About Blood Pact Spends
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Spend Type
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About
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Blood Pacts is not for everyone; that is, investing in it should reflect your character and roleplay. Unlike other spends, it involves a sacrifice on behalf of your character. Pacts may involve an agreement with any minor outsider, such as one from a djinn (the most common) to other minor planar beings, including a previous ancestor. Many pacts are overseen by invoking the might of Rada, Vardama, or similar contract-binding deities though this is not always the case, and pacts are not always made willingly.
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Pact-bound is an exclusive spend. It is not for everyone; that is, investing in it should reflect your character and roleplay. Unlike other spends, it involves a sacrifice on behalf of your character.
Pacts may involve an agreement with any minor outsider. Examples include djinn (the most common) to other minor planar beings, including a previous ancestor. Many pacts are overseen by invoking the might of Rada, Vardama, or similar contract-binding deities though this is not always the case, and pacts are not always made willingly.
Blood pacts overlap with Aspects; they do not replace them. Rather, they represent a more direct form of magic. Where Aspects more naturally become part of the character's nature or represent its awakening, a pact does so by a more direct contract with the essence in question. However, this does not mean that a pact and aspect may not reflect one another, or could not even be at odds: a character is welcome to earn both.
Once the pact is made, there is typically little contact with the outsider--it is assumed the PC will have arranged the price for their abilities in some IC way as part of their own story. Divine characters may select a servant of their deity for this spend.
Characters who choose this spend typically bear a mark of some sort. The nature, look, and so on of this mark is up to them to determine, though it should reflect the nature of the being they made the pact with in some way (DC 20 Spellcraft or appropriate Knowledge check to identify).
The being granting the pact is hereafter referred to as Entity, though ICly another term might be more correct for your character.
Exclusive Spend
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Tier
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Benefit
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Cost
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Blood Pact (Tier One)
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Pact-Bound Affinity The sign of your Pact upon your skin is enough for similar creatures to recognize you. You receive a +2 to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Perform checks made to interact with creatures who are of the Entity's race.
Entity Revealed: At this time, you must select your Entity's primary alignment, and request that staff record it. This will affect your progression in this spend.
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10 RPP
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Tier Two
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Blood Sacrifice: Drawing powers from your pact requires sacrifice. Each pact is different (and the RP details up to you), though overall you've learned whatever ritual words and gestures are needed to sacrifice some of your own energy to receive some in return.
The sacrifice is mostly symbolic: typically only a drop or two of blood is required. Committing a sacrifice is done as part of activating the ability and is not considered a separate action on its own. When a character enacts a sacrifice, he or she sacrifices a number of hit points to their pact. This damage is nonlethal. It heals just as any other wound would, though after healing, a "scar" is left behind for 24 hours. This scar is visible to any Detect Magic spell or similar effect. A character may sacrifice a number of points per day up to their tiers in this spend.
It is your blood which will power most of the abilities in this spend.
Energy Surge (Su): The bond between yourself and this Entity thrums with life, though also a sort of raw newness. As you grow and develop in this spend, you will learn not only of the Entity they are bound to, but also the nature of the bond and its affinity (and tie to) their own life energies. This beginning bond allows you to draw energy from the entity to you, temporarily increasing your speed by 10 feet for one round. Blood Sacrifice: 1.
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10 RPP
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Tier Three
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Otherworldly Knowledge: Your pact increases your knowledge of other realms. You receive a +2 bonus to any knowledge/the planes skill checks.
Pact-Bound Affinity II: Your bonus to to Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Perform checks made to interact with creatures of the Entity's race increases to a +3. In addition, due to the nature and increased depth of the pact, your align shifts 1 step towards the Entity's along an axis (your choice), if it has not already.
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10 RPP
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Tier Four
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Pact-Bound Defenses (Sp): By drawing upon your blood pact, your Entity lends you the ability to protect yourself against those who oppose him/her by summoning a protective aura versus those who directly oppose its intentions. For example, if your entity is Chaotic Good, then you may summon an aura that works as Protection Against Evil, or Protection Against Law. In this case, you may choose what the aura defends against each time you summon it. If your entity is TN, then this ability may be selected to work against either Law or Chaos each time it is summoned.
