Ancestral Bloodlines

Every so often, an individual is born who stands out a little from the rest of his people. This individual displays characteristics associated with a different kind of creature, such as a dragon, giant, celestial, or demon. Such a character is said to have an ancestral bloodline.

Bloodlines can exist for any of a number of reasons. Perhaps the character has an unusual ancestor, such as a dragon who took alternate form to live among humans or elves. The character might be a throwback to an earlier age, when all species were more closely related. The bloodline might be the result of unusual supernatural energies present during conception, pregnancy, or birth. It could also be an omen sent by the gods, part of an ancient prophecy or dire legend.

Regardless of the origin or type, most ancestral bloodlines are gained through a Heritage Feat related to that bloodline.

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Bloodline Strength And Source

Every bloodline has both a source (the kind of creature from which its characteristics are drawn) and a strength (minor, intermediate, or major). The stronger the bloodline, the more potent the traits and benefits granted by it.

Every source has a minor bloodline associated with it. A minor bloodline doesn’t alter a character much, and thus doesn’t represent a very significant power increase over an ordinary character. In some cases, the only bloodline associated with a source is minor. This is most often true of sources derived from relatively weak creatures.

Many sources also have intermediate bloodlines. These affect the character’s power level more drastically, and come from more potent races, such as elementals, giants, and many dragons.

Major bloodlines only come from the most powerful and primal of sources, including celestials, demons, devils, and the mightiest of dragons. A character with a major bloodline is a potent scion of his ancestor, displaying significant powers and abilities.

Bloodline Levels

Over the course of his career, a character with a bloodline has the potential to become more powerful than one without a bloodline. Because the power gain is gradual over a span of twenty levels, a static level adjustment doesn’t truly reflect this difference. Instead, a character with a bloodline must occasionally expend some experience to improve the abilities of their bloodline. Each time a character gains a new character level, he gains the potential to unlock a new bloodline ability.

Bloodlines are tracked with levels, much like a character’s class; however, they are tracked separately. Bloodline Levels are limited by both Effective Character Level and the strength of the bloodline. For example, characters with a minor bloodline can only progress their bloodline level once every four character levels while those with a major bloodline can progress it at each character level.

Each time a character gains access to a new bloodline level, he may advance his ancestral bloodline. This requires the character to expend experience points equal to 100 * his new Bloodline Level. Until a character expends experience to advance his bloodline, he does not gain any new benefits from his bloodline. Advancing a bloodline requires a ritual—unique to each individual—which always takes 1 hour to complete.

A character can not spend experience points to advance his bloodline level if it would cause him to lose a character level, so most characters don’t gain the bloodline benefits of a new level at the same time they increase their character level.

A character is never required to advance their bloodline and takes no penalties for choosing to neglect it. They simply never unlock further bloodline abilities. A character who has fallen behind on advancing a bloodline can choose to spend the required experience at any point to advance it but must spend experience for each neglected level, in order, to advance his bloodline. This requires that the character complete a 1 hour ritual for each bloodline level unlocked. The character is not required to unlock all bloodline levels available to them, but they must unlock all lower levels before unlocking higher level abilities.

For example, a 5th-level paladin with an Intermediate Gold Dragon Bloodline who reaches 6th level has the ability to advance to a Bloodline Level of 3. In order to gain the “Strength +1” ability from his bloodline, he will need to spend 300 experience points, subtracting them from his experience total. He would retain the +2 on Sense Motive checks and Alertness bonus feats, even if he is unable or chooses not to advance his bloodline.

A minor bloodline has a maximum bloodline level of 5, an intermediate bloodline has a maximum bloodline level of 10, and a major bloodline has a maximum bloodline level of 20.

Bloodline Traits

Depending on the strength of a character’s bloodline, he can gain a new bloodline trait every one, two, or four character levels. Bloodlines count total effective character level, not just Hit Dice. This is especially beneficial for characters with a level adjustment greater than +0. Thus a 1st-level Gnoll Fighter (ECL 4) with an Intermediate Blue Dragon Bloodline could have a Bloodline Level of 2 and gain greater benefits than one might expect based solely on its Hit Dice.

The specific traits gained are given in each bloodline description.

Bloodline Trait Descriptions

Bloodline traits fall into four categories.

Ability Boost

You gain a permanent +1 increase to the given ability score. This is similar to the ability increase gained by characters at every fourth level.

Bloodline Affinity

You gain a bonus (either +2, +4, or +6) on all Deception, Insight, Intimidate, Persuasion, and Perform checks made to interact with creatures of your bloodline.

Skill Boost

You receive a +2 bonus on checks made with the given skill.

Special

You gain a special ability. Common bloodline special abilities include bonus feats, natural armor, special attacks, special qualities, or spell-like abilities.

If you already have a feat that a bloodline provides as a bonus feat, you may choose a different feat for which you meet the prerequisites. For example, the minor celestial bloodline grants Alertness as a bonus feat at 8th level, If a character with this bloodline already has Alertness by the time he reaches 8th level, he can choose any other feat instead, subject to the normal prerequisites.