Blood Hunter 2020... Which blood curses would be best for Ravenloft?

[samcifer]

So in a few weeks we will be starting a Ravenloft campaign (using the official campaign material) and I want to play a Warforged Blood Hunter (the 2020 updated version)-Ghostslayer/Artificer-Battlesmith. The concept for the character is a an inventor who hunts monsters professionally.

It'll be a sniper-focused build at lvl 11+ with INT and CON as my main stats with CHA and STR as my dump stats. I took Resilient Wisdom and Sharpshooter as my asi/feats and am going Artificer 3/Blood Hunter 8+. Infusions will be Repeating Shot on a hand crossbow (and a shield for extra AC. but a non-infused shield along with non-infused half-plate) and Goggles of Night to cover Low light vision. BH rite damage types I chose are cold and lightning with the Archery Fighting style for improved aim. Background is Investigator. Skill profs are: Arcana, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Perception and Survival.

The sticking point for me, however, so not knowing which blood curses I should take. None of them seem to stand out to me.

Anyone have advice on which ones I should take?

[samcifer]

Still.looking for advice on this build.

[stoutstien]

Blood hunters are just not popular enough for enough table time to get any feedback that is very useful. It doesn't help it also went through a major revision so you have multiple different versions floating about.
Saying that bloat is nice because it doesn't have a save

[Saelethil]

Binding and Exposure seem like they should be good picks. I’m not an expert on Bloodhunters or Ravenloft but control over movement with Binding and a way around resistances with Exposure are probably what I would grab in most situations but especially when dealing with things that go bump in the night.

[renzdog]

I played a blood hunter for a little while. Here was my experience with blood curses:

Blood Curse of Binding-I got good use out of this. early levels I froze some melee dudes to leave them stuck for a round. Later levels I found that the folks I really wanted to use this on were pretty good at strength saving throws ... but it came in clutch a few times against spell casters. Spell casters can't make a strength saving throw if their lives depended on it- and shutting off reactions shut of counter spell.

Blood Curse of Bloated Agony
We had a grappler (or we had a polymorphed giant ape... who knew king kong was a good grappler) and used it once in a while to good effect (earth elementals that kept sinking into the ground, flyers, and keeping spell casters in a silenced area). This is not good unless you have some team work going for you.

Blood Curse of the Eyeless- I was playing a melee focussed blood hunter (I think archery is better). I used to good effect as a bad shield spell ... but a bad shield spell is still pretty decent.

I was playing a profane soul using the level 7 feature (cantrip plus bonus action weapon attack). I really regretted only having two attacks a round to make full use out of crimson rite (It didn't help that it was in avernus (so no green flame blade) and I had trouble triggering booming blade). If I played another blood hunter I would definitely try and get a bonus action attack (polearm master, crossbow expert). Especially playing in ravenloft with extra hemocraft die when hitting undead.

I think your concept is really cool ... so play it.
However, if you are just running three levels of artificer to get int based attacks I don't know if its worth it.
I got good attribute rolls, so I had an 18 int ... but honestly I'm not sure the high intelligence really mattered that much. The blood curses are once per short rest ... and really not that good anyways. I was disappointed in the level 6 ability. The level 10 ability is really good (I like making saves), but if you multi-class you will never get there.

I also took resilient wisdom- it was a life saver sometimes. I still wasn't great a wisdom saving throws but at least I had a chance. Getting to level 14 would really help (I stopped at 12).

[samcifer]

I might go up to battlesmith 8 for adding INT to saving throws later on. I could go order of the mutant instead to bump INT up to 24, but ghostslayer seems more useful to the setting over all.

[Evaar]

This is a little off topic, but you're playing a Blood Hunter in Ravenloft so I'll share it. This would be effectively an entirely different character from what you've proposed, but maybe you decide you like it.

Order of the Lycan and the Dhampir race work really, really well together. You can reflavor Lycan to be an enhanced vampiric state, "calling on the Blood," that sort of thing. All this works perfectly with the blood curses as well. I like Cold and Necrotic damage for the crimson rite choices here, keeping with the flavor.

First, Blood Hunter/Lycan incentivizes a lot of skill usage (advantage to survival and history, advantage to strength checks so you can grapple) and Dhampir will give you 2 bonus skills.

