Blood Magic - Oaths and Sacrifice

[Messageboard Golem]

The ancient practice of blood magic has been outlawed in many civilised societies, for though it allows access to staggering levels of magical power the price can be very high. Savage tribes often respect blood magic, though even they tend to fear and avoid it where possible – its power is the stuff of legend, to be invoked only by those who expect to achieve great things or die in the attempt. A few warriors of the old school will swear blood brotherhood or other blood oaths but learning much more than that is generally the province only of primitive sorcerers or the most vile and despicable wizards. Those who go into blood magic with good intentions often find themselves seduced by its savage power, and soon want more – at whatever cost, up to and including dozens or hundreds of innocent lives.

The power inherent in sentient blood has been recognised by many of the great philosophers and sages throughout history, both religious and secular. Whether spilling his own blood to fuel his spells, creating a ritual to bond two comrades in blood brotherhood, or sacrificing enemies for magical power, the practitioner of blood magic is drawing upon that ancient, primal force, and must take great care that he can control it, and not vice versa.

Both sorcerers and wizards can attempt to learn blood magic. Finding a teacher in civilised lands can be tricky, though it is also possible to teach oneself through trial and error. Many teachers of blood magic demand a far higher price than the student’s diligence and gold, though, and the would-be student must approach the matter with great caution.

For the blood magician who is either very strong-willed and capable of resisting the more dangerous temptations of that path, or who is prepared to simply launch himself headlong into the most unpleasant aspects of blood magic, this can be a worthy addition to his arsenal of magical powers, allowing him to be a great deal more versatile than the more formulaic wizard or sorcerer. On the other hand, those who simply dabble with blood magic, learning a little here and a little there, believing they can control their habit, are often those most at risk of being either totally corrupted by it, or destroyed by one of the primal forces that seem attracted to it. . .

 

[John Cooper]

Encyclopaedia Arcane: Blood Magic - Oaths and Sacrifice
Mongoose Publishing prduct number MGP 1018
By Ian Sturrock
64 pages, $14.95

The 18th in the Encyclopaedia Arcane/Divine line, Blood Magic is a good example of what the series can offer. It provides all different types of blood-based magic rituals, spells, feats, creatures, monsters, and magic items, each capable of being dropped into a campaign without difficulty. Best of all, each is pretty much standalone, so you can pick and choose which new items you want to add without having to drag along a whole lot of other things you may not wish to deal with.

The cover is by Anne Stokes, who I notice has been doing a great deal of cover-work for Mongoose of late. She certainly deserves the work: this is another in a long string of excellent covers from her. The cover manages to cover the topic of "blood-based magic" without dipping too heavily into goriness. You would expect the cover of a book called Blood Magic to use a lot of red and Anne does so, but uses different red hues in the color of the floor and the smoke rising up from the the braziers at the points of the pentagram the wizard has carved in the floor. The only blood present on the cover is that the wizard is spilling from his forearm and collecting in a bowl (which also holds a skull) as part of the ritual he's performing. Given the subject matter, this is tastefully done; under another's care, this could easily have been a blood-spattered gore-fest book cover. Here, the wizard's posture and expression is that of a competent surgeon rather than a crazed serial killer.

The interior artwork is somewhat sparse for a book of this size: only 13 black and white pictures, by Danilo Moretti, Sarwat Chadda, and Eric Bergeron. Some of these lean more heavily toward the "dripping gore" end of things: on page 6, we have an old-style (hairy-footed, hobbitesque) halfling gleefully cutting the tongue out of a decapitated goblin head, and on page 29 we have a female drow straddling a prone human male as she cuts the living heart out of him. (Apparently he's had his revenge, though, by casting some spell that removed the bones out of her left forearm, which is now bent at a rubbery angle and really looks rather ridiculous.) The blood-dripping figure on page 46 wins the "gore prize," though - this is either a naked human female blood mage, or possibly Marilyn Manson, take your pick. (Unfortunately, the bare nipple poking up out of the blood doesn't necessarily prove either possibility.) One final art note: I'd swear the elves on page 33 are Romulans!

Oddly enough, there is no "art" as such on the inside front cover this time around. Instead, there is an example of a "sell your soul to the devil" contract (written in blood, naturally). I was initially displeased, as the inside front cover has in the past been the location of some truly outstanding full-color art. Then I read through the contract and was amused by its overly-legalized, "loophole-avoidance" phraseology. Then, as I read through the book's text, I was back to being displeased, as the exact same contract shows up, in typeface, on pages 19-20. There's no real reason for the repetition, as the hand-written sample on the inside front cover is perfectly legible. Either the inside front cover or the sample contract pages could have been put to much better use.

