> Magic hemophilia: When you take 1 or more damage from a single source, you may regain a number of spell points equal to amount of HP lost. Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you take a short or long rest.
I'm not sure if I really like the idea of having to expend a long rest -limited resource (HP) to gain another long rest -limited resource (spells). Seems like a tough equation to balance
@Rubiksmoose Yeah, and that while "it's ok for me to suck in combat if that means I dominate everything else" might be balanced in some sense, it's not likely to be very fun :>
Blood Rush: Once per long rest, you can regain a number of spell points (SP) which is equal to 1 SP for every 5 damage you take from a single source. The damage must be from a melee attack. Multiple melee attacks from the same source count for this.
@LukeSommers This would require one to record and/or remember how much damage from how many sources they took for the entire adventuring day. Not a game-breaking issue but certainly a practical one.
I was once writing a roguelike where blood magic wasn't cast from hit points, but by bottling monster corpses. Blood increased in potency as creatures became mightier: beasts < humans < nobles (blue blood!) < unicorns < demons < dragons, and also was supposed to have bonuses to a particular field of magic (eg. healing for unicorn blood).
Hm. What if instead of damage translating to more spells, it translated to more powerful spells? So instead of regaining spell points, you could, say, cast using a higher slot?
@NautArch Sorry, I'm bad at explaining. It's not an accumulation of damage. Say something attacks you and deals 6 damage. If you choose to use your use of Blood Rush for that, you'd regain one SP. There's no accumulation. Damage from a single enemy doing melee damage in one round.
@LukeSommers Gotcha. I definitely like the Reaction idea and also limiting how many times you can do it. This kinda feels like we're doing a wizard/sorcerer/warlock/paladin/barbarian mashup :)
@LukeSommers No idea. If the theme is to use their own blood to fuel their magic, then maybe they can make themselves bleed, like the Flagellant from Darkest Dungeon. Whenever they're bleeding, they get magical benefits?
@MikeQ Perhaps, I still think it might be simpler if we give SP/slots for max HP, then can get them back through taking damage.
Rather than SP, wouldn't it be easier to use slots? We just have to change the equation a bit.
At 3rd level, Once per long rest, if you take 5 damage from a melee attack from a single source in one round, you can use your reaction to regain a first level spell slot. Starting at 7th level, if you take 15 damage from a melee attack from a single source in one round, you can use your reaction to regain a second level spell slot.
@LukeSommers There's a chart in the DMG, but it's not directly CR vs character level. More like weighed sum of enemy CRs multiplied by a scale factor depending on the number of monsters.
@NautArch I found a handy JC tweet that suggests that modifying monsters' equipment is not really homebrewing. Also will be handy for answering that weretiger question. twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/1019749947023929344
@Rubiksmoose I think it's a stretch to look at modification of equipment to addition of Armor and all that entails. THat's effectively adjusting a stat and not just carrying stuff.
@Rubiksmoose I'm saying that having a monster carry different miscellaneous equipment is different than having a weapon with a different damage die or armor with different AC. Those are changing the stats of the monster and potentially the CR.
Huh, that's an interesting conundrum with the class design - they'll lose out on one of their key features if the encounter is too easy, or if the party plays tactically and prevents incoming damage
Dunno, depends on what you want from the character exactly.
But anyway, a party of 4x L13 has a rather broad range of appropriate level monsters. Up to CR 18 or 19 as individual bosses, and anything below that as bodyguards, minions etc.
@NautArch does it invalidate answers? Were those answers doing what they should have been doing originally given what we now know the asker was trying to find out with what they wrote, or were they overly focusing on one example?
@NautArch Right. Ignoring the point about homebrewing. I think it gives support to the answer to that question that says that (eg) armor boosted AC is not considered to be the creature's statistics for the purpose of Shapechange/tiger form. In other words even though the statblock lists the AC as 15 (say) when it transforms (and loses its armor) its AC is not kept.
I think I've got it: Once per long rest, when you drop below half health (rounded down), you can regain a 1st level spell slot. At 7th level, when you are below 1/3 health, you can regain a 2nd level spell slot. At 13th level, when you are blow 1/4 health, you can regain a 3rd level spell slot. At 19th level, when you are below 1/5th health, you can regain a 4th level spell slot.
@NautArch Yeah I don't honestly see any way to have answered that question without focusing on the example to a certain extent since there doesn't seem to be any good cases for this question to rest on.
