Best blood hunter weapon style?

[SpaceFaerie]

I'm about to play a blood hunter for the first time in a new campaign and was wondering if i should got GWF, TWF, or SnS?
I'm playing a variant human so I get a free feat. We're using post buy so any advice on ability scores would be great.
Thanks.

[Matticusrex]

archery is king.

[Vaz]

I preder Archery. I'm playing an Order of the Lycan, and prefer to use my claws however for melee which do not work with any of the weapon styles, so using it for Archery gives me some utility elsewhere.

[Zanthy1]

I preder Archery. I'm playing an Order of the Lycan, and prefer to use my claws however for melee which do not work with any of the weapon styles, so using it for Archery gives me some utility elsewhere.

That is kind of funny that the fighting styles don't work with the claws. Personally I would rule it like TWF for the claws if I was the DM.

[Throne12]

If you want to be a beast go with a glaive and PAM. Because you get that extra bonus action attack that is still part of your weapon so you get your blood rite. It like two weapon fighting with out having to fuel two blood rites. I then would go with the profane soul to get Armor of Agath's. It give temp hp and damage when hit. Then later if you can get another feat pick up GWM.






Edited: sorry I didn't have updated 1 were get shut down PAM builds.

[SpaceFaerie]

If you want to be a beast go with a glaive and PAM. Because you get that extra bonus action attack that is still part of your weapon so you get your blood rite. It like two weapon fighting with out having to fuel two blood rites. I then would go with the profane soul to get Armor of Agath's. It give temp hp and damage when hit. Then later if you can get another feat pick up GWM.

That sounds really good and different from what I usually play, which I'm looking for. What ability scores would you recommend? We're using point buy.

[PartyChef]

I allowed Mariner for my Lycan Player. Works out well.

[Demonslayer666]

I do not recommend TWF unless you are going for flavor. Many of the Blood Hunter abilities use Bonus Actions, so they conflict and take away an attack.

[PartyChef]

I do not recommend TWF unless you are going for flavor. Many of the Blood Hunter abilities use Bonus Actions, so they conflict and take away an attack.

Same problem with PAM (additionally, I believe the most recent version treats each end as a separate weapon).

[jjadned]

I'm playing a variant human so I get a free feat.

I am put together a dex hunter.

He uses a rapier, and a hand crossbow. taking crossbow expert at 4th so by 5th level.

Has have 2 sword attacks and a crossbow attack. My only question is does the attack add my dex to the damage of my crossbow?

If you do then archery if not Duel weapon fighting.

at least what I would recommend

[strangebloke]

I do not recommend TWF unless you are going for flavor. Many of the Blood Hunter abilities use Bonus Actions, so they conflict and take away an attack.


Same problem with PAM (additionally, I believe the most recent version treats each end as a separate weapon).

having options for your bonus action isn't bad. Even if you can't use them all, being able to attack as well as cast a spell or whatever is still fine.

I think the real reason you want to avoid TWF is that you have to use the blood rite twice to get it to apply to both weapons, which majorly lowers your max hp.

[Throne12]

That sounds really good and different from what I usually play, which I'm looking for. What ability scores would you recommend? We're using point buy.

Sorry I don't use point buy and never played using them. But your going to want STR then have wis and con about equal. You'll want dex about 14 because med armor caps at +2 dex mod to armor. But don't worry about it too much you want people to hit you so they take that sweet sweet AoA damage.

Tips if it was me and had to roll for hit dice or take Average Take the average. Also try staying 10ft from enemy's. Keep up your temp hp as much as you can. And just have fun. A Archery build may be easier to build but it not as fun.

[Demonslayer666]

Same problem with PAM (additionally, I believe the most recent version treats each end as a separate weapon).

Oh yeah, that reminds me. :)

I meant to mention the cost of Rite on both weapons is pretty heavy. I'm at 8th level now, and 16 points of damage to me at the start of combat is significant.

[jjadned]

Sorry I don't use point buy and never played using them. But your going to want STR then have wis and con about equal. You'll want dex about 14 because med armor caps at +2 dex mod to armor. But don't worry about it too much you want people to hit you so they take that sweet sweet AoA damage.

Tips if it was me and had to roll for hit dice or take Average Take the average. Also try staying 10ft from enemy's. Keep up your temp hp as much as you can. And just have fun. A Archery build may be easier to build but it not as fun.

I would say that a DEX fighter would be the best bloodhunter because you also want a high CON & WIS.

[SpaceFaerie]

Thanks for the replies. I've decided to go dex based 8, 16, 14, 8, 16, 8 and my starting feat is tough for more hp. should I go order of the profaned soul or order of the lycan?

[Throne12]

Thanks for the replies. I've decided to go dex based 8, 16, 14, 8, 16, 8 and my starting feat is tough for more hp. should I go order of the profaned soul or order of the lycan?

