Bloodletter (3.5e Class)

Author: Eiji-kun (talk) Date Created: 11-28-14 Status: Complete Editing: Mechanical changes on Talk

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Bloodletter

"Today we paint the town red... in blood!"

Experts with blades, the bloodletter is a nimble ender of lives and slayer of men. Often attracting the violent and the cruel, bloodletters are experts at spilling one's precious lifebloods. They form a bond with blood, both their own and others, far deeper than what is normal. Or right.

Making a Bloodletter

Abilities: Most bloodletters, due to poor armor and a focus on fine blades, focus on Dexterity with a side of Constitution to keep them alive. Intelligence boosts skills and helps identify opponents and where to cut, and Wisdom can patch up a low Will score.

Races: Any.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 5d4×10 gp (125 gp).

Starting Age: As rogue.

Table: The Bloodletter

Hit Die: d8

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+0	+2	+2	+0	Bleeding Cut 2, Blood Scent, Weapon Finesse
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+0	Blood Trick, Evasion, Improved Weapon Finesse
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+1	Body Stanch 1, Identify Blood
4th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Bleeding Cut 3, Vampiric Cut
5th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Blood Sight, Blood Transfusion
6th	+4	+5	+5	+2	Blood Trick, Drink Form
7th	+5	+5	+5	+2	Body Stanch 4, Bright Blood
8th	+6	+6	+6	+2	Bleeding Cut 4
9th	+6	+6	+6	+3	Improved Evasion
10th	+7	+7	+7	+3	Blood Trick, Ludicrous Gibs
11th	+8	+7	+7	+3	Blood Melt, Body Stanch 7
12th	+9	+8	+8	+4	Bleeding Cut 5
13th	+9	+8	+8	+4	Purify Blood
14th	+10	+9	+9	+4	Blood Trick
15th	+11	+9	+9	+5	Body Stanch 10
16th	+12	+10	+10	+5	Bleeding Cut 6, Vampiric Bleedout
17th	+12	+10	+10	+5	Return from Blood
18th	+13	+11	+11	+6	Blood Trick
19th	+14	+11	+11	+6	Complete Body Stanch
20th	+15	+12	+12	+6	Bleeding Cut 7, Severing Strike
Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Iaijutsu Focus (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (local) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Bloodletter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A bloodletter is proficient with all simple weapons and all piercing or slashing martial weapons, and with light armor and shields (except tower shields).

Bleeding Cut (Ex): The bloodletter's best ability is knowing how to draw unusually gruesome amount of blood from their target. As long as they are using any piercing or slashing weapon, they add +2 of damage to their attacks and 2 point of bleed. You also ignore 2 point of the opponent's total of armor and natural armor bonus. The bonus rises by +1 at 4th and every four levels beyond. Bleeding cut damage (and subsequent bleed damage) are multiplied on a critical hit.

For example, a 8th level bloodletter ignores up to 4 points of armor or natural armor. A creature with armor 6 and natural armor 8 would have a -4 penalty on AC. A creature with 2 armor and 1 natural armor would have a -3 penalty on AC, since that's the most AC they can lose.

Blood Scent (Ex): A bloodletter gains scent, but only for blood. Creatures with less than full hp count as bleeding for the purpose of this ability.

Weapon Finesse: The bloodletter gets Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.

Blood Trick: At 2nd level and every four levels beyond (6th, 10th, 14th, etc.) the bloodletter learns a unique trick to improve their abilities. Choose from the list below.

Bloodhound (Ex): You gain the Track feat and the range of your Blood Scent doubles. You can pinpoint the location of an adjacent creature without any action on your part. You can even trace a blood scent through the air, water, or any other medium you are able to pass through. Finally, you can identify creatures by scent as easily as you would by sight or sound.

Blood Rage (Ex): As a swift action you can cause your blood to boil, filling you with pain but pumping your adrenaline. You can lose up to your Bleeding Cut amount each round in hp, but gain +1 damage for each point of damage you take. The blood rage cannot stop until you successfully make a DC 15 Heal check as a standard action. This can possibly kill you.

Bonus Feat: You gain a bonus feat from the following list. You must qualify as normal: Finish Him!, Heart of the Enemy, Heart of Vigor, Improved Critical, Invigorated Blood, Learned Weapon Proficiency, Mortal Combatant, Quick Draw, or Quick Sheathe. You can take this ability multiple times, each time gaining a new bonus feat.

Feast of Blood: You count your full class level for determining your initiator level for Blood Feast maneuvers, and you immediately gain three Blood Feast maneuvers you qualify for as maneuver-like abilities. You can select this ability multiple times, each time gaining two more maneuver-like abilities from Blood Feast.

Improved Bleeding Cut (Ex): Your Bleeding Cut ability improves by +1.

Improved Bleedout (Ex): The amount of hit points you drain from a successful bleedout improves by +10%. This ability can be selected multiple times, to a maximum of 50%.

Improved Blood Sight (Su): Your Blood Sight ability now extends out to the full range of your vision. You must have Blood Sight for this ability to work.

Instant Stanch (Su): You automatically stabilize and are immune to bleeding effects as if you were wearing Unblemished armor (though you can choose to bleed when you want to, such as when using your own class features). You have a subtle mental control over other people's blood as well, and automatically stabilize bleeding allies within 30 ft as a free action.

Lizard Tears (Ex): As a standard action you can squirt blood out of your eyes and into the faces of your foes. Make a ranged touch attack out to 15 ft. On a successful hit you blind the creature for 1 round, and you take a -1 penalty on Constitution. Squirting blood is hard, and you cannot squirt again for another 1d4 rounds. When your eye squirt ability is recovered, the Con penalty vanishes.

Poison Blood (Ex): You can choose to purposefully consume an ingested, contact, or injury poison and store it within your blood with no problems. As a free action you can deal yourself 1 hp of damage to automatically poison your weapon with no chance of failure. Alternatively as a free action you can have the poison afflict anyone who successfully hits you with a piercing or slashing attack. Once used the poison is expended. While you hold the poison in the blood you are immune to that particular poison. You can only store one poison in your body at a time.

Red Terror (Ex): You can intimidate as a move action and out to 30 ft. In addition when you kill a creature via a successful bleedout, you can immediately make an intimidate check out to 30 ft against all opponents as a free action.

Retributive Spray (Ex): Your high pressure blood spray injures others. Anyone who injures you in melee with a piercing or slashing attack take an amount of damage equal to your Bleeding Cut amount.

Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level, a bloodletter can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the bloodletter is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless bloodletter does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Improved Weapon Finesse: The 2nd level bloodletter gets Improved Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.

Body Stanch (Ex): The 3rd level bloodletter has a strong body used to keeping their own blood in. They gain effectively ability damage resistance 1 with all their physical scores. Thus they reduce any ability damage or ability drain by 1 point, to a minimum of 0. Their ability damage resistance to their physical scores increases to 4 at 7th level, 7 at 11th level, 10 at 15th level, and is eventually overwritten by Complete Body Stanch at 19th level.

Identify Blood (Su): With a standard action the 3rd level bloodletter can taste the blood of a creature (within 24 hours) and identify all physical and visible traits of the creature as if they had seen them, the general health of their body (such as if they were previously wounded by the time this blood was spilled, or poisoned, or sick), and the type and subtype of the creature. It does not, however, protect you from side effects of consuming potentially diseased or poisonous blood.

Vampiric Cut (Su): At 4th level, the bloodletter draws health from the blood lost. They can recover an amount equal to their Bleeding Cut for every successful hit they make on a target which can bleed. They may transfer this healing to themselves or to one ally within 10 feet of them.

Blood Sight (Su): The 5th level bloodletter can see your fear in the form of seeing your heart and blood vessels. They can see the outline of the blood within 30 ft, defeating cover and concealment. The vision can penetrate barriers, but 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt blocks it.

Blood Transfusion (Sp): At 5th level, the bloodletter can freely transfer hit points around easily by swapping blood with wounded creatures. With a touch at will the bloodletter can give any number of hit points up to their current hit points -1 to another creature, healing them while taking an equal amount of damage. Alternatively they can draw hit points away from willing creatures, but cannot reduce these willing creatures below 1 hp.

Drink Form (Sp): The 6th level bloodletter can engage in a gruesome but useful act involving drinking the blood of a recently slain target, within 1 minute of its demise. If they do so, they can change shape into the creature as if using alter self, but not restricted by type or hit dice and restricted within two size categories of yourself. The new form lasts indefinitely, or until dismissed or a new form is taken. However, the form is entirely superficial; you retain all your abilities and statistics. Gross physical changes such as wings as visible but non-functional. You only adopt the size of the creature and it's appearance.

Bright Blood (Su): The 7th level bloodletter's blood refreshes itself automatically, always bright red and rich in oxygen. They do not need to eat or breath anymore.

Improved Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a bloodletter’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless bloodletter does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Ludicrous Gibs (Ex): The 10th level bloodletter can choose to destroy creatures they kill in a violent explosion of gore. As a free action any creature they kill can be reduced to chunky salsa, making revival attempts difficult. In addition you get your class level as a circumstance bonus on Intimidate checks for 1 round.

Body Melt (Su): At 11th level, the bloodletter change into the form of a hemoplasm slime as a standard action, as if using Eiji's Polymorph Self. They may do this at will.

Purify Blood (Ex): One must keep the blood clean. At 13th level the bloodletter becomes immune to disease and poison.

Vampiric Bleedout (Su): The 16th level bloodletter's vampiric abilities improve. They now recover a number of hit points equal to that lost when they successfully cause bleedout. Like before they can choose to instead heal an ally within 10 ft instead.

Return from Blood (Ex): At 17th level, if a bloodletter is killed they automatically turn into a hemoplasm slime as if using Body Melt. Said slime will often try to escape. If the slime manages not to be slain, the bloodletter will respawn out of the slime's body within 1d10 days. If the slime is killed, the bloodletter dies as normal.

For the purposes of revival, having your blood (fresh, within 24 hours) counts as having the full intact body.

Complete Body Stanch (Ex): At 19th level the bloodletter becomes immune to ability damage and ability drain.

Severing Strike: The 20th level bloodletter knows the best way to let the blood out is simply cutting open the biggest hole you can. They gain Severing Strike as a bonus feat.

Epic Bloodletter

Table: The Epic Bloodletter

Hit Die: d8

Level	Special
21st	Blood Trick
22nd
23rd	Bonus Feat
24th	Bleeding Cut 8, Blood Trick
25th
26th	Bonus Feat
27th	Blood Trick
28th	Bleeding Cut 9
29th	Bonus Feat
30th	Blood Trick
6 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Bleeding Cut: Bleeding Cut continues to rise at 24th and every four levels beyond.

Blood Trick: They gain a new Blood Trick at 21st level and every three levels beyond.

Bonus Feats : The epic Bloodletter gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Bloodletter bonus feats) at 23rd and every three levels beyond.

Epic Bloodletter Bonus Feat List: PENDING.

Halfling Bloodletter Starting Package

Weapons: Kukri.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 6 + Int modifier.

Skill	Ranks	Ability	Armor Check Penalty
Heal	4	Wis	—
Hide	4	Dex	-2
Listen	4	Wis	—
Move Silently	4	Dex	-2
Spot	4	Wis	—
Use Magic Device	4	Cha	—

Feat: Dodge.

Bonus Feats: Weapon Finesse

Gear: Chain Shirt.

Gold: 17 gp

Campaign Information

Playing a Bloodletter

Religion: Few gods of good tolerate the blood spilling tendencies of bloodletters, so it's only natural that those who follow a religious path do so with gods of blood, death, and pain. Many a god loves to see the blood flow, from whatever the source, and for these bloodletters the act of cutting is a religious rapture.

Other Classes: Most view bloodletters as simply a violent rogue. For the better, because the art of bloodletting is a creepy one, and one few would smile upon.

Combat: You are a secondary attacker, never fighting head on if you can due to your low armor and hit points. While you are not as ally dependent as the rogue, you can't be sure the enemy won't overwhelm. Then again, some use their vampiric ability to drain health as fast as they lose it.

Advancement: Any class which advances sneak attack advances bleeding cut and blood stanch abilities.

Bloodletters in the World

“	I want to hear what you really thing. You want more than just a little blood. You want to be drenched in it, mired in its foul stench. Am I right? Am I? Oh, just say that I'm right. Heh heh heh...	”
—Titchy Gren, Halfling Bloodletter

Daily Life: Bloodletters are bet not known for their job. They live as others do... but in the darkness, much more blood is shed.

Organizations: A religious covenant surrounding a goddess of blood has sprung up, and has started collecting bloodletters in a disturbing amount.

NPC Reactions: Bloodletters are not a "legal" activity, it sounds far too much like "murderer". What's good on the field of battle can't be brought to the attention of the common folk, lest ye end up with your head on a pike.

Bloodletter Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge Local can research Bloodletters to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

Knowledge Local

DC	Result
10	Bloodletters are obsessed with spilling blood, and are very good at causing you to bleed. They are as nimble as rogues.
15	Bloodletters have also sorts of nasty tricks up their sleeves, and they can even mess with blood in supernatural and mystical ways.
20	Powerful bloodletters can transform into pools of blood and drink up the wounds of their enemies so fast they seem to regenerate like a troll.
30	Those that reach this level of success can research specific bloodletters, their whereabouts, motives, weapons of choice, and other details.

Bloodletters in the Game

Sample Encounter: The cult of the blood goddess has spread through the underground of the city. Though spooky, they normally cause no trouble. But the blood moon is coming, and the goddess is thristy...

EL 10: PENDING.

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