Liberi Gothica: Blood Magic Tree

An Ability Tree for Liberi Gothica.

You have an innate connection to the blood of living beings.

Knowledge

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A Bloodmage can manipulate blood in a variety of ways that ranges from unleashing a barrage of crystallized blood to controlling enemies through their blood.

Primary Abilities: Upon gaining Blood Magic as the liberi's primary ability tree, the liberi may spend up to 6 XP on Blood Magic abilities. This does not allow for the purchase of Progressions and any left over XP is wasted.

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ABILITIES

Shards of Blood

4 XP. You can crystallize portions of your blood, and fire them at your opponents.

These blood bullets erupt from the skin, and fly towards your target. As an action, you may make an attack roll to hit any target within 30 feet. You take 1 Life every time you fire a shard of blood. You deal 1d4 damage on a hit.

Progressions

2 XP: Rapid Fire: You may fire an extra shard with an attack action. All shards fired in one action are against the same target, and you lose 1 Life per shard fired. You roll your attacks separately for each shard. You may only fir one extra shard per level of Rapid Fire you have. Each time you take Rapid Fire, it costs 1 more XP.

2 XP: Farther: The maximum range of your shards improves by 10 feet.

4 XP: Blood Gout: You may instead fire a large spear of crystallized blood. This deals 3 Life to you, and deals 3d6 damage on a hit. You can not Rapid Fire a Blood Gout.

Blood Clot

3 XP. You steel your blood, reducing the impact of blows.

Grants you 1 Damage Resistance. It takes an action to activate this ability, and you pay 1 Vitality per round to maintain it.

Progressions

4 XP: Extended 1: Blood Clot costs 1 Vitality per [Athleticism score] rounds to maintain.

• 7 XP: Extended 2: Blood Clot costs 1 Vitality per minute to maintain. Requires Extended 1.

• • 10 XP: Extended 3: Blood Clot costs 1 Vitality per [Athleticism score] minutes to maintain. Requires Extended 2.

6 XP: High Platelet Count: Your damage resistance improves by 1. Each time you take this progression, it costs 2 more XP.

Blood Puppet

5 XP. You can control a person's movements using their blood.

This ability may only be activated by successfully touching a living creature with blood (an Attack roll, if during combat). After physical contact has been obtained, you may spend 2 Vitality to begin the link.

As long as this link is established, you are in complete control of the target's movements. Every round after the link is established, the target may make a Willpower, opposed by your Willpower roll. If the target succeeds, they take their next turn normally and the link is broken. If physical contact between you and your puppet is ever broken, the link is broken immediately.

While the link is in effect, your puppet does not act during its turn. If you move, you may pull your target with you. You may spend one of your actions to make your puppet Attack for you. If you would be hit by an attack while you control a puppet, you may make a Reflexes check against the target's Attack roll to interpose your puppet, having it take the damage in your place. While under your control, the Puppet takes a -2 penalty on all rolls, and takes a -4 penalty to Defense, since its movements are difficult to control.

You can control any number of blood puppets simultaneously.

Progressions

4 XP: Sanguine Control: You gain better control of your puppet. The -2 penalty drops to -1, and the -4 Defense penalty drops to -2.

• 6 XP: Sanguine Mastery: You gain total control of your puppet. Your puppet takes no penalties to any rolls or Defense. Requires Sanguine Control.

4 XP: Bloody Strings: You can maintain the link over very short distances. After making the initial link, you may move your puppet up to 10 feet away from you without breaking the link.

• 2 XP: Farther: The max distance your Blood puppet can go increases by 10 feet. Requires Bloody Strings.

4 XP: Puppet Novice: After the first round, your puppet gets a check to break free once every [Toughness score] rounds, instead of every round.

• 7 XP: Puppet Disciple: After the first round, your puppet gets a check to break free once every minute, instead of once every [Toughness] rounds. Requires Puppet Novice.

• • 10 XP: Puppet Master: After the first round, your puppet gets a check to break free once every [Toughness score] minutes, instead of every minute. Requires Puppet Disciple.

• • • 13 XP: Puppet King: After the first round, your puppet gets a check to break free once every hour, instead of every [Toughness] minutes. Requires Puppet Master.

• • • • 16 XP: Puppet God: After the first round, your puppet gets a check to break free once ever [Toughness] hours, instead of every hour. Requires Puppet King.

Redirection

3XP. By altering their blood flow, you can force a living opponents' attacks to strike elsewhere.

When an attack would normally hit and the attacker is within 30 feet, you may spend 1 Vitality to make an opposed Intimidate check to the attacker's Willpower roll. If you win, the attack misses as you force the attack aside. This only applies to melee attacks made by living creatures in the area, but you can redirect attacks that were not aimed at you.

You may only make one redirection per round, no matter how many different kinds of redirections you have [see below]. In addition, you can only redirect actions made by living creatures.

