Black Blood Cultist

Requirements

Alignment: Chaotic evil, chaotic neutral, or neutral evil

Skills: Knowledge (nature) 2 ranks, Wilderness Lore 8 ranks

Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Track

Special: Ability to rage. Worse things than wolves and orcs hunt the dark forests of the North. The beastly lycanthropes known as the People of the Black Blood venerate lycanthropic deities with bloody rites that claim hundreds of human, elf, and dwarf lives every year. Black Blood cultists, worshipers of these lycanthropic horrors, are drawn from the totemic barbarian tribes scattered across the northern lands. They exhibit fearsome powers drawn from the veneration of the tainted animal spirits of their masters. That their reverence for the lycanthropes goes unrewarded does not matter to the unfettered spirits of the cultists—they rage for their cruel masters and bring death to those who are not touched by the Beastlord’s terrible power. They gain DR, better natural attacks and abilities that compliment their bestial form as they level up and progress.

Role: DPS

Characteristics: Black Blood cultists are savage fighters whose natural attacks become more fearsome as they increase in level.

Source: Champions of Ruin

Game Rule Information

The Black Blood Cultist has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Strength and Constitution for Raging and Hitting things, Wisdom for your tracking abilities

Alignment: Chaotic Evil, Chaotic Neutral, or Neutral Evil

Hit Die: d12

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Black Blood Cultist's class skills are Climb (Str), Handle Animal (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump, Knowledge (nature)(Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Wilderness Lore (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Black Blood Cultist.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Black Blood Cultist is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with prior to taking levels in this class.

Feral Rage Ex: Black Blood cultist class levels stack with barbarian levels for purposes of determining your rage ability. Thus, an 8th-level barbarian/4th-level Black Blood cultist can use greater rage four times per day, just as a 12th-level barbarian could.

Black Blood cultists strengthen their fingers and toughen their nails with special training. As a result, when raging, you gain two claw attacks at your highest base attack bonus. Each claw deals 1d6 points of damage plus your Strength modifier. You can use a one-handed weapon and a claw, but when doing so the claw counts as a secondary weapon (adding only half your Strength bonus to damage, and with a —5 modifier on the attack roll).

At 3rd level, you gain a bite attack when raging in addition to your two claw attacks. The claws are still your primary weapons and the bite is your secondary weapon. The bite deals 1d4 points of damage plus half your Strength modifier. You can use a two-handed weapon with your bite as a secondary attack, or you can use a one-handed weapon with your claw and bite as secondary attacks.

At 6th level and higher, whenever you hit with both of your claw attacks during a rage, you rend your opponent's flesh, automatically dealing double claw damage in addition to normal damage.

Improved Grapple: At 2nd level, you gain the Improved Grapple feat even if you do not meet the prerequisites for it.

Damage Reduction Ex: At 4th level and at 9th level, you gain damage reduction, which stacks with damage reduction from other sources. Silvered weapons ignore the damage reduction granted by levels in this prestige class.

Scent Ex: At 4th level, you gain the scent ability.

Stranglehold Ex: At 5th level, you learn to snap the necks of fallen enemies, allowing you to administer a coup de grace with your bite attack as a move action.

Improved Natural Attacks Ex: At 7th level, your natural attacks become even more deadly. Your claw attacks now deal 1d8 points of damage and your bite attack deals 1d6 points.

Savage Grapple Ex: Starting at 8th level, you deal damage as if you had hit with all your natural weapons (including rend, if you are raging) on a successful grapple check.

Feral Form Ex: By 10th level, you have gained great control over your bestial nature. You can now use your claw, bite, and rend attacks even when you are not raging.

Table 1-1: Black Blood Cultist Progression

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+0	+2	+2	+0	Feral rage (claws), damage reduction 1/silver
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+0	Improved grapple
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+1	Feral rage (bite)
4th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Scent, DR 3/silver
5th	+3	+4	+4	+1	Stranglehold
6th	+4	+5	+5	+2	Feral rage (rend)
7th	+5	+5	+5	+2	Improved natural attacks
8th	+6	+6	+6	+2	Savage grapple
9th	+6	+6	+6	+3	DR 5/silver
10th	+7	+7	+7	+3	Feral form

Adaptation

Black Blood cultists could be adapted to any pack of lycanthropes or beast god in your campaign. Alternatively, they could worship a similar group of animal-like monsters, such as the desmodu.