The Lands of Blood are unlike other lands. As such, character creation is a tad different from standard d&d (3rd ed) games. The changes will be detailed below: The strongest ones, alignment and magic, are also given their own pages to explain them better. The basics of the rest are below.
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Epic Campaign: This campaign is set for level 6 characters. If they pcs are from Uld, they choose to be full Blood (level 4 sorcerer at least), half Blood (level 1 sorcerer, other levels any other class) or to have no blood (or at least, to not use it) with all levels in another class. All PCs from Uld and any with Blood -- aka sorcery -- must choose a line to belong to as well. Class information is detailed is below.
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Stats are rolled as basic 3e ones, but Charisma is now a variable stat. That is, based on a PCs reputation, actions and use of said stats, their abilities can increase or decrease temporarily based on a wide variety of factors, such as fame, appearance, personality etc. As well, Charisma can be permanently lowered due to physical disfigurement, explaining why the Blood are wary of such accidents.
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The races of The Lands of Blood are the same as 3e, except that 80% of elves have some mental or physical deformity resulting from inbreeding among the race if they were born very recently. The chance is less the older the elf is but still a strong possibility for a dying race. Also, each race has a certains special quirk, listed under the race but also gathered below:
| Additional Racial Traits | |
| Dwarves | +2 to willpower saves. Against fear and demonic magic, it becomes +4 |
| Elves | Knowledge (obscure/trivia) +3 |
| Gnomes | Knowledge(predict storms) +3, Royal Blood (40% chance) |
| Half-breeds | None |
| Halflings | +3 bluff checks (only for seduction purposes): +1 to animal empathy* |
| Humans | No exp penalty for multi-classing as Blood (sorcerers) |
| Kender | They're kender. What more do they need? |
| Lizardfolk | +1 power point to starting PC. Favoured class is Psionicist. |
| Orcs | +2 to all Bluff checks |
* If the halfling doesn't have this skill, they get it as a cross-class skill and no +1 bonus.
Once one of the greater races, the dwarves have fallen far since the northern mines were destroyed by the demons and are now a shattered people. They tend to live in the north-most low realms and seek ways to regain their lost homeland. In many ways this obsession fuels everything a dwarf does, for good or bad. Most of them tend to be very short tempered and anyone who double crosses one tends to die, very quickly. Aside from this and a strong hatred of cowards, dwarves are the only other race that train in the Blood regularly and are the only race admitted into the lines without any problems.
Once the fairest of races and the holders of wisdom, the elven peoples are a broken, shattered remant of what they once were. The demons attacked elves during the war with an intensity that surprised many. What knowledge the elves may have had died with them and their race is slowly dying off since they breed rarely. Almost all elves born since the demon war have some sort of mental or physical deformity -- the lasting results of the demons war against them. Most other races pretend to ignore these things out of respect for what the elves once were.
More reclusive than halfings or dwarves, gnomes are a strange race whos natural abilities derive from the lesser magic of wizardry and who tend to learn that magic over the power of the Blood. Many Blood regard them warily, thinking their innate magic is a wizardry form of the Blood, but if so the gnomes have kept it secret for a very long time. Aware that they are distrusted, most gnomes tend to be light-hearted and engage in jokes and pranks to lighten peoples moods and cheer them up a bit. Despite this, they tend to remain a bit apart from others.
Often the result of a human-elf pairing, half elves are rare since the demon war since elves would rather mate with each other to preserve their race than dally with humans. However, the occassional pairing still comes up and they are more common than elves in many places. Almost all of them live among humans and very few know or meet their elven parents.
Resilient and tough, half orcs combine a humans intelligence with the brutal strength of orcs to good effectiveness. They tend to be accepted by orc soceities more than human ones and are often subject to mild harrassment. Few half orcs ever become Blood.
A minor race in the world, halflings tend to fit in just about anywhere and are very adept at making friends. Often derided as "half humans," few halflings choose to learn blood magic or live in human settlements since they find the term highly offensive. Aside from that trait, halfings tend to be very hard to anger and willing to get along with just about anyone -- if the price is right. The combination of merchant skills (or thievery, depending on who you talk to) and adaptability make them very useful, and they like making sure everyone else knows that as well.
After the demon war ended, the remnants of humanity crept back to Uld and vowed to survive. Since then, aided by Blood lines and power, they have succeeded. Thanks to their pure need to survive, the last high realm is almost entirely human and they have an unprecedented degree of power in it the surrounding areas, largely owing to their use of the Blood and ruthlessness. Despite this, most humans are not power-mongers or abusers of thieir skills but merely suffer from the repupation of certain lines and the Blood Lords of certain lines.
Perhaps the single greatest regret the races have is that the Demon War didn't eradicate the Kender. While this might seem shocking to some, those people have likely never met Kender. They're the lucky ones. By all accounts, Kender are friendly, cheerful, kind, lying little dirty rotten scum sucking thieves. More or less. Other than that, Kender can be your best friend or worst enemy, often at the same time. Blood often prize Kender for use in spells, if only because it results in one less Kender in the world.