Progressions

1 XP: Farther: Increases the range by 10 feet.

2 XP: Ranged Redirection: You can also use this ability for Ranged attacks.

3 XP: Forced Redirection: If you beat the opponent's Willpower roll by 5 or more, you may have their attack target change to anyone else within the attacker's range.

4 XP: Mobile Redirection: You can use this ability to change a target's movement. When someone within range takes a move action, before they move, you may spend 1 Vitality to make an Intimidate check opposed by their Willpower. If you succeed, you control their move for the round, as long as they stay within range of your Redirection ability for the entire move.

• 5 XP: Painful Redirection: For every 10 points you beat their Willpower roll by, you deal 1d6 damage to the opponent as you redirect them in directions their limbs should not bend. Requires Forced Redirection and Mobile Redirection.

• • 8 XP: Crippling Redirection: For every 5 points you beat their Willpower roll by, you deal 1d6 damage to the opponent as you redirect them in directions their limbs should not bend. Requires and does not stack with Painful Redirection.
    • 14 XP: Lethal Redirection: For every 2 points you beat their Willpower roll by, you deal 1d6 damage to the opponent as you redirect them in directions their limbs should not bend. Requires and does not stack with Crippling Redirection.

3 XP: Total Redirection: You may use this ability one additional time per round. Each time you take this progression, it costs 3 more XP.

Bloodsense

3 XP. You detect the flow of blood.

You can sense blood innately the moment a living creature enters within 20 feet of you. You know the exact distance and direction of each living creature in the area at all times.

Progressions

2 XP: Greater Bloodsense: The area of your bloodsense improves by 20 feet.

Blood Murder

6 XP. You force someone's blood to attempt to escape the target's body... all at once.

At the cost of 4 Vitality and an action, you may make a living creature within 30 feet take 1d6 + [Toughness] damage and a Crippling Wound. They may reduce the damage by half with a successful Endure check - on a success, they also do not take a Crippling Wound.

Progressions

2 XP: Stronger: Bloody Murder deals +2 damage. Each time you take this progression, it costs 1 more XP.

2 XP: Deadlier: The target has a -1 penalty to their Endure check. Each time you take this progression, it costs 1 more XP.

2 XP: Farther: The range increases by 20 feet.

Blood Golem

5 XP. By using an hour-long ritual, you can offer people as sacrifices to create a blood golem, a horrible monster that is made of dripping blood and ichor, is utterly obedient, and feeds on the dead.

To make a Blood Golem, you must sacrifice at least 1 size 1 or larger creature. The sacrificial ritual takes 1 hour, and requires 2 hours of preparations in advance. The sacrifice must be alive at the beginning of the ritual.

The created Blood Golem has Vitality equal to the Toughness of the sacrifice - if you offer additional sacrifices during the ritual [these can be of any size], it gains their Toughness in Vitality as well. The Blood Golem’s Toughness, Athleticism, Cuteness, Knowledge, and Spirit are all determined by taking the average of each statistic from those sacrificed and adjusting as below:

Blood Golem

T: +1

A: +1

C: -2

K: -1

S: +1

Life: +2 for every additional sacrifice

Vitality: Total of all sacrificed

Speed: 20 Ft.

Progressions

2 XP: Regenerate: The blood golem can draw blood into its being to heal itself. As an action the golem may absorb any amount of spilt blood that it is contact with into its core. Every pint of blood that the golem can consume heals it for 1d6 Life or 1 Vitality.

• 3 XP: Consume: The Blood Golem drains the life from those it hurts. Whenever the golem damages a living being it may spend its next action to gain Life equal to the damage it caused. Requires Regenerate.

4 XP: Transfusion: The Blood Golem injects a portion of itself into its master for his benefit. The golem must make physical contact with the Bloodmage for this ability to work. During the golem's action the Bloodmage receives Life equal to an amount that the golem loses. The golem may not transfuse more than its Toughness in Life in one action.

4 XP: Empower: The Bloodmage may transfer Vitality to the Blood Golem by losing an amount equal to the desired gain and touching the golem. No more than the Blood Golem’s Spirit in Vitality may be transferred in one action.

6 XP: Assumed Form: The blood golem may use an action to solidify an exterior shell that looks identical to any of those who were sacrificed during the golem's creation. If damaged at all the shell cracks and falls away. The golem may also spend an action to absorb its shell or change the being that the shell imitates. If the shell is broken the golem loses 3 Life and 1 Vitality.

5 XP: Aqueous Nightmare: As an action the Blood Golem dissolves into a pool of liquid. In this form it may not attack but is immune to physical damage. The golem moves at double its normal speed and can only be hindered by barriers that would halt water. It costs 1 Vitality to assume this form and 1 Vitality every 2 turns thereafter to maintain this form. It takes one action to return to the golem’s normal form.

3 XP: Shared Senses: The Bloodmage may deaden one or more of his own senses to immediately experience the same sense as though he were his Blood Golem.