duchess in her scarlet gown descends the stairs that lead to the ball room full with guests. She smirks. Behind her owl mask, a pair of red eyes light up as she raises her hand, siphoning the blood of the unaware victims out of their bodies, making them tumble to the floor one by one.
As he raises his axe the orc warlord chants the words that the elders taught him. His blood starts glowing up, his muscles tense, doubling in size and strength. With an appalling roar the beast rushes into the enemy lines, cutting up elves like pigs to the slaughter. A sea of blood soon fills the battlefield, and when the orc puts his palm in it, waves start generating from him swallowing the poor soldiers that had barely survived.
The art of "blood-calling" is a special type of magic obscure to the most and feared by the rest, one can be born with a disposition to it or learn of its existence by an ancient text, but to truly master it, it usually requires years of study.
It is common to associate the ability to manipulate blood with vampires, while that isn't wrong, not every blood caller is one. The actual art of blood-calling actually differs completely from the bloodsucking monsters, as it is a form of magic that controls the blood, concentrating directly on the iron in it, through something similar to magnetism.
It goes without saying that most of the power of the blood caller comes from the blood, and when the enemy's isn't easily accessible you have to rely on your own. As reluctant as she may be a blood caller has to, frequently, use her own blood to create any magical effect, this can be really taxing on the body, but a good blood caller knows how to work around this.
As a student of Blood Magic, you have a few aces up your sleeve, but they come at a cost.
At 1st level you have parchments with sacraments written in blood that describe your spells. Some blood callers prefer to inscribe on themselves to feel a closer connection with the sacraments. The sacraments act as a catalyst, to actually cast the spell without any side effects, it's up to your DM what happens if you try to cast a spell after losing its sacrament.
The Blood Caller has no access to Spell Slots and her spells can't be cast using them, when you cast a spell you must consume an amount of blood (Hit Points) equal to the level of the spell * d8. If you wouldn't have enough hit points to cast a spell, you remain with 1 hit point and the spell fails, temporary hit points aren't usable in this way. You know all of the spells from your spell list and your subclass, you can have a number of spells prepared equal to your intelligence modifier plus half your blood caller level, spells from your subclass are always prepared. Refer to the table to know what is the highest level at which you can cast a spell.
Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your blood caller spells, since their power derives from arcane knowledge. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a blood caller spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Starting at 1st level when near creatures that have died no more than 1 minute ago, you can siphon their blood out using a bonus action from dead creatures in a range of 60ft. This feature and all other features that refer to the blood of another creature don't work on constructs or oozes, or according to the DM the creature doesn't have any. Depending on the size of the creature you add an amount of blood to the blood sphere that floats near you, refer to the blood pool table to know how much each size yields at each level. This blood pool can be used to cast your blood caller spells instead of your own blood. In the occurence that your blood pool isn't enough for casting a spell, the remaining cost is applied to your Hit Points. Your blood pool lasts until you take a long rest or are unconscious.
Starting at 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.
When making a ranged attack while you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature, you do not have disadvantage on the attack roll. Your ranged attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover against targets within 30 feet of you. You have a +1 bonus to attack rolls on ranged attacks.
While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon. • Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Starting at 2nd level when hitting a creature with a melee attack you can expend a use of this feature to try to drain the creature of part of its blood, dealing an extra 1d6 of the damage type of your weapon and draining 1d10 blood for your pool. You can use this feature two times. You regain the use of this feature upon completing a long rest. The damage become 2d6 at level 8th, and 3d6 at level 16th. The Blood drained also increases to 2d10 at level 8th, and 3d10 at level 16th.
When you reach 3rd level you are now proficient enough in the art of blood-calling to specialize in a calling, different callings revolve around different ideas and goals. Your calling grants you features at 3rd level, then again at 7th, 11th, 15th and 20th levels. Your calling also gives you access to new Blood Caller Spells.
The calling of the gorger is bound to the idea of sustaining yourself with the blood of your enemies or being able to become sturdier and stronger making yours boil.
