Is the blood hunter class any good?

[samcifer]

So my DM suggested that I might like to play as a blood hunter, specifically a lycan order one, and I find the orders of the profane soul and ghostslayer interesting, but wanted to hear thoughts from people who've played the class to see if it's good, bad, or what.

[ProsecutorGodot]

There was a thread from just a little over a week ago (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?591371-Blood-Hunters-General-thoughts) where some discussion was had on the Blood Hunter.

My opinion hasn't changed since then, so if you don't feel like reading the whole thread I'll just repost my thoughts from then.


Personal experience having played Profane Soul to level 11 - Fun class, poor durability. Many of your blood maledictis are not good, Blood Curse of the Eyeless being the standout best option.

As far as subclasses go:
-Ghost Slayer is a great martial class for fighting undead. It's not as good as a Paladin but it has benefits that the Paladin does not such as ranged radiant damage that is also not reliant on spell slots. They deal consistent damage rather than nova damage.
-Lycan is a powerful unarmed class with some of the best durability out of the Blood Hunter options. The problem is that, even though the chance is low, there is a chance that your bloodlust can overtake you and you'll do more harm than good by attacking an ally rather than the enemy.
-Mutant is probably the most "balanced" in the sense that it isn't pushed into focusing on one style of play over another. The drawbacks of your mutagen are often more severe than the benefits are useful.
-Profane Soul is in all ways a worse version of Eldritch Knight, which is a shame. It doesn't actually borrow a whole lot from the Patron aspect of its spellcasting and has 1/3 warlock casting progression (which is bad). The 11th level feature is pretty powerful though despite its limitations.

The class, thematically, is very well put together. The balance is on the weaker side unless you opt for a ranged build, which makes it pretty decent.

The most important thing to bring up for Blood Hunters though is that they have severe handicaps against being played with Polearm Master* or Dual Wielding. Choosing to focus your character around these options will hurt your action economy and durability thanks to it taking two seperate blood rites for each weapon or end of your polearm.
*This feature was written before the errata that allows spears to benefit from Polearm Master and as such only cites polearm and quarterstaves as needing multiple rites, so technically a spear can be used to benefit from your Crimson Rite without an additional activation with Polearm Master.

[JakOfAllTirades]

In my experience, a Blood Hunter can be an excellent character in the right campaign. I played a Ghostslayer in Curse of Strahd and had a lot of fun slaughtering undead day and night. I didn't mind being a dual-wielding glass cannon because my enemies died before I did.

[Demonslayer666]

I like the class, it dishes out a lot of damage. I took Order of the Mutant for lots of options, but I found that the mutagens are very situational and rarely used, until you get the regen one. I used Shielded on a few occasions. I really like the curses, and found them very useful. I started out 2 weapon style, but many abilities (mutagens and curses) use the bonus action, so they collided, and the damage from activating the rite twice seemed excessive. I just imagined a guy dual wielding short swords with lightning coursing down the blades and it really appealed to me. Turned out that in most combats I only used it on one blade because taking two rounds to active them both was rarely worth it. Keeping one active was pretty easy, and activating and dropping the second was too costly - you need a free hand to do stuff. Now that I only use one short sword, I wish I had shield proficiency, but I also find that always having a free hand is rather useful.

The extra damage added with the crimson rite active is significant. The more attacks, the better, so I took Sentinel and it has proven very effective. Had I gone strength based and 2 handed, it would be gross.

The class adds some extra bookkeeping by lowering your max HP, but that's nothing big.

I found it very helpful to list out all my abilities that use a bonus action.

[viaFAMILIAR]

I played a profane soul when BH was @1.x. Now I'm playing ghostlayer @2.1. Profane soul's diabolic channel slayed with scorching ray/hex. Ghostlayer was a wrong choice for this campaign. We're level six and I haven't seen one undead. I am having fun though, with TWF, dual wielder. I found a pistol and now using a tweaked CBE. Highly unoptimized. DM offered a restat

[GlenSmash!]

I mostly find Bloodhunter too fiddly for 5e. Lycan does however get the benefit of crimson right working on both the main and offhand weapon as long as you are using claws, which saves you HP compared to other TWF Bloodhunters.

Bloodlust however is pretty punishing.

[Bloodyshadow1]

I played one for a quick campaign, it was fun, but the fact that you're leaking health as a frontline fighter with only a d8 for your hit die and medium armor is pretty unforgiving, unless you have a cleric willing to babysit you. It got to the point where my dm just said roll a d10 like a fighter so I wouldn't go down so often.

[Demonslayer666]

I played one for a quick campaign, it was fun, but the fact that you're leaking health as a frontline fighter with only a d8 for your hit die and medium armor is pretty unforgiving, unless you have a cleric willing to babysit you. It got to the point where my dm just said roll a d10 like a fighter so I wouldn't go down so often.

That must be an earlier or later version, Version 1.8 rolls d10.

Edit: as does the one in D&D Beyond.

[GlenSmash!]

That must be an earlier or later version, Version 1.8 rolls d10.

Edit: as does the one in D&D Beyond.

The latest version is much more inline with other 5e classes, getting shield proficiency for example.

[samcifer]

I'd only use it if I were to multi-class into either Barbarian or Lycanthrope, tbh, to mitigate the glass-part of being a glass cannon.