Blood Knight (3.5e Class)

Blood Knight

Occasionally you'll run across a character who isn't concerned about the war between good and evil. At least, he doesn't care about the "between good and evil" part. All that matters to him is the "war" part. His only purpose is finding strong opponents to fight. Fighting is everything to the Blood Knight. He lives for it. He might deliberately disadvantage himself in order to make fights last longer, and loves to reveal that he is not left-handed. It's not so much winning or losing, or the motives of his allies, that drives this guy so much as the opportunity for a good fight. (Quoted from TVTropes)

Making a Blood Knight

Blood Knights are powerful opponents on the battlefield, able to inflict grievous blows against opponents even though they might not be apt to doing it at every opportunity. While they are at their strongest in a long drawn-out battle, their companions might not agree to their methods of intentionally elongating them.

Abilities: Strength is important over everything else for a Blood Knight, because when they're stronger they can take on even tougher opponents. Constitution is second on the list because surviving all the way through the fight might not be easy when they have a tendency to put themselves at a disadvantage to elongate fights. Dexterity is good for the Blood Knight that focuses on light weapons, but most Blood Knights merely scoff at the thought of dodging blows. As far as mental ability scores go, Wisdom is the ability used for many of the Blood Knight's revelry specials, as well as helping with their ability to remove cursed items with a higher will score, so it never hurts to throw a few points there.

Races: Any.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 6d4×10 gp (Average starting gold; 150 gp).

Starting Age: As fighter.

Table: The Blood Knight

Hit Die: d12

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Special
		Fort	Ref	Will
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Revelry, physical prowess +1, power limiter, battle insight
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Curse-resistant, battle vigor
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Battle talent
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Physical prowess +2
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Battle executioner 1/day
6th	+6/1	+5	+2	+5
7th	+7/2	+5	+2	+5	Battle awareness
8th	+8/3	+6	+2	+6	Physical prowess +3
9th	+9/4	+6	+3	+6	Battle surge
10th	+10/5	+7	+3	+7	Battle executioner 2/day, battle momentum 1/day
11th	+11/6/1	+7	+3	+7
12th	+12/7/2	+8	+4	+8	Physical prowess +4, battle breach
13th	+13/8/3	+8	+4	+8	Battle swiftness
14th	+14/8/4	+9	+4	+9	Battle armor
15th	+15/9/5	+9	+5	+9	Battle executioner 3/day
16th	+16/10/6/1	+10	+5	+10	Physical prowess +5
17th	+17/11/7/2	+10	+5	+10
18th	+18/12/8/3	+11	+6	+11	Battle toughness
19th	+19/13/9/4	+ 11	+6	+11	Battle resistance
20th	+20/15/10/5	+12	+6	+12	Physical prowess +6, battle executioner 4/day, battle momentum 2/day
Class Skills (2 + Int modifier per level, ×4 at 1st level) Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Ride (Dex), Profession (Wis), and Swim (Str).

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Blood Knight.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Blood Knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and light armor, but no shields.

Revelry (Ex): Blood Knights live for combat, and where others might tire as a fight presses on, they revel in the bloodshed, getting more and more wound up as the fight goes on. Though they strive not to kill opponents too quickly, they hardly have any intention of losing, so some begin using maneuvers only those with a living in war can even comprehend. For every round of combat after the first, the Blood Knight gains revelry points that they can spend to activate their abilities. The amount of points gained per round is equal to one-half the Blood Knight's level. There is no maximum to the amount of points that can be stored. In addition, this special sets a few codes of conduct that Blood Knights choose to follow in combat;

Physical Prowess (Ex): Blood Knights hone their physical strength through battle, always improving themselves to better face strong opponents. At 1st level, a Blood Knight gains a +1 bonus to their Strength score. This bonus increases by +1 at every level.

Power Limiter (Ex): Blood Knights love drawn-out battles, so most of them will do almost anything to ensure that a battle will be that much more interesting or long by disadvantaging themselves with anything from wearing extremely heavy armor to restrict their movement, to refusing to dodge when their opponent makes a swing at them. To match their rising strength, a Blood Knight may adopt any number of "power limiters" to adopt preceding or during combat. Unless otherwise noted, power limiters may be removed with a swift action.

