Cursed Blood

Your newly discovered origin ensures you always have certain spells prepared. You know the following spells and they do not count towards the number of spells you can prepare.

When you use a Jinx feature you can instead roll on this table or choose one if you fulfilled the requirements to choose one.

Your bloodline has been Cursed and now that Curse is yours. Ancestral Curses cause one’s blood to be Cursed so that your offspring will have the Curse as well. Some Ancestral Curses lie dormant until the host reaches a certain age or level of power before manifesting. Curses from Cursed Bloods are often vague and niche and are not defined by hard rules requiring work between the Player and the DM. The degrees of severity of the Curse vary between families. Choose a Degree of Curse that you are comfortable working with and roleplaying with the 4th Degree requiring little work and the 1st Degree requiring great effort and hardship. If you do not care, roll 1D4 and then 1D6 to determine your Degree of Curse.

1st Degree Curses

1- Beauty/Disfigurement: Roll 1D4 and on an odd result you have the Curse of Disfigurement and on an even result you have the Curse of Beauty. If you have the Curse of Disfigurement you are so ugly and repulsive that any non Hag NPCs will refuse to work with you at best and attack you at worst believing you to be a monster. If you have the Curse of Beauty you are so alluring that people will ruin their lives trying to please you leading to a domino effect of issues from their actions. Your family has special masks that can block the effect as long as they are worn. The Curse eats away at the masks. The masks have 12 charges to start and they lose 1D6 charges every 12 hours they are worn and they regain 1D4 changes every midnight. If they reach 0 charges they are destroyed.

2- Betrayal: Your Curse leads others to betray you. For gameplay purposes this only affects NPCs. The DM can employ any number of creatures to undermine you and betray you. Luckily for you and your family only creatures that have done deals or worked with you are candidates for betrayal.

3- Comeuppance: Your Curse makes your negative actions weigh heavily on the karmic scales of justice. Each evil act you perform is recorded and repaid to you at a later date with interest. For instance, if you steal 5 gps from a merchant one day a skilled conman or thief will attempt to relieve you of most of your money.

4- Curiosity: Your Curse makes you insatiably curious. You have disadvantage on Insight, Investigation, and Investigation checks. In addition, you are responsible for honestly roleplaying a character that always wants to know; what in the room? What would that trip wire trigger? What would happen if I signed that deal?

5- Fragility: Your Curse makes your body fragile. Your CON score is reduced by 1 and you gain Exhaustion levels at twice the rate. In addition roll 1D6 and you gain Vulnerability to the damage type:

1- Acid

2- Cold

3- Fire

4- Lightning

5- Necrotic

6- Poison

6- “Jackal and Hide”: Your Curse afflicts you with an alter ego that is your polar opposite and goes against each of your values and goals. Your family has created an elixir that can be injected at regular intervals to suppress the alter egos. The elixir can be made with materials of middling difficulty to acquire costing 5-20 gps to make a dose depending on the area. A dose lasts 1D4 days depending on how much your alter ego wants to get out. After the duration you can attempt a WIS saving throw DC 10 + the number of days since the alter ego was in control to suppress it for 24 hours. Discuss with your DM if you or the DM are more suited to control your alter ego. The alter ego is in control until you succeed a WIS saving throw DC equal to 24 - the number of hours the alter ego has been in control. You can attempt the save once every hour. The spell Remove Curse grants you control for 1 hour. You have 2D4 doses of the elixir that were delivered to you by a trusted family ally upon awakening the Curse.

2nd Degree Curses

1- Futility: Your Curse undermines your successes. For example, you may defeat a bandit leader only to find out that a new more ferocious bandit leader has taken over.

2- Inferiority: Your Curse undermines your confidence and requires a great deal of roleplay. You have the following effects:

• Self-Critism: You have negative self talk that makes you doubt your ability and worth.

• Feeling Inadequate: You feel like you do not measure up to your companions.

• Avoiding Challenges: You avoid new opportunities and risks.

