Cardinal (5e Class)/Sin of the False

Every Cardinal feels a spark of divinity in their lives - Be it the hand of ancient fate that bequeathed their power upon them like a sacred burden, or hidden fuel behind the burning glare of a persecutory zealot, hellbent on snuffing their Crimson flame.

But, a few decide to stoke the spark of divinity within themselves, learning to invoke deific power through the spilling of consecrated blood - Though these priests of suffering and salvation are called the False by most folks of other faiths, they are often able to gather faithful of their own, willing to spill blood for their gracious "deity".

Aura of Influence

Beginning at 1st level, you emanate an aura out to a distance equal to your Corpse Magic range while you are conscious. The aura extends around corners and through half and three-quarters cover. Each creature of your choice that begins or ends their turn within your aura gains its benefit until the beginning of their next turn.

When you finish a Long Rest, choose any Rite you know. Any creature benefitting from your Aura of Influence may use this rite, using your Hemocraft feature - They use your Corpse Magic range, Hemocraft die, Sacrifice points and Sacrifice Limit, and Hemocraft ability, attack bonus, and save DC. However, if they would sacrifice hit points as part of using this Rite - Either to Amplify it, or as part of expending Sacrifice Points to activate or amplify it - The creature using the Rite loses the hit points in your place, suffering Enervation and Decay accordingly. You must still expend any relevant Sacrifice or Leech Points, however, as well as any limited uses (As in the case of a Benediction, Malison or Brand).

Crimson Tongue

Beginning at 1st level, you may Minor Rend when you make a Deception, Intimidation, Performance or Persuasion check, and add the Rend Bonus to the result of the check. If you can already Rend to this type of roll (Such as from the Birth of the Ephemeral or Mantle of Sin features), you also gain advantage on that type of roll when you Rend.

Additionally, any creature within your Aura of Influence may understand your speech, and you understand theirs, so long as the creature understands at least one language, and possesses blood or some similar substance.

False Domain

At 1st level, you choose the form of your divine influence, in the form of a Divine Domain.

This grants you the Channel Divinity feature, and additional benefits as you gain experience.

Channel Divinity

When you choose your Divine Domain at 1st level, you gain the ability to channel divine energy from your followers and your own fervor, using that energy to fuel magical effects. The magical effect you can create is determined by your domain.

If you possess Channel Divinity options from another source, each time you use your Channel Divinity, you choose which effect to create. You must then finish a short or long rest to use your Channel Divinity again. Beginning at 18th level, you may use your Channel Divinity twice between rests.

Some Channel Divinity effects require saving throws. When you use such an effect from this class, the DC equals your Hemocraft save DC.

Hemoturgy

As a quasi-god, you learn to cast a handful of divine spells when you reach 3rd level.

Table: False Spellcasting

Level	Cantrips Known	Spells Known	Maximum Spell Level	Sacrifice Points	Sacrifice Limit
3rd	2	3	1st	3	1
4th	2	4	1st	3	1
5th	2	4	1st	3	2
6th	2	4	1st	4	2
7th	2	5	2nd	5	2
8th	2	6	2nd	6	2
9th	2	6	2nd	6	3
10th	3	7	2nd	7	3
11th	3	8	2nd	8	3
12th	3	8	2nd	9	3
13th	3	9	3rd	10	4
14th	3	10	3rd	11	4
15th	3	10	3rd	12	4
16th	3	11	3rd	13	4
17th	3	11	3rd	14	5
18th	3	11	3rd	15	5
19th	3	12	4th	16	5
20th	3	13	4th	16	5

Domain Affinity

When you reach 3rd level, your domain's power permeates your magic, granting you additional power. In addition to learning spells from the Warlock spell list, you may also learn the Domain Spells granted by your chosen Divine Domain.

Cantrips

At 3rd level, you learn 2 cantrips of your choice; One of these cantrips must be chosen from the Warlock spell list, and the other can be a cantrip from any spell list. You learn another Warlock cantrip of your choice at 10th level.

Each time you gain the Crimson Versatility feature, instead of the feature's other benefits, you can choose to replace one Cantrip you know from this feature with another cantrip of your choice that fits the same spell list parameters as the cantrip you're replacing.

Well of Sacrifice

When you gain this feature, your number of Sacrifice Points improves, as you better learn to convert your life force into raw magical energy.

Beginning at 3rd level, you possess the number of Sacrifice Points that is shown for your level in the "Sacrifice Points" column of the False Spellcasting table, rather than the value shown for your level in the "Sacrifice Points" column of the Cardinal class table. You can never have more Sacrifice Points than shown on the table for your level, unless another feature grants you more. You regain all expended Sacrifice Points when you finish a long rest.

Instead of casting your spells of 1st level and higher using spell slots, you use Sacrifice Points.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell Charm Person and have 5 Sacrifice Points available, you can cast Charm Person as a 1st-level spell by expending 2 of those Sacrifice Points, or as a 2nd-level spell by expending 3 Sacrifice Points.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know three 1st-level spells of your choice, chosen from the Warlock spell list. You may also choose your spells from the Domain Spells granted by your chosen Divine Domain.

The Spells Known column of the False Spellcasting table shows when you learn more spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be Warlock or Domain spell; These spells must be of a level equal to or lower than your "Maximum Spell Level" for your level, as shown in the column of the same name on the False Spellcasting table. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the spells of 1st level and higher that you know with another spell of your choice; The new spell must be of a level equal to or lower than your "Maximum Spell Level", and it must be a Warlock or Domain spell.

