Hello and welcome to a very special Eldritch Excursion. How special? Why, it’s the 50th entry! 50 whole blogs of me talking about my favorite games and how you can get a lot out of the fluff and the crunch together. And to celebrate, I’ll be showing off the promised demo version of my previously announced new class, which I am now calling the Exsanguinator. Mainly because Vampire is already taken by several monsters and options and I don’t want to be too confusing.

Anyway, there’s a lot to show off so I’ll get to it. And if you want a simple google doc of the class as I update it, I’ll have it linked here.

EXSANGUINATOR

You are a vampire, an undead creature that stalks the night and feeds on the blood of the living. While most of your kin can trace their lineage back to ancient history, your undeath is the result of cotemporary experimentation. Made with a combination of surgeries, rituals, and alchemical infusions, you draw upon the power of your own blood to sap the life essence of others.

Key Attribute
Constitution
At 1st level, your class gives you an attribute boost to Constitution.

Hit Points
8 plus your Constitution modifier
You increase your maximum number of HP by this number at 1st level and every level thereafter.

During combat encounters…
Singling out wounded foes, you draw upon their injuries to turn simple bites and scratches into gushing wounds. Misery stacks upon misery as your afflictions weaken your opponents and let you go in for the kill.

During social encounters…
Your nightly need to hunt for prey has given you an instinct for navigating the lands of mortals, helping to get your foot in the door in civilized areas. You likely have a preferred method for interacting with the living, even if it’s through an agent.

While exploring…
You know how to find a spot that’s safe from the sun and you know where to get your next meal. This gives you an edge in finding quiet, out-of-the-way places when discretion is key.

In downtime…
Downtime is often dedicated to managing your eternal thirst, but your connections often lead to you gaining allies and sources of information that go beyond simple walking blood bags.

You might
* Seek to “adopt” a group of mortals, offering protection while using them as a food source.
* Combat other monsters to eliminate potential rivals while gathering riches and power.
* Use your conditional immortality to pursue and preserve knowledge thought to be lost to time.

Others probably
* Worry that you might hunt them as your next meal.
* Seek to involve you in the plans of long-lived and undying schemers.
* Keep protective charms and esoteric items on them from old wives’ tales, regardless of their actual effectiveness against you.

INITIAL PROFICIENCIES
At 1st level, you gain the listed proficiency ranks in the following statistics. You are untrained in anything not listed unless you gain a better proficiency rank in some other way.

PERCEPTION
Trained in Perception

SAVING THROWS
Expert in Fortitude
Expert in Reflex
Trained in Will

SKILLS
Trained in Society
Trained in a number of additional skills equal to 4 plus your Intelligence modifier

ATTACKS
Expert/Trained in simple weapons
Expert/Trained in unarmed attacks

DEFENSES
Expert/Trained in light armor
Expert/Trained in medium armor
Expert/Trained in unarmed defense

CLASS DC
Trained in exsanguinator class DC

CLASS FEATURES
You gain these abilities as a vampire. Abilities gained at higher levels list the levels next to their names.

Ancestry and Background
In addition to what you get from your class at 1st level, you have the benefits of your selected ancestry and background. These are described in Chapter 2 of the Player Core.

Attribute Boosts
In addition to what you get from your class at 1st level, you have four free boosts to different attribute modifiers.
At 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, you get four free boosts to different attribute modifiers. If an attribute modifier is already +4 or higher, it takes two boosts to increase it; you get a partial boost, and must boost that attribute again at a later level to increase it by 1.

Initial Proficiencies
At 1st level you gain a number of proficiencies that represent your basic training. These are noted at the start of the class.

Vampirism
You are an undead vampire, created through a mixture of bloody alchemy and divine ritual. You gain the benefits of the Vampire Dedication feat, though you do not count as having that feat for the purpose of prerequisites.
You hold far more potential than any simple spawn, and have quickly adapted to the needs of your undead nature. You gain the Dark Shepard skill feat.

Hemorrhage
Your mastery of blood allows you to draw it out of a wounded enemy, aggravating wounds and syphoning their life’s essence. You gain the Scourge ability.

Scourge (two actions)
[Concentrate] [Divine] [Exsanguinator] [Manipulate]
You coax the blood out of a fresh wound. Choose one creature within 30 feet that has taken bleed, piercing, or slashing damage since your last turn. That creature must make a Fortitude save against your Class DC.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes 1d4 bleed damage.
Failure The creature takes 1d4 persistent bleed damage.
Critical Failure The creature takes 1d4 persistent bleed damage. They automatically fail their first flat check to recover from this damage unless they gain the benefits of an Assisted Recovery.

