Blood Mage (3.5e Prestige Class)

Blood Mage
"Yeah, I'm a bleeder. You talk about it like it's a bad thing."

Blood is the source of almost all life. Some beings have learned to draw on its power for themselves. By using their blood—and by extension, their life force—as fuel for their magic, they are capable of going beyond the normal abilities of spellcasters.

Becoming a Blood Mage
Being a blood mage requires a life of obsession, an unceasing eagerness for all things sanguine in order to achieve and maintain mastery over the substance. Without the ability to be so meticulous, a prospective blood mage would likely accidentally commit suicide attempting some of the body chemistry-altering tricks his trade allows him to perform.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the blood mage.

Weapon & Armor Proficiencies: A blood mage gains no additional weapon and armor proficiencies.





In addition, should the blood mage choose, he may increase the power of any arcane spell he casts by incurring 2 points of Constitution burn. Doing so allows him to add a number of spell levels worth of metamagic equal to 2 or his class level, whichever is higher. The metamagic adjustment to spell level is always treated as if it were from the base feat - any reduction in effective level modifier (such as Arcane Thesis) doesn't count. The blood mage must also still have access to these Metamagic feats in order to add their effects to his spells in this manner. If this Constitution burn is reduced or eliminated in any way, this metamagic effects are not added.

He also has the ability to access these potions by storing them inside his own bloodstream, which allows him to imbibe a potion that is stored in this fashion as a swift action. In addition, he may confer the effects of a brewed potion to an adjacent ally when he uses the aid another action. The blood mage may store a number of potions in this manner equal to his class level.

 (Ex): Whenever a 2nd level blood mage bathes in at least 270 liters of blood for at least 4 uninterrupted hours, he gains the equivalent of 8 hours of natural rest and healing. In addition, he gains immunity to disease and poison and ceases to age for one week after such a bath.

 (Su): At 3rd level, the blood mage gains the ability to directly enter the endless river that is the blood of mortals, using it as a means of swift travel. By moving into the space of a living creature of his size or larger, which provokes an attack of opportunity normally, the blood mage may take a standard action to enter that creature and move through the blood of the living to exit from another applicable creature within Long Range (400 feet + 40 feet/level), appearing adjacent to them. The creature being entered and exited can be the same creature if the blood mage wishes, but he cannot designate himself as either the entry or exit point. No harm is dealt to the blood mage or any creature involved as a direct result of this movement. This ability is useable at will.

 (Sp): When a 4th level blood mage uses blood magic, he may choose to have the target of his spell take the same amount of Constitution burn that he has currently incurred. This does not reduce his own Constitution burn in any way.

Doing so requires a full-round action and deals 2 points of Constitution burn to the target. For each two points of Constitution burn dealt to a sentient creature, the blood mage heals 1 point of his own Constitution burn that he has suffered and heals 5 hit points, both up to a maximum of his normal totals.

 (Su): Many travels through blood have allowed the blood mage to learn how to use magic to detonate the passageways (aka the creatures through which he travels). Once he reaches 5th level, a blood mage can spend a spell slot when traveling through the river of blood and deal an amount of damage to the creature through which he exits equal to the level of the spent spell slot multiplied by his caster level.

Playing a Blood Mage
Combat: Blood mages are at their most effective against living opponents, when their blood-related spells allow them to make short work of foes. That said, their ability to use their own blood to power spells allows them to hold their own in more conventional forms of combat, merely giving them an added edge to otherwise normal spellcasting.

Advancement: Blood mages tend to be wizards or sorcerers; the prestige class is helpfully short enough and easy to enter that they may even be able to enter another should they choose, or at the very least continue progressing in their base class uninterrupted.

Resources: The primary resource the blood mage depends on - the River of blood itself - is virtually endless. Any living, blood-bearing creature is potentially the blood mage's instrument. Or their victim.

Blood Mages in the World
"Remember: down the road, not across the street."

It takes a not-very-nice person to tap into a force as necessary to life as blood. Blood mages generally aren't looking to save lives; clerics do that. Instead, they use blood for power, sapping their own life force in order to use magic more effectively. The blood mage's path is painful and unpleasant (unless you dig that sort of thing).

NPC Reactions: Mages tend to have redeemable qualities, sure, but there's something about being able to give someone a heart attack by looking at them that can make you be disliked. Even though the end result may not actually be any worse than dying by magical fire.