Magic System : Blood Magic

[Emissary]

Greetings all,

 

I'm new to Hero but see the beauty of the system. I am currently playing in a game that has been going on for a year now and it has been so impressive I have decided to play my own game. The issue is that my GM is so experienced that I have some hesitation in my own abilities to create the appropriate materials. On one hand he will be a member of my game and we have done some test runs where we have run some sessions with me as the GM. It is crazy fun…

 

I thought I would pose to the community the request for some ideas.

 

One of the characters is an eternal race born in the twilight of the world along with the Elves. They are a dark warrior race that is almost void of magic users, though they themselves are magical beings there is no honor in the art of magic. It is on the battlefield that they earn their honor and find their way to the after life.

 

This character is a Wizard, the only wizard of this race and an anomaly caused by the copulation of a Human and this immortal race. While his specifics are not important those of his race are. They have the innate abilities to siphon the life force from their prey. Because of years of war have diminished their population they have gone to using werewolves and vampires as their armies. If it was not for warring amongst themselves they would have conquered the known lands long ago as the Elves have disappeared. They are tough and willful.

 

To my point of the post :

 

This Wizard proposed using Blood Magic. I see it as not only causing disease but also curing it as well. Using blood as a component and using his own abilities as a member of this immortal race to siphon from his enemy to use against them. But I'm open and looking for some brainstorming. Examples of ideas would be most useful and perhaps between all the brilliant minds of these forums something fiendish but not evil will come to be.

 

What ever information will help im happy to provide, this world is in its creation stage which makes anything possible.

 

Thank you for advice, brainstorming, ideas, examples and creative innovation….

 

Forever - Emissary

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

The Lexicon of Lore, the non-religious magic book for the Legendary Quest RPG (available free at http://www.legendaryquest.com ), has several spells based on blood: Anemic Hemophilia, Bloodlust, and Crimson Death, just to name a few. If you need help translating a concept into Hero terms, there are plenty of people here willing to help.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

I had enemy mages in my Ninja campaign that used blood magic. They could do any number of interesting (and disgusting) things from curing or causing blood-based diseases, to causing people to bleed from all their pores. One of the most interesting aspect of their abilities was the fact that they could telekinetically manipulate blood. These guys were deadly on a battlefield.

 

In the scenario where the PC's encountered one of these bloodmages, it was during a large battle where an army of undead were assaulting the castle of a daimyo. The bloodmage showed up leading the army of zombies and proceeded to slaughter bushi quite ruthlessly. The PC's had a hard time taking this guy down. He would use blood as a sheild (it would solidify to protect him) he would ride along on a wave of blood (ick!) and use high-pressure jets of blood to cut enemies into ribbons.

 

Any blood on the battlefield was instantly drawn to the bloodmage and he was always surrounded by a halo of blood. Whenever the PC's were cut, they bleed profusely (twice the normal rate) feeding the END pool of the Bloodmage! Needless to say, they targeted this guy with extreme pedjudice. When the Bloodmage formed a sword out of blood and went mano-a-mano with a PC samurai, they finally managed to take him out.

 

That was one of the coolest battlescenes I've ever run...

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

I'd make sure all powers have Side Effects (2d6 Drain STUN or 2d6 DRAIN BODY Decreased Rate of Return (5 Minutes); Always Happens Whenever Used) on all Blood Spells. Use Stun or Body based on what your view of what "blood" is.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

Hmm....not sure this is totally relevant, but someone was wanting a Blood Magic style a while back in this thread:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20355&highlight=Sample+Blood+Mage

 

And I whipped this up to suit:

 

A version that is just Susceptibility based; the character is susceptible to his own Magic and thus takes damage (looses blood) when using it:

 

 

http://www.killershrike.com/misccharacters/fantasy/Sample%20Blood%20Mage.HTML

 

 

And a version that is Limited Power based:

 

http://www.killershrike.com/misccharacters/fantasy/Vregor%20Anzimor.HTML

[Emissary]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

These ideas and comments are exactly the type of things that I was looking for. And I am going to pose them to the Wizard to see what direction he would like to take.

