Blood Hunter

Dragon slaying is a discipline that dates back eons, originating the first time a scaled shadow loomed over humanoid prey. Dragons, however, are not easy targets; they have annihilated and struck fear in the hearts of many glory hounds that have come for their heads. Seeking success where their predecessors have failed, blood hunters of the Order of the Dragoon aim to use these predators' powers against them.

With the hemocraft granted by the Hunter's Bane, this order drinks dragon blood and binds it to their own, strengthening their bodies and utilizing draconic abilities such as the fearsome breath weapon. They make mighty leaps to strike their ancient quarry from the skies, and won't stop until humanoids no longer fear shadows passing overhead.

Starting at 7th level, as an action, you can unleash the breath weapon associated with your dragon blood in a 15-foot cone originating from you. Once you do, you can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

Starting at 11th level, your Brand of Castigation binds its target to the ground. A creature branded by you loses any flying speed^'24 it has and can't gain one for the duration.

Starting at 15th level, when you use your breath weapon, you can choose to unleash it in a 30-foot cone originating from you.

Additionally, you can now use your breath weapon twice, regaining all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Starting at 18th level, you can use the dragon blood in your veins to grow protective scales over your body. You gain the Blood Curse of the Scale for your Blood Maledict feature. This does not count against your number of blood curses known.

The Order of the Eye exhorts that information is the ultimate weapon, teaching that knowing one's enemy is the greatest step one can take to destroying them. Hundreds of years ago, the order's founders began hunting beholders, both to put an end to the evils the ocular monsters wrought and to ransack the creatures' treasure rooms for the petrified specimens and ancient texts contained within them. Annexing the lairs as the Order's bases and choosing not to waste the corpses of the lairs' previous owners, these blood hunters developed a hemalurgic process to create new life from beholder eyestalks and bond the alchemical creatures to members of the order through the sharing of blood.

In the centuries since, the Order of the Eye has become an expansive information network of spies that operates in shadow throughout the Material Planes. Working in pairs of hunter and bonded eye spy, they seek to discover and eradicate all evil that secrets itself in the hidden pockets of the multiverse.

At 7th level, the blood bond you have with your eye spy strengthens, allowing you to work better as a team. As a bonus action, you can touch your eye spy and apply your Crimson Rite feature to it as though it were a weapon. While you have an active crimson rite on your eye spy, each time a creature fails a saving throw against one of your eye spy's eye rays or is hit by its bite attack, that creature takes the rite's extra damage.

Additionally, when you take the Attack action on your turn, you can forgo any number of your attacks, commanding your eye spy to use its eye ray action once for each forgone attack.

Starting at 11th level, your Brand of Castigation makes it difficult for its target to see you and your eye spy. The branded creature has disadvantage on attack rolls it makes against you or your eye spy, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when it is trying to perceive you or your eye spy. This feature has no effect on a creature that doesn't rely on vision for its attacks, such as a creature with blindsight or truesight.

Starting at 15th level, your blood curse allows your eye spy to focus its vision. You gain the Blood Curse of Optometry for your Blood Maledict feature. This does not count against your number of blood curses known.

Starting at 18th level, you can use your action to cause your eye spy to project an area of antimagic, as in the antimagic field spell, in a 30-foot cone originating from it for 1 minute, or until the eye spy becomes unconscious or dies. The cone moves with your eye spy, and at the start of each of your turns for the duration, you decide which way the cone faces and whether the cone is active for that round. The area works against the eye spy's own eye rays.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest^'24.

The Order of the Ghostslayer is the oldest of the blood hunter orders, its members having originally rediscovered the secrets of hemocraft and refined them for combat against the scourge of undeath. Ghostslayers seek out and study the moment of death, obsessing over the mystery of the transition from life, and the unholy power that can cause the dead to rise once more. These zealous blood hunters make it their life's work to destroy the scourge of undeath wherever it is found, tuning their abilities to engage undead creatures and those who manipulate the necromancy that creates them.

Upon reaching 7th level, at the start of your turn, you can magically step into the veil between the planes as long as you aren't incapacitated. You can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain, as well as see and affect creatures and objects on the Ethereal Plane. You take 1d10 force damage if you end your turn inside an object.

This feature lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Hemocraft modifier (minimum of 1 round). If you are inside an object when it ends, you are immediately shunted to the nearest unoccupied space and you take force damage equal to twice the number of feet you moved.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use Aether Walk twice between rests starting at 15th level.

