Dungeons & Dragons Blood Hunter subclasses
Want to know about all the Dungeons & Dragons Blood Hunter subclasses? The base Blood Hunter class, designed by Matt Mercer of Critical Role, is one of the most versatile classes in the game. It’s severely underplayed, but if you can find a player who knows how to use the class’s hemocraft ability, you’re in for a real treat.
The Blood Hunter class is all about getting up close and personal with your enemies – in fact, you need to be right next to the bad guys in order to use your hemocraft ability. Hemocraft, or blood magic, allows you to damage your own hit points in order to curse your enemies. This is an underplayed method of dealing damage, but if you get a group that understands the potential for unique spellcasting, you’ll be in for a good time.
The Blood Hunter subclasses
The Blood Hunter class has several different subclasses, each with its own specific type of blood magic. Here are all of the current Blood Hunter subclasses in Dungeons & Dragons:
The Order of the Profane Soul
The Order of the Profane Soul is similar to the Warlocks, but Blood Hunters make a deal with a lesser evil for their hemocraft magic. Unfortunately, this subclass isn’t as effective as a Warlock – it has limited spell slots and delayed access to higher level spells.
Order of the Mutant
Order of the Mutant allows Blood Hunters to apply passive benefits called mutagens to themselves. These come with downsides, but they can be quite powerful as well. The Order of the Mutant also allows Blood Hunters to ignore a negative side effect for one minute, as well as granting them immunity to poison damage and the poisoned condition.
Order of the Ghostslayer
The Ghostslayer is focused on hunting and destroying undead, and their subclass features are quite powerful. The first grants a bonus to initiative when you attack an undead creature, along with advantage on your first attack against that creature. The second grants you temporary hit points when you slay an undead, and you can use this to shrug off damage equal to half your remaining temporary hit points.
Rite of the Dawn
Curse Specialist
This Rite turns the Blood Hunter’s rite damage into radiant damage, and it also grants you resistance to necrotic damage – useful against pesky undead.
One of the biggest weaknesses of the Blood Hunter is that its curses can’t affect creatures without blood, so this feature remedies that.
Order of the Lycan
The Order of the Lycan allows Blood Hunters to harness the curse of lycanthropy and transform into a hybrid werewolf form. Much like a true werewolf, you can gain various advantages, such as bonus to Strength checks and saving throws, resistance to nonmagical, nonsilvered damage, and bonuses to AC and melee damage rolls. The cost of these abilities is the potential to attack an ally if you have less than half your hit points remaining.
The Order of the Lycan also provides extra mobility and turns your unarmed attacks into +1 magic weapons. Overall, the Order of the Lycan is the most powerful Blood Hunter subclass, with the exception of the Ghostslayer in an undead-based campaign.
So, if you’re looking for a unique and