The calling of the slayer concentrates on enhancing the art of changing the tides of battle, with forms of crowd control and great areas of effect.
The calling of the siren specializes in the finer arts of the craft, making mind control and sound magic their forte.
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Starting at 6th level, you can spend an action to try to force an action on a creature, that has to make a strength saving throw against your spell save DC or follow on that action on its next turn. The feature has no effect if your command is directly harmful to it. Some typical actions and their effects follow. You might issue an action other than one described here. If you do so, the GM determines how the target behaves. If the target can’t follow your command, the spell ends. Approach. The target moves toward you by the shortest and most direct route, ending its turn if it moves within 5 feet of you. Drop. The target drops whatever it is holding and then ends its turn. Flee. The target spends its turn moving away from you by the fastest available means. Grovel. The target falls prone and then ends its turn. Halt. The target doesn’t move and takes no actions. A flying creature stays aloft, provided that it is able to do so. If it must move to stay aloft, it flies the minimum distance needed to remain in the air. You can impose this action on a corpse or unconscious creature, both fail the check automatically. You can use this feature 3 times per long rest.
Starting at 10th level, the constant cleansing you apply on your blood has given you the ability to get rid of poisons and diseases before they can affect you, you are now immune to the poisoned condition, poison damage and diseases except for magical diseases (like vampirism). ### Grasp Heart
Starting at 14th level, your power on the blood lets you see it course through the veins of other creatures in a range of 60ft, allowing you to also see their heart faintly beat in their chest, you can as an action focus on it, and as you raise a hand as if you were grasping it, crush it. The target must make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failed save, they are instantly killed if their hit point are at 55 or lower, otherwise they take 10d10 necrotic damage. You also gain blood for your pool equal to the maximum amount on the dice for that creature. On a passed save the damage is negated. You need to finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.
Starting at 18th level in a 60ft you shoot a chain of blood to a creature that has to make a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. If it fails you are linked, and every time you take damage the creature suffer an equal amount of necrotic damage (if the creature is immune to necrotic treat it as resistant otherwise ignore resistance). The Hit points you lose due to your casting don't count for shared damage and the creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of its turn. If the creature leaves the range this effect ends. ## Gorger
Starting from 3rd level you are now proficient with heavy armor, while wearing one, part of the damage you take on a turn, up to your blood caller level, is stored in your pool (if you are level 8 blood caller and you take 15 damage, 8 points are stored in your pool). ### Sweet Suffering
Starting from 7th level while you have half or lower than your maximum hit points, you can use your reaction to shoot a blood spear out of your wounds to the creature that starts their turn 5ft from you or that enters this area, making a melee spell attack that deals 2d8 necrotic damage on a hit and reduces their movement to 0 until the start of their next turn. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1). You regain all its uses upon completing a long rest.
Starting from 11th level when making a Rending Blow you can heal for half of that amount instead of adding it to your pool.
Starting from 15th level as a bonus action you can consume 40 points from your blood pool to gain +2 to your Armor Class for 8 hours as long as you are wearing heavy armor or until you use this feature again. This bonus doesn't stack with shields.
Starting from 20th level you are the embodiment of a battlefield soaked in blood, when making an attack roll a 19 counts as a critical hit, after making a critical hit you can make an attack roll with a free rending blow against a target in range, this effect can happen multiple times in a turn. This free rending blow doesn't count against the uses of the feature and can be used even if you depleted them.
Starting from 3rd level when damaging an enemy in a 60ft radius, with a bonus action, you can cause the blood oozing from their wounds to pool on the ground creating a difficult terrain with a radius of 5 feet centered on them. Your movement is not impaired by this difficult terrain. This effect lasts for 10 minutes. As an action you can target a Weeping Fountain you can see and quickly solidify the blood into spikes, creatures in the area must make a Dexterity Saving throw against your spell save DC, taking 2d10 necrotic damage on a failed save, and half of that half of that on a success. Half of the damage dealt is stored in your Blood Pool (consuming the WF doesn't count against the number of uses of the feature). You can use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1). You regain all its uses upon completing a long rest. The dice of the damage becomes 3d10 at 5th level, 5d10 at 9th level, 6d10 at 13th level and 8d10 at 17th level.