Starting at 11th level, your Brand of Castigation exposes a fragment of your foe's essence, leaving them vulnerable to your Crimson Rite feature. Whenever you hit a creature with a weapon for which you have an active crimson rite, you roll an additional hemocraft die when determining the extra damage from the rite. Additionally, if a branded creature has the Incorporeal Movement trait or a similar feature, it can't move through creatures or objects while branded.

At 15th level, you hone your hemocraft to tear corruption from the minds and bodies of your allies — and to punish those responsible for it. You gain the Blood Curse of the Exorcist for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

Upon reaching 18th level, you learn to protect your fading life by reabsorbing the energy you feed to your weapons. If you have one or more crimson rites active and you are reduced to 0 hit points but don't die outright, you can choose to have all your active crimson rites end and drop to 1 hit point instead.

Giants are ancient foes of many humanoid races, believing themselves to be superior simply due to their immense size. Blood hunters in the Order of the Giantfeller undergo unusual medical procedures that assimilate components of dissected giant organs into their own body. Using the power of their blood magic, they tap into the latent magic of these titanic infusions to steal a portion of the elemental power of giants and grow to unnatural sizes. The best way to fight a giant, they reckon, is to become one.

At 7th level, your maximum hit points increase by 7 and increase by 1 again each time you gain a level in this class.

In addition, you gain proficiency with Strength saving throws.

Starting at 11th level, your Brand of Castigation marks a creature as a hated enemy to be felled. Once per turn when you make an unarmed strike against the marked creature, you can make an additional unarmed strike against that creature as part of the same action.

At 15th level, your blood curse can shrink a creature down to a more vulnerable size. You gain the Blood Curse of Diminution for your Blood Maledict feature. This does not count against your number of blood curses known.

Starting at 18th level, when you cast the enlarge/reduce spell using your Ordning Interloper feature, your size increases by two categories instead of one (from Medium to Huge, for example), the extra damage granted by the spell increases from a 1d4 to a 1d8, and you gain temporary hit points^'24 equal to twice your blood hunter level. You lose any remaining temporary hit points after 10 minutes.

For untold millennia, mind flayers and their elder brain overlords have enslaved many peoples through mind control, and forcibly converted many others through the process of ceremorphosis. The Order of the Infected Mind is dedicated to the systematic destruction of this illithid scourge, intentionally allowing mature illithid tadpoles to burrow into their brains to better understand their prey. Unlike standard victims of ceremorphosis, though, this order brews their Hunter's Bane to cause it to subdue and subsume the tadpole, turning it into a psionic weapon under the hunter's control.

At 7th level, you learn to use your psionic power to strike at those who attempt to touch your mind. When you become subjected to an effect from a creature that would charm you, frighten you, read your thoughts, or deal psychic damage to you, you can use your reaction to expend and roll a Psionic Energy die. The creature takes psychic damage equal to twice the number rolled, and you add the number rolled to the next saving throw you make against the triggering effect this turn.

Starting at 11th level, as an action, you can release a wave of psionic force that rattles its victims' minds. Each creature of your choice in a 15-foot cone originating from you must make an Intelligence saving throw. A creature takes psychic damage equal to four rolls of your Psionic Energy die and is stunned until the end of your next turn on a failed save, or takes half damage and isn't stunned on a successful one.

Once you take this action, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest^'24, unless you expend three Psionic Energy dice to take it again.

Starting at 15th level, your Brand of Castigation weakens your foe's mental defenses. A creature branded by you loses any resistance or immunity it has to psychic damage for the duration, and you can use a bonus action on each of your turns to learn the creature's surface thoughts and gain insights into its reasoning (if any).

Starting at 18th level, your blood curse can dominate the will of others. You gain the Blood Curse of Domination for your Blood Maledict feature. It doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

The ancient curse of lycanthropy is feared by nearly all peoples and cultures, passed through blood and seeding a host with the savage strength and hunger for violence of a wicked beast. The Order of the Lycan is a proud group of blood hunters who undergo "the Taming"—the ceremonial infliction of lycanthropy by a senior member of the order, for those who do not already carry the curse before seeking this path. These hunters then use the magic of their blood to harness the power of the monster they harbor, without losing themselves to it. Using intense will and secret blood magic rituals, members of the Order of the Lycan learn to control and unleash their hybrid forms for short periods of time. Enhanced physical prowess, unnatural resilience, and razor-sharp claws make these warriors a terrible foe to any evil that crosses their path. Yet no training is perfect, and without care and complete focus, even the greatest of blood hunters can temporarily lose themselves to their own hunger.

