Sanguine Wizard (Apath)

Unofficial rules compendium

Obsessed with the study of the effects of blood and bloodlines on arcane magic, sanguine wizards replicate the powers of sorcerers by consuming their blood.

Class Information

This is a prestige class archetype.

Prestige Class: bloodmage.

Build Classes: wizard

Role: Sanguine wizards are coldly calculating, seeking the perfect point at which to overwhelm their opposition with an unexpected blood surge.

Alignment: Any. Sanguine wizards gain their powers through careful study, but obtaining samples to study often forces them to go outside codes of ethics and law.

Hit Die: d6.

Class Skills

The sanguine wizard's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill Ranks at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features

This archetype has all normal wizard class features, except as noted.

Spell Focus

Sanguine wizards gain Spell Focus as a bonus feat at 1st level.

Hemophilia (Ex)

Sanguine wizards are particularly susceptible to bleed effects, and the DC of any Heal check made to stop a bleed effect is 5 higher than normal. In addition, anytime a bleeding wound is inflicted on a sanguine wizard, she loses 1 blood point. This loss of blood points is cumulative for multiple bleed attacks, but not each time she takes damage from the same attack.

Blood Pool (Su)

At 2nd level, a sanguine wizard gains a pool of blood points, representing an overload of her system with excess blood to extend her arcane abilities beyond their normal level. A sanguine wizard’s normal pool of blood points is equal to half her sanguine wizard level.

Blood points can be spent at the time of casting to cast a spell without using that spell’s spell slot. The spell slot is recalled as if it had not been cast. Retaining a spell in this manner costs a number of blood points equal to the spell’s level, and these points must be spent at the time of casting.

In addition, the sanguine wizard may push herself via her bloodsurge ability in order to gain a number of extra blood points, but such exertion is a dangerous gamble. If the sanguine wizard’s current number of blood points is greater than half her class level but less than or equal to her class level, she gains the sickened condition. If her exertions push her beyond her normal class level, she immediately flies into a homicidal rage, striking out randomly with her most damaging attacks and abilities at friends and foes alike for 1d6 rounds or until her blood pool is reduced to 0 (whichever comes first). At the end of the rage, her blood points drop to 0, her hit points drop to –1, and she begins dying.

Each day, when the sanguine wizard rests to regain spells, she regains blood points up to half her class level but not beyond (so if her sanguine wizard level is 10 but she currently has 8 points, she remains at 8 until she spends the extra points).

Some sanguine wizards conduct constant rituals involving leeches or exsanguination in an attempt to regulate their systems. These rituals, which must be undertaken daily during spell preparation, give the sanguine wizard the option of subtracting 1 point from any surging rolls (see below) after the results are known, but at the price of a non-cumulative –2 penalty to Constitution. This penalty cannot be removed, save by the sanguine wizard abandoning the rituals for a day (also during spell preparation), which removes it immediately.

Bloodsurge (Ex)

A sanguine wizard can exert herself as a free action to instantly gain extra blood points, but doing so puts her at risk of a dangerous collapse. At 2nd level, the sanguine wizard can bloodsurge once per day to gain 1d4 points. At 8th, she can surge twice per day, and the die roll becomes 1d8. At 14th, she can surge three times per day, and the roll becomes 1d12. At 20th, she can bloodsurge 4 times per day, and the roll becomes 1d20.

Bloodmage Initiate

Sanguine wizards gain Bloodmage Initiate as a bonus feat at 4th level.

Absorb Bloodline

At 6th level the sanguine wizard learns how to absorb bloodlines. By drinking 1 pint of fresh blood (which inflicts 1 point of Constitution damage) from a sorcerer with the given bloodline or from a creature affiliated with that bloodline, the sanguine wizard gains limited access to that bloodline for one hour. This ability is usable once per day and drinking the blood normally requires a full minute, but sanguine wizards with the Brew Potion feat can distill the blood into a potion-sized draught that can be stored and consumed as a standard action. Making such a potion is ten minutes of work and must be begun right after the blood is tapped. Gentle repose can be used to preserve a corpse for later bloodtapping.

