Val’Baucisz

Val’Baucisz
Attributes: Logic, Charisma
Skills: Any skill of your choice, as well as two of Deceit, Etiquette, and Persuasion.
All Val have a Bloodrank. This affects the use of certain spells and Talents. Typically this Bloodrank is equal to the number of Bloodline Talents possessed.
Choose a Bloodline Talent.
Choose one bonus Talent
Val gain a +1 bonus to any Interaction Skill check made to influence others of lower social standing.
Automatic Languages: High Coryani, Native Nation.

Val’Baucisz Bloodline Powers
Consort with the Master’s Pets [Racial]
The cat is the sacred animal of Sarish, placed upon Arcanis as His minion to aid the adepts of magic.
Requirements: Hero Tier I, val’Baucisz
Benefit: You gain the ability to communicate with any feline creature as though you shared a common language. Additionally, should you take Loyal Companion (ta) you may choose any form of Common Level, Tier I Feline for your companion and do not need to purchase the animal.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

Visage of the Damned [Racial]
Mish, the Shadow of Sarish, manifests himself in a val’Baucisz, allowing him to call upon a black rage inside himself. This distorts his face into a viscious mask of hate that instills dread into the hearts of those who gaze upon it.
Requirements: Hero Tier I, val’Baucisz
Benefit: Once per day (Speed: 5, Duration: Instant, Range: 30′ (1 Target) you may force one target to perform a Horror Check against your Discipline defense.
Special: Mindless creatures and any targets who are blind or otherwise cannot see the val are immune to this effect.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

Thy Kindred Shall Protect and Serve Thee [Racial]
The Binder of Demons gives many gifts to his children, but few are greater than the ability to summon and control the Infernal.
Requirements: Hero Tier II, val’Baucisz
Benefit: You may now cast the spell Summon Infernal, Lesser as if you possessed ranks in the appropriate Arcanum skill (using Charisma as the Primary Attribute) equal to double your Bloodrank.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

Tale of Blood [Racial]
While the val’Mehan have the ability to track a creature using its blood, the val’Baucisz are able to see its true nature.
Requirements: Hero Tier II, val’Baucisz
Benefit: By tasting (or, if you have a feline Loyal Companion, your companion) you may learn intimate details of the owner of that blood. After consuming the blood, you must succeed on a Challenging (TN: 20) Insight Action Skill Roll with your Bloodrank added to the roll to identify the identity of the blood’s original owner. For every +5 above the given TN listed above, you identify one additional piece of information about the original blood owner. Information that can be gathered includes: Given name, Val line (if any) or surname, race, age, Bloodrank (if any), profession (archetype or background), nationality, fealty (for example, a Milandesian who is actually a Coryani agent). You may not attempt to learn about the same target more than once in a 24-hour period, but you may use this ability once per day, per Bloodrank.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

Black Prince of the Night [Racial]
While the val’Baucisz do not allow others to uncover their family mysteries, they are more than adept at unraveling the secrets of those around them, due in a large part to their ability to observe without being seen.
Requirements: Hero Tier III, val’Baucisz
Benefit: Once per scene, as a Complex (Speed 4) action, you may turn into a cat, rat, or bat, as if you possessed the Innocent Appearance monstrous quality. All animal forms are normal for their species with the exception of being completely jet black in fur, skin, and claws. While in bat form, you gain Fly 20′ (Clumsy). While in rat form, you gain Burrow 10′ (loose). While in Cat form, you gain the Acrobatic Talent. Returning to your normal form is another Complex (Speed 4) action.
When you change into animal form, all of your equipment melds into your new form (becoming unusable for the duration of this ability). While in animal form, you may not cast spells or communicate. Additionally, you utilize either a d6 or your regular Attribute die (whichever is lower) for all physical Attributes.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

Word of the Oathmaker [Racial]
The val’Baucisz guard their family secrets, never willingly allowing another to pry into their shadowy pasts.
Requirements: Hero Tier IV, val’Baucisz
Benefit: Once per day, you gain the ability to inscribe a unique Rune out of your own blood on the surface of any inanimate object such as a door or a wall, but not a weapon or garment. This Rune functions as a Continent spell, activated by the approach of anyone but yourself coming within 5′ of the Rune or touching the item possessing the rune, but can only hold any spell you can cast from the Diabolism, Wards, Blood, Heritage (val’Baucisz), or the Summon Infernal, Lesser gained through Thy Kindred Shall Serve and Protect Thee (ta). This rune takes one hour to inscribe (as per the Contingent Spell), and lasts a number of days equal to double your Bloodrank. You may only have a number of such Runes active equal to your Bloodrank.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

