Blood Hunter Homebrew Subclass; Order of the Coven

[BretonLegacy]

Howdy all, first post on Giant in the Playground, but long time purveyor of content. I recently found inspiration in creating a Blood Hunter subclass for Homebrew and am looking for help in balancing the subclass for game usage.

The subclass is a Quarter Caster that studies the ways of the Witch (Casters) and finds ways of using it against them by some means or another.

I'm not that good at theming and finding a good focus for what I'm trying to do, but Im open to any and all suggestions as long as there's a good reasoning behind them.

~Thank you

[BretonLegacy]

Lvl 3 (1) Haunted Knowledge: When you reach 3rd level, you gain the ability to cast spells.

Cantrips. You learn two Wizard cantrips of your choice. You learn another at 10th level

Spell Slots. The Order of the Coven Spellcasting table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell charm person and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast charm person using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st-Level and Higher. You know three 1st-level wizard spells of your choice, two of which you must choose from the Conjuration and Transmutation spells on the wizard spell list.

The Spells Known column of the Order of the Coven Spellcasting table shows when you learn more wizard spells of 1st level or higher. Each of these spells must be a Conjuration or Transmutation spell of your choice, and must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 7th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

The spells you learn at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can come from any school of magic.

Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of the wizards spells you know with another spell of your choice from the wizard spell list. The new spell must be of a level for which you have spell slots, and it must be an enchantment or illusion spell, unless you’re replacing the spell you gained at 8th, 14th, or 20th level.

Spellcasting Ability. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your wizard spells, since you learn your spells through observation and study of Witches. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a wizard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Lvl 3 (2) Marked for Judgement: Once per day, when you or an ally are targeted by a hostile weapon attack, spell, or magical effect from a creature you can see within 60 feet, you can choose to Mark them for Judgement as a Reaction. You deal bonus damage equal on weapon attacks based on your Wisdom Modifier and you critical on a 19 or 20 against your Mark. The amount of times per day increases to twice at Lvl 11, and three times at Level 17. This effect lasts for 1 hour or until the target is killed, during this time you know where the target is within 1 mile of you.

[BretonLegacy]

Lvl 7: Finding the Source: You may cast Detect Magic at will without material components as many times equal to your Wisdom Modifier per Long Rest (Minimum of once). You gain True Sight out to 10 feet

[BretonLegacy]

Lvl 11 Doorway to the Devil: You gain the Blood Curse of Oblivion, this does not count against your Blood Curses known.

As an action, you curse a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. On a failed save, until your next turn, the first time the target takes damage it is treated as being vulnerable to that damage, and any resistance or immunity it possesses against that damage is ignored.

Amplify: The target automatically fails its saving throw.

[BretonLegacy]

Lvl 15 Witches Bane: You learn the spell Counterspell, it does not count against your spells known. You may cast Counterspell at its lowest level without expending a spell slot twice per long rest. If you cast Counterspell against a creature affected by your "Marked for Judgement" feature that has cast a spell of 4th level or above, you may make your ability check to Counterspell at advantage.

[BretonLegacy]

Lvl 18 Striking the Source: Upon dealing a critical hit, the affected creature must make a Wisdom Saving throw against your Spell Save DC. Upon failing the saving throw, the creature takes an additional 4d10 Psychic damage after critical damage is calculated and are frightened of you for one minute, the creature may attempt to break free by making a Wisdom Saving Throw at the end of their turn. Creatures that are under the effect of your "Marked for Judgement" feature make the save at disadvantage and take an additional 2d10 Psychic damage at the start of their turn of their turn. If the creature succeeds then they take half of the Psychic damage provided of this feature and are not frightened.

[Composer99]

Howdy all, first post on Giant in the Playground, but long time purveyor of content. I recently found inspiration in creating a Blood Hunter subclass for Homebrew and am looking for help in balancing the subclass for game usage.

The subclass is a Quarter Caster that studies the ways of the Witch (Casters) and finds ways of using it against them by some means or another.

I'm not that good at theming and finding a good focus for what I'm trying to do, but Im open to any and all suggestions as long as there's a good reasoning behind them.

~Thank you

The blood hunter is a pretty cool class. So it's nice to see some homebrew for it.

Just as a nitpick, the subclass spellcasters are "one-third" casters, since you divide their levels by three for the purpose of determining multiclassing spell slots.