@LukeSommers I spend too much time on this stack, so I've learned to search for ambiguous wording in rules text. Adding a few "instead"s or something like "You can only regain 1 slot this way" could resolve it.
@LukeSommers After a shower, I have some ideas of my own. I personally really like classes to have clearly defining gimmicks, so I'd do something along these lines: the Hemomancer can, during a Short Rest, perform a Blood Bonding ritual to connect with up to one ally at a time, and gain bonuses with this ally starting with an optional bidirectional pain sharing (share damage dealt with the bonded target) to give them a tanky vibe with a catch.
Also, not advocating one way or the other on handling that question. But if in doubt do nothing. Rollback is a very big action to be taken with great certainty and care. The author may just be trying to clarify what they're asking for.
Furthermore, while I'd be fine keeping them as casters, I'd probably give them a few special spell-like abilities (similar to Monk's Ki) instead of tying the blood thing to classic spell magic. I'd tie those abilities to the two main themes of restriction (hinder enemies from targeting anyone but you) and retaliation (punish those who dare to attack you or your bonded ally)
I worked for a year flipping burgers at McDonald's in Australia for a year during university. (Actually a really nice place to work as a student.) There were a few managers and it seemed like it would be great to be one. Then we found out that because of OH&S laws, they were the only ones allowed to clean up a sudden mess in the toilets — and thus the ones that had to.
@LukeSommers Hm, it's hard to say... generally, each spell level is much more powerful than the previous, but upcasting lower level spells (casting lower level spells with higher level slots) tends to produce rather poor bang for the buck. So it depends on the spells the particular character has.
@NautArch In case you doubt it (and for the little it is worth), I also agree with that course of action. Though I think if there is any more confusion/dissent with this it should go straight to meta. It maybe should have already.
Here's the edited and hopefully more clear version: Once per long rest, when you drop below half health (rounded down), you can regain a 1st level spell slot. At 7th level, when you are below 1/3 health, you can instead regain a 2nd level spell slot. At 13th level, when you are below 1/4 health, you can instead regain a 3rd level spell slot. At 19th level, when you are below 1/5th health, you can instead regain a 4th level spell slot.
@Rubiksmoose Yeah, I wasn't sure only because there were already several meta about this general idea and I felt I was in a safe place to implement the previous metas.
Eg. Thunderwave, a level 1 spell, deals 2d8 thunder damage in a 15 foot cube or half that in case of a successful Con save, +1d8 per extra level of spell slot, up to 10d8 at level 9. Compare that to the actual 9th level spell Meteor swarm, that deals 20d6 + 20d6 damage on four separate 40 foot radius spheres.
Oh, Life Transference! I take damage and heal someone else, but technically, that would be damage from one source... yeah, that would be abused. Never mind.
So far it's just a melee-focused partial-spellcaster who can occasionally regain spell slots by endangering themselves. That alone is very underwhelming. @kviiri had some interesting ideas for other class features.
I'd probably start with Blood Bond at L1 as an optional pain-sharing ability with a single ally, changeable during Short Rest or Long Rest. Something like "when either you or your bonded ally takes damage, you can, at their permission, suffer half of the damage in their stead" (I considered "up to half", but it'd be more fiddly)
That's a simple ability to upgrade by allowing additional simultaneous bonds at later levels, and more benefits for bonding.
Something like a bodyguard ability, "when your bonded ally is attacked, whether the attack hits or not, you can use your reaction to make a weapon attack against the attacker".
That's a bit poor for defending far-away allies though, if one's indeed a tanky tank.
Or something dramatic like a Mark of Blood: "When you or a bonded ally takes damage from an enemy, you can use your reaction to place a Mark of Blood on them. You and your allies have advantage on all attack rolls against the target until one of you hits it. You can have at most one Mark of Blood effective at a time."
These are very quick ideas, but overall... well, screams Defender :)
It could be an honest mistake born of ignorance.
Since Men don't know much about elves, they may think the beards are a sign of the great age and wisdom of the Istari. Elves are weird and wild, why shouldn't the oldest and wisest of them have beards? (See below: they actually can!)
Remember, we...
@LukeSommers Since the hemomancer seems more like an interesting flavor rather than a fully fleshed-out class, maybe consider designing it as a homebrew primal path for barbarian