• Seeking Approval: Your desire for validation from others dominates your decision making.

3- Love Triangle: Your Curse affects those that you love and those that love you and requires a great deal of roleplay. Those you love always love another and those that love you are not appealing to you.

4- Nightmare: Your Curse plagues you with nightmares. You face a nightmare every night. The fear of nighttime eats away at you. You have disadvantage on WIS saving throws at night. At the DM’s discretion they can afflict you with a worse nightmare that forces you to make a WIS saving throw DC 18 and on a failed save you do not gain the benefits of a long rest. After failing the saving throw you will not have a severe nightmare for 1D4 nights.

5- Self-righteousness: You are Cursed to be the hero of your own story and never see your faults. You seek to justify your actions as good by any means. You do not accept criticism of any form. Persuasion checks on you that defy your desires and goals automatically fail. No matter what you do even if you are forced to by a spell or effect you see it as completely justified.

6- Spiritual Scar: You are Cursed with a spiritual scar that marks you as an enemy to many beings. Celestials, some Fey, and some non Evil Dragons see you as an enemy and refuse to work with you and will attack you on sight or allow you a chance to run away.

3rd Degree Curses

1- Addiction: Your Curse makes you weak to certain habits and substances. You are addicted to one of the following habits or substances, roll 1D4 to determine your vice. If you do not indulge in your vice at least four times a week you gain one level of Exhaustion at the end of the week that can only be removed by indulging in twice your normal vice. If someone interrupts you after failing your saving throw to resist your vice you become irritable and if they press you further you become violent enough to come to blows but not kill.

1: Alcohol: No matter how hard you try you cannot escape the allure of the bottle. When you see alcohol you must succeed a DC 17 WIS save and on a failed save you spend your time drinking until you have Intoxication points equal or greater to 2+ your CON modifier.

2: Gambling: No matter how hard you try you cannot escape the thrill of gambling. When you see someone gambling you must succeed a DC 17 WIS save and on a failed save gamble until you have won or lost one fifth of your wealth rounded up.

3: Substances: No matter how hard you try you cannot escape certain substances (Determine which with your DM). When you see someone partaking or dealing substances you must succeed a DC 17 WIS save and on a failed save you purchase at least one dose of your substance and partake of it within the next hour.

4: Spending (Sexual): Depending on your group and DM your addiction can be excessive spending or sexual in nature, be mindful of the feelings of others. No matter how hard you try you resist the next new bauble (Or desires of the flesh). When you see something you do not own (Or a being your character would consider alluring) you must succeed a DC 17 WIS save and on a failed save you spend one hour perusing and shopping spending at least one fourth of your wealth rounded up (Or courting the individual and attempting to spend the night with them).

2- Haunting: Your Curse brings forth the ghosts of the many slain by your ancestor as they built your family’s fortune atop their corpses. At any point your DM can call upon a vengeful spirit to thwart your efforts and give you a 1D6 penalty to a D20 check (At a rate or no more than once per in-game day). Only members of your bloodline can see the spirits and communicate with them.

3- Laziness: Your Curse makes you and your family slow to accomplish important tasks. You have disadvantage on Initiative Rolls. In addition, your movement speed is reduced by 5 ft. Your DM can inform you that your Curse is in effect and ask you to attempt a DC 17 WIS save and on a failed save you must wait 1D4 hours before proceeding with your previously desired task (This should be done no more than once every in-game day).

4- Misattribution: Your Curse makes you and your family live in obscurity. Any heroic actions you take are attributed to another individual leaving you and your family only with your worst actions.

5- Parasitic: Your Curse implants a creature into your very flesh and forces you to feed it or it will feed on you. A snake grows out of each of your shoulders and they require one creature of INT 6 or more to be fed to them each day. If they are not fed they will reduce your hit point maximum by 1D4 until they are fed again.

