Blood Hunter: Order of the Soulbound

## Order of the Soulbound
Many blood curses practiced by blood hunters have to do with connecting the user's soul to their quarry's. With a special dedication to this type of curse, a hunter can allow their blood magic to seep into the bodies of their victims, effectively tying their two souls together. Hunters who take up this dedication are simply dubbed "soulbinders," and are not guaranteed to find belonging to any particular order due to their own unique specialties.

### Bonding Grasp
Starting when you join this order at 3rd level, you can reach out and touch the very souls of the creatures you strike. When you hit with a melee weapon attack, or a creature fails its saving throw against your Blood Maledict feature, you can choose to bond to the target if it is within 60 feet of you. You can also harmlessly bond to a willing creature within your reach as an action. While bound, you and the target cannot move farther than 60 feet away from each other and can read each other's surface thoughts. The bound creature takes an additional hemocraft die of damage when it is struck by your Crimson Rite feature.

### Rite of the Soul
Also when you join this order at 3rd level, you learn the Rite of the Bond esoteric rite:

***Rite of the Soul.*** Your rite damage is necrotic damage. While the rite is active, you gain the following benefits:
* All necrotic damage you inflict ignores resistance to necrotic damage, but does not affect creatures that do not have a soul to reach out to.
* Each time you hit with the rite weapon, the target's hit point maximum is reduced by the necrotic damage dealt until it completes a long rest. Creatures die if their hit point maximum is reduced to 0.
* Your hit point maximum cannot be reduced.

<br>

> ##### Art Credit
> [**Shadow Whip**](https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_Whip) - Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2

\columnbreak

### Instinctual Brand
Starting at 7th level, your Crimson Rite has become intertwined with your Brand of Castigation. A creature bound to you by your Bonding Grasp automatically manifests your Brand of Castigation, even if you have used the feature on a different creature since your last short or long rest. You can maintain two brands in this way, so long as your bonded target is one of the branded creatures.

### Mutual Suffering
Starting at 11th level, your Blood Maledict corrodes the vitality of those you afflict. When you choose to amplify a blood curse, the target of the curse, as well as any creatures bearing your Brand of Castigation, take necrotic damage equal to the hit points you lose.

### Blood Curse of the Shadow Lariat
At 15th level, the hemocraft which binds you to other creatures takes on a dark, tangible form. You gain the Blood Curse of the Shadow Lariat for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

#### Blood Curse of the Shadow Lariat
Choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you. A crackling cord of negative energy tethers you to the target. Whenever you take damage, the target must make a Constitution saving throw against your hemocraft save DC. On a failed save, you take half the damage, and the target takes the remaining damage. This curse remains until the start of your next turn, or if the target is moved more than 60 feet away from you.

***Amplify.*** Whenever the target fails its saving throw against this curse, you may roll one hemocraft die and add your Constitution modifier to the result. You transfer an additional amount of damage (from only one roll made for the triggering attack) from yourself to the target equal to the total.

### Contagious Suffering
Starting at 18th level, your aptitude for tolerating and rerouting pain manifests in pulses of dark energy. Whenever you amplify a blood curse or activate your Crimson Rite, you can deal necrotic damage to each creature of your choice within 10 feet of you equal to 1d10 plus your Intelligence modifier. You can also activate this feature as a reaction to taking damage.