Bloodlines

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 a 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. The DM should decide the truth behind the bloodline, though the character need never know why he is different.​

Bloodline Strength & Source

Every bloodline has both a source (the kind of creature from which its characteristics are drawn) and a strength ​(minor, intermediate, or major).​ Every source has a minor bloodline associated with it. A minor bloodline doesn’t alter a character much, and thus don’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 such as minotaurs or hags. ​Many sources also have intermediate bloodlines. These affect the character’s power level more drastically, and come from more potent races, such as elementals, slaad, and many dragons and giants. ​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 becomes more powerful than one without a bloodline. The power gain is gradual over a span of twenty levels, and a static level adjustment doesn’t truly reflect this difference. Instead, a bloodline character must exchange ability score improvements at certain points in his career, as noted on Table 1–2: Bloodline Levels.​ If the character does not exchange their ability score improvement to further their bloodline at the character level(s) indicated on the table, he gains no further bloodline traits.​

Bloodline Traits

Depending on the strength of a character’s bloodline, he gains a new bloodline trait every one, two, or four character levels. The traits gained are given in each bloodline description.​

Bloodline traits fall into five categories.​

1. Ability Boost: You gain a permanent +1 increase to the given ability score.
2. Bloodline Affinity: You gain a bonus (either +2, +4, or +6) on all Deception, Persuasion, Insight, Intimidate, and Performance checks made to interact with creatures of your bloodline.​
3. Skill Boost: You receive a +2 bonus on checks made with the given skill.​
4. Breath Weapon: Refer to the dragonborn breath weapon.​
5. Special: You gain a special ability. Common bloodline special abilities include bonus feats, natural armor, special attacks (such as the ability to smite evil or smite good), special qualities (such as resistance to energy, spell resistance, or scent), 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 example, the minor celestial bloodline grants Alert as a bonus feat at 8th level. If a character with this bloodline already has Alert by the time he reaches 8th level, he can choose any other feat instead (subject to normal prerequisites, of course).​

Bloodline Descriptions

Each description below includes some basic information to help the player and DM incorporate the bloodline into the campaign, including potential origins and minor characteristics to help flesh out the character. The description also provides the bloodline traits gained at particular character levels.

• Celestial
• Demon
• Devil
• Doppelganger
• Dragon, Black
• Dragon, Blue
• Dragon, Brass
• Dragon, Bronze
• Dragon, Copper
• Dragon, Gold
• Dragon, Green
• Dragon, Red
• Dragon, Silver
• Dragon, White
• Elemental, Air
• Elemental, Earth
• Elemental, Fire
• Elemental, Water
• Fey
• Genie, Djinni
• Genie, Efreeti
• Giant, Cloud
• Giant, Fire
• Giant, Frost
• Giant, Hill
• Giant, Stone
• Giant, Storm
• Githyanki
• Githzerai
• Hag
• Lycanthrope
• Minotaur
• Ogre
• Slaad
• Titan
• Troll
• Vampire
• Yuan-Ti

Random Bloodline Determination

Bloodlines are best included as part of a character with both the DM and player working together to select an appropriate bloodline for the PC. However, if you want to generate a PC’s bloodline randomly, use the following tables as a guide. However, if you want to generate a PC’s​ bloodline randomly, use the following tables as a guide. First, roll d% and consult Table 1–3: Bloodline Strength to determine the bloodline’s strength. Then roll d% on Table 1–4: Minor Bloodlines, Table 1–5: Intermediate Bloodlines, or Table 1–6: Major Bloodlines to determine the source.

Table 1-3: Bloodline Strength

Table 1-4: Minor Bloodlines

Table 1-5: Intermediate Bloodlines

Table 1-6: Major Bloodlines