Order of Lycan Blood Hunter

[Rogerdodger557]

My group will be starting a homebrew campaign in about a month, and I wanted some advice for my build. We will be starting at Level 3, and I'm considering going vuman. Not sure what feat to take, but must be thematic to build/character. Don't have stats yet, but I will be doing a STR build for damage purposes, and the only change to the subclass is that the shifts are more like a barbarian's rage. 2/day at 3rd, 3/day at 11th, and 3/rest at 17th. Any advice?

[Chunkosaurus]

Tough might be a good choice considering the mechanics of the blood hunter. It basically covers activating two uses of your crimson rite while still leaving you with tons of hit points. This will let you be tankier and hit harder.

[GlenSmash!]

One nice thing about Lycan is one Crismon rite works for both of your claws. So you won't be hurting for HPs as badly as TWF Bloodhunters would be, but it can still be brutal, so you may want a decent Con, or the Tough feat, or both.

Going Strength based will put you in medium armor so to max AC in that you'll want a Dex of 14. A decent Wisdom for the bloodlust saves is a good idea too. I'd prioritize Str >Dex=con>Wis>int=Cha. Something like 16, 14, 16, 8, 12, 8 or 16, 14, 14, 8, 14, 8 would be easily doable.

I don't think there's a lot of feats that will help the Lycan specifically, but in general Lucky an Mobile are useful to just about everyone.

I'm curious why you think Strength is better for damage purposes since Lycans can use Dex for their claws? Are you talking about non-claw damage? Are you going GWM or PM?

[Rogerdodger557]

One nice thing about Lycan is one Crismon rite works for both of your claws. So you won't be hurting for HPs as badly as TWF Bloodhunters would be, but it can still be brutal, so you may want a decent Con, or the Tough feat, or both.

I completely misread that. Thanks for pointing that out.



I'm curious why you think Strength is better for damage purposes since Lycans can use Dex for their claws? Are you talking about non-claw damage? Are you going GWM or PM?

Its not that Strength is better, its a mix of making more sense thematically, and more magic items are geared towards strength based characters, at least per DMG.

[Saiga]

That's a serious nerf to the amount of shifts you can get. Barbarians get more rages per day than that (3 at lvl 3, 4 at lvl 6, 5 at lvl 12, 6 at 17) and don't have to put up with making a saving throw to maintain control.

Still, choice for your feat should probably be Heavily Armoured so you don't need any Dex for medium armour. Then you can take Heavy Armour Master at level 4.

I'm not sure I'd bother with the shifting nerfed so much. A Lycan in human form isn't very interesting or effective.

[GlenSmash!]

Its not that Strength is better, its a mix of making more sense thematically, and more magic items are geared towards strength based characters, at least per DMG.

I agree that it makes more sense thematically, especially if you're envisioning a Werebear type. Plus Grappling is great fun.


Still, choice for your feat should probably be Heavily Armoured so you don't need any Dex for medium armour. Then you can take Heavy Armour Master at level 4.

This is a viable route. You'll get a total of +2 Strength with both of these feats. Plate is equal to Half Plate +14 Dex+1 AC from Resilient Hide and can distribute the the points you would have put into Dex elsewhere (assuming point buy).


That's a serious nerf to the amount of shifts you can get. Barbarians get more rages per day than that (3 at lvl 3, 4 at lvl 6, 5 at lvl 12, 6 at 17) and don't have to put up with making a saving throw to maintain control.

I think this is also likely true.

As a DM I try to resist houseruling things until they actually become problems in play even when I think something is mathematically off. So the question I'd ask here is what problem is this actually trying to solve?

[Rogerdodger557]

I agree that it makes more sense thematically, especially if you're envisioning a Werebear type. Plus Grappling is great fun.
I was going to go with the classic werewolf, but same concept.



That's a serious nerf to the amount of shifts you can get. Barbarians get more rages per day than that (3 at lvl 3, 4 at lvl 6, 5 at lvl 12, 6 at 17) and don't have to put up with making a saving throw to maintain control.

Still, choice for your feat should probably be Heavily Armoured so you don't need any Dex for medium armour. Then you can take Heavy Armour Master at level 4.

I'm not sure I'd bother with the shifting nerfed so much. A Lycan in human form isn't very interesting or effective.



I think this is also likely true.

As a DM I try to resist houseruling things until they actually become problems in play even when I think something is mathematically off. So the question I'd ask here is what problem is this actually trying to solve?

The known party composition is my character and an ursine barbarian, with a potential druid. I think that my DM changed it so that way I'm not outraging the barbarian, if that makes sense. The shift and a barbarian's rage are so similar, I can understand why he made that change.

[Saiga]

I understand it, because a similar thing happened in my group - but that change is ridiculous. The Barbarian's rage is already just better - bigger damage bonus, no silver weakness, no saving throw weakness, protects against ALL slashing/bludgeoning/piercing.

The upside of the Lycan form is getting a BA attack similar to a Monk (without ki options) and +1 AC to non-heavy armour. The Lycan subclass was balanced around being able to transform more often than the Barbarian, if that is scaled back (and to such a degree!) without anything to compensate I highly suggest you pick something else.

I mean, you won't even get to shift often enough to actually FEEL your subclass being there. It also really hurts the flavour of being a Lycan if you barely ever use the form.

[Rogerdodger557]

I understand it, because a similar thing happened in my group - but that change is ridiculous. The Barbarian's rage is already just better - bigger damage bonus, no silver weakness, no saving throw weakness, protects against ALL slashing/bludgeoning/piercing.

The upside of the Lycan form is getting a BA attack similar to a Monk (without ki options) and +1 AC to non-heavy armour. The Lycan subclass was balanced around being able to transform more often than the Barbarian, if that is scaled back (and to such a degree!) without anything to compensate I highly suggest you pick something else.

I mean, you won't even get to shift often enough to actually FEEL your subclass being there. It also really hurts the flavour of being a Lycan if you barely ever use the form.

I'll ask my DM to look over it again, and see if he changes his mind, but I'll still play blood hunter if only because its so different and has some great abilities.