Bloodhunter or Cleric?

[Sicmetal43]

My group is going to be starting Curse of Strahd soon, and I have been planning character ideas for it for a while now but I can't decide which one I want to do.

Initially I thought bloodhunter would be amazing thematically for great roleplaying in CoS, his family was killed by an undead creature and now he is determined to kill all undead at any cost. I was going to make him ghostslayer with a hand crossbow and take crossbow expert with a variant human, but I was worried combat would get stale.

Then I thought a trickery cleric following Loki or a dwarf tempest cleric that followed Thor would be fun, and much better combat options.

The DM let me know that CoS is not quite as combat heavy as our current campaign and has much more roleplay so maybe a bloodhunter would be the better option roleplay wise.

Any one have suggestions or tips that might help me decide? I've only ever played the druid in our current campaign before so I've never touched either class.

[Zilen]

Hello there!

Let me say, that both are excelents picks for any campaing with lots of undead (i didnt play CoS, so dont worry i can´t spoil you).

The Ghostslayer Bloodhunter is the ultimate undead killers, rite of dawn is everything you want and being able to cast your curses regardless of the target having blood or not is awesome (plus the extra use which makes your curses realy dangerous for your dm).

On the other hand, everyone love a cleric (i only have played life and union domains, so i´ll talk about clerics in general) turn undead is simply fantastic in the right hands, plus some good damage/control/healing spells (you can ress ;) )

Now, let me tell you, if you only have played one character, meaby it´s not the best idea to play a bloodhunter just yet, the amount of things you need to remember, the amount of choices you can make, makes them not so easy to learn. Not to mention that maybe for CoS the GhostSlayer Bloodhunter is too good for they own good AND most important of all, the bloodhunter is not official (it´s in dndbeyond and probably the best homebrew class you will find but again it´s still homebrew) so check with your DM if it´s allowed.

If nothing of what i just said botters you and you get the approbal of your DM, then yeah go for the BH!! It´s a lot of fun!!

As for the cleric, you can´t go wrong with them honestly. It´s allways good to have at least one in the party (check with the rest of them if you can, it´s allways nice to know the team comp. Or not if you want more fun jejeje). And since you come from Druid maybe Cleric it´s a good change forward.

I hope this is usefull to you! If you still have questions, please ask! :D

[Sicmetal43]

My DM already said the he is cool with bloodhunter especially with the role play aspects that are available to it with this campaign.

Bloodhunter didn't seem complicated, honestly with combat I thought it would get boring, but with crossbow expert and extra attack later I can attack three times with my rite of the dawn active and do a lot of damage to undead.

On the other hand clerics seem like a lot of fun and role playing a dwarf following thor would be fun, similar to Durkin in OOTS.

I probably have about a month to decide but I want to figure it out so I have time to really flesh out the character, I am looking forward to it.

[Seekergeek]

I played a Ghostslayer Blood Hunter in CoS using the same build you did. It was...fine. I mean...she was really really effective in combat, but outside of the RP elements (which I loved due to the character not the Blood Hunter), the class became somewhat dull to play. I found myself no more dynamic than the party fighter round-to-round which became a bummer. If you're already worried you are going to get bored with your options being farily static and slow to grow (both in combat and outside combat), cleric may be a better bet for you. Tempest cleric is an absolute hoot. I'd avoid trickery for reasons of poison resistance if nothing else. Have you looked at the Order cleric? That's got a pretty versatile toolkit on top of the general clericy goodness.

If your DM was ok with blood hunter, ask about the Zeal domain from Plane Shift: Amonkhet. It seems pretty bonkers on paper but aside from a nasty nova now and again didn't outshine anyone in our party, really.

Lastly, the light domain is tailor made for CoS and was the real MVP of our party, I'd say.

[Sicmetal43]

I played a Ghostslayer Blood Hunter in CoS using the same build you did. It was...fine. I mean...she was really really effective in combat, but outside of the RP elements (which I loved due to the character not the Blood Hunter), the class became somewhat dull to play. I found myself no more dynamic than the party fighter round-to-round which became a bummer. If you're already worried you are going to get bored with your options being farily static and slow to grow (both in combat and outside combat), cleric may be a better bet for you. Tempest cleric is an absolute hoot. I'd avoid trickery for reasons of poison resistance if nothing else. Have you looked at the Order cleric? That's got a pretty versatile toolkit on top of the general clericy goodness.

If your DM was ok with blood hunter, ask about the Zeal domain from Plane Shift: Amonkhet. It seems pretty bonkers on paper but aside from a nasty nova now and again didn't outshine anyone in our party, really.

Lastly, the light domain is tailor made for CoS and was the real MVP of our party, I'd say.

Yeah, that's what I was worried about is the bloodhunter getting stale, what you mentioned is exactly what I was thinking would happen. I want to be able to have some fun role play as well as some fun combat with good options.

[CheddarChampion]

You could multiclass to get some of both.

If you're not opposed to the idea, taking 5 levels of Blood Hunter for Extra Attack then picking up Cleric levels would work well. You'd really only need a Wisdom of 14 to be good as a Cleric.
I'm not intimately familiar with the Blood Hunter so I can't suggest a specific build.

[gorfnab]

I'm currently playing an Aerenal High Elf Profane Soul (Patron: Undying Court) Bloodhunter with the Urban Bounty Hunter background in a CoS campaign. For melee combat, I have Booming Blade + an extra attack from Mystic Frenzy (scimitar with Crimson Rite) + Hex. For ranged combat, I have Eldritch Blast + an extra attack from Mystic Frenzy (hand crossbow with Crimson Rite) + Hex. So at level 9, I am able to bring a decent amount of damage to the table. Plus, I have a number of other Warlock spells to fall back on (Blindness/Deafness, Hellish Rebuke, Protection from Evil and Good, Mirror Image, and Shatter). It seems to be working fairly well in the campaign both flavor-wise and mechanically, though I am basically the tank/pseudo glass cannon of the party.

[Sicmetal43]

Thanks for the input guys, I am going to go with Dwarf Tempest Cleric and make him a grumpy Dwarf that loves to fight and drink ale, I am going to make him proficient in brewers supplies.

My only decision now is for background if I want to go Acolyte or Clan Crafter