Lvl 3 (1) Haunted Knowledge: You gain the ability to cast spells, your spell casting ability is Wisdom

Cantrips: You learn 2 Cantrips from the Wizard Spell list, you learn another at 10th level
Spell Table: (ArcaneTrickster Table)
The spells you learn must either be Transmutation or Conjuration, new spells you pick at 8th, 14th, and 20th level can be of any school

Lvl 3 (2) Marked for Judgement: Once per day, If you are targeted by a hostile spell or magical effect, you may use your reaction to mark the source of the Magic as long as you can see the creature. You deal bonus damage equal on weapon attacks based on your Wisdom Modifier to this creature. The amount of times per day increases to twice at Lvl 11, and three times at Level 17. This effect lasts for 1 hour or until the target is killed, during this time you know where the target is within 1 mile of you.

The spellcasting is fine, although you need to specify a spellcasting ability. It's usually Intelligence for the wizarding-based subclasses, but you might instead use Wisdom, like the other blood hunter spellcasting subclass. The Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight both let you freely choose one of your spells (from the wizard spell list) when you pick up the subclass. Unless there's a compelling reason not to, I would think this subclass would allow that as well?

Marked for Judgement does have the catch where if you happen to be in an area of effect (such as a fireball) cast by another creature, you can't mark the creature, because it didn't specifically target you. Is that intended?

As a wording nitpick, the placement of the phrase "as long as you can see the creature" makes that sentence parse as if the mark lasts only while you can see the creature, which contradicts the later text about how long the mark lasts and what it lets you do.

I would suggest moving that phrase to the clause before you use your reaction, to make it clear that you must be able to see the creature casting the spell in order to mark it, which I believe is what was intended.

Lvl 7: Finding the Source: You may cast Detect Magic at will without material components as many times equal to your Wisdom Modifier. You gain Darkvision out to 30 feet, if you already have Darkvision, your range extends out to an extra 30 feet.

This is fine. I'm not quite sure about giving extra darkvision and at will detect magic, but it's fine. You do need to specify when you recover expended uses of detect magic - when you finish a short or long rest, or when you finish a long rest?

Lvl 11 Targeted Retribution: You may now mark any creature that has targeted you with a hostile action. Attacks against Marked creatures now critical on a 19 or 20.

Maybe there's a change in version I'm not aware of, but don't blood hunters get their order feature at 10th level?

Anyway, you should probably specify which feature that marks creatures gets this benefit, because the base class has a blood maledict that marks creatures (Blood Curse of the Marked). In addition "target[s] you with a hostile action" is on the one hand dangerously imprecise, and on the other not very thematic since you're a witch-hunter.

Lvl 15 Witches Bane: You learn the spell Counterspell, it does not count against your spells known. You may cast Counterspell at its lowest level without expending a spell slot as many times equal to half your Wisdom modifier rounded down per long rest.

I would seriously consider just letting them cast the spell twice in between long rests. If you want it to be half your Wisdom modifier, don't forget that (1) you automatically round down so you don't need to spell that out, and (2) you should specify "(minimum one time)", to account for low-Wisdom blood hunters.

Lvl 18 Doorway to the Devil: You gain the Blood Curse of Oblivion, this does not count against your Blood Curses known.

As an action, you curse a target within 60 feet toward the path of an early grave. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your Blood Maledict DC, or the next damage taken by it by you or an ally is treated as if it is Vulnerable to. If the creature is Immune or Resistant to the damage taken normally, Immunity and Resistance is removed and Vulnerability is still applied

Amplify: The target automatically fails its saving throw.

Most blood hunter 18th-level capstones are really cool: Ghostslayer's Vengeful Spirit, Mutant's permanent mutagens, etc. This is all right, but not really cool. In fact, I would say this would be better as the 10th-level feature. Maybe there's been a version change, but I don't see any general DC used to resist the blood maledict effects as of blood hunter version 1.2. As a wording nitpick, I would suggest re-wording the text related to immunity and resistance as follows:

[...] As an action, you curse a creature you can see within 60 feet of you. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw, against a DC of 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier. On a failed save, until your next turn, the first time the target takes damage it is treated as being vulnerable to that damage, and any resistance or immunity it possesses against that damage is ignored.

