Rate my Blood Hunter (Trying to figure this out)

[Drache64]

A lot of people say the blood Hunter is a glass cannon minus the cannon. My brother is a first time DM and I'm a veteran player and thought I'd give the class a try because I love the idea of playing a werewolf.

This will be a solo campaign, just me the player and my brother the DM.

Level 3.

Race Wood Elf.
Rolled stats:
Str 12
Dex 20
Con 15
INT 14
WIS 18
CHA 14

Longbow and Rapier
Rite of the storm
Blood curse of mutual suffering.
Order of the lycan.

The hopes are to use my bow for ranged sniping and kiting. Then switch to werewolf form for melee.

[Dork_Forge]

I've never really seen the glass part of it, they basically get knocked down to d8 hit die temporarily for a pretty solid damage boost.

For your build it looks pretty solid, I'd flip Wisdom and Con though, you'll benefit a lot more from the higher hp (your Blood Maledict doesn't provoke a save and as long as your party is aware of your chance of attacking them they can just stay out of your range). Otherwise Wood Elf looks a solid choice, thematic and the speed boost feels a nice fit for a werewolf.

[Demonslayer666]

They have cannon because of the extra damage die added on to each attack while your rite is active, which you should be doing every combat unless you are low on HP. You could do both your bow and rapier, but that will cost you a lot of extra damage taken. I recommend just one or the other, especially playing solo. I played a dual wielding BH and riting both was too costly in both action economy and damage taken.

You can maintain the rite while wielding your weapon, so if you can avoid switching weapons, you are better off in the long run because one activation can carry over to multiple combats.

[jaappleton]

I strongly, heavily advise against this.

And I could be incorrect, its been awhile and I know Mercer's released some updates over time. But double check this:

So you're going to activate your Rite on your bow, and then if a situation gets confrontational, you plan to activate Lycan. Well now that's two weapons you need to use your Blood Rite on.

I say you're much better off going Crossbow Expert (hand crossbow) and Profane Soul, using Hex to bump your damage dice. So now you're doing 1d6 Piercing + 1d6 Necrotic + 1d6 Rite, or 3d6+5 per attack. And (after the first round, since Hex is a bonus action) that's three attacks per round.

And since you'd have Crossbow Expert you don't suffer Disadvantage on attacks by being in melee.

AND you don't have to deal with the whole 'frenzy' aspect of going Lycan, where you might end up attacking allies.

[ProsecutorGodot]

I strongly, heavily advise against this.

And I could be incorrect, its been awhile and I know Mercer's released some updates over time. But double check this:

So you're going to activate your Rite on your bow, and then if a situation gets confrontational, you plan to activate Lycan. Well now that's two weapons you need to use your Blood Rite on.

I say you're much better off going Crossbow Expert (hand crossbow) and Profane Soul, using Hex to bump your damage dice. So now you're doing 1d6 Piercing + 1d6 Necrotic + 1d6 Rite, or 3d6+5 per attack. And (after the first round, since Hex is a bonus action) that's three attacks per round.

And since you'd have Crossbow Expert you don't suffer Disadvantage on attacks by being in melee.

AND you don't have to deal with the whole 'frenzy' aspect of going Lycan, where you might end up attacking allies.

This is a pretty good summation. My recommendation, considering this is a solo campaign, is to take Order of the Ghostslayer. The Rite of Dawn that it grants you halves the damage you take to your maximum hit points to activate it.

On the bolded part, Lycan's unarmed strikes don't require you to use both hands to make your bonus action strike, but jaapleton is correct that you would be doubling up your activation costs.

For the Ghostslayer, you can use the rite on a hand x-bow and Rapier for what amounts to 1 total activation cost and unless you have need of a free hand for object manipulation you can maintain those rites for the entire day. For Lycan you're always going to be spending that cost twice and when your form reverts after 10 minutes you're going to have to activate it again when you transform again as the rite activation on unarmed strikes is tied to your transformation.


For your build it looks pretty solid, I'd flip Wisdom and Con though, you'll benefit a lot more from the higher hp.

I would also second this, Wisdom doesn't do nearly enough for Blood Hunter's to warrant making it a secondary stat. You definitely want your Con higher.

The final recommendation I would make is to use Blood Cure of the Eyeless rather than Mutual Suffering.

[GlenSmash!]

The hopes are to use my bow for ranged sniping and kiting. Then switch to werewolf form for melee.

This is probably the best strategy for lycans. I would recommend only using rites on your claws as you only need one rite for both claws. The bow is your backup.

Try to pick up Resilient Wisdom or Lucky to help keep you from killing your party.