Kender racial modifies, abilities and such for third edition can be found at this site.
Dwelling in the Outlands, this species of beings is the largest in the known area and rule the Outlands. Few of them bother dealing with established species and seldom leave their marshes and jungles. In them, they have a reputation for coldness and willingness to survive that makes humans seem like lemmings. Lizardfolk are renowned for holding survival as the only priority for their people and the other races consider it a blessing that they can't expand beyond their own climate. Unlike the other races, they have shamans who use a magic unlike any other and are highly respected, but not feared by the lizard folk.
Distantly related to humans, orcs are large, tough, ugly and know it. They tend to be very tempermental but counter this by holding to their word -- sometimes treating one's sworn word stronger than a blood oath. They are quick to make enemies and slow to make friends, but when they do, they will defend that person with everything they have. Anyone breaking their word with an orc automatically becomes the enemy of all orcs, thought surprisingly few orcs treat this as a weapon of any kind. A surprisingly large number of ors are becoming Blood, mostly for the power and prefer spells that damage and harm foes rather than the illusions and "fancy stuff" other races use.
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Classes in the Lands of Blood are a trifle odd. Have no fear: the only classes changed are Clerics, Paladins, Sorcerers and Wizards. The rest remain the same.
Clerics as such don't exist.
To elaborate, there are no gods in this land, and as such no clerics of any kind. There might have been elemental ones long ago, but they are unknown in the campaign area. Cleric spells simply become part of the arcane spells section and are accessible to sorcerers and wizards. A PC can be a member of The Order (in the class variants section below) if they wish.
With no gods, paladins serve the ideal of good whole heartedly instead, or a specific cause with all their strength, at the DMs discretion. Obviously, paladins are very rare.
In Uld (and to a large extent in the Lower Realms around it) sorcery is a way of life. Called the Blood, due to having the blood for it once being rare and that it costs blood to use, this intrinsic magic is very potent and the chief magic in the world. Those who play full sorcerers are the Blood, those who try another occupation (i.e. multi-class) are half-Bloods and those who don't have it are the commoners, the bloodless, the unblooded. Almost all terms about blood and sacrifice refer to them and their influence on the world has been incalculable. In this world, sorcerers do not use vocal spell components.
Also, a PC can be full Blood if they have another class at a rate of 1 level in that class for every 5 in Blood. A PC with prestige classes is still Blood if they were before. Lastly, every sorcerer also belongs to a line, which is especially important in Uld.
With sorcery being the chief magic of the world, wizardry comes a cheap second. Sure, you know more but you're limited to when you use it. Also, you have to speak words to make the magic work, a similarity to demonic magic that makes many very nervous. Lastly, anyone can learn wizardry which once made the Bood Lords wary it would be used against then in rebellion. Nowadays people mistrust those who seek power for their own ends instead of using it because it is within them. Most wizards are looked on with great suspicion.
These are some variations on the classes that can be open as PCs. Unless noted otherwise, these are classes in their own right.
A healer is someone with the Blood who chooses to dedicate themselves to peace and helping others. Healers cannot use combative magic and seldom, if ever, kill. The benefit of being a healer is that every healing spell can be bought as cast as if it was 1 level lower than it actually is. Level 1 and 0 spells are both counted as level 0. Many healers also serve as councellors to others and try to heal wounds of the heart and mind as well. A healer serving a powerful line or person is often rendered a mute and lamed as part of the ritual binding to that person that prevents the healer from giving away secrets.
Healers are not a class, but act more as a kit than anything else, even though the price of being one can be high. All healers also get +4 to their Heal skill and +3 to Sense Motive. If one ceases being a healer, one loses all the advantages of being one.
A member of the Order is one of the Blood who only has access to clerical spells. The Order believe that they are the servants of fate and have a strange knack for ending up in the right place at the right time. (Or the wrong time, depending how you view it.) For game purposes, they count entirely as clerics but use the sorcerer's spells known table for determining how many spells they know. Some wizards have been members also and a fair number of druids have joined The Order over the years.
The Order is the only class a member of the Blood can be and stil be full Blood. They can not multi-class expect to Monk. Druid members can advance in both The Order and Druid classs but cannot get Monk. Once a PC becomes a member of The Order they cannot leave it. Only druids and monks can join The Order from a level higher than 2.
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All PCs gain +10 skill points at level 1. This helps offset a low amount of skills for "stupid" PCs.
If a PC is from Uld or the Lower Realms, they cannot gain the Ride skill since animals are used for sacrifice by the Blood, not ridden. In the Outlands some animals use mounts but even there the preference is to eat animals rather than try to tame or ride them. In the Low Realms this is changing mostly because an animal is often willing to be a sacrifice if someone loves and raises it, even if it is harder to kill them as a result.
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The Feats Silent Spell and Still Spell are not available to wizards and sorcerers since sorcery already uses Silent Spell (with no penalties) and wizardry uses Still Spell with the same. Druids can get these feats if they wish and other classes uses magic may as well.
