Halabalousa
2018-12-03, 04:00 PM
So for a while I have had an idea of a holy vampire hunter fighting with a wooden stake and I already thought of a backstory for the character. I got an upcoming campaign where we start at level 11-13ish and intend to take it to level 20 and I thought about giving this character a go. These are my thoughts for the mechanical build (UA is allowed):
I rolled for attributes (4d6 discard the lowest) and got this: 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 12 (lucky me but wierd having no low attributes)
STR: 13
DEX: 14
CON: 15 -> 18 (+2 from hill dwarf and +1 from Resilient CON)
INT: 12
WIS: 17 -> 20 (+1 from hill dwarf and +2 from ASI)
CHA: 12
ASI/feats: 1. +2 WIS, 2: Polearm Master, 3. Resilient CON, 4: Dunno? Alert, Lucky, Sentinel (but do I even want oponents to stop moving? tunnel fighter / polearm master might get more attacks in if they keep moving), Tough?
Race: hill dwarf
-+2 con and +1 wis
-1 extra HP each level which will mitigate the impact of self damage
-Can wear heavy armor with STR lower than 15 without getting movement penalty
1 level cleric (Nature Domain):
-I want the character to be a holy man so cleric fits the part
-Heavy armor proficiency
-Cantrips: Shillelagh (My charater is going to use a quarterstaff flavored as a long pointed wooded stake and a club flavored as a short wooden stake as backup weapon, Im sure my DM will allow me to use piercing damage instead of bludgeoning), Guidance (one of the best cantrips in the game), Sacred Flame (fits the theme very well), Thaumaturgy (fun cantrip to have and also fits the theme)
-Spells: Healing Word and Bless are great lvl 1 spells to use with the VERY few spell slots I got no matter what character level Im at and lots of ritual spells to cast out of combat)
12 levels blood hunter (Ghost Slayer):
-Fighting style: dueling (use shield together with the wooden stake)
-Blood curses: not sure which to take, more on that later
-Rite of the Dawn: radiant rite damage fits the theme and only half self damage to apply it is nice, the wis mod to damage at level 11 is great
-Hallowed Veins: okay I guess and fits the theme
-Grim Psychometry: nice flavour, conditionally useful
-Dark Velocity: extra movement is welcome when you are a dwarf :)
-Supernal Surge: blood hunters action surge'ish ability with extra benefits and together with Rite of the Dawn ability at 11 lvels what I wanted from the subclass
-12th level is for the ASI/feat
So this is what Im sure about. What Im not sure about is what to do with the rest of my levels and if I should take a few levels of multiclass in between the above.
What I do know is that I want the tunnel fighter fighting style (I know my character will have a LOT of different bonus action usage but the rite last as long as the wood stake is in his hands so he can keep that going and if the party are in dangerous places my character will probably "spam" shillelagh in case battle breaks out, then in battle I can each turn decide if I want to hit with the but end of the wooden stake, no rite on but end or if I want to take the tunnel fighter bonus action)
I cant see paladin for this so its either fighter or ranger:
Fighter:
-1st lvl: Fighting style (easy access to tunnel fighter), small self heal with second wind but thats a bonus action
-2nd lvl: Action surge, pretty good with Supernal Surge (3 extra attacks once per short rest) and with Curse of the Marked (6 attacks = 6 extra rite damage dies in best case scenario which is 6d8)
-3rd lvl: Martial archetype: battlemaster is always good but cant use some of the maneuvers because this build isnt str/dex based (riposte, precision attack, maneuvering attack can be used without problems), brute is good but boring, monster hunter fits the theme and has superiority dice as well (not as good as Battlemasters), already got Detect Magic as ritual from cleric, extra proficiencies are nice though
-4th lvl: ASI/feat
Ranger (revised):
-1st lvl: favored enemy fits the theme and +2 to damage against undeads is okay, the rest of the feature my character already got from blood hunter, natural explorer is very nice to get
-2nd lvl: fighting style and spells (zephyr strike and hunters mark seems good, is it feasible to concentrate on hunters mark as a melee character at higher levels? I dont think so, extra spell slots for cleric spells is nice as well)
-3rd lvl: primeval awareness and conclave: hunter taking colossus slayer gives 1d8 extra damage per turn to injured oponents, with tunnel fighter and polearm master that might mean more d8 damage per round, alternatively goom stalker with dread ambusher (+wis modifier to initiative and extra movement, attack and damage on first turn is great, Im just not sure how often my dwarf will be in range for melee attacks on turn one?)
-4th lvl: ASI/feat
Im leaning towards going for ranger but could in fact dip 2 levels into fighter after ranger for a 3rd fighting style (defensive) and action surge. However getting ghostslayer from 12 to 15 also brings brings stuff on the table, another blood curse, immune to frightened (is that important with such high wisdom saving throw?) and being able to see in magical darkness / spot invisible creature within 30ft. One extra level in cleric for turn undead would also fit tematically very well.