Starting from 7th level when a creature suffers from weeping fountain your movement is doubled if moving towards it, and you know their general direction for up to 1 hour, unless they find a way to clean away all the blood.
Starting from 11th level whenever you deal piercing or slashing damage to a creature, that creature makes a Constitution saving throw against your spell CD, on a failed save a weeping fountain is created and has disadvantage on the next saving throw against this feature for the next 10 minutes. you can't benefit from this feature if the target is already standing on a weeping fountain.
Starting from 15th level as a bonus action, you can submerge completely in a fountain, reappearing in an unoccupied space on another fountain that you can see. You can use this feature 3 times. You regain all uses of this feature upon completing a long rest.
Starting from 20th level you have now complete control over the blood of your enemies, as an action, you can touch a weeping fountain, gerating a maelstrom with a radius of 20ft, creatures except you make a Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC, on a failed save they are pulled towards the center and take 14d6 necrotic damage, on a successful save they take half the damage and are not pulled. You need to finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.
Starting from 3rd level as an action, you can make the blood in your blood pool resonate, depending on the effect you choose creatures will perceive it differently. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1). You regain all its uses upon completing a long rest. You also gain proficiency with an instrument of your choice (it is not needed to use your features).
Choose an area you can see in a range 60ft of you, the radius of the area is 15ft. As expectation fills the air your pools starts rippling and sucking blood from every hole of enemies in the area, Creatures in that area must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save they take 2d6 necrotic damage and half of that amount is stored in your pool. Creatures that succeed only take half damage. The dice of this feature become 4d6 at 5th level, 6d6 at 9th level, 7d6 at 13th level and 8d6 at 17th level.
An invigorating Hymn fills the air, sounding like gentle harps, choose up to 8 creatures including you in a 60ft radius, those creatures gain 1d6 + your blood caller level, temporary hit points. This effect Lasts for one hour. This effect can be dispelled.
A terrifying Requiem fills the air, sounding like an organ and cries of despair, choose up to 2 creatures in a 60ft radius, those creature must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC, on a fail they become frightened of you for 1 minute. Creatures affected can repeat the saving throw at the end of their turn, after doing so the effect ends. This effect can be dispelled. The number of creatures that can be affected becomes 4 at 9th level, 6 at 13th level and 8 at 17th level.
A screech like that of a banshee fills an area of 10ft radius centered on you, making any other sound inaudible and preventing the cast of any spell with a verbal component until the start of your next turn. Creatures in the area concentrating on a spell must make a Constitution saving throw or lose concentration. The radius of the aura becomes 20ft at 9th level, 30ft at 13th level, 40ft at 17th level.
Starting from 7th level as an action choose up to your intelligence modifier (minimum 1) creatures under the effect of Hymn (Scarlet Lyre) that you can see, that creature feels the hymn resonate with their blood, they can add your intelligence modifier to the next attack roll, ability check or saving throw that they make within the next hour. This effect can be dispelled. Before using this feature again you need to complete a long rest.
Starting from 11th level as an action choose a creature under the effect of Requiem (Scarlet Lyre) that you can see, that creature feels the requiem resonate with their blood, as if it is their own funeral, they make a Charisma saving throw against your spell save DC, on a failed save the creature loses their will to fight and drop to their knees, this effect lasts for 1 minute, upon taking damage the creature can repeat the saving throw. This effect can be dispelled. Before using this feature again you need to complete a long rest.
Starting from 15th level your prowess in the siren calling has made you immune to charm effect and mind reading effects.
Starting from 20th level you have mastered your Scarlet Lyre, you can as a bonus action start levitating as your blood pool now resembles a red moon. You regain all uses of Scarlet Lyre and can use that feature with your bonus action. This Feature lasts for 10 minutes. You need to finish a long rest before you can use this feature again.