That, however, is the full extent of my main problems with this book, besides the obligatory minor spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors that seem to so often show up in these Mongoose books. (To the credit of listed proofreader Andrew Wilson and editor Matthew Sprange, the typo-type error quotient is much lower in Blood Magic than I've seen in awhile.)

The book is set up as follows:

• Introduction: explaining the concept behind the Encyclopaedia Arcane line
• Blood Magic - An Overview: types and pitfalls of blood magic
• The Basics of Blood Magic: how one learns about blood magic and finds a teacher
• Bonds of Blood: bloodrites (including the blood contract) and potential abuses
• Blood Sacrifice: more bloodrites (those involving sacrifice or self-sacrifice), plus 5 feats, festivals of sacrifice, and the dangers of sacrifice addiction
• Creatures of Blood: more bloodrites (those involving the summoning or creation of blood-related creatures), plus 4 creatures and the Blood Animal template
• Blood Transfusions: gaining temporary powers through transfusing the blood of outsiders, fey, or dragons into your veins, plus a prestige class for vampire arcane spellcasters
• 6 new Blood Magic Items, plus two new artifacts
• Help For Games Masters: integrating blood magic into your campaign as seamlessly as possible
• Designer's Notes: Ian's inspirations while writing this book
• Rules Summary: useful charts from previous chapters

I don't have a problem with the fact that the various bloodrites are sprinkled throughout the various chapters rather than all placed together, as they make perfect sense where they are and are not difficult to find. The Blood Brother and Blood Tribe are well done, although the penalties can be rather steep if your blood brother or a member of your blood tribe is slain by an enemy. (Of course, this only reinforces that engaging in such a bloodrite is not something that should be done lightly.) The rules on the blood contract are also very well done (Ian excels at rules mechanics as much as he does in clear prose), although - a minor nitpick - the breakdown of the XP cost of the sample blood contract comes before the explanations of how to determine the XP cost. This is a little premature; it would have made more sense to tell us how to break down the XP cost and then walk us through the example.

I was glad to see the mechanics of sacrificing the lives of others taken to both extremes: not only do we see how much (and what types of) power can be derived by ritually slaying others (or sacrificing our own blood), but we also see just how far the process can be taken (in the often days-long festivals of sacrifice, where literally hundreds of victims can be sacrificed in a somewhat Aztec fashion) and - perhaps more importantly - just how dangerous the act of sacrificing others can be, in the form of the sacrifice addiction check. I was glad to see a balancing mechanism in place to ensure that sacrificing others is not solely a postive act (in that the sacrificer gains power), but that it also has negative consequences. In that respect, it's rather like the Ravenloft "Dark Gifts" check (or whatever it's called - my Ravenloft knowledge is getting kind of rusty).

The blood-related animals are well done (although it might be worth pointing out that this is a 3.0 book rather than a 3.5 one, not that converting to 3.5 rules would be difficult by any means). My only question was why Ian chose to make the "bloodless" a creature as opposed to a template. Again, it works well as a creature (perhaps, looking back on it, even better than as a template, since you have to keep track of how many HD of bloodless you can control), but I would have been interested in seeing a "bloodless" template. Perhaps we could see it as a free download some day on the Mongoose website, or possibly in a Signs & Portents article? One final quibble: as an undead creature, the bloodless should not have a Constitution score. Fortunately, it's been given a Constitution of 10, so it's incredibly easy to ignore as it should have no influence of any of the creature's derived statistics.

The blood transfusion rules (Ian admits these were based on a story line from Vertigo's Hellblazer comic book, which I fondly recall as well) add a unique new twist on gaining new powers from a different source. Best of all, it also comes with a new spell that perfectly counters all of these new abilities, so the PCs have a weapon if they need to take down a transfusion-powered baddie, or the DM has a way to strip the PCs of their transfusion-based power if they get too reckless with it. The powers themselves are not too outlandish or unbalanced, and the transfusions are only temporary anyway (although they can last for months), so it's a nice way to try something new without having long-lasting consequences in the game world if you don't like how it turns out.

All in all, Blood Magic is a very welcome addition to my D&D library. I'll be using several of the concepts in this book in my own campaign very soon.

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.

Blood Magic is published by Mongoose Publishing in their Encyclopaedia Arcane series and takes a detailed look at the uses of blood for powering magic.

Blood Magic is a 64-page mono softcover product costing $14.95. Standard EA layout is used with a wide right-hand and top margin, a single line space between paragraphs, a few small chunks of white space scattered through the book, average sized font and little wasted space (both inside covers are used, though one is a Paizo ad). Artwork ranges from poor to average, and is only appropriate to the text at times. Writing style is intelligent and engaging, whilst editing is fine.