Your Blood Will Be Mine [Racial]
The Valinor Mish was associated with the Sarish’s aspect as the God of Blood, and his arcane heritage carries through with the val’Baucisz family. Alas, the way that this ability has manifested is in their ability to create monsters.
Requirement: Hero Tier V, val’Baucisz
Benefit: You gain the ability to to use Sarish’s skills in blood to bind other creatures to your will, converting them into the vile val’Baucisz Vampyre. If you have access to a live captive, you may perform a sorcerous ritual (Speed: 1 Hour) involving bleeding the victim and, just before death, forcing them to feed upon your own divine blood. You can create a single Tier III Elite val’Baucisz Vampyre (Arcanis Bestiary Volume 1, pg 26) by sacrificing a wound which cannot be healed until such a time as the Vampyre (and all of its spawn) have been killed. The Vampyre is bound to your will, and though it has a mind of its own it will obey your every command (though that does not mean it will not do something you have not expressly forbidden). You may only possess a single Vampyre at any given time, though it can be used to create up to two common-level Vampyres, and they up to two groups of four minion-level Vampyres of their own accord (all requiring fresh victims). Should you ever be Vanquished, you lose all control over the Vampyre (and its spawn) until such a time that you have been returned to either full wounds (minus the wound need to create the Vampyre) or full stamina.
Bloodrank: If you are a val’Baucisz, obtaining this talent increases your racial Bloodrank by 1.

While it’ll need some formatting stuff done, overall I’m down with this. Opinions?

Finally getting back to this (egads it has been a busy last few weeks!):

To answer Paul’s last question first, I do not know if Henry ever plans on making these things Hero-playable. At the moment we are making this to be reasonably balanced in the rules set but not necessarily “nice” enough that a Hero would take this. The val’Baucisz are (on average) pretty viscous customers, and their bloodlines reflect this.

As to the bloodline power itself:

I think that we should make a separation between creatures consumed by Tier, and possibly give bonuses according to that. If you eat another Tier V creature, you can gain a +5 on all Action Skill Rolls for the rest of the Scene sort of thing (not necessarily that this should be the final mechanic, but a thought).

I do agree that the ability should be tied into the number of Wounds of creature consumed.

I am actually tempted to NOT limit it to Intelligent creatures, with maybe the val’Baucisz gaining a number of Qualities that the consumed creature has equal to their Bloodrank, but also any flaws that that creature has. For example, if a BR 5 val’Baucisz eats a Tier I Wolf, they would gain up to 5 of its Qualities (Bite attack, Scent, d8 quickness, Take Down maneuver, etc), but they would also gain Bestial Intellect. This gives the talent more use while also making it more interesting.

I also don’t mind the whole increasing your bloodrank thing when eating, but I don’t think it is powerful enough to be a standard mode on its own.

Hello Gentlemen,

I’m sorry but I can’t approve this ability.

It’s patently “evil” thus making the option of a val’Baucisz Hero forever unavailable.

I’ll try and come up with something else.

Thank you.

Chatting with one of my coworkers and she suggested that an easy solution would be just to give them a straight Regeneration power. Not sure the rationale beyond “they heal very well because of magical blood”, but it may be a simpler idea than this vampiric attack.

Further food for thought.

Sean Esterline, who is helping with the new ArcaniCon by writing the new Soft Points, had a couple good ideas for the val’Baucisz T5 power:

1) Have them sprout some form of “Blood Wings”, granting them a flying ability similar to Valinor’s Wings. Unlike their shapeshifting ability, they would retain their shape, and it would be more similar to the half-beast form of a val’Dellenov in their combat abilities.

2) Give them an ability similar to the Bloodwalk ability of the Blood Magus Prestige Class from Complete Arcana in the older D&D material:

Bloodwalk (Su): At 10th level, a blood magus becomes perfectly attuned to the song of blood. He gains the supernatural ability to transport himself great distances via the blood of living creatures. Once per day as a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, he can seamlessly enter any living creature (except an elemental, ooze, plant, undead, or other creature without blood or a similar fl uid) whose size equals or exceeds his own and pass any distance to another living creature on the same plane in a single round, regardless of the distance separating the two. A blood magus merely designates a direction and distance (“a living creature twenty miles due west of here”), and the bloodwalk ability transports him to a destination creature as close as possible to the desired location. He can’t specify a named individual as the endpoint unless he has previously obtained a sample of that creature’s blood and has it preserved in a vial that he carries. The entry and destination creatures need not be familiar to the blood magus. A blood magus cannot use himself as an entry creature. If an intended entry creature is unwilling, he must make a successful melee touch attack to enter. (A missed touch attack does not use up the ability for that day.) When exiting a creature, a blood magus chooses an adjacent square in which to appear. Entering and exiting a creature is painless unless a blood magus wishes otherwise (see below). In most cases, though, the destination creature finds being the endpoint of a magical portal surprising and quite unsettling. If he desires, a blood magus can attempt to make a bloody exit from the destination creature. He bursts forth explosively from the creature’s body, dealing 10d6 points of damage unless the creature makes a Fortitude save (DC 10 + blood magus’s class level + blood magus’s Con modifier). When he makes a bloody exit, a blood magus must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or be stunned for 1 round from the shock of his expulsion.