At this level, you could probably give this character magic resistance (that is, advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects) if you wanted a defensive feature, or ability to cast a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action as a bonus action whenever it takes the Attack action on its turn, or something cool and witch-hunter-y that compares to stuff like Soul Siphon or Vengeful Spirit.

[BretonLegacy]

The blood hunter is a pretty cool class. So it's nice to see some homebrew for it.

Just as a nitpick, the subclass spellcasters are "one-third" casters, since you divide their levels by three for the purpose of determining multiclassing spell slots.



The spellcasting is fine, although you need to specify a spellcasting ability. It's usually Intelligence for the wizarding-based subclasses, but you might instead use Wisdom, like the other blood hunter spellcasting subclass. The Arcane Trickster and Eldritch Knight both let you freely choose one of your spells (from the wizard spell list) when you pick up the subclass. Unless there's a compelling reason not to, I would think this subclass would allow that as well?

Ive taken the errata used by the Arcane Trickster and Eldritch knight as to make it fit in better as a part of that quality of class. Also I I know its technically a Third Caster, but Quarter caster rolls off the tongue a bit easier 😂

Marked for Judgement does have the catch where if you happen to be in an area of effect (such as a fireball) cast by another creature, you can't mark the creature, because it didn't specifically target you. Is that intended?

As a wording nitpick, the placement of the phrase "as long as you can see the creature" makes that sentence parse as if the mark lasts only while you can see the creature, which contradicts the later text about how long the mark lasts and what it lets you do.

I would suggest moving that phrase to the clause before you use your reaction, to make it clear that you must be able to see the creature casting the spell in order to mark it, which I believe is what was intended.

Wasnt entirely intended, but I attempted a wording that circumvents that, and merged the qualities of both Targeted Retribution and the Marked for Judgement. Its sorta loke a Combination of Hexblades Curse and Hunters Mark which is what Im going for, and hoping isnt too strong, Especially with the 10% Crit Chance with Rite Die. Perhaps limit it to Hostile Spells and Magical effects? But Im worried that might be too niche is all

This is fine. I'm not quite sure about giving extra darkvision and at will detect magic, but it's fine. You do need to specify when you recover expended uses of detect magic - when you finish a short or long rest, or when you finish a long rest?

Ive worked in the specification and removed the Darvision since I seem to have neglected that the Bloodhunter Base already gains Darkvision at Level 10. Im unsure as to how strong True Sight is, but I added it in as perhaps a little thematic thing, but maybe a constant Detect Magic effect could work instead of Detect+True Sight?

Maybe there's a change in version I'm not aware of, but don't blood hunters get their order feature at 10th level?

Anyway, you should probably specify which feature that marks creatures gets this benefit, because the base class has a blood maledict that marks creatures (Blood Curse of the Marked). In addition "target[s] you with a hostile action" is on the one hand dangerously imprecise, and on the other not very thematic since you're a witch-hunter.

From the Dms guild version, its an 11th level feature, and I moved down the 18th level feature to this spot, as was suggested , and utilized the errata you suggested.

I would seriously consider just letting them cast the spell twice in between long rests. If you want it to be half your Wisdom modifier, don't forget that (1) you automatically round down so you don't need to spell that out, and (2) you should specify "(minimum one time)", to account for low-Wisdom blood hunters.

Done...and then some, in an attempt to put more emphasis on the deal with Witches thing

Most blood hunter 18th-level capstones are really cool: Ghostslayer's Vengeful Spirit, Mutant's permanent mutagens, etc. This is all right, but not really cool. In fact, I would say this would be better as the 10th-level feature. Maybe there's been a version change, but I don't see any general DC used to resist the blood maledict effects as of blood hunter version 1.2. As a wording nitpick, I would suggest re-wording the text related to immunity and resistance as follows:


At this level, you could probably give this character magic resistance (that is, advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects) if you wanted a defensive feature, or ability to cast a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action as a bonus action whenever it takes the Attack action on its turn, or something cool and witch-hunter-y that compares to stuff like Soul Siphon or Vengeful Spirit.

Well, I tried my hand at making something cool, its a rather niche ability as some capstones are, and maybe a little underpower since I haven't played mamy high leveled campaigns. But this is the general idea I had for a capstone thats a little more fun, and would like perhaps a little help making it...better? Mechanically at least