6- Split Life: Your Curse affects two households of different Races binding you two together. The Curse makes you half of your family’s Race and half of the other house. You appear to be half of each Race split directly down the middle, for this reason both Races must be different and must be the same Size. You choose an equal amount of racial features from each Race no more than half of the Race with the least amount of Racial features rounded down. You cannot choose more than one Innate Spellcasting trait. This change happens to you and one member of the other family simultaneously.

4th Degree Curses

1- Gender Defined: Your Curse affects the men and women of your family differently and any spouses inherit the Curse upon marriage, conceiving a child, or if the relationship is deemed “set in stone” by deities over the Domain of Love. The women are Cursed to be callous and unforgiving, often uncaring for their children and spouse completely devoid of mercy or compassion. The men are Cursed to be violent and belligerent, often causing harm to their spouse and children and finding a hard time ceding even an inch during an argument. Unlike others with these traits you are unable to change even if you know it is an issue or it tears you apart inside.

2- Gossip: Your Curse makes you a busybody, snooper, and tattletale. You spend your days making yourself a nuisance and delighting in frivolous tea parties and meddling in the lives of others. Unlike others with these traits you are unable to change even if you know it is an issue or it tears you apart inside.

3- Nomads: Your Curse prevents you from having a home to call your own. Your family has wandered the world many times over and been driven from town to town. You can spend at most one week in any inhabited location. If you spend any time longer there misfortune follows you in countless forms until you are killed or driven out.

4- Reputation: Your Curse magnifies even your most inconsequential actions to promote the awful reputation that has plagued your family. Work with your DM to determine a suitable poor reputation such as, a black hearted family that deals with Fiends and Undead and uses the souls of children and maidens to fuel their research. For instance, if you were to save a small family from Goblins you would find that people would be talking about the deal you made with them to take their next child as payment for your services. No matter how hard you and your family work to refute their reputation it is bound to you and warps the perceptions of others.

5- Short Life: Your lifespan and the lifespans of each and every member of your family has been halved if you would live up to 150 years or quartered if you would live longer. You age at twice the normal rate of your Race and even long lived Races feel like they must live fast as Death creeps ever closer each day. You lived awkward and childhoods that you sprinted through and feel unprepared if you have reached adulthood.

6- Targeted Hatred: Unnatural hatred and bigotry has been thrust into every fiber of your being as well as the rest of your family. The hatred is irrational and cannot be overcome. The hatred can be directed at a single Race, people from a certain land, or even anyone who speaks a certain language or has reached a certain level of education. Discuss with your DM a suitable target of hatred. You cannot reason with, show no mercy towards, or will work with the source of your hate by any means.

You have a degree of mastery over your Curse. You can use an action and become Immune to your Cursed Blood feature for one hour.

You can use this feature once per long rest.

When you use a Hex feature you can use the following Hex:

Talisman of Cursed Blood: You can use a Hex feature and spend one hour and 15 gps crafting a Talisman of Cursed Blood, a Wondrous magical item with 1D4 charges. The Talisman appears as a black metal circle holding a vial of your blood suspended in the center. You can expend one charge as a reaction to expend one charge when you take damage and reduce the amount of incoming damage by 2D6 (Damage cannot be reduced to less than 0 with this effect) and you can choose to gain temporary hit points equal to the damage reduced or deal the same amount of damage to the target that damaged you in the form of Necrotic damage. You can have one Talisman of Cursed Blood at a time, if you create a new one the previous one vanishes. Only you can use the Talisman. Once the Talisman runs out of charges it vanishes.

You have increased mastery over your Curse. You can use your Weaken Cursed Blood feature twice per long rest. In addition, you can willingly worsen your Curse to become more powerful. You can use an action to worsen your Curse for one hour, during the duration you gain the corresponding buff and the Curse becomes Immune to your Weaken Cursed Blood feature.

1st Degree Curses

Beauty/Disfigurement: While strengthened your mask does not work and is destroyed if you wear it. While the Curse is strengthened you are more vile or beautiful in appearance. If you are beautiful creatures have disadvantage on attacking you. If you are disfigured creatures will not willingly enter the space within 10 ft of you.

Betrayal: While strengthened the Curse makes NPC creatures hate you. Creatures tend to focus on attacking you and ignore others. During this time you have Resistance to all damage.

Comeuppance: While strengthened the Curse makes all creatures more vindictive. All creatures within 15 ft of you including you gain the reaction to make a melee attack or unarmed strike when they are attacked.

Curiosity: While strengthened the Curse makes your curiosity insurmountable but enables you in other areas. Your curiosity goes rampant but your STR, DEX, and CON scores are increased by 4 (Max of 22) during this time.

Fragility: While strengthened the Curse makes the damage you are Vulnerable to even more deadly. You take three times as much damage from the damage type. You become Immune to two of the other damage types you could have been afflicted with.

“Jackal and Hide”: Your alter ego takes over completely. Your alter ego has a 1D6 bonus to D20 tests and damage and regains 3 hit points each round as long as it has at least 1 hit point remaining. Your alter ego focuses on survival at all costs.

2nd Degree Curses

Futility: While strengthened all creatures are afflicted with futility. You and all creatures within 15 ft of you have a 1D6 penalty to all D20 tests.

Inferiority: While strengthened, your Curse undermines the sense of worth of all creatures within 15 ft of you. If a creature succeeds a D20 test they have disadvantage on their next D20 test.

Love Triangle: While strengthened, your Curse saps the minds of those around you. Each creature within 15 ft of you must make a WIS save equal to your spell save DC upon starting their turn in the area or entering the area taking 1D6 Psychic damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful save.

Nightmare: Once strengthened, you become a fiend, a nightmare manifest in your own right at the cost of your next night’s rest. You grow fangs and claws take on the appearance of whatever creature within 15 ft of you is scared of. You can make a bite unarmed strike dealing 1D6 magical Piercing damage + 1D6 Psychic damage and a claw unarmed strike dealing 1D4 magical Slashing damage + 1D6 Psychic damage when you take the attack action.

Self-righteousness: Once strengthened, the Curse makes you and others around you belligerent. Creatures within 15 ft of you attack with advantage and attacks on them have advantage. You and your allies have a critical hit increase of 1 (19-20).

Spiritual Scar: Once strengthened, all NPC creatures view you with hatred. Most creatures will attack you on sight but those that attack you will be Cursed in turn taking 1D8 Necrotic damage each time they attack you.

3rd Degree Curses

Addiction: Once strengthened, you must indulge in your vice as soon as you can regardless of the duration of this feature. In return you are empowered with feelings of irritability and your melee attacks and unarmed strikes deal an additional 1D6 damage and you have a 1D6 bonus to STR saving throws and STR based skill checks.

Haunting: Once strengthened the vengeful spirits turn on others for once. A number of Specters are summoned equal to your Proficiency Bonus and attack all creatures but your allies and vanish after the duration and if they are reduced to 0 hit points. If all enemy creatures are slain the Specters turn on you and attack you.

Laziness: Once strengthened, all creatures within 15 ft of you besides you become lazy. All creatures affected this way have -1 AC and a 1D4 penalty to attacks and DEX saving throws.

Misattribution: Once strengthened, all creatures within 15 ft of you become confused as to who attacked them. Once attacked, a creature other than you must succeed a WIS saving throw DC equal to your spell save DC and on a failed save think a random creature other than the one who attacked them was the attacker. If a creature succeeds the saving throw they are Immune to this feature for 24 hours.

Parasitic: Once strengthened, your parasitic snakes defend you. Each turn each one can make a bite attack with a range of 10 ft with bonus to hit equal to your Proficiency Bonus dealing 1D4 magical Piercing damage and forcing the target to make a CON saving throw DC equal to your spell save DC and on a failed save take 2D6 Poison damage or half as much on a successful save. If no targets are in range the snakes do nothing.

Split Life: Once strengthened you can use the Racial features of both Races. After the duration you become Incapacitated from overexertion for 1 hour.

4th Degree Curses

Gender Defined: Once strengthened, the Curse invites strive between the genders. You and creatures within 15 ft of you can only attack creatures of a different gender. If no options are available they attack with disadvantage on targets of the same gender.

Gossip: Once strengthened, creatures feel a great need to spill the secrets of others. You and creatures within 15 ft of you must make a WIS saving throw DC equal to your spell save DC and on a failed save roll 1D4 with the lower the roll the more serious the gossip, for example; on a 1 they disclose the most damning fact they know about another creature within sight and on a 4 they disclose a mildly inconvenient fact about a creature in sight. On a successful save they are Immune to this feature for 24 hours.

Nomads: Once strengthened, each you and each creature feel ill at ease standing in place. Each creature within 15 ft of you cannot take the Disengage action and must move at least half of their movement speed each turn before taking any other actions.

Reputation: Once strengthened, your reputation becomes a weapon. NPC creatures are terrified of you and you deal an additional 1D6 Psychic damage whenever you would deal damage. At the end of the duration it becomes common knowledge that you headed up the massacre of a group of innocent people trying to stop your evil acts.

Short Life: Once strengthened, you burn through your lifeforce. You gain the benefits of a short rest and age 5% of the current amount of years you have to live (For instance, if you were a Goblin with a lifespan of 60 years that was cut in half to 30 and you are 10 years old you, age 1 year.

Targeted Hatred: Once strengthened, the Curse makes you a berserker. For the next minute you attack all creatures within 15 ft of you until they are reduced to 0 hit points and you cannot cast spells. If a creature starts their turn within the area or moves into the area, they become targets. You attack any creature who becomes a target with a 1D6 bonus to hit and deal an additional 1D6 damage. You take -2 damage from targets (This feature cannot reduce damage to less than 0). You can use an action to extend the duration of your berserk state to up to 10 minutes.

When you use your Basic Curse feature you can use the following option:

• Spell Level: 5

• Duration: 1 minute

• Trigger: Instantaneous

• Effect: You summon an Undead whose CR up to your DEX modifier (Minimum 1) to an unoccupied space within 10 ft of the target. The Undead acts after your turn in Initiative and attacks the target until its hit points are reduced to 0. The Undead always knows the location of the target. You cannot summon Undead with legendary features or spellcasting features with this Curse. The Undead vanishes after the target is reduced to 0 hit points, the duration ends, or you use a different Curse. The Undead is incapable of speech so a Banshee would be unable to use its Wail attack.

• Removal Condition: The spell Remove Curse.

Your blood has accumulated enough negative energy that it is dangerous to touch. Each time a creature within 5 ft of you deals you Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Bludgeoning damage they take 1D6 Necrotic or Poison damage. You can collect your blood at a rate of 1 vial a day. The blood stays potent for 24 hours or for 10 minutes after being applied to a weapon or 10 pieces of ammunition. Applying your blood this way takes 1 action. Weapons coated with your blood deal an additional 1D6 Necrotic or Poison damage (You choose upon collecting the blood).

When you use your Potent Curse feature you can use the following option:

• Spell Level: 7

• Duration: 10 minutes

• Trigger: Instantaneous

• Effect: The target’s blood is corrupted, the target takes 1D6 damage at the start of each of its turns. Damage dealt this way cannot be negated or reduced. Damage dealt this way cannot reduce a creature to 0 hit points. Creatures without blood such as Constructs, Undead, and Elementals are Immune to this Curse.

• Removal Condition: The spell Remove Curse or Greater Restoration.

Pass on Cursed Blood.

You can use an action and momentarily pass on your Cursed Blood to a target you touch. As long as the target does not have legendary features the target has the effects of your Cursed Blood for 24 hours and you are Immune to your Curse during that time. Alternatively you can focus the Curse’s energy into an attack dealing 6D10 Necrotic or Psychic damage, you still are Immune to your Curse for 24 hours.

You can use this feature once per long rest.