Two-People Party - Blood Hunter + ???

[Eradis]

As the rhythm for recruitment is going, we might end up playing with a party of two people. My friend has his eyes set on playing a Blood Hunter - Lycan, apparently. I have no clue how this class rolls other than knowing it's a class close to a Fighter.

I'm wondering what I should pick that will make creativity a key to success. Before knowing we might be only two, I thought about an Echo Fighter (I have a RP concept for it), but now I'm thinking more about a Bard (Eloquence or Lore, mostly the latter for being more of a Wizard) or a Sorcerer (no clue which one).

Any suggestions?

[Jervis]

Twilight cleric because if you’re playing with a Blood Hunter then someone in party needs to make a good character.

Blood Hunters are kinda Int based so I’d avoid wizard. Bard is a decent choice as is any flavor of cleric. They kinda need healing because of crimson rite. It’s self damage isn’t crippling but it means that d10 hit die doesn’t go as far as you’d think

[Kvess]

I’d suggest druid, because it plugs a lot of holes for a small party. Goodberry or healing spirit for out of combat healing, any summoning spell to tip the action economy in your favour, wildshape as a hitpoint buffer in combat, and a number of great control spells.

[Eldariel]

I’d suggest druid, because it plugs a lot of holes for a small party. Goodberry or healing spirit for out of combat healing, any summoning spell to tip the action economy in your favour, wildshape as a hitpoint buffer in combat, and a number of great control spells.

Moon Druid is the safe choice, being able to do everything and extremely self-sustainable. Any kind of Cleric or Shepherd is fine too and something with some martial ability like Swords Bard or Bladesinger too.

[Kvess]

Alternatively, artificer might be thematically interesting for a wilderness/technology dynamic. You still get access to a limited pool of healing, a construct to aid you in battle, and the magic items and infusions could benefit you both.

[Eradis]

Twilight cleric because if you’re playing with a Blood Hunter then someone in party needs to make a good character.

Blood Hunters are kinda Int based so I’d avoid wizard. Bard is a decent choice as is any flavor of cleric. They kinda need healing because of crimson rite. It’s self damage isn’t crippling but it means that d10 hit die doesn’t go as far as you’d think

"someone in party needs to make a good character." This made me laugh. I don't know jack about the Blood Hunter; now I know it is intelligence-based. Honestly Cleric could be interesting, I'm just not a big fan of preparing spells. I greatly prefer to have my known spells always readied. It just take some getting use to I guess...

[Cleric added as a contender]


I’d suggest druid, because it plugs a lot of holes for a small party. Goodberry or healing spirit for out of combat healing, any summoning spell to tip the action economy in your favour, wildshape as a hitpoint buffer in combat, and a number of great control spells.


Moon Druid is the safe choice, being able to do everything and extremely self-sustainable. Any kind of Cleric or Shepherd is fine too and something with some martial ability like Swords Bard or Bladesinger too.

Not knowing how Goodberry truly works aside, I've always wanted to play a Halfling Ghostwise Moon Druid.

I would personally stay away from summons in a ttrpg because of the toll it adds to the rest of the group as it increase the length of the encounters. Then again, I don't believe Moon Druid would summon, would it?

[Moon Druid added as a contender]


Alternatively, artificer might be thematically interesting for a wilderness/technology dynamic. You still get access to a limited pool of healing, a construct to aid you in battle, and the magic items and infusions could benefit you both.

As much as I love many parts of Artificer, I feel like they must fit the settings. I just don't see this one fits in the setting I will be playing (low tech). Also, I would have played an Alchemist if I chose an Artificer and they are apparently the worst kind of Artificer there is out of the three I know.

[meandean]

The most boring possible answer: Hexadin. Maybe you can at least justify it to yourself that there's only two party members and it's okay to be cheesy?

But, the Paladin aura will help your teammate avoid Bloodlust. (This is a mechanic where, if a Lycan falls under half their maximum hit points, they have to make a DC 8 Wisdom save or else attack the nearest creature. The actual attack isn't a big deal -- it's entirely possible that the nearest creature is an enemy, and even if it isn't, the Lycan isn't obligated to use Extra Attack, so we're talking about minimal damage. But, in the situations where the nearest creature is an ally, it can waste both the Lycan's turn and a healer's turn. Since the check is such a low DC, the aura should make it that the Lycan can almost always pass it without having to do something like take Resilient (WIS) themselves.)

Since he's best in melee, however, you need to be the ranged option. Thus, Eldritch Blastiness.

(Note that he's not great in melee, which is another argument to pair him with Paladin. The Lycan subclass improves your unarmed strikes, and encourages you to attack with them, but much like Monk, the lack of feat/fighting style support means they're often if not always behind weapon users. The Blood Hunter chassis is best as an archer, because they have access to Archery fighting style. However, nothing about the Lycan subclass supports archery, and it also very likely isn't the fantasy that the player choosing the subclass wants. Lycans have B/P/S resistance, so their greatest strength is soaking up damage... although their own signature abilities damage them, so factor that in too. Lycan mechanics are very anti-synergistic, but you do get to be a werewolf, and that will never not be cool.)