At 7th level, your speed increases by 10 feet, and you add 10 feet to your long jump distance and 3 feet to your high jump distance. Your hybrid form also gains the following additional benefit.

At 11th level, you learn to unleash and control more of the beast within. You can use your Hybrid Transformation feature twice, regaining all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest. Your hybrid form also gains the following additional benefit.

Starting at 15th level, you have advantage on the saving throw for your bloodlust while in hybrid form. Additionally, your Brand of Castigation can now bind a foe to your hunter's ferocity. While in your hybrid form, you have advantage on attack rolls against a creature branded by you.

At 18th level, you have mastered your inner predator. You can use your Hybrid Transformation feature an unlimited number of times, and your hybrid form lasts until you revert to your normal form, fall unconscious, or die.

You also gain the Blood Curse of the Howl for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

The process of undertaking the Hunter's Bane ritual is a painful, scarring, and sometimes fatal experience. Those who survive are irrevocably changed—and not always for the better. Over generations of experimentation, a splinter order of blood hunters honed the way in which hemocraft alters the body, using corrupted alchemy and toxic elixirs to alter their blood even further. Over time, they have modified their capabilities in battle, becoming something beyond what they once were. Calling themselves the Order of the Mutant, these blood hunters now specialize in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their foes, altering their biology to be best prepared for any conflict.

When you reach 7th level, your body begins to adapt to toxins and venoms, ignoring their corrupting effects. You gain immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition.

Additionally, you can trigger a burst of adrenaline that lets you temporarily resist the negative effects of a mutagen. As a bonus action, you can ignore the negative side effect of one mutagen affecting you for 1 minute. Once you do so, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

At 11th level, your mutagenic hemocraft lets your Brand of Castigation reveal a foe's true nature. Any illusion or invisibility in effect on a creature when you brand it ends, and the creature can't benefit from invisibility or illusion effects while branded by you. If a creature branded by you is in an alternative form (by way of the polymorph spell, the Change Shape action or Shapechanger trait, the Wild Shape feature, and similar effects), it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or revert to its true form and be stunned until the end of your next turn. Whenever a branded creature attempts to alter its form, it must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or have the attempt fail, and it is stunned until the end of your next turn.

Starting at 15th level, your blood curse can infuse a creature's body with terrible toxins. You gain the Blood Curse of Corrosion for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

At 18th level, your body has adapted to produce mutagens naturally in a moment of need. As a bonus action, choose one mutagen currently affecting you. Its effects and side effects end, and you can immediately have a mutagen you know the formula for take effect in its place.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Hemocraft modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Blood hunters belonging to the Order of the Profane Soul have pushed the limits of hemocraft for use against some of the most terrifying creatures corrupting the world. Ancient fiends and cruel magic-users have long counted on their ability to meld into the background and escape those who hunt them, vanishing into noble courts without a trace, or bending the minds of the most stalwart warriors with but a glance. So the blood hunters who founded this order trusted to their resilience as they delved into the same well of corrupting arcane knowledge, making pacts with lesser evils to better combat the greater threats. And though they might have traded a part of themselves for their power, the members of this order know the benefits of that power far outweigh the price.

Starting at 7th level, when you use your action to cast a cantrip, you can immediately make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

At 7th level, your patron grants you the use of a distinctive spell based on your pact. You cast this spell using any pact magic spell slot, and can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Upon reaching 11th level, your Brand of Castigation feature digs dark arcane scars into your target, leaving them vulnerable to your magic. A creature branded by you has disadvantage on saving throws against your warlock spells.

At 15th level, your patron grants you the use of an additional spell based on your pact. You cast this spell without expending a spell slot, and can't do so again until you finish a long rest.

Starting at 18th level, you learn to siphon the life energy from your fallen prey. You gain the Blood Curse of the Souleater for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

The youngest and strangest of the orders, the order of the revenant turned against even the laws of their peers. Blood hunters use hemocraft, the magic of life itself, but the revenant decided to delve further, using the further power of unlife. Their power taps directly into the negative energy plane, granting them foul abilities to better destroy their foes. Powerful, dangerous, and horrifying, the order is reviled and feared by peers and monstrosities alike.

Upon reaching 7th level, starting when you deal damage to a creature, you may enter a blood frenzy. The frenzy lasts indefinitely, but ends if you do not deal damage to a creature on your turn. During the frenzy, you gain the following benefits:

When the Frenzy ends, you are stunned for 1d4 rounds, and suffer a point of exhaustion. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use Blood Frenzy twice between rests starting at 15th level.

At 11th level, you begin tapping into the negative energy plane, you can activate a fell healing, sewing together your wounds in a horrifying display. As a bonus action, you can heal a number of hit points equal to your level in this class. If you hold a dismembered limb up to the spot it was taken from when you use this feature, it is reattached. This feature does not regenerate lost flesh, and it creates scar tissue in the regenerated area. You can use this feature a number of times per day equal to your proficiency bonus, and refresh all uses on a long rest.

At 15th level, you learn how to strike true fear into the hearts of your enemies. You gain the Blood Curse of the Silenced for your Blood Maledict feature. This doesn't count against your number of blood curses known.

Upon reaching 18th level, the negative energy you tap into becomes pliable, allowing you to warp the darkness around you. When in dim light or darkness, you can walk upon the shadows themselves, moving three dimensionally into the air within the darkness. This movement is not considered flight, and you can move at your normal walking speed. If the light you're standing in becomes bright light while you are above the ground, you fall. Also at this level, you become immune to necrotic damage.

The process of the Hunter's Bane is a painful, scarring, and sometimes fatal experience...

To be a Blood Hunter is to be one that, more often than not, puts themselves in great peril. The split decisions they are frequently cornered into could mean the difference between life or death. It is no great secret that many who take this path in life soon find themselves living with lasting injuries and/or significant conditions. If a Blood Hunter wasn't born with a disability it is highly likely they will, at some point, develop one; as will any adventurer who lives a dangerous life, fraught with monsters and oftentimes lethal magics. Over the years, an order of Blood Hunters formed, focused on coming to terms with their disabilities and chronic illnesses and how they could work with them. The Order of the Syphonic. Learning to manage their chronic pain levels and dabbling in Psionic Magics to provide them with a disability aid when on the hunt, these Blood Hunters seek not cure themselves but to continue their lives and their life's work: hunting monsters.

Starting at 7th level, you have started to weave your magical talents into a form that can carry echoed resemblances of your experienced chronic pain. Your Order has tapped into the secrets of Psionic Magics, referred to as your psi, developing them in a way that allows you to work with your chronic illness and/or disability. Your pain isn't reduced, nor is it 'cured' using such magic, but it acts as an aid, assisting you in combat.

At the beginning of every day, you roll a single d12 and add nothing to it. This is your CP Level Die, a representation of your chronic pain and the number you roll indicates the level your pain is at until the next day when you roll again. A 12 means you are in significant chronic pain, whereas a 1 means you are having a 'good day' (this doesn't mean that you aren't in pain, just that it is currently manageable). Make note of the number you roll on your sheet.

When you next take damage, you can use your reaction to throw up a protective barrier formed by this psionic magic and your pain and reduce the damage taken by the number rolled on your CP Level Die.

Much like blood curses, this feature can be amplified by losing a number of hit points determined by one roll of your hemocraft die. Your High Threshold feature can apply to this.

You can use this feature once per day.

At 11th level, you centre yourself, focusing on your areas of pain and projecting them into your psi to create echoes you magically imbue into your fighting style. When you next successfully hit a target creature, you can choose to use your bonus action to blast them with your psi, letting them briefly experience some semblance of the pain levels you feel every day, overwhelming them.

The creature must make a Wisdom saving throw - the DC the same as your Hemocraft save DC - or take 3d8 psychic damage. If the creature fails, it must continue to make the save on each of its turns, taking an additional 1d8 psychic damage until it succeeds.

You can use this feature once per long rest.

Beginning at 15th level, your Brand of Castigation becomes imbued with your psi, allowing you to aggravate a foe's fresh wounds once they have been damaged in battle. Whenever you damage a branded creature using your crimson rite, your weapon deals an additional amount of damage equal to one roll of your hemocraft die, plus your CP Level Die score for the day.

At 18th level, you learn to exert what little grasp you have left on your pain-echoing psi as death comes to claim you. When you are reduced to 0 hit points, you unleash a great wave of energy from your person in a 30ft radius. Every hostile creature within range must make a Wisdom saving throw (the DC the same as your Hemocraft save DC) or take 5d10 psychic damage and become stunned until the end of their next turn as a blast of pure pain suddenly hits them. If they succeed, they take half damage and aren't stunned.

After this, you don't necessarily die outright, instead you can choose to drop to 1 hit point and take 1 point of exhaustion. If you choose to fall instead, you begin making death saving throws as normal at the start of your next turn and don't take a point of exhaustion.