TI'll be honest, basically the entire reason i want this is because im playing through Dragon Age: Origins right now and i really like how they do blood magic. I realize that the simplest solution would to have it be a roleplaying choice, flavoring necromancy spells as blood magic or something, but thats boring 
. Besides I doubt my players will ever use it since they hate wizards for some reason.
So without further ado...
Blood Mage (Wizard Arcane Tradition)
Fueled By Blood- Starting at 2nd level you can use your blood in place of material spell components meaning you do not require a spell focus or component pouch. In addition, when a spell calls for a component with a gold cost you can spend Hit Dice to reduce that cost at a rate of 200gp/HD
This gives blood mages some out of combat utility and promotes the idea of ritualistic blood magic. Im not sure about the Gp:HD ratio though.
Lacerate- Starting at 2nd level you can use a bonus action to deal 1d6 damage to yourself(unpreventable) to deal an aditional 1d6 slashing damage on your next spell attack.
Creates a risk vs reward dynamic that i like and it promotes boosting Con to help differentiate BMs from other wizards.
Power of Blood- Starting at 6th level you can use the power of your blood to increase the potency of you spells. When casting a spell of first level or higher you can spend Hit Dice to increase the level of the spell as if you used a higher level spell slot. The number of Hit Dice expended must equal the level of the spell slot you wish cast the spell as
Thought about letting them recover spell slots but went with this because it allows them to cast bigger spells without letting them cast more spells. Again, Risk vs Reward.
Hemmorage- starting at 10th level when you use your Lacerate feature to damage an enemy that enemy takes you Con mod necrotic damage at the start of its turn. The creature can make a con save against your spell save DC at the end of its turn to end this effect
A small damage boost that also promoste boosting con
Siphon- Starting at 14th level you have learned to use the blood of others to stregnthen yourself. As an action a target you can see within 60 feet must make a Con save against your spell save DC, if it fails the save it takes 4d6 necrotic damage and you heal half that ammount. You cannot use this feature again until you finish a long rest. This feature has no effects on undead or constructs.
In combat healing means you can use your Lacerate feature more and takes the pressure off of your Hit Dice.
What I wanted:
- Risk vs Reward and Power at a Price dynamics
- To be a combat caster like School of Evocation
- Enough non-combat utility to prevent being 1 dimensional
- To promote using Con more than normal wizards
- I didnt want BM to be evil i wanted to be a tool a wizard can use (Blood magic doesnt kill people Wizards kill people). not sure i succeded at this one
- The BM is not a necromancer. There is a lot of overlap but the BM does not deal with raising the dead
So, how'd I do? What would you do differently? Is it balanced(ish)? Let me know what y'all think
I think you did a really good job on this. I love the flavor of this build and of the feat.
I'm not a huge fan of the Lacerate feature mechanicaly but flaver wise its cool. Maybe switch out the Blood Magic feat for the Lacerate feature. But that's kinda taking alot away from the sorcerer who usually is the only one with metamagic. But I have felt that just like martial Adept feat takes from the fighter battle Master they should do the same with metamagic.
So that it is a touch clearer the Hemmorage feature should read - starting at 10th level when you use your Lacerate feature to damage an enemy that enemy takes your Con mod in necrotic damage at the start of each of its turns. At the end of each of its turns the creature can make a con save against your spell save DC to end effect.
Did you consider for Power of Blood that the number of hit die expended should be equal to the number of lvs you want to raise the Spell. Eg. If you want to cast fireball at lv5 you expend 2 hd and a third lv slot instead of 5hd. I don't know if that'll be op but that was my first thought when I read it
If it's a Sorcerer subclass then Hit Dice could be expended to gain sorcery points. That's be cool.
Also, I wouldn't try to mirror Dragon Age abilities too closely. Start with the overall concept you want then build from there.
FAXIMUS wrote:
Kron-Karn wrote:
The way it is written it doesn't seem like it but would you be able to use the Power of Blood ability to cast a spell at its lowest lv
here's mine i made a few months back, it's been reviewed on reddit/ here on the forums, and on gianttip and enworld, and has been playtested from levels 1-10 and is currently balanced, i am still currently playtesting the higher levels to test the bloodwalk feature, but thus far everything is a go and is looking perfect, nothing overly redonkulous, yet still providing wonderful flavor with the management of your HD and the temp hp blood cantrip scales quite well. i did mine as a Sorcerer's Origin, i found the Sorcery Point system to be a wonderful mechanic to work with then the wizard.
Varden_Khol wrote:
FAXIMUS wrote: