Show Me Your Blood Hunters?

[Mercurias]

Howdy!

I've been trying to wrap my head on how to play this class, and I finally came up with a nice, basic setup I like.

Race: Wood Elf
Class: Bloodhunter
Specialization: Order of the Profane Soul (Archfey)
Stat Priority: Dex > Con/Wis > Int > Str > Cha
Desired Feats: Tough, Elven Accuracy, Resilient (Con)
Rites: Storm, Flame, Storm, Frozen, Dead
Maledicts: Eyeless, Spell Sunder, Fending Rite, Fallen Puppet, Mutual Suffering
Cantrips: Chill Touch, Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand (Or Minor Illusion/Prestigitation)
Spells: Blur, Slow, Misty Step, Hex, Invisible, Fly, Armor of Agathys, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, Hallucinatory Terrain, Hellish Rebuke, Mirror Image

Playstyle: Making use of Hex, Eldritch Blast, a longbow, and Crimson Rite, you're able to bounce out good damage from range. In situations where landing a debuff is essential, Diabolic Channel and Elven Accuracy work together well to ensure a higher chance of it landing.

I kind of like this for a flavorful Warlock-Ranger type playstyle, and the Blood Malidicts are slightly safer for this character compared to a melee Blood Hunter because it fires from range and has a number of anti-magic options.

What sort of Blood Hunters have you all made, player, and/or theorycrafted? I'm curious to see how it can be built.

[ProsecutorGodot]

My blood hunter is a bit unconventional because of my terrific stat rolls.

Race: V.Human
Class: Profane Soul (Celestial) BH 5, War Wizard 8
Stat Distribution:
-Str:13
-Dex:18
-Con:18
-Int:18
-Wis:18
-Cha:14
Feats: Alert, War Caster, Prodigy
Rites:Storm
Maledicts:Eyeless, Fallen Puppet
Cantrips:Mold Earth, Eldritch Blast, Green-Flame Blade, Booming Blade, Light, Toll the Dead
Spells:Being a Wizard with a lot of time and money, a lot. Find Familiar is worth noting due to a Tressym Familiar.

Playstyle: Being very durable and typically first in initiative, I place myself between the problem and my allies and then use my expanded spell power as a wizard to shore up my allies weaknesses. Focus on BB to prevent enemies from passing me without suffering substantial damage. Life Transference is used often due to my (surprisingly) large health pool. This character embodies the self sacrifice for benefit aspect of the archetype as well as the cold and calculating hunter aspect. Many aspects drawn from the witcher series for character design and motivations. The character uses a SnB build.

Would I recommend replicating this character build?: No, this character would be much more powerful as an Eldritch Knight but I didn't start them with plans to multiclass Wizard. I don't regret doing so though, my original plan for the character would have been boring in comparison.

[JakOfAllTirades]

FFS, it's after midnight and I've finally got time to post this thing...

My Blood Hunter character was created for the Curse of Strahd campaign, using v1.8 of the pdf.

Race: VHuman; Archetype: Ghostslayer, 8th level

Str 8; Dex 18; Con 14; Int 10; Wis 16; Cha 10

Fighting Style: Two Weapons
Feats: Dual Wielder, Tough
Rites: Storm, Flame, Dawn
Maledicts: Fallen Puppet, Sundered Spell

I did a lousy job picking Maledicts but other than that had a great time mowing down undead left and rite (ha!) all over Barovia. Near the end of the campaign I took a couple of levels in revised (UA) Ranger with Undead as my favored enemy. Stacking Hunter's Mark with Rite of the Dawn really put the hurt on the living dead. Against other creature types the build was adequate. I escaped from the Hut of Baba Yaga with 1hp.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

Mine's a little weird, too, mostly due to the character being converted mid-campaign 'cause of story reasons. Was originally supposed to be War Cleric/Gloomstalker Ranger, but the Ranger got replaced.

Race: Half Drow
Class: War Cleric 1/Bloodhunter X
Specialization: Order of the Lycan (Werespider)
Stat Priority: Dex > Wis > Con > Int > Cha > STR
Desired Feats: Sharpshooter (acquired for free at level 1), Elven Accuracy, Mobile, Tough, Dex +2
Rites: Poison (definitely non-optimal, but thematic), Cold, Necrotic
Maledicts: Binding (spider webs), Eyeless, Sunder
Cantrips: Guidance, Toll the Dead, Spare the Dying
Spells: Bless, Divine Favor, Healing Word, Sanctuary

Playstyle: Get Bless going (on myself, the SS gunslinger, and the GWM Paladin), then utilize x2 Sharpshooter bow attacks, with a BA attack 3x per long rest if I really need a hit or if I have advantage. When pressed into melee range, Lycan transform + Rite on claws, take two claw swings + BA claw attack. If it looks like a beefy guy that's going to force me into melee range, I can also activate Divine Favor if Bless drops to get more damage on claw attacks, but that's not as necessary. Once I get mobile, I can be a pesky striker that can get to the battle and out of it when I need to, as well as swapping from melee to ranged as necessary, being able to put out a good amount of damage at either distance. Tough would be a nice to have, but not 100% necessary. The real prize is at level 16 (BH 15/War Cleric 1), when I get advantage on attacks when shifted. Means I can bonus action shift, take 2 sharpshooter shots at triple advantage, then either rite up my bow next turn, or skip it for extra sharpshooter attacks. Since my DM doesn't use flanking rules, Pack Tactics is the easiest way to gain consistent advantage, since our Paladin wants to always be on something.

This build happened by accident. I was originally going to be ranged support only, but the story pushed me into lycanthropy and the DM seemed excited about it (I was, too, having never played a BH). Since Sharpshooter was a free feat anyway, I can continue on as a typical dex BH build and have the archery stuff as a handy fallback when I don't want to spend resources. Depending on magic items I get (there might be a Necklace of Prayer beads for Bonus Action blesses, spiderclimb slippers, and an Oathbow in my future), I could end up being really, really annoying at any range, surprisingly tanky with my resistances, and still supportive with Bless and such. I'll either finish off the build at 15/5, 17/3, or possibly 15 BH/2 War Cleric/3 Kensei (or some other type) Monk for kicks.