 

The possibilities are already giving me some great ideas for how to introduce his kind of magic to the game and in allowing the Wizard to do some fiendish things. While the immortal race is not evil, they do tend to break many taboos of the younger races. One is that they have lost faith in any god long ago. Being immortal they find little use for the lesser races Gods. Once long ago they worshiped the gods, now they worship the first of their kind created along with the first Elf in the dawn of the world. There was a period of their history where their race had been ravaged by war and they did turn to a religion of the Vasha Eek or Sin Eaters. But when their numbers grew that religion fail to the wayside. The Wizard no doubt will find Blood Magic right up his alley and I cannot wait to see what he can do with it.

 

Thank you all for your gracious suggestions and I look forward to any others those of you out there might have.

 

Emissary

[Cantriped]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

I had enemy mages in my Ninja campaign that used blood magic. They could do any number of interesting (and disgusting) things from curing or causing blood-based diseases, to causing people to bleed from all their pores. One of the most interesting aspect of their abilities was the fact that they could telekinetically manipulate blood. These guys were deadly on a battlefield.

 

In the scenario where the PC's encountered one of these bloodmages, it was during a large battle where an army of undead were assaulting the castle of a daimyo. The bloodmage showed up leading the army of zombies and proceeded to slaughter bushi quite ruthlessly. The PC's had a hard time taking this guy down. He would use blood as a sheild (it would solidify to protect him) he would ride along on a wave of blood (ick!) and use high-pressure jets of blood to cut enemies into ribbons.

 

Any blood on the battlefield was instantly drawn to the bloodmage and he was always surrounded by a halo of blood. Whenever the PC's were cut, they bleed profusely (twice the normal rate) feeding the END pool of the Bloodmage! Needless to say, they targeted this guy with extreme pedjudice. When the Bloodmage formed a sword out of blood and went mano-a-mano with a PC samurai, they finally managed to take him out.

 

That was one of the coolest battlescenes I've ever run...

ooh, sweet, I'd love to see how you built that.

[i3ullseye]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

I had a 'Hero' in one of my games that was an immortal Arab slayer... who used blood in many of these ways. yeah, society just wasn't ready to embrace this guy. Go figure.

 

But a few other ideas to consider.

 

You can make these powers spells, and have some of them fall into 4 categories.

 

1) Local

 

These spells focus their energies on the blood within the mage himself. This woudl be things like slight strength boost, regeneration, maybe even added run speed or higher defenses. The idea is to empower him physically, or heal him. As they are a warrior people, he will likely have used this to compensate for his weaker human heritage, and hold his own in battle to prove his worth.

 

2) Blood Letting

 

these spells woudl be a bit more powerful, and it woudl allow the mage to cast on others. But in order to cast on other, they must take 1 pip of damage and bleed themselves for it to happen. If they already have an open wound then no extra damage need be taken, and this makes it much easier to use in battle.

 

Healing others, providing sustenance (here, drink this cup friend!), perhaps even blessing weapons for a time with your blood. Some very cool uses at this level.

 

3) Voluntary

 

For curing diseases, scrying, or various other spells it would require the willingly given blood of another. Normally this will be the recipient of the spell itself, but some more powerful spells may require anothers blood to empower them mage himself.

 

I would imagine a temporary mind link might require method 2 and 3, as they exchange blood and allow them to mingle, forming the psychic bond.

 

4) Vampirism

 

The last category, and where msot harmful spells to others will lie, require blood to be spilled form the target or victim. Here is where your combat spells come into play. This is also where you get into sacrifices for greater effects.

 

I would probably allow non-humanoid blood for some spells, but reduce their effectiveness considerably.

 

There is a last group that would fall outside all these really. Examples woudl be the ability to sense blood with heightened awareness, or track soemone by blood scent. Life detection and such.

 

Hope some of these ideas might help.

[Emissary]

Re: Magic System : Blood Magic

 

Great ideas and something to think about. This wizard is going to have some hard times ahead of him despite what his magic is. Because he is what he is, his own race and the humans will have nothing to do with him. Of course, in time he will no doubt call the attention of these factions and either they will try to kill him or will embrace him. I already have some ideas on that. But because the Gnomes raised him and they hate the humans who have oppressed them for 1500 years he is a welcome addition to their magic schools.

 

His type of magic will no doubt set him apart but with the taste of liberation in the minds of his teachers all magic will be welcomed. Even Necromancy, which is policed by the counsel of wizards, is not outlawed or looked upon negatively. I have left a lot of room for him, since he had the creativity to come up with something I had given no thought to.

 

Thank you for the Ideas, they have all moved me in the right direction and have provided me with inspiration.

 

Emissary