Do you want range or melee.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I do not recommend TWF unless you are going for flavor. Many of the Blood Hunter abilities use Bonus Actions, so they conflict and take away an attack.

I learned this first hand. I'd recommend Dueling if you plan on being a melee fighter and Archery for a ranged build.

I would not recommend TWF for a multitude of reasons, chief among them being that you must activate your rite on the weapons separately and it has you take the max health damage both times. For a melee combatant who has sacrificed AC and Health for a small amount of extra damage, you're just asking to be knocked down repeatedly in a day.

Going unconscious or stowing the weapon also fades the rite, so if you happen to need to use your hand for anything and have two rites up, you're gonna have to lose one (barring exceptions like War Caster)

The only order that you'd want TWF for is Lycan, but there's great risk involved with that archetype. Great Weapon Fighting is probably worth considering but it suffers from the same survivability downside that TWF does.

Edit: TWF doesn't actually work with Lycan's feature, so I can't really make any argument in it's favor other than "if it's what you want"

[SpaceFaerie]

Do you want range or melee.

I'm going Melee

[Throne12]

So race v-human feat duel wielder.
Fighting style: two weapon
Order: profane soul
Weapons two short swords or rapier

But what this build is about is rite damage on a rapier then cast shadow blade and two weapon fight.
Your AC will be 18
Damage your doing 2d8+4+2d6+2d8+4 weapon×2+dex+rite+shadow blade+dex

[Vaz]

So race v-human feat duel wielder.
Fighting style: two weapon
Order: profane soul
Weapons two short swords or rapier

But what this build is about is rite damage on a rapier then cast shadow blade and two weapon fight.
Your AC will be 18
Damage your doing 2d8+4+2d6+2d8+4 weapon×2+dex+rite+shadow blade+dex

Can you speak english? Like, as in full sentences. You speak gibberish half the time. Slow down. Take a breath. Use Capitals, punctuation, full stops. This ain't facebook bruv.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Can you speak english? Like, as in full sentences. You speak gibberish half the time. Slow down. Take a breath. Use Capitals, punctuation, full stops. This ain't facebook bruv.

This seems kind of rude considering I can understand what he means just fine.

So race v-human feat duel wielder.
Fighting style: two weapon
Order: profane soul
Weapons two short swords or rapier

But what this build is about is rite damage on a rapier then cast shadow blade and two weapon fight.
Your AC will be 18
Damage your doing 2d8+4+2d6+2d8+4 weapon×2+dex+rite+shadow blade+dex
The issue with that solution is that Shadow Blade is concentration and I think activating a rite would force you to make a concentration check since you are damaging yourself. You probably won't fail a DC10 check, but the times you do is going to be really embarrassing. It also still takes a bonus action to use Shadow Blade, which has again taken 2 of your potential 2 weapon fighting turns just to set up for "optimal" two-weapon fighting.

You also don't get 2nd level slots until 7th level. I feel like you'd be better off using Dueling, carrying a single Rapier and using the other 7th level feature that profane soul gets allowing you to use a cantrip and get a bonus action weapon attack.

It takes too much work to properly set up for Two-Weapon fighting with rites, even if the damage is pretty high.

[Vaz]

You understand gibberish just fine. What is he saying then, please?

[JakOfAllTirades]

I played a Blood Hunter in CoS. Dex-based Ghost Hunter archetype. I used TWF, and took a couple levels in Ranger. Stacking Crimson Rites with Hunter's Mark on 3 attacks per round racks up a lot of damage.

And yes, it uses up some Bonus Actions. Totally worth it.

[Ventruenox]

And as a Profane Soul, you can stack Hex on top of Blood Rites. If you wanted to get silly with multiclassing for more stackable damage, Druid 2 (Circle of Spores) or Fighter 3 (Brute) will add on an additional die to each attack.

[SpaceFaerie]

I played a Blood Hunter in CoS. Dex-based Ghost Hunter archetype. I used TWF, and took a couple levels in Ranger. Stacking Crimson Rites with Hunter's Mark on 3 attacks per round racks up a lot of damage.

And yes, it uses up some Bonus Actions. Totally worth it.

I never considered that but it does sound good. Blood hunter would make up for the shortcomings of ranger and they use the same stats.

[SpaceFaerie]

And as a Profane Soul, you can stack Hex on top of Blood Rites. If you wanted to get silly with multiclassing for more stackable damage, Druid 2 (Circle of Spores) or Fighter 3 (Brute) will add on an additional die to each attack.

Sounds good but this game is strictly published material. Our dm is running hoard of the dragon queen for the first time and wants to keep it simple. But I'll have to try that some day.

Edit: They're making an exemption for Matt Mercer material because huge Critcal Role fan.