Cruomancy Archetypes, Part I
Welcome to Vampire Week, a weeklong celebration of everyone’s favorite undead, brooding, anti-heroes. And what better way to kick off the celebration of Vampire Week than with the exciting rerelease of a revisited, revamped, and much improved Liber Vampyr? That’s right; it’s been years, but we’ve finally got around to releasing a new edition of our first-ever product! You can find out more about the hows and whys tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can pick up your free download right now, or get it in print (for a modest fee) at www.drivethrurpg.com.
Normally, when we release a new book, we devote Best in Class to talking about the new classes and showcasing some of the cool new stuff from the new book. But Liber Vampyr is FREE and available on our website HERE. So we won’t be doing that. You can just go and look for yourself at the classes, and, well, everything else. Go ahead, take a moment to take it all in and revel in the overhaul. This can wait. Have you downloaded Liber Vampyr yet? Ok, good. Instead, we’ve got something new for you: a whole host of mini-archetypes to allow characters of any class (or even multi-classed revenants) to enjoy our new book.
New Alchemist Archetype
Blood Transmuter
Blood transmuters are alchemists who dedicate their lives to the augmentation of blood and experiments with sanguine power. They learn to drain the blood of others and use it to empower their infusions.
Novice Cruomancer: At 1st level, a blood transmuter gains Novice Cruomancer as a bonus feat.
This ability replaces the brew potion class feature.
Enhance Extract (Su): A blood transmuter can add the blood of a living creature to his extracts in order to make them more powerful. Beginning at 2nd level, as a swift action, he can spend 1 blood point from his blood point pool in order to increase the caster level of a prepared extract by 1. He may spend more than 1 blood point in order to further increase the power of his extracts. He must spend an additional swift action each time he does so, and must spend one additional blood point for each extra increase beyond the first (for example, increasing the caster level by two would require a total of 3 blood points: one for the first increase, and two for the second, while increasing the caster level by 3 would require six blood points, and so on).He cannot increase an infusion’s caster level by more than 5 in this way.
This ability replaces the alchemist discovery gained at 2nd level.
Bonus Feats: Whenever a blood transmuter would gain an alchemist discovery, he can choose to gain any single vampire feat for which he qualifies as a bonus feat, instead. He can still choose to gain an alchemist discovery, as normal, if desired.
New Barbarian Archetype
Blood Rager
These terrifying barbarians drink the lifeblood of their foes in order to prolong their battle rage, and can also tap into vampiric powers to a limited degree.
Novice Cruomancer: At 1st level, a blood rager gains Novice Cruomancer as a bonus feat.
This ability replaces the fast movement class feature.
Blood Rage (Ex): A blood rager can consume the blood of living creatures in order to enter a powerful frenzy. This functions as the barbarian’s rage ability, except that he is not limited in the number of rounds per day that he can use this ability. Instead, whenever he enters a rage, he must expend 1 blood point, which allows him to rage for up to 4 rounds. The blood rager can expend additional blood points on subsequent rounds to extend the rage (at a rate of 4 additional rounds of rage per blood point expended). All other aspects of the rage class feature remain the same.
This ability modifies the rage class feature.
Bonus Feats: Whenever a blood rager would gain a rage power, he can choose to gain any single vampire feat for which he qualifies as a bonus feat, instead. He can still choose to gain a rage power, as normal, if desired.
New Bard Archetype
Singer of Blood
These bards are performers of all sorts, who use the magic of blood to enrapture and enthrall audiences. Worse still, they can use their fascinating song to prey on those same audiences.
Novice Cruomancer: At 1st level, a singer of blood gains Novice Cruomancer as a bonus feat.
This ability replaces the bardic knowledge class feature.
Bloody Songs (Su): As a free action, whenever he performs the fascinate bardic performance, a singer of blood may expend 1 or more blood points. If he does, the saving throw DC to resist his fascinateperformance increases by +1 for every blood point spent this way. Additionally, characters remain fascinatedfor a number of additional rounds equal to the number of blood points spent this way after the performance ends. The singer of blood cannot spend more blood points in this way on any given performance than 1 + 1 for every 4 bard levels he possesses (to a maximum of 6 at 20th level).
This ability replaces the countersong class feature.
Subtle Drain (Ex): Beginning at 5th level, a singer of blood learns to subtly drain blood using a needle and vial, and can drain 1 blood point from an adjacent fascinated character as a standard action without ending the fascination effect, or even allowing the subject a new saving throw to resist the condition.
This ability replaces the lore master class feature.
New Cavalier Archetype
Blood Rider
These cavaliers have gained some access to the dark power of blood and revel in its sanguine embrace. This dark desire makes them somewhat inferior teammates, however, and they rarely associate with others.
Novice Cruomancer: At 1st level, a blood rider receives Novice Cruomancer as a bonus feat.
This ability replaces the tactician class feature.
Sanguine Challenge (Su): A blood rider can spill the blood of his conquests to enhance the power of his challenge. Whenever he issues a challenge, he may expend 1 blood point in order to gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls made against the target of his challenge. This bonus improves to +2 at 12th level and to +3 at 20th level.
This modifies the challenge class feature.
Bonus Feat: At 9th level and 17th level, a blood rider gains a bonus vampire feat for which he qualifies.
This ability replaces the greater tactician and master tactician class features.
Now I know what you’re thinking: that isn’t every class! Well, don’t worry, I’ll be getting around to your favorite classes in subsequent weeks. In the meantime, go ahead and pick up your free copy of the new-and-improved Liber Vampyr, and look forward to the rest of this week’s articles to scratch your vampiric itch.