Blood Mage (Origins)

"Blood magic comes from demons." - Avernus

These dark rites, which were originally taught by demons, to give the magician access to powerful blood magic. A Blood Mage must be willing to sacrifice his own life force or that of allies, in order to be able to use this dark magic.

Blood Magic in Thedas
Blood Magic was the first form of magic on Thedas. It was used by the magisters of the Tevinter Empire to rule over their lands. Its reckless use eventually led to the blackening of the Golden City, the creation of the darkspawn and the first Blight.

In the contemporary world, Blood Magic is described as being one of the more "sinister" types of magic. Blood Magic is the magical practice of using blood, life itself, as a potent fuel for magical spells. This life may be supplied by the mage, or by willing or unwilling sacrifices. It lets the mage control the minds of others as well as use their very own lifeforce to fuel their power. This practice is so rare in Thedas now that it can now only be learned from contacting a demon, thus risking becoming an abomination.

The Chantry strictly forbids the usage of blood magic as it eventually leads to corruption. Mages using Blood Magic are the blood mages (also known as maleficars) and are hunted by the Templars, an order created for the purpose of hunting rogue mages and maleficars. All blood mages are maleficars by definintion, though other mages without blood magic may also be maleficarum. The Circle of Magi was created to supervise all magic-sensitive people from a young age, and ensure none of them tap into this forbidden school of the arcane.

Even against their best efforts, maleficars still exist and operate out of the shadows, trying to usurp the Chantry and the Circle of Magi alike.

Grey Wardens & Blood Magic
Despite Blood Magic being banned all over Ferelden, Grey Wardens are allowed to use Blood Magic and justify it simply as a means to fight the darkspawn. This is confirmed if the Grey Warden speaks with Duncan on the topic during the Mage Origin. Duncan states further that Grey Wardens have even intentionally become abominations. However the characters justifies their use of blood magic, this doesn't stop certain characters from trying to kill you if they find out that you dabble in such magic.

In Warden's Keep, an ancient Grey Warden mage Avernus has utilized blood magic to summon demons (which backfired when they turned on him) and manipulate the tainted blood used in the joining process of the Wardens that makes them immune to the darkspawn taint and allows them to sense the darkspawn. He even goes so far as to torture fellow Wardens in order to learn the secret powers found within the blood while theorizing the extensive capabilities it holds and stating that only within the ranks of the Grey Wardens can blood magic be used freely and allowed to flourish in the name of arcane progress. What he learns allows him to use blood magic to survive unnaturally for hundreds of years as well as discover powerful talents and spells that the Warden can use to unlock the Power of Blood school (should they choose to partake in his research, as opposed to destroying it). Avernus argues that the Chantry foolishly forbids blood magic because of their belief that it caused the corruption of the Golden City (which he dismisses as lies) and that there is a great deal that the Grey Wardens, and mages in general, can learn from it.

Blood Magic Guide
As it happens the actual player application of blood magic is, of course, no where near as interesting or as powerful as is seen in Jowan's cutscene, Avernus's history or when dealing with your opponent's blood mages. The actual effects it's abilities grant you are ridiculously similar to some that you can gain through other spells aside from the final spell which lets you control your enemies for a short time. The first two simply involve activating the mode and then granting you health by draining your ally's. Then you are given a spirit damage spell and then the control spell. There are several spells that allow you to do spirit damage with many less penalties than you incur having to damage your own health in order to defeat your enemies. That happens to be the most ridiculous part of the whole section: the spells are neither particularly powerful nor particularly useful nor are your basic spells significantly more powerful and yet you need to give up health (albeit less than if you needed to use mana) when a mage, nearly by definition, has a lower defense rate than the other characters. This is not only detrimental to begin with but it also means you need to use leveling points that you could normally use to raise you mana or actual magic power to make sure you actually have enough health to make continuous spells in blood magic possible. All in all you may be better off learning arcane warrior or spirit healer (for it's resurrection ability) or not picking a specialization at all and pouring the points into Entropy or Primal spells to give your enemies the pounding you need them to. (Also, since on normal difficulty or lower your party is virtually immune to friendly-fire damage, you can just as easily use the fire primal spells to inflict more damage anyway)

Magic always needs a power source, this can come from two sources, lyrium or lifeforce. Blood magic uses the latter. Blood mages usually use their own or other people's lifeforce - blood - to release devastating spells or to take over and/or corrupt one's mind.

Blood mages often commune and/or summon spirits from the Fade, in order to acquire knowledge or power, which usually results in the summoner's body being taken over by the summoned spirit or demon, turning into an Abomination. This process is irreversible, so usually the only solution is to slay the abomination.

A blood mage may either use blood magic as a supplement to mana, or build specifically to take advantage of the blood mage strengths by using up all mana with sustained spells.

Blood Mage Sustain (blood stain)

Stats:

A blood stain build will emphasize magic to boost spell power and constitution to provide a greater source of life for spells. Unlike other mages, a blood stain will invest nothing in willpower.

Items:

A blood stain will benefit from one item which make blood magic more efficient by lowering its cost in blood (see below). Blood stains should also look for items which provide a boost to Constitution, such as the life giver ring. A well built and equipped blood mage will have as much health as the fighters in the party.

Sustains:

The advantage of this specific build is that four to five sustains may be maintained at all times while still having fuel to cast spells because of high health and a 60% spell cost. It would be impractical or impossible for any other mage to have more than two or three sustains at a time. For example, advanced reanimation; spell power and advanced animate dead, would normally be a very expensive combination to cast, 140 total mana. A blood stain can afford this and other sustained spells without putting a point into willpower.

Health:

With blood magic activated, a blood mage must be aware of his health. As soon as he is 100 health down blood sacrifice should be cast. blood sacrifice should be cast as early as it efficiently can be because of the 15 second cooldown of the spell. The earlier blood sacrifice is cast, the more health a mage will have available over the course of a battle.

Besides blood sacrifice there is no cost effective means of healing, given the reduction of healing effectiveness to 10%. Note that items which claim to increase healing effectiveness do not seem to work with blood magic. This is likely a hard cap.

Specialization Combinations:

A blood mage with healing would seem like a powerful if ironic combination, as a blood mage could use a small portion of the health taken to heal the party of more health than was lost in the transfer. Aside from spiritual healer, no other specialization combination is obviously good. What arcane warrior grants in armor would seem to be lost in casting spells with high fatigue. However, it does seem fitting that a bloodmage also be a shapeshifter because of the additional attribute bonus to constitution. This is a good option if you do not plan to put any points into a second specialization.

Blood Mage Items
(Obtained by completing five off the side proving matches in Orzammar) (Looted from Avernus at the end of the Warden's Keep DLC) (Inside an egg in Wyrmling Lair during Urn of Sacred Ashes Quest) Blood Promise (Located in an armoire during the Freedom for Anders quest in the Awakening expansion)

Note that the items which improve blood magic by lowering health cost, the ring and the robes, do not stack in this ability. This makes wearing both a nice style option but not particularly potent.

Notable Blood Mages

 * The Magisters of the Imperium
 * Jowan
 * Avernus
 * Caladrius
 * Mad Hermit
 * The Baroness