As an additional house rule, PCs can spend 10 skill points to gain a feat. However, the feat musty be one that is learned (like combat or weapon ones) and makes sense for the PC to have learned.
Blood Binding [General]
Prerequisite: To be able to get this feat, a PC has to have at least 1 level in sorcerer.
Benefit: When someone with this feat exchanged blood with someone else, that person increased in 1 level with regards to being used as a Sacrifice with you. In other words, people with no Blood are considered half-Bloods for cost, half--Blood full Blood and anotehr Blood costs the same as if you had cast the spell yourself. This feat is mandatory in order to become a Blood Lord though Blood Lords can't bind each other and gaining this feat severs you from anyone bound to by it. Unwilling sacrifices of people youn are bound to cost triple the normal cost, not quadruple.
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The Lands of Blood have no common language. Besides racial languages, the world uses the High Tongue (for Uld, common in the Low Realms); the Low/Commoners Tongue (Low Realms). Draconic, being the language of the Lizardfolk, is the most common tongue in the Outlands.
Since only the upper classes are literate, PCs of a lower class must take literacy as a knowledge skill to be able to read. As racial languages are often kept to races thesmelves, a PC can opt to get rid of a language slot for 4 skill points intead.
| Languages of the World | ||
| Language | Who Speaks It | Variants |
| Abyssal | Most demonic races | Infernal |
| Celestial | Some demonic races | Ancient Maldakt |
| Draconic | lizardfolk, goblins, orcs, kobalds, dragons, ogres etc. | Obusab |
| Druidic | Druids | |
| High Tongue | Blood, Nobility in the Lands of Blood | Dwarven, Maldakt |
| Low Tongue | Peasants, travellers, merchants | Vandren, Codethen |
| Sylvan | Druids, Elves, animals etc. | Elven |
Most racial languages (like elven, gnomish and dwarven) are just variants of the above ones. For example, Wemic would be a cross between Vanden and Draconic with possibly some Sylvan thrown in. Maldakt is the basic language of Nar Luna and the Walled Lands and tends to be common in the far east.
While the Low Tongue isn't truly a common language (few know if in the Outland)the gnomes and halflings have based their own languages on it and it it fairly easy to learn.
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This camapaign does not use Traits or flaws.
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Social standing is very important in the lands of blood, especially in Uld. For game purposes, a PCs class determines their background, knowledge of the world and how they view others. The basic social classes are below:
Upper Class:
Nobility: Nobility is an inherited ranking system left over from before the demon war. Most of the ruling caste of towns and cities is drawn from this pool and noble children are often very highly educated and automatically literate in any language they begin with. In Uld, only half-Blood or Blood can be nobility, and half-Blood are considered lower than Blood even if they are of a higher status.
Merchant Lords: Merchant lords are merchants who have gotten wealthy off of some sort of trade. A person not of noble birth can only rise this high in the class structure. Most people in this class are highly educated, but tend to learn most in the field their family gained its wealth in.
Guild Masters: Guild masters run the guilds that supply the city with skilled workers. As such, they control a lot of subtle power and are seldom angered, especially the darker guilds who serve the Blood directly. A few rare non-Blood rise to this rank in Uld.
Middle Class:
Guild Members: A guild member is considered high middle classs because each member, at least in theory, has the ear of their guild master. Most of them are literate in their native language.
Merchants: Merchants compromise a large part of the middle class and often are literate in their native launguage, but not always.
Commoners: The average person. They're everywhere, likely think they aren't average and run the day to day life of the lands. Commoners are seldom educated.
Lower Class:
Villagers: The typical villager ourside a city is an ill educated person getting by on common sense rather than educated knowledge about the world. Only ther mayor of a village and some local merchants are likely to be literate.
Farmers: Farmers are the backbone of a nation and tend to be simple people leading simple lives. They need little that the land doesn't provide them and want for less. Very few farmers are literate.
Homeless: The homeless are that. Wanderers, beggars, destitute, travelling bards ... anyone can be one of the homeless. Being born to this class means your PC only has the basic literacty everyone has (enough to read and write their name, the nations, and possibly the rulers).
Slaves: Below any other strata are slaves. Slaves are the scum of the world and tend to be largely non-Blood or half-Blood kept around for unwilling sacrifieces. Slaves have no laws or rights and teaching a slave to read is illegal and immoral.
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A background for a PC is a must. This isn't to say an essay is needed on a PCs past, jut a quick listing of formative events in the PCs life (explain the PCs alignment choice and class choice.) Also, a brief description of the PCs family and personal background is good. Players grow into their PCs so you don't have to get too specific, but you do need to have some idea of what made your PC become who they are.
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Some other house rules being added into the game (in alphabetical order):
If you roll a 1 to attack, you not only miss but have a chance for a critical miss. You roll a second attack and it the result of the roll is 10 or less, you can end up breaking a weapon, losing it, hitting yourself or whatever the DM decrees.
A PC is at deaths door when they reach -10 - Con Modifier HP. So a PC with +2 Con dies when they reach -12, not -10.
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As noted above, alignment and magic are on seperate pages.
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