Chapter 1: Blood Magic - An Overview
This chapter begins by discussing the types of blood magic - oaths bound by blood, blood sacrifice to provide magical power, creation of creatures formed of blood, and blood transfusions from powerful creatures. There is a brief discussion of the Blood demiplane, the pitfalls of blood magic (addiction, physical harm, and gaining the attention of creatures known as blood guardians), and the fact that the product concentrates on blood magic for arcane spellcasters only.

Chapter 2: The Basics Of Blood Magic
This chapter begins by discussing those who practice blood magic, before a detailed discussion on finding a teacher (tribal sorcerers, scholars of blood magic, evil blood magicians, blood oath warriors, or self-teaching). There are also two important sidebars. The first discusses the spells and bloodrites of blood magic with notes on how aspects such as components, casting time, etc. are affected by blood magic along with XP and hit point costs from learning and practicing blood magic - these pseudo-spells are termed bloodrites. The second provides information on a new skill, Knowledge (Blood Magic), which is used both as a prerequisite for learning bloodrites and as a measure of how effectively they are performed. Ranks in the skill can also provide an understanding of the theories, uses, and legends of blood magic.

Chapter 3: Bonds Of Blood
This chapter takes a look at oaths bound by blood. Each section describes a ritual involved in swearing an oath bound by blood - oaths sworn to bind two individuals, an individual to the tribe, a group to each other through drinking each other's blood, a contract (often with an outsider) written and signed in blood, and blood feuds where an individual uses blood magic to swear vengeance against an enemy. There are also three spells included at the end of the chapter that are designed to be used by evil characters to control others through blood magic.

Chapter 4: Blood Sacrifice
This chapter begins by looking at bloodrites that can be performed through the sacrifice of blood from another creature or oneself, such as bloody calling (which enhances summoning spells). There is also a sidebar linking to sacrifice rules from EA: Demonology. Some feats are also offered, including the important Blood Sacrifice (which allows the user to ritually sacrifice another creature in order to gain a caster level, cast a free spell, or activate a bloodrite). Some festivals of mass sacrifice are also discussed, and the chapter ends with some rules on sacrifice addiction - a cumulative chance of becoming addicted, particularly when sentient creatures are involved, with morale penalties if no sacrifices are made once addicted.

Chapter 5: Creatures Of Blood
Includes information on Bloodrites to create creatures made of blood, the Blood Animal template (with a sample Blood Hawk), and four other creatures - blood golem, blood guardian (an outsider that kills blood magicians for a hobby), blood pool (ooze), and bloodless (a frenzied undead created through ritual sacrifice).

Chapter 6: Blood Transfusions
This chapter looks at the means and effects of transfusing blood from outsiders, fey and dragons into one's own to change one's very nature. Laboratory apparatus is defined and costed, a few spells and bloodrites dealing with the issue are offered, and the process of transfusion and its complication are discussed. Tables showing the benefits of the blood dependent on the blood donor are given and a prestige class for vampires, Lord of Blood, is also described.

Chapter 7: Blood Magic Items
Items such as a sacrificial obsidian dagger, an oath-ring and magical laboratory apparatus for transfusions are described and priced.

Chapter 8: Help For Games Masters
This chapter takes a necessary look at how to temper the powers of blood magic, with further information on the dangers of use and blood guardians. There is also a short section on vampires as blood magicians.

The book ends with some designer's notes discussing the influence of Aztec history, Zelazny's 'Amber' series, Norse mythology, and B-movies on the product. There is also some flavour text and a couple of pages of tables of rules summary.

High Points:
Although Blood Magic provides the usual high-power enhancements from feats, spells, and rituals that previous Mongoose products have offered, Blood Magic tempers these with a strict set of rules that bring a dreadful penalty to those that practice blood sacrifice. And that is as it should be. I don't mind giving PCs power when there are serious consequences for their actions. Bloodrites have XP and hit point costs, self-sacrificers end up scarred and possibly outcast from society, whilst those who sacrifice others become addicted and are hunted by blood guardians. The blood creatures are imaginative without hitting the realm of schlock-horror too much, and the items are in keeping with the flavour and context.

Low Points:
It requires a strong-willed GM to enforce the penalties and dangers on PCs who want to explore blood magic and blood transfusions opens a whole big can of worms that seems somewhat out of keeping with the standard mediaeval timeframe as well as potentially disruptive of a campaign. Still a cool idea though.

Conclusion:
Blood Magic gives a GM the tools to introduce the concept of magic-empowering blood oaths and blood sacrifices into her campaign, whilst also giving the means to control and temper such an introduction. The system is relatively easily broken down into component parts that can be include or not at the GM's whim and re-forged to meet the GM's own view of blood magic within her own campaign. A worthy visit to this difficult area, though I found the blood transfusions a little anachronistic and the power that comes with blood magic needs to be closely policed by the GM to remain relatively balanced.