Bloodforge Artisan

A fundamental strike that siphons life from enemies into you or your congealed works. When you hit with a bloodforged melee weapon, you may spend 1 Blood Charge to siphon vitality: you gain temporary HP equal to half the damage dealt (rounded up) and your weapon stores a tiny blood rune that can be later expended.

You sweep the blood-inscribed edge, dealing a lash of necrotic force that tugs at vitality. As an action, make a melee weapon attack with 10-foot reach; on hit deals weapon damage + 1d6 necrotic. On hit the target must succeed on a Strength save (DC = 8 + prof + Int mod) or be pulled 5 feet and be marked with a minor rune that takes additional 1d6 necrotic at the start of its next turn.

You instinctively channel blood to shield yourself. When you are hit by an attack, you may use your reaction and spend 1 Blood Charge to reduce the damage by an amount equal to your Artisan level + your Con modifier. The absorbed damage transfers into your congealed armor as a stored charge that you may later release as an action to heal yourself or an ally for half the stored amount.

You instant-form a suit of congealed armor around yourself. As an action you may spend 2 Blood Charges to create light or medium congealed armor that lasts until dawn. It grants proficiency benefits of an equivalent normal armor, grants advantage on saves vs. fear, and has rippling blood textures. This armor cannot be worn with other armor and disappears in bright sunlight if created from fresh gore without preservation.

You etch a temporary rune into a weapon in combat. As a bonus action, spend 1 Blood Charge to grant a weapon +1d6 necrotic on its next successful hit and mark the target with a runic sigil that lingers for 1 minute. If you later spend another Blood Charge while the sigil is present, the sigil ruptures dealing its stored necrotic damage immediately.

You force the runes in a weapon or armor to explode outward. As an action, spend 3 Blood Charges to create a 15-foot radius burst centered on you or a point you can see within 30 feet. Creatures in the area take 4d8 necrotic damage (Dex save for half) and you gain temporary HP equal to half the total necrotic damage dealt. Using Goreburst on allies or nonhostiles is possible but causes them to take full damage unless they are marked as bonded.

You trill a bloodsong through your gear to empower allies. As an action, spend 2 Blood Charges to grant allies within 30 feet a bonus to damage rolls with weapons or unarmed strikes equal to your Intelligence modifier for 1 minute. If an ally hits a creature with a bloodforged weapon during this time, you siphon 1 point (minor healing) to yourself.

You hurl a bloodforged weapon or shard that seeks life. Make a ranged attack (range 60/180). On hit it deals the weapon's damage + 2d6 necrotic; it returns to your hand at the end of the turn and heals you for half the necrotic damage dealt. If the thrown object is a created gore shard, it dissipates on hit unless you pay a Blood Charge to keep it whole.

A brutal strike that rends flesh and rune. As an action, spend 2 Blood Charges to make a single melee attack; on a hit it deals weapon damage + 3d8 slashing and the target must make a Con save or suffer a heavier bleed: 2d6 necrotic at the start of its turns for 4 rounds. You gain temporary HP equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

You place an anchored rune upon the ground or an object (takes 1 minute). The rune creates a 10-foot radius effect: creatures that enter or start their turn in the area take 1d8 necrotic (Con save for half) and you siphon a sliver of their life (you regain 1 HP per spell save failed, or gain 1 Blood Charge on a kill). The rune lasts for 10 minutes unless destroyed.

You fashion a blood anchor into a bonded ally or yourself. As a reaction to being reduced to 0 HP, you may spend 4 Blood Charges to remain at 1 HP and tether your wounds to another bonded ally: for 1 minute, whenever that ally takes damage, you take half of it instead (as temporary HP first). If the ally dies during the anchor, you suffer a backlash losing Blood Charges equal to the ally's CR (rounded up).

You temper a weapon or piece of armor to its highest iteration. As an extended ritual (8 hours) and by spending 5 Blood Charges or paying Sanguine Cost, you upgrade a single item: weapons gain a +2 bonus and an additional siphon effect; armor gains a +2 AC improvement or special regeneration tied to Blood Charges. This can be done only once per item without remaking it entirely.

You unleash your reservoir in a devastating finale. As an action, you may expend all your remaining Blood Charges to cause your bloodforged gear to erupt. Effects: each Blood Charge becomes 1d8 necrotic damage to a creature of your choice within 30 feet (Dex save for half); you heal for total necrotic damage dealt. If you expended at least 8 charges this way, you instead create a 30-foot radius zone of sanguine agony (3 rounds) that siphons a small amount of life from enemies to heal allies inside the zone each round. After using this, you suffer Sanguine Cost equal to twice the number of charges expended unless you chose to pay with HP when activating.