(All this said, if you think it literally is just going to be the two of you without any NPC allies or anything, you can avoid Bloodlust backfiring by... simply not being near your teammate. In that case, if you prefer arcane casters, you could be something like a Bladesinger, Valor/Swords Bard, or Eldritch Knight. You will still want to have switch-hitting combat ability, plus AOE if you need to bail their butt out from across the map.)

(BTW, although Blood Hunters are presented as a base "Intelligence class" -- they get Dexterity and Intelligence save proficiency, and need 13 Intelligence to multiclass -- they're still allowed to use Wisdom as the modifier when they do their Blood Hunter stuff. So, they can pump Wisdom and dump Intelligence if they wish, as long as they're not multiclassing.)

[Eldariel]

Not knowing how Goodberry truly works aside, I've always wanted to play a Halfling Ghostwise Moon Druid.

I would personally stay away from summons in a ttrpg because of the toll it adds to the rest of the group as it increase the length of the encounters. Then again, I don't believe Moon Druid would summon, would it?

[Moon Druid added as a contender]

You don't have to summon, though as always in this system, anything with summons is just way stronger than anything without and even more so in small parties where you need all the action economy as you can get. As for summoning bogging down the game, it's a matter of mechanics. I can play a summoner's turn in 1 minute using 8 minions: mass roll attacks and damage with a macro and take quick, obvious movements. It's very fast to resolve if you e.g. write a script to roll for your minions.

[Psyren]

Twilight cleric because if you’re playing with a Blood Hunter then someone in party needs to make a good character.

Argh my eyes


Blood Hunters are kinda Int based so I’d avoid wizard.

There's an official variant rule to make them Wis-based if that's easier

[Jervis]

Argh my eyes


Tbh I’ve always wondered why eye bleed blue for sarcasm caught on. But eh.

[Psyren]

Tbh I’ve always wondered why eye bleed blue for sarcasm caught on. But eh.

You're using the wrong blue. This one shows up much better on the forum's theme.

[Eradis]

The most boring possible answer: Hexadin. Maybe you can at least justify it to yourself that there's only two party members and it's okay to be cheesy?

[...]

(BTW, although Blood Hunters are presented as a base "Intelligence class" -- they get Dexterity and Intelligence save proficiency, and need 13 Intelligence to multiclass -- they're still allowed to use Wisdom as the modifier when they do their Blood Hunter stuff. So, they can pump Wisdom and dump Intelligence if they wish, as long as they're not multiclassing.)

I assume Hexadin is a multiclass Paladin x Hexblade Warlock? This makes me think there is the Celestial Pack that looked interesting. I have no idea until which tier the game will last and we are starting level 1. I don't want to bug down progress for an increase of power I might never get.

As for the Int-based or Wis-based, I have no clue which he'll choose, but I wouldn't be surprise he choose to try a multiclass of something, thus Int.


You don't have to summon, though as always in this system, anything with summons is just way stronger than anything without and even more so in small parties where you need all the action economy as you can get. As for summoning bogging down the game, it's a matter of mechanics. I can play a summoner's turn in 1 minute using 8 minions: mass roll attacks and damage with a macro and take quick, obvious movements. It's very fast to resolve if you e.g. write a script to roll for your minions.

Yeah, we will be rolling actual dice, but that's true that one roll for the bunch isn't that bad. That or even make use of that hoard of dice I never actually use and pre-arrange them for their associated rolls.

[meandean]

You only need two levels of Warlock, in order to get the invocations that power up your Eldritch Blast. But yeah, there is the tradeoff that it takes longer for your character to "come fully online". I'd probably go Paladin 1, Warlock 1, Paladin 5 (this is when you get Aura of Protection), Warlock 1, Paladin rest of the way.

[Eradis]

You only need two levels of Warlock, in order to get the invocations that power up your Eldritch Blast. But yeah, there is the tradeoff that it takes longer for your character to "come fully online". I'd probably go Paladin 1, Warlock 1, Paladin 5 (this is when you get Aura of Protection), Warlock 1, Paladin rest of the way.

Which Oath would you go with this? I'm wondering how often a Paladin would use Eldritch Blast instead of a weapon+smite (never played a Paladin in this edition).

[animorte]

Here's another contender to think about. I would run with the Celestial Generalist Warlock (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds). Very effective and you can really do just about whatever you want.

[meandean]

Which Oath would you go with this? I'm wondering how often a Paladin would use Eldritch Blast instead of a weapon+smite (never played a Paladin in this edition).You can't smite on ranged attacks, so, whenever you can't get into melee. At least if you're a Strength-based Paladin (and since you need 13 Strength to multiclass, you might as well be), your only other plausible ranged option is to throw stuff. It's not theoretically difficult to get a different ranged cantrip (species, feat, fighting style), but it redirects your entire build and the end result still isn't going to be nearly as good as Eldritch Blast with two invocations.

In terms of a subclass, I would rule out Crown and Redemption because they're based on shielding allies and (in Crown's case) drawing aggro, which is the opposite of what you want – your teammate is a damage sponge. Devotion's aura isn't one of the best, and its Channel Divinity is a worse version of Hex Warrior, so I'd rule that one out too. Any of the others would be fine. I'll say Watchers, because then your teammate will really never fail the Bloodlust save (or can at least feel more comfortable moving away from you); the secondary aura that improves initiative is good; and you'll eventually be glad you have counterspell.