Blood Magic Expanded
This homebrew expands on the Blood Tribute feat as featured on Reutilizing your Health by Milly.
All Techniques and Spells in this homebrew increase your Bloodthirst Rank. This is an additional stat that gives your character ever-increasing disabilities that stack with each rank.
- Rank 1: You heal [Rank] less Health from Dishes and Elixirs, and from the effects of healing Techniques and Spells excluding those that require Blood Tribute to learn.
- Rank 2: Spent Health only returns after an Extended Rest, but can be healed as if it was lost health.
- Rank 3: Whenever you spend Health, it is Burnt instead.
- Rank 4: Burnt Health can no longer be healed by anything except by the effects of Techniques and Spells that require Blood Tribute to learn.
- Rank 5: Whenever you lose Health due to receiving damage, it is Burnt.
- Rank 6+: You are permanently Sick and are Vulnerable to Light (or Fire if you are already Vulnerable to Light) until you reduce your Bloodthirst Rank to 5 or below.
New Techniques
Dragmire's Embrace
0 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Blood Tribute, Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Cost: 12 Stamina (Burn)
Use Requirement: A Halted or Helpless target
Range: Melee
Damage: ((Combat + 1d6) / 2)
Effect: You regain Health equal to the damage dealt. This can heal Burnt or Spent Health, but not Bound Health.
Special: When learned, permanently increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. Whenever using it makes a target perish or fall Helpless, temporarily increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1 until you take an Extended Rest.
Dragmire's Gestalt
0 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Blood Tribute, Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Cost: 8 Health
Effect: You grow hooked fingernails, webbed feet and large leather wings. You become a Natural Climber, a Natural Swimmer, a Natural Glider and a Natural Flier until the end of combat or scene.
Special: When learned, permanently increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. Whenever you either climb or swim and either glide or fly during one instance of this Technique inbetween two Extended Rests, temporarily increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1 until you take an Extended Rest.
Dragmire's Domination
0 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Blood Tribute, Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Cost: 4, 6 or 14 Health
Range: Projectile 4, Line 4, or Cone 4 (based on amount spent)
Effect: Roll To-Hit target's Concentration; on success, they are Cursed and Halted until the end of your next turn.
Special: When learned, permanently increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. Whenever you use Line or Cone Range for this Technique, temporarily increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1 until you take an Extended Rest.
New Spells
Dragmire's Claim
0 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Blood Tribute, Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Cost: 12 Magic (Burn)
Use Requirement: A Halted or Helpless target
Range: Projectile 6
Damage: (Willpower / 2)
Effect: You regain Health equal to the damage dealt. This can heal Burnt or Spent Health, but not Bound Health.
Special: When learned, permanently increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. Whenever using it makes a target perish or fall Helpless, temporarily increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1 until you take an Extended Rest.
Dragmire's Crimson Wave
0 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Blood Tribute, Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Cost: 14 Health
Range: Burst 2
Damage: Weapon + Willpower
Effect: Roll To-Hit target's Vitality; on success, regain 1 Health. This can heal Burnt or Spent Health, but not Bound Health.
Special: When learned, permanently increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. Whenever you regain Health from six different targets that way inbetween two Extended Rests, temporarily increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1 until you take an Extended Rest.
Dragmire's Scarlet Armor
0 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Blood Tribute, Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Cost: Up to (Willpower / 2) Health (Bind)
Effect: Whenever you receive damage, you must burn 1 Bound Health and if you do, reduce that damage by 50%. You can use Dragmire's Scarlet Armor only once per combat or scene.
Special: When learned, permanently increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. Whenever you reduce damage four times that way inbetween two Extended Rests, temporarily increase your Bloodthirst Rank by 1 until you take an Extended Rest.
Salvation
The above Techniques and Spells make a character trade away their humanity, soul, or essence as the price for the power gained, which should be described as losing a part of what makes the character mortal and moral as the character descend into the alluring promise of easy access to a lot of power. The GM is encouraged to tempt the character with these "rewards" at least once during a session, especially if they often make (casual) use of their Blood Tribute feat and related Techniques and Spells.
Luckily, heroes are often greater than life itself and they can find ways to regain what they have lost while keeping what they have gained. The following feat reflects that possibility.
Restored Essence
9 Tokens
Learn Requirement: Quest Reward or GM Approval Only
Effect: Reduce your Bloodthirst Rank by 1. This does not reduce temporary Bloodthirst Rank.
Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. The learning cost can be reduced to 6 if the character visibly shows remorse and unwillingness to use their Blood Magic, or to 3 if they are taking active efforts into making the world a better place without using Blood Magic at all. These conditions must have been fulfilled for an extended duration of time (at least one complete session) to be eligible for reducing learning costs.
If the GM agrees, Restored Essence can cost 0 Tokens instead if the player character forgets one of their learned Techniques or Spells requiring Blood Tribute instead. This should be done for the purpose of rejecting, and forfeiting, the power of Blood Magic. It shouldn't be abused and a character that learns any Technique or Spell requiring Blood Tribute after they took at least one instance of Restored Essence may have forever lost the possibility to reduce cost to 0 that way.