Spellcasting Ability

Your Hemocraft relies on a combination or physical endurance, pain tolerance, and sheer strength of life force; Thus, Constitution is the ability you use for your Cardinal Hemocraft. You use your Constitution whenever an ability refer to your Hemocraft ability. In addition, you use your Constitution modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Hemocraft ability you use, and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Constitution modifier

Blood Focus

When you cast spells that require a material component, you can choose to lose 1 hit point in order to ignore that component, unless it has a monetary value greater than 1 gp. If the material costs 1gp or more, you can choose to loose hit points equal to one roll of your Hemocraft Die for every 25gp of the component's cost, to a minimum of one roll of your Hemocraft Die for a material component that costs 25gp or less.

Aura of Birth

Beginning at 7th level, your Aura of Influence grants your divine power to those you deign worthy. Each creature other than yourself that is benefiting from your Aura of Influence can cast the Domain Spells granted by your chosen Divine Domain, even if you have not learned the spell in question. When a creature does so, they use your False spellcasting, including Maximum Spell Level, Sacrifice Limit, Sacrifice and Leech Points, Blood Focus, and spellcasting ability, attack bonus and save DC.

Each time a creature expends your Sacrifice Points to cast a spell in this way, that creature loses hit points in your stead, and suffers Enervation and Decay accordingly.

Additionally, while you are not Uninjured, each creature benefiting from your Aura of Influence also gain the benefits of the Gift you chose for your Gift of Birth feature. In the case of Gifts with limited uses - Such as the Birth of the Physical - Each creature has their own set of uses, without expending or interfering with your uses of the ability.

Sanguine Invocations

At 7th level, your time as a growing otherworldly being has awakened you to ancient truths and arcane secrets, granting you two Eldritch Invocations of your choice. You may learn an invocation with a level prerequisite only if the required level is equal to or less than one-third (Rounded down) of your Cardinal level (Thus, a 9th-level Cardinal could learn an invocation with a level prerequisite of 3rd or lower); However, you must fulfill any other prerequisites an invocation possesses.

If you possess Warlock levels, you may add one-third (Rounded down) of your Cardinal levels to your Warlock level for the purposes of qualifying for Invocations.

You may use your Hemocraft ability in place of Charisma for any invocation that utilizes your Charisma score. Additionally, whenever an invocation requires you to expend a Warlock spell slot, you may instead expend the appropriate number of Sacrifice or Leech Points.

You learn an additional Invocation at 15th level, and again at 18th level. Additionally, each time you gain a Cardinal level, you may replace one invocation you know with another Invocation you could learn at that level.

Aura of Life

Beginning at 11th level, each creature other than yourself that is benefiting from your Aura of Influence can invoke your Channel Divinity feature; You must expend the use of the ability in order for them to do so, using your Hemocraft save DC. Once you allow a creature to use your Channel Divinity in this way, you must finish a Long Rest before you may do so again.

Additionally, while you are Wounded, each creature benefiting from your Aura of Influence also gain the benefits of the Gift you chose for your Gift of Life feature. In the case of Gifts that affect the Hemocraft feature - Such as the Life of the Survivor - The creature uses your Hemocraft ability, and may gain the benefits of the Gift when using any Hemocraft ability granted to them by your Aura of Influence, such as when casting your Domain spells.

Divine Surge

Beginning at 11th level, you may cast stronger than normal spells related to your influence. When you or a creature benefiting from your Aura casts one of your Domain spells, you may expend a use of your Channel Divinity to cast any of your Domain spells, including Domain spells you have not learned. The spell cast in this way ignores the Maximum Spell Level column of the False Spellcasting table, but must still abide by your Sacrifice Limit.

Once you use this feature, you cannot do so again until you finish a Long Rest.

Sacrificial Lamb

Beginning at 11th level, each time you harvest a creature's essence using Corpse Magic, you gain one Leech Point. You can possess a number of Leech Points at one time up to one-half of your Hemocraft level, rounded down (Min 5), and any unspent Leech Points are lost when you finish a Long Rest.

Aura of Death

Beginning at 15th level, the number of Rites granted by your Aura of Influence increases to 2, and you may change which Rites are granted when you finish a Short or Long Rest.

Additionally, while you are Critical, each creature benefiting from your Aura of Influence also gain the benefits of the Gift you chose for your Gift of Death feature.

Divine Mark

Beginning at 15th level, as an action, you can grant a sliver of your divine power to one creature you can see within your Aura of Influence. This Divine Mark ends if you grant it to another creature, if you fall unconscious, or if you and the chosen creature are ever on different planes.

While the Mark persists, you and the creature can communicate telepathically over unlimited distance, and the creature gains all available benefits from your Aura of Influence, regardless of range.

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a Long Rest.

Deific Influence

At 18th level, your divine power reaches new heights. This grants you the following benefits:

• The range of your Aura of Influence increases to double your Corpse Magic range.

• You regain the use of your Divine Surge and Divine Mark when you finish a Short or Long Rest.

• Whenever you roll initiative, or a creature benefiting from your Aura suffers a critical hit or is reduced to 0 hit points, you regain one expended Sacrifice Point.