As your exsanguinator level increases, so does the number of damage dice for Scourge. Increase the number of dice by one at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels.

Vampiric Strain
The blood using to create exsanguinators is thought to come from near-extinct bloodlines or common blood that has been significantly altered. Choose one vampiric strain. This strain modifies your available attacks and determines what additional type of damage you can deal with the Scourge ability.

(As this class is still in early development, the current options are Mutation and Suneater.)

Mutation
Introducing a specific mix of impurities causes mutations that normal vampires couldn’t handle, creating mutants that drink blood through tube-like tongues that are tipped with fangs. You gain a ranged unarmed attack with a range increment of 30 feet. On a hit, it deals acid splash damage equal to the number of dice of your Scourge damage. You may use Scourge on a creature that has taken acid damage from this attack; if you do, the target takes persistent acid damage instead of bleed damage.
At 5th level, your blood becomes acidic in nature. Any creature that attempts to drink your blood is immediately subject to the acid damage version of your Scourge ability. In addition, you gain resistance to precision damage and critical strikes equal to your level; if this resistance is greater than the critical strike’s extra damage, it reduces the extra damage to 0 but doesn’t reduce the attack’s normal damage.

Suneater
Derived from vampires who worship the sun as some great and terrible power, your blood boils with the power of fiery destruction and your fangs glow red-hot. Your bite deals 1 additional point of fire damage. You may use Scourge on a creature that has taken fire damage since your last turn; if you do, the target takes fire damage instead of bleed damage.
At 5th level, your blood pact with the sun grants you the power of mutual destruction. When exposed to sunlight, you do not suffer the normal effects, and instead burst into flame. You take persistent fire from your Scourge ability as long as you remain exposed, and this damage cannot be reduced or prevented. While exposed to sunlight, you gain a +1 circumstance to the DC of any exsanguinator ability that deals fire damage.

General Feats           Level 3
At 3rd level and every 4 levels thereafter, you gain a general feat.

Share the Pain           Level 3
As the lifeforce leaves your wounded opponent, you will the affliction to pass on. When a foe that is currently taking prestige damage from your Scourge ability is reduced to 0 Hit Points, you may use Scourge as a reaction on any creature that is within 30 feet of yourself and the triggering creature.

Will Expertise           Level 3
Your mental defenses grow stronger. Your proficiency rank for Will saves increases to expert.

Ancestry Feats           Level 5
In addition to the ancestry feat you started with, you gain an ancestry feat at 5th level and every 4 levels thereafter.

Established Vampire           Level 5
As a seasoned predator, your blood has thickened and your roots have run deep. You gain the advanced undead benefits. You also gain Hideout Dedication as a bonus feat, even if you have another dedication.

EXSANGUINATOR FEATS
At each level that you gain an exsanguinator feat, you can select one of the following feats. You must satisfy any prerequisites before taking the feat.

Just a Taste           Feat 1
[Exsanguinator]
Not one to waste a free drink, you draw the life essence of a bleeding foe into your thirsty maw. You gain the Just a Taste ability.

Just a Taste (free action)
[Manipulate]
Prerequisite: You are adjacent to a creature that is taking bleed damage from your Scourge ability.
You become invigorated from a quick drink on the battlefield. You gain temporary Hit Points equal to the bleed damage taken by the adjacent creature.

Flare Up           Feat 2
[Exsanguinator]
Your power resonates in the creatures you afflict, and you know how to amplify that resonance. You gain the Flare Up ability.

Flare Up (two actions)
[Concentrate] [Divine] [Manipulate]
You further aggravate the wounds of your foes to redouble their suffering. Each creature in a 30 foot emanation that is currently taking persistent damage from your Scourge ability must make a basic Fortitude save against that same damage. If a target is taking multiple types of persistent damage (such as acid and bleed) then the damage from each source is added together.

Blood Swarm           Feat 4
[Exsanguinator]
After feeding your blood to various blood sucking pests, they’ve come to serve as an extension of your dark power. You gain a familiar. Your familiar is medium sized and gains the swarm trait, giving it a weakness equal to your level against effects that deal damage over an area. It does not gain a damage action, but it also gains the ability to use Scourge to deal bleed damage any foe that shares a space with it. This even works against foes that have not taken piercing or slashing damage, as the swarm tears at its victim’s flesh to draw blood.
Swarm and Scourge count as two familiar abilities and must be selected each night. If your familiar dies, you can gather a new one from surrounding insects during your daily preparations.

And that’s about it for now. Just enough to throw together your own character and give it an early test. And by all means, feel free to drop comments with your opinions, I’d love to see what you like or what can be improved. Come back next time when I give this class some proper introductory lore and give you some vampire NPCs to use in your game.