• I'm Not Left Handed: This power-limiter can only be used with a single one-handed or light weapon, and despite the name, the character need not be right-handed to take this power limiter. The blood knight fights with an arm he isn't proficient with, a result of which his accuracy and the impact of his blows lessens. Attacks with the blood knight's chosen weapon are treated as off-handed, and they take a -2 penalty to-hit.
• Bravado: The blood knight refuses to fall back from their opponents' blows. They willingly sacrifice their Dexterity bonus and any dodge bonuses (spells, items, etc) to AC.Of course this only lasts 2 turns

(Creator's comments: These are just a few examples, pretty much anything you can think of can be a power limiter as long as it distinctly disadvantages themselves, and there's always making one up within the rules. Wearing exceedingly heavy loads to no benefit and wearing cursed gear counts as power limiters, and they take as they normally do to remove until later)

At 5th level, when a Blood Knight removes a power limiter, they receive a +1 competence bonus to attack rolls and weapon damage rolls for a number of rounds equal to 3 + their strength modifier. This effect is cumulative when they remove multiple power limiters in a short amount of time, and the number of rounds the bonus remains is increased by 1 for every successive power limiter that is removed.

At 10th level, a Blood Knight may remove power limiters quicker than normal.

Old Action |New Action

  Swift    |   Free
  Move     |   Swift
Full-Round |   Move
1 Minute   | Full Round
2+ Minutes |  1 Minute

Regardless of how long it took to remove them, only two Power Limiters may be removed per round.

At 15th level, the competence bonus to attack rolls and weapon damage rolls increases to +2 for every power limiter removed.

At 20th level, the blood knight may remove every power limiter currently active on them as a full-round action, after which they receive the full competence bonus to attack rolls and weapon damage rolls that they would have gained if they removed them individually (Ex.; if a Blood Knight that had 4 power limiters on removes all of them with the stated full-round action, they receive a +8 bonus to attack and damage rolls), as well as a +4 competence bonus to Strength. This bonus lasts a number of rounds equal to 4 + their newly improved Strength modifier.

Battle Insight (Ex): Before making an attack roll, damage roll, or saving throw, the Blood Knight can spend 1 revelry point to gain a competence bonus on the roll equal to their Wisdom modifier. This is a free action, so it can be used as long as the Blood Knight has revelry points to spend.

Curse-resistant (Ex): Blood Knights have been known to wear cursed equipment to disadvantage themselves in battle beyond normal limits of simply wearing a heavy piece of armor can bring, and their exposure to such items makes them that much more used to the effects of it, not to mention being able to more easily remove such equipment when the need arises. During their turn, a Blood Knight may choose to subtract a number from all melee attack rolls and subtract half of that number from the effects of curses bestowed on the Blood Knight by cursed items to a maximum of half of their effectiveness rounded down (for example, bracers of defenselessness can be brought down to a -2 penalty to AC). This number may not exceed their base attack bonus. In addition, when attempting to remove cursed items that are difficult or impossible to get rid of without remove curse, they can make a Will save (DC 10 + base caster level required to create the cursed item) to remove it from their person.

Battle Vigor (Ex): At 2nd level as a swift action a Blood Knight can stoke their bodies' capability to heal with a boost of adrenaline in battle. They spend 2 revelry points to gain Fast Healing 1 for a number of rounds equal to their Wisdom modifier. At level 8, and every 6 levels thereafter, the amount of Fast Healing granted by this special is increased by 1.

Battle Talent (Ex): At 3rd level, when making a check with a physical skill (one that has an ability modifier of Str, Dex, or Con) of any kind, regardless of whether they have ranks in it or not, they can spend one revelry point to receive a bonus to the roll equal to half of their level.

Battle Executioner (Ex): At 5th level, once per day a Blood Knight may put all of the momentum they gain over a long battle into one devastating swing against an opponent. As part of this special, the Blood Knight may spend their revelry points to convert into damage on their next melee swing as a swift action; for every 1 revelry point spent, the Blood Knight deals an extra 1d6 damage, but they may only spend a total amount of points that is equal or lesser than their Base Attack Bonus (so, when they first get this special attack, they main only spend up to 5 revelry points to add 5d6 damage to their next attack). If they use a full attack action, this only applies to their first successful hit. Every 5th level after 5, the Blood Knight gains an additional use of this ability per day.

Battle Awareness (Ex): At 7th level before attempting an attack of opportunity, a Blood Knight can spend 1 revelry point to add their Wisdom modifier to the attack roll.

Battle Surge (Ex): At 9th level, while taking a full attack action, a Blood Knight may spend 4 revelry points to perform an additional attack at their full attack bonus.

Battle Momentum (Ex): At 10th level, once per day a Blood Knight, after extensive experience in combat can better focus all of their mind into a battle; during an encounter when they use this special they begin to gain revelry points equal to their full level each round instead of half. Every 10 levels afterwards they gain an additional use of this ability per day.

Battle Breach (Ex): At 12th level, a Blood Knight may spend 1 revelry point to overcome 2 points of an opponent's DR, regardless of material or alignment requirements, for one round. Multiple points can be spent in one round to increase the effectiveness. (For example, 5 revelry points can be spent to completely overcome a Babau's DR10/cold iron and good, or effectively cut a Balor's DR15/cold iron and good to 5.) However, in cases of DRX/-, /epic, or /adamantine, 1 revelry point only equates to 1 point of DR ignored. (So spending 5 revelry points against DR10/adamantine only reduces it to 5.)

Battle Swiftness (Ex): At 13th level, a Blood Knight may spend 5 revelry points to double their land speed for one round.

Battle Armor (Ex): At 14th level, a Blood Knight may toughen their skin by tensing their muscle mass with a mere thought and reduce the impact of blows directed against them; They spend 1 revelry point to gain a natural armor bonus to AC equal to their wisdom modifier for a number of rounds equal to half of their level.

Battle Toughess (Ex): At 18th level, a Blood Knight can spend 1 revelry point to gain an amount of temporary hit points equal to their Wisdom modifier that last for a number of minutes equal to half their level. Multiple revelry points can be used in one round to increase this effect (for example, a Blood Knight with 14 Wis can use 2 revelry points to gain +4 temporary hit points or 3 to gain +6), but if this special is used in another round while the Blood Knight still has the temporary hit points, they will not stack with each other.

Battle Resistance (Ex): At 19th level, a Blood Knight can spend any amount of revelry points to gain the same amount as energy resistance to any one type of energy for a number of rounds equal to their Wisdom modifier.

Ex-Blood Knights

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Epic Blood Knight

Table: The Epic Blood Knight

Hit Die: d12

Level	Special
21st
22nd
23rd
24th	Physical prowess +7, bonus feat
25th	Battle executioner 5/day
26th	Battle vigor +5
27th
28th	Physical prowess +8, bonus feat
29th
30th	Battle executioner 6/day, battle momentum 3/day
2 + Int modifier skill points per level.

Physical Prowess (Ex): Every 4 levels after 20, a Blood Knight's Physical Prowess bonus to Strength increases by 1.

Battle Executioner (Ex): Every 5 levels after 20, a Blood Knight gains an additional use of Battle Executioner.

Battle Vigor (Ex): Every 6 levels after 20, the Fast Healing granted by this ability increases by 1.

Battle Momentum (Ex): Every 10 levels after 20, a Blood Knight gains an additional use of Battle Momentum.

Bonus Feats: The epic blood knight gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic blood knight bonus feats) every four levels after 20th.

Epic Blood Knight Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Combat Archery, Damage Reduction, Devastating Critical, Dire Charge, Distant Shot, Epic Endurance, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Energy Resistance, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Exceptional Deflection, Improved Combat Reflexes, Improved Manyshot, Improved Stunning Fist, Improved Whirlwind Attack, Infinite Deflection, Instant Reload, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Legendary Wrestler, Overwhelming Critical, Penetrate Damage Reduction, Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting, Reflect Arrows, Spellcasting Harrier, Storm of Throws, Superior Initiative, Swarm of Arrows, Two-Weapon Rend, Uncanny Accuracy.

Blood Knight Starting Package

Weapons: .

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

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Playing a Blood Knight

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Blood Knights in the World

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Blood Knight Lore

Characters with ranks in can research to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.

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Blood Knights in the Game

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