What do you guys think? Any feedback is welcome :)
Also has anyone played a blood hunter before and can tell me a bit about how the blood curses worked for them? Which were fun/effective and which were not? As we start the campaign in a rather high level I dont get a feel for this by playing before I have to choose them.
I rolled for attributes (4d6 discard the lowest) and got this: 17, 15, 14, 13, 12, 12 (lucky me but wierd having no low attributes)
STR: 13
DEX: 14
CON: 15 -> 18 (+2 from hill dwarf and +1 from Resilient CON)
INT: 12
WIS: 17 -> 20 (+1 from hill dwarf and +2 from ASI)
CHA: 12
ASI/feats: 1. +2 WIS, 2: Polearm Master, 3. Resilient CON, 4: Dunno? Alert, Lucky, Sentinel (but do I even want oponents to stop moving? tunnel fighter / polearm master might get more attacks in if they keep moving), Tough?
Race: hill dwarf
-+2 con and +1 wis
-1 extra HP each level which will mitigate the impact of self damage
-Can wear heavy armor with STR lower than 15 without getting movement penalty
1 level cleric (Nature Domain):
-I want the character to be a holy man so cleric fits the part
-Heavy armor proficiency
-Cantrips: Shillelagh (My charater is going to use a quarterstaff flavored as a long pointed wooded stake and a club flavored as a short wooden stake as backup weapon, Im sure my DM will allow me to use piercing damage instead of bludgeoning), Guidance (one of the best cantrips in the game), Sacred Flame (fits the theme very well), Thaumaturgy (fun cantrip to have and also fits the theme)
-Spells: Healing Word and Bless are great lvl 1 spells to use with the VERY few spell slots I got no matter what character level Im at and lots of ritual spells to cast out of combat)
12 levels blood hunter (Ghost Slayer):
-Fighting style: dueling (use shield together with the wooden stake)
-Blood curses: not sure which to take, more on that later
-Rite of the Dawn: radiant rite damage fits the theme and only half self damage to apply it is nice, the wis mod to damage at level 11 is great
-Hallowed Veins: okay I guess and fits the theme
-Grim Psychometry: nice flavour, conditionally useful
-Dark Velocity: extra movement is welcome when you are a dwarf :)
-Supernal Surge: blood hunters action surge'ish ability with extra benefits and together with Rite of the Dawn ability at 11 lvels what I wanted from the subclass
-12th level is for the ASI/feat
So this is what Im sure about. What Im not sure about is what to do with the rest of my levels and if I should take a few levels of multiclass in between the above.
What I do know is that I want the tunnel fighter fighting style (I know my character will have a LOT of different bonus action usage but the rite last as long as the wood stake is in his hands so he can keep that going and if the party are in dangerous places my character will probably "spam" shillelagh in case battle breaks out, then in battle I can each turn decide if I want to hit with the but end of the wooden stake, no rite on but end or if I want to take the tunnel fighter bonus action)
I cant see paladin for this so its either fighter or ranger:
Fighter:
-1st lvl: Fighting style (easy access to tunnel fighter), small self heal with second wind but thats a bonus action
-2nd lvl: Action surge, pretty good with Supernal Surge (3 extra attacks once per short rest) and with Curse of the Marked (6 attacks = 6 extra rite damage dies in best case scenario which is 6d8)
-3rd lvl: Martial archetype: battlemaster is always good but cant use some of the maneuvers because this build isnt str/dex based (riposte, precision attack, maneuvering attack can be used without problems), brute is good but boring, monster hunter fits the theme and has superiority dice as well (not as good as Battlemasters), already got Detect Magic as ritual from cleric, extra proficiencies are nice though
-4th lvl: ASI/feat
Ranger (revised):
-1st lvl: favored enemy fits the theme and +2 to damage against undeads is okay, the rest of the feature my character already got from blood hunter, natural explorer is very nice to get
-2nd lvl: fighting style and spells (zephyr strike and hunters mark seems good, is it feasible to concentrate on hunters mark as a melee character at higher levels? I dont think so, extra spell slots for cleric spells is nice as well)
-3rd lvl: primeval awareness and conclave: hunter taking colossus slayer gives 1d8 extra damage per turn to injured oponents, with tunnel fighter and polearm master that might mean more d8 damage per round, alternatively goom stalker with dread ambusher (+wis modifier to initiative and extra movement, attack and damage on first turn is great, Im just not sure how often my dwarf will be in range for melee attacks on turn one?)
-4th lvl: ASI/feat
Im leaning towards going for ranger but could in fact dip 2 levels into fighter after ranger for a 3rd fighting style (defensive) and action surge. However getting ghostslayer from 12 to 15 also brings brings stuff on the table, another blood curse, immune to frightened (is that important with such high wisdom saving throw?) and being able to see in magical darkness / spot invisible creature within 30ft. One extra level in cleric for turn undead would also fit tematically very well.
What do you guys think? Any feedback is welcome :)
Also has anyone played a blood hunter before and can tell me a bit about how the blood curses worked for them? Which were fun/effective and which were not? As we start the campaign in a rather high level I dont get a feel for this by playing before I have to choose them.