Though the sanguine wizard gains no physical nourishment from drinking blood, this practice is likely responsible for many of the stories linking sanguine wizards and vampires.

In addition to sorcerers of the given bloodline, the following list presents a few examples of creatures whose blood is considered affiliated to a bloodline. There may be others who work equally well, at the GM’s discretion.

• Aberrant: any aberration.
• Abyssal: any chaotic evil outsider.
• Arcane: any arcane caster, or any creature with an arcane spell or spell-like ability of at least 3rd-level.
• Celestial: any good outsider.
• Destined: any creature able to cast divination spells.
• Draconic: any dragon or creature with the dragon type.
• Elemental: any creature with an elemental or energy subtype (air, cold, earth, fire, water), provided it has flesh and blood (such as a salamander, but not a fire elemental).
• Fey: any fey or gnome.
• Infernal: any lawful evil outsider.
• Undead: any undead creature with flesh and blood (such as vampires or ghouls, but not skeletons).

At 6th level, the sanguine wizard can access any bloodline spell of a level she can cast, at the cost of one blood point per spell level. She can access bloodline spells from any bloodline she has absorbed. The blood points are expended as a part of the action to cast the spell.

A sanguine wizard with a familiar can use this ability to cast the bloodline spells of his familiar through the link the two share. For regular familiars, this is the arcane bloodline. For improved familiars, the bloodline depends on the creature type of the familiar (as above). Not all improved familiars have an appropriate creature type for this.

At 12th level, a sanguine wizard can temporarily access all of the bloodline powers of an absorbed sorcerer bloodline as if she were a sorcerer of her sanguine wizard level.

At 18th level, a sanguine wizard can temporarily access an absorbed bloodline's bloodline arcana.

Corpulence

At 10th level, a sanguine wizard becomes so massive that her rolls of fatty, blood-laden flesh grant her a +1 natural armor bonus. At 16th level, this bonus increases to +2 but reduces her speed by 10 feet. This penalty stacks with the penalty from the Bloodmage Initiate feat. This reduction in speed can never reduce the sanguine wizard’s speed below 5 feet, nor does it affect magical flying effects.

Table: Sanguine wizard

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						0	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
1st	+0	+0	+0	+2	Arcane bond, cantrips, hemophilia, Spell Focus	3	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+1	+0	+0	+3	Blood pool, bloodsurge (1d4 1/day)	4	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
3rd	+1	+1	+1	+3		4	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	+1	+1	+4	Bloodmage Initiate	4	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
5th	+2	+1	+1	+4		4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—	—
6th	+3	+2	+2	+5	Absorb Bloodline (spells)	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—	—
7th	+3	+2	+2	+5		4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—	—
8th	+4	+2	+2	+6	Blood pool, bloodsurge (1d8 2/day)	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—	—
9th	+4	+3	+3	+6		4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—	—
10th	+5	+3	+3	+7	Corpulence (+1 AC)	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—	—
11th	+5	+3	+3	+7		4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—	—
12th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8	Absorb Bloodline (powers)	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—	—
13th	+6/+1	+4	+4	+8		4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—	—
14th	+7/+2	+4	+4	+9	Blood pool, bloodsurge (1d12 3/day)	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—	—
15th	+7/+2	+5	+5	+9		4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1	—
16th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10	Corpulence (+2 AC -10 speed)	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+8/+3	+5	+5	+10		4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	2	1
18th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11	Absorb Bloodline (arcana)	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	2
19th	+9/+4	+6	+6	+11		4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3
20th	+10/+5	+6	+6	+12	Blood pool, bloodsurge (1d10 4/day)	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Summary of Lost Class Abilities

These abilities of the original class are lost or modified in this archetype:

• Arcane School
• Scribe Scroll
• Bonus feats