Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Ideas and suggestions for game mechanics and rules.
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Magile
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Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Magile »

Hello ALFAns,

I've been trying to dabble over other forms of RP opportunities for the Wizard class when it comes to components. One I had find that was more detrimental than efficient; however, also led to very interesting ideas, was blood magic. It was seemingly the use of blood over a spell component in order to cast a spell (the use being a free action), which meant you'd sacrifice a bit of health to act as a component in order to cast a spell.

Sadly, I haven't been able to find any actual rules regarding it on my brief search; however, I have been assured that it most surely exists for both wizards and sorcerers, thus I was curious as to how practical it could be to implement for a player's option. Since components aren't required, it becomes a purely RP option that really harms you over actually helping you, but adds to a uniqueness that some may embrace.

Thoughts? Ideas? Was I fooled by a homebrew or does it exist with a possible, easy scripting implementation?

edit: from what I was informed, the HP loss was equivalent to spell level, with the stronger spells obviously taking more HP (-1 HP for a Level One, -2 HP for Level 2, etc). This is NOT a request/idea based on EMPOWERMENT from blood sacrifice.
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Heero
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Heero »

Seems silly as ALFA currently does not require spell components.

Here is what you were looking for:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campa ... edSorcerer
A tainted sorcerer must use blood in place of any spell’s material component (if the spell has no material component, ignore this cost). She has two choices for a source of blood: herself or someone else.

If she uses her own blood, the minor knife cut to draw the requisite blood is a free action that becomes a normal part of casting the spell. Using this ability deals 1 point of damage to the tainted sorcerer, but the character does not need to make a Concentration check to successfully cast the spell, despite the wound.

Substituting blood for a costly material component requires drawing a greater amount of blood. A tainted sorcerer deals more damage to herself when drawing a large amount of blood, as shown on the table below. Also, when using blood to replace a costly component in this way, the tainted sorcerer must make a Concentration check (DC 10 + damage taken + spell level) to successfully cast the spell.

If the tainted sorcerer draws someone else’s blood to use as a material component, the rules given above generally apply. If the source of blood is willing (or helpless) and is adjacent to the tainted sorcerer, she can make a minor knife cut to obtain a small amount of blood as a free action during the casting of the spell. (If the source is not willing or helpless and not adjacent, how long it takes to draw blood depends entirely on the circumstances.)

No single source of blood can be used to replace a costly material component unless the character or creature’s current hit point total is high enough to absorb all the damage without falling below -10. For example, the blood of an orc with 6 hit points remaining is not sufficient to replace a component that costs 301 gp or more, because the orc cannot take the necessary 17 points of damage before it is dead.

Blood Component
Component Cost Damage Dealt
50 gp or less 5
51 gp-300 gp 11
301 gp-750 gp 17
751 gp or more 23
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t-ice
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by t-ice »

Nice RP angle, but I fail to see why a mechanical damaging-on-cast script is needed. (Probably not trivial to implement so that only that one PC takes the damage, too.)
Zelknolf
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Zelknolf »

Do you have an actual text where that rule variant comes from, Heero?

While many books from WotC are passingly referenced in Forgotten Realms books, it's a very short list of ones that are actually "required" for canon, and a slightly-longer list (which doesn't cover the whole scope of WotC stuff) which is "suggested." The amount of canon street cred behind the tainted sorcerer mechanic would be helpful in handling anything here.
SwordSaintMusashi
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by SwordSaintMusashi »

Blood Magic and Tainted casting come from Unearthed Arcana and Heroes of Horror. (They're both printed in both, I believe.)
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Zelknolf
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Zelknolf »

Much appreciated, SSM.


It's technically an optional rule / a rule variant, which holds slightly more sway than clever homebrewed rules, but not by much. That said, it's very unlikely that anyone would stop you from playing as though components of little-to-no consequence are replaced with bits of macabre self-shanking: we don't actually make normal wizards acquire the belly button lint necessary for a daze spell, after all.

However, using something like this in place of expensive material components will need to pass the DMA, and simply giving a sorcerer access to the RP angle probably needs to go through the DM team. If the consensus on their side is for it, I can look to the scripted implementation side

That said, I would wonder on the replacement of expensive components end: that's really not something that ALFA's (awkward and clumbsy, granted) economy is built to handle, and our unique "how much money death is worth" guidelines would turn the mechanic to be terribly impractical, while there's simply a big hole our rules with the "how much money is self mutilation worth" end, aside from whatever might be derived from the "penalties on gear don't mitigate the cost" thing we have going.
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Brokenbone »

"Hey I have to rez my friend!"

*stabs self for 23 damage*

"That was sure cheaper than a diamond!"

*casts cure moderate*

(Yes, I read the weird Taint page and know it's arcane, not divine, but just thinkin' ALFAnomics)
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Magile
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Magile »

Zelknolf wrote:...simply giving a sorcerer access to the RP angle probably needs to go through the DM team. If the consensus on their side is for it, I can look to the scripted implementation side...

That said, I would wonder on the replacement of expensive components end: that's really not something that ALFA's (awkward and clumbsy, granted) economy is built to handle, and our unique "how much money death is worth" guidelines would turn the mechanic to be terribly impractical, while there's simply a big hole our rules with the "how much money is self mutilation worth" end, aside from whatever might be derived from the "penalties on gear don't mitigate the cost" thing we have going.
The angle was purely RP, nothing to even consider actual component expenses, as I had not known that Arcane spells were going to eventually have components added in for higher level spells. As BB pointed out, it could be a bit silly; however, I admit I was naively considering it only for the lower-end, RP purposes and not seeing how it could actually affect later levels.
Part of ALFA since May 2000.
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NWN 2 PC (MS): Marius Lobhdain (Druid)
Curmudgeon in IRC wrote:(2:29:40 PM) Curmudgeon: The community wants 24/7 DM coverage, free xp, and a suit of mithral plate mail in every pchest.
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Re: Blood Magic (No, not Blood Mage)

Post by Zelknolf »

I'd say to fling a PM to Paazin? I'm pretty sure he has the authority to approve the low end. Surely we could have an in-character understanding of "Blood powers most of my spells, but sometimes I have to bleed on an expensive pearl to make my spells work."
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