Sanguimancer

Rare

There's a balance in blood. The arteries send surges of the fresh, life-giving liquid to the furthest reaches of the body, even as the veins return spent blood to be renewed. Healthy blood contains the essences of life and energy, while unhealthy blood might be anemic or even laden with disease. Within this duality of blood is great power—to infuse energy, health, and life, or to expunge it just as quickly.

Some individuals are sensitive to the power within blood, and in time might even begin to control it. This practice is known by magical scholars as sanguimancy to distinguish it from a sorcerer's magical bloodline, though most people are ignorant of the distinction and use the same term—blood magic—for both.

Sanguimancy is a strange and lonely path. Those who practice it are few in number, and when they do come into contact with others, people often react to them with caution, if not outright revulsion. Consequently, few actively seek out these bloody powers. Those with ties to blood, be it vampires and their associates, practitioners of bloody rites—such as worshippers of Camazotz—or even specialists in medicine can all find themselves drawn to sanguimancy.

While its effects are undeniably magical, sanguimancy falls outside the established norms of spellcasting. Casters combine spells with sanguimancy to create powerful synergies, while warriors appreciate being able to wield their abilities even after their peers' spells have run dry. The most powerful sanguimancers can wield the energies contained within blood to shield themselves from harm, cause internal bleeding, and even unleash a barrage of razor-sharp needles of blood.

Blood sensitivity is uncommon but found in diverse places. It's difficult to tell if someone is blood sensitive without them admitting to it or overtly manifesting their powers in public. As a result, estimates of how many members of a population are blood sensitive tend to be accurate only if sanguimancy is tolerated. Another tradition of blood magic, hemotheurgy, has many similarities to sanguimancy but carries a far different effect on its practitioners. The leech-covered bloatmages of Kaer Maga practice this self-destructive magic, overriding their bodies' fail-safes to produce more blood than their bodies need in order to enhance their magic.

The precise manner in which blood sensitivity comes about remains poorly understood, even among the magical scholars who have rigorously studied its existence. Most agree that exposure to fresh blood is a key factor in manifesting the attunement. Some speculate that repeated exposure from a young age is necessary, while others surmise a single incident might be all that's required, provided that such an event occurs while in a state of extraordinarily heightened emotion. And, of course, some believe that blood sensitivity could be a divinely preordained gift (or curse), an affinity you're born with, or a simple matter of luck. As of yet, no one has been able to reliably induce a test subject with the power of sanguimancy, and most experiments attempting to do so are considered evil.

Blood Sensitivity

As a discovered affinity, blood sensitivity can manifest out of nowhere with no deliberate effort on your part. All of the feats in this section require your character to have blood sensitivity, which is a story decision determined between you and the GM.

Bloodsense Feat 7

You're extraordinarily sensitive to the presence of blood. You gain bloodsense as an imprecise sense with a range of 15 feet. This allows you to sense the presence of creatures, living or dead, that have blood (this includes most creatures that aren't immune to bleed). You're similarly able to detect the presence of fresh blood in volumes of one pint or more, so long as it's no more than 24 hours old.

Sanguine Tenacity Feat 11

Your blood carries permanent regenerative properties. The penalties from Enfeebled and the penalties and lost HP from Drained both affect you as if the condition values were 1 lower than they actually are. You also gain resistance 5 to persistent bleed damage and reduce the DC of checks to recover from persistent bleed damage to 11, or 6 if you have particularly effective assistance.

Vasodilation Feat 2

Using the power of your own blood, you encourage increased blood flow to nourish damaged tissue or stifle the flow to clot wounds or prevent the spread of poison and disease. You no longer require a healer's toolkit to Administer First Aid, Treat Disease, Treat Poison, or Treat Wounds, though you take 1 damage each time you take one of these actions without the proper tools from the expenditure of your blood. You can't reduce or prevent this damage.

You gain a +1 item bonus when performing these actions using your blood, which increases to +2 if you're a master in Medicine and +3 if you're legendary.

Sanguimancer (Archetype)

You can draw and manipulate energy from blood. You store life energy in the form of special temporary Hit Points and spend it to manifest powerful effects.

Sanguimancer Dedication Feat 2

Rare
dedication

The life essence in your blood recovers naturally over time. You gain a special type of temporary Hit Points called sanguimancy Hit Points that follow the normal rules for temporary Hit Points with two exceptions: you can spend them to power some sanguimancy feats, and you can never have a greater number of sanguimancy Hit Points than double your level.

After a full 8-hour rest, you gain sanguimancy HP equal to your level that last for 8 hours. If someone successfully restores HP to you with Treat Wounds, you also gain 1 sanguimancy HP for every 10 Hit Points recovered (minimum 1 sanguimancy HP).

Special Sanguimancer actions have the trait matching your spellcasting tradition; if you don't have one, choose divine or occult when you select the Sanguimancer Dedication.