Class Feature Friday: Diabolic Bloodline (Pathfinder Second Edition Sorcerer Bloodline)
(art by telthona on DeviantArt)
We’re ending off this week with another Second Edition bloodline for the sorcerer class, and we’ve got another one that changed it’s name between editions. So far it’s been Celestial to Angelic, Abyssal to Demonic, and now Infernal to today’s subject, the Diabolic bloodline.
I imagine that the reason for these name changes is purely out of a desire to be more specific about where the power is coming from, particularly if they plan to add other outsider bloodlines to the mix, such as an archon, agathion, and azata bloodline, or an asura or qlippoth bloodline. (They haven’t yet for those examples, but that’s my best running theory since the fiasco with WOTC and the OGL happened long after 2E launched. So it’s not like we’re assuming they needed to change names to future-proof for legal reasons).
In any case, the diabolic bloodline! As the name suggests, this bloodline is the result of the work of devils. Perhaps the sorcerer’s ancestor had a dalliance with such a being, or maybe the ancestor made a dark bargain which bled over into their descendant (and the devil in question might even claim a hold over the sorcerer as an additional beneficiary, regardless if there was anything in the contract that permits this.) Or maybe they were simply born under an unfavorable planar conjuction or near a wellspring of hellish power.
Regardless of the source, these mystics often inherit more than a diabolic silver tongue. They may manifest horns, the smell of sulfer, features tied to a specific type of devil, or perhaps something as innocuous as a habit of viewing social interactions through the lens of transactions and contracts, even when it is to their detriment to do so.
Naturally, however, it is up to the sorcerer to decide how to use their power, and we’ll see exactly what that power can do!
Like other outsider-based bloodlines we’ve seen before, this bloodline channels divine magic, but they also have access to various fire spells, ranging from simple bolts of fire to rolling spheres and even a rain of fiery meteors. They also have several spells that bend the mind to better receive the sorcerer or crush them with despair. Finally, they have some spells that grant them a measure of diabolic senses, as well as the ability to invoke their infernal power with a word of power or aura.
They also gain useful focus spells, such as the flexible power to deliver edicts that bolster allies that obey them or weaken enemies that disregard them, followed by the ability to take on a fiendish aspect which grants resistances to things devils usually ignore at the cost of a vulnerability to flame, and finally, the ability to conjure forth a pillar-like eruption of hellfire to scorch the body and souls of your foes.
Their blood magic is pretty versatile too, allowing them to either lace their spells with additional fire, or empower their words with additional deceit after casting.
Naturally, plenty of sorcerer feats work well with this bloodline. Beyond the obvious ones that improve the bloodline itself, things like Blessed Blood, Counterspell, Dangerous Sorcery, Familiar, Anoint Ally, Enhanced Familiar, Entreat with Forebears, Divine Evolution, Elaborate Flourish, Diverting Vortex, Steady Spellcasting, Soulsight, Quickened Casting, Greater Spiritual Evolution, Interweave Dispel, Reflect Spell, Greater Vital Evolution, and Bloodline Mutation. Of course, other feats may appeal to you and your build.
There are plenty of ways that the diabolic bloodline reflects it’s predecessor, with the fire and hellfire, manipulation, and so on, and I am happy that for the most part the classic 1e sorcerer “first level mildly debilitating melee touch attack” thing has remained in the past. Sadly, it does vex me that it takes being level 20 to get permanent wings, assuming you even take bloodline mutation and not something else. In any case, however, this bloodline for a combination blaster and magical manipulator, so I would recommend building with blasting, battlefield control, and of course enchantments and illusions.
It can be very tempting to play these sorcerers as sinister and Machiavellian, and if that suits you, absolutely go for it. Alternately, perhaps they chafe under the double-speak that others expect of them and are surprisingly blunt. Or maybe they are perfectly honest individuals but make everything sound like a double entendre or clever wordplay as a verbal tic with no real knowledge they’re doing it. That could make for an amusing time, certainly.
Due to a diabolic attack while they were growing a new body, the ghorus seed of Redrose was soaked in diabolic ichor, marking it with fiendish power. Luckily, there was no damage or monstrous corruption, but they returned sporting command over fiendish magic. While still coming to terms with this change, they’ve taken to calling themselves Hellrose now.
The Hellbore, a mighty infernal lance tip or perhaps drill of immense size, is one of the few remnants of an invasion from the infernal plane not reclaimed by the ages. The inside of the weapon still seethes with diabolic power, including several incantations that have broken free of their original purpose as living runes. Most rip apart intruders and explorers with sadistic glee, but a rare few they instead take interest in, and invest their power into whether the mortal desires it or not.
Though he is ancient beyond measure, the First Devil, the ruler of their kind, is not all-knowing, and some important things they have forgotten, such as a tryst with a mortal witch that caught their eye during the earliest days of man, and a prophecy that only a descendant of theirs can truly end their reign. So emerges Koel Pitdas, the one who will defeat the great evil for good, if he can accept the ramifications of his family tree.
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