Enacting this aura is a swift action, and it lasts a number of rounds equal to your tiers in this spend, per use. This otherwise works as per the spell, and is considered a spell-like ability. Blood Sacrifice: 1.
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10 RPP
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Tier Five
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Ethereal Tongues (Sp): You call upon the Entity's knowledge and gain a limited understanding of other realms. This works as per the Tongues spell, but is limited to 1 minute per point you sacrifice.
Knowledge Surge (Su): You may draw on the magic that connects you, gaining knowledge you did not possess. As a free action, you temporarily gain the use of a combat or metamagic feat which you did not possess, but still meet the pre-requisites for. You retain the use of this feat until the start of your next turn. You may only do this once per day. Blood Sacrifice: 3, Special
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10 RPP
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Tier Six
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Outsider's Resistance: You gain an understanding of your Entity's true form, and learn to guard yourself against this energy. This grants you a permanent Resistance 10 versus your entity's energy type. If your entity does not have a specific energy type associated with it, select a type which would be appropriate for the story. Once selected in this way, it may not be changed.
Resist Mental Control: The closeness of your bond allows you to resist mental persuasion. By offering a sacrifice of one hit point, you may attempt an additional save against an ongoing compulsion or charm effect as a standard action, even if the effect does not normally allow one. You may only do this once per day. The effect does not prevent you from making the sacrifice, though you pay the cost whether you succeed or fail. Blood Sacrifice: 1
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10 RPP
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Tier Seven
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Walk With Me: By making a greater sacrifice, you may use Ethereal Jaunt as a spell-like ability (self-only) for up to 1 minute per point you sacrifice. Blood Sacrifice: Special
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10 RPP
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Pact-Bond Tokens
Pact-bond tokens are optional abilities and opportunities available to you as part of your Pact-Bond spend. You must fully qualify for any token you select.
Pact-Bond Tokens
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Benefit
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Description
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Cost
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Outsider's Blood
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Outsiders do not need to eat, perhaps sustained by some otherworldly force. Now, neither do you. Once purchased, this is a permanent ability, earnable once.
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T4+, 10 RPP
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Pact Shift
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Not all pacts are taken willingly. In addition, over time, a pact may shift. This spend represents making a new pact and effectively, over-riding the old one. Whether this is a peaceful process is up to you. This is represented as a token because it may be done once.
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5 RPP
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Outsider's Tongue
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You learn the entity's language. This is offered as a token spend, as not all characters might choose to learn their entity's language, or want to. Perhaps the entity never felt like sharing in a way he or she understood directly. This is a permanent ability, earnable once.
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T2+, 5 RPP
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Invoked Tattoos
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Your bond has given you the ability to (temporarily) store limited energies within your skin in the form of enchanted tattoos. Each tattoo stores any spell that you know, of up to 3rd level. The number of tattoos you may possess at one time is equal to your tiers in this spend. Magic tattoos must be placed on any part of the body, though the wearer must be able to see and touch the tattoo in order to be able to activate it (this means that few tattoos are scribed on the back).
Crafting a tattoo takes one day, and costs an amount equal to half of creating a scroll of that type, plus any additional material costs, which must be provided in the form of unusual inks, etc. When you create the tattoo, you set the caster level and any additional metamagic or effects (and pay appropriate costs).
Activating the tattoo is a standard action (or the spell's casting time, whichever is longer) although it does not provoke an attack of opportunity as a spell or scroll would. It otherwise functions as casting from a scroll. After such a tattoo is activated, the tattoo becomes instantly useless, and visibly fades from the skin after 1 round. The pact bearer may later scribe a new tattoo in its place.
Magical tattoos count as magic items for the purposes of dispel magic, and may be identified with an appropriate Spellcraft check. The spell erase can permanently destroy a magical tattoo, but the bearer of the tattoo can resist the spell with a Will save, in addition to the caster needing to make a successful caster level check to erase the tattoo. Physically removing a magical tattoo with a sharp instrument or defacing it with fire or acid can destroy it as well. Doing so is a full-round action that not only requires the target to be willing or helpless, but also provokes attacks of opportunity. At least 2 points of damage per caster level of the tattoo must be dealt to destroy a magical tattoo in this manner.
This ability is permanent once purchased.
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15, T3+
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