch knight. ​Monk (Four Elements) N
mind. ​Paladin
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