Second, Dhampir starts with 35 base speed. Lycan features will increase this up to 50. Dhampir has the ability to spider-walk on walls and ceilings hands free, so your mobility will rival or arguably exceed a Monk's. Check with your DM if you're allowed to drag grappled enemies up to the ceiling and drop them.

Third, the Bloodlust drawback of Lycan is heavily mitigated by the Dhampir's bite. You can choose to use your bite attack instead of clawing if you end up targeting an ally. If you do that, you can regain health equal to the piercing damage you deal, meaning you aren't actually dealing damage to the party, you're just transferring health from another party member to yourself. The net effect is the party's health remains stable. This effectively negates the biggest problem most people have with Lycan.

Lycan gets you three attacks a round without needing Crossbow Expert or Polearm Master. Blood Hunter really wants to make three attacks due to how Crimson Rite works.

[renzdog]

Evaar: That is a cool build.


This is a little off topic, .
Or is it: You are a famous inventor who gets bitten by a vampire. Despondent at first, your inventor mind can't help but tinker with yourself and the properties of your blood. Intrigued you start to study Lycanthropes - when you get Bit! Working furiously before the full moon returns and you lose control again you have a breakthrough ... using the vampire blood you have been studying you create a formula that will let you control the Lycanthropy ... at least for a time. To your horror you discover that your own blood, now infected with Lycanthropy, won't fuel your formula anymore. So you set out into the night to collect what you need ... the blood of an undead creature. But you had better hurry. You're almost out of formulae ... and the full moon is coming.

In short: you don't have to use the ghost hunter subclass to play a ghost hunter.



I might go up to battlesmith 8 for adding INT to saving throws later on. .
I love making saving throws and the level 7 artificer ability is great ... but that is 7 levels. Compare to war wizard level 2.
After playing a blood hunter (once mind you ... so I'm no expert) I kind of feel like it is a lot like the old ranger subclasses. It was fine and thematic from 1-5, but I didn't feel like much happened after that. If I was going to multi-class with artificer, I'd consider having artificer as the main class and dipping 2 level of blood hunter for archery and blood rite (or three if you want a subclass). I do think flavoring the artificer infusions/spells as blood magic is cool.
If I was using blood hunter as the main class I'd be more inclined to dip gloom stalker or fighter to leverage blood rite. For example: A blood hunter 5 gloom stalker 3 fighting an undead could hunter's mark and then shoot three arrows that all have 3 extra dice (4 extra dice for the last attack). Thats similar to sharpshooter +10 without the -5 penalty. A few other quick notes:
gloom stalker is also a good subclass for a ghost hunter.
Rogue is also a decent multi-class - expertise in the skills you need to "hunt" and sneak attack.
Two weapon fighting could be decent if you want a bonus attack without investing a feat.
If multi-classing you might want to start with something other than blood hunter to get a better saving throw.


I could go order of the mutant instead to bump INT up to 24, but ghostslayer seems more useful to the setting over all.
What level are you starting at?
I've seen a few builds online that do something like this: and it was the first idea I had when I set out to play a blood hunter. I wonder if anyone has ever played this from level 1?
When I sat down to map it out it looked pretty tough. If you do blood hunter 5 then battle smith 3 you probably need a pretty good dex too so your character doesn't suck for levels 1-7. If you do battle-smith 3 first ... levels 5,6,7 will be pretty sad with no extra attack. I might come back to this idea some day ... but I'd be more inclined to either
1) take the lucky feat
2) 1 level of clockwork sorcerer ... bonus points if your dm lets you use int for the casting stat
Note that the armorer also gets an int based attack.

[samcifer]

Evaar: That is a cool build.


Or is it: You are a famous inventor who gets bitten by a vampire. Despondent at first, your inventor mind can't help but tinker with yourself and the properties of your blood. Intrigued you start to study Lycanthropes - when you get Bit! Working furiously before the full moon returns and you lose control again you have a breakthrough ... using the vampire blood you have been studying you create a formula that will let you control the Lycanthropy ... at least for a time. To your horror you discover that your own blood, now infected with Lycanthropy, won't fuel your formula anymore. So you set out into the night to collect what you need ... the blood of an undead creature. But you had better hurry. You're almost out of formulae ... and the full moon is coming.

In short: you don't have to use the ghost hunter subclass to play a ghost hunter.



I love making saving throws and the level 7 artificer ability is great ... but that is 7 levels. Compare to war wizard level 2.
After playing a blood hunter (once mind you ... so I'm no expert) I kind of feel like it is a lot like the old ranger subclasses. It was fine and thematic from 1-5, but I didn't feel like much happened after that. If I was going to multi-class with artificer, I'd consider having artificer as the main class and dipping 2 level of blood hunter for archery and blood rite (or three if you want a subclass). I do think flavoring the artificer infusions/spells as blood magic is cool.
If I was using blood hunter as the main class I'd be more inclined to dip gloom stalker or fighter to leverage blood rite. For example: A blood hunter 5 gloom stalker 3 fighting an undead could hunter's mark and then shoot three arrows that all have 3 extra dice (4 extra dice for the last attack). Thats similar to sharpshooter +10 without the -5 penalty. A few other quick notes:
gloom stalker is also a good subclass for a ghost hunter.
Rogue is also a decent multi-class - expertise in the skills you need to "hunt" and sneak attack.
Two weapon fighting could be decent if you want a bonus attack without investing a feat.
If multi-classing you might want to start with something other than blood hunter to get a better saving throw.


What level are you starting at?
I've seen a few builds online that do something like this: and it was the first idea I had when I set out to play a blood hunter. I wonder if anyone has ever played this from level 1?
When I sat down to map it out it looked pretty tough. If you do blood hunter 5 then battle smith 3 you probably need a pretty good dex too so your character doesn't suck for levels 1-7. If you do battle-smith 3 first ... levels 5,6,7 will be pretty sad with no extra attack. I might come back to this idea some day ... but I'd be more inclined to either
1) take the lucky feat
2) 1 level of clockwork sorcerer ... bonus points if your dm lets you use int for the casting stat
Note that the armorer also gets an int based attack.

So we're currently playing Icewind Dale and are currently at lvl 11. When IWD is finished, we'll move into a Ravenloft campaign starting that our current level with either our current characters or new ones. I'm getting bored of playing my sorlock (clockwork soul 9/celestial pact 2) and want to try an artificer/bloodhunter for that campaign.

[animewatcha]

This is a little off topic, but you're playing a Blood Hunter in Ravenloft so I'll share it. This would be effectively an entirely different character from what you've proposed, but maybe you decide you like it.

Order of the Lycan and the Dhampir race work really, really well together. You can reflavor Lycan to be an enhanced vampiric state, "calling on the Blood," that sort of thing. All this works perfectly with the blood curses as well. I like Cold and Necrotic damage for the crimson rite choices here, keeping with the flavor.

First, Blood Hunter/Lycan incentivizes a lot of skill usage (advantage to survival and history, advantage to strength checks so you can grapple) and Dhampir will give you 2 bonus skills.

Second, Dhampir starts with 35 base speed. Lycan features will increase this up to 50. Dhampir has the ability to spider-walk on walls and ceilings hands free, so your mobility will rival or arguably exceed a Monk's. Check with your DM if you're allowed to drag grappled enemies up to the ceiling and drop them.

Third, the Bloodlust drawback of Lycan is heavily mitigated by the Dhampir's bite. You can choose to use your bite attack instead of clawing if you end up targeting an ally. If you do that, you can regain health equal to the piercing damage you deal, meaning you aren't actually dealing damage to the party, you're just transferring health from another party member to yourself. The net effect is the party's health remains stable. This effectively negates the biggest problem most people have with Lycan.

Lycan gets you three attacks a round without needing Crossbow Expert or Polearm Master. Blood Hunter really wants to make three attacks due to how Crimson Rite works.

Just bouncing idea. Current race Dhampir, old race (lineage replacement or whatever it is called) elf. Feat Revenant blade. With great weapon fighting. You have a choice between weapon attack that benefits fully from BA attack and full mod, claws for when you need can't have a weapon ready, and a bite for above reasons. Only claws would eventually benefit from attack bonus, but ANY melee attack benefits from the damage bonus.

[samcifer]

Well, slightly off topic here, but came up with an idea. Unlike barbarians, order of lycan blood hunters in lycan form can still cast spells, so what if an evocation wizard contracts lycanthropy and a bh helps them learn to control it while training them to hunt monsters?
For this, it would be 5 lvls of Evo wizard, then 6+ of lycan blood hunter with DEX and INT as main stats with moderate CON and WIS, then STR and CHA as dump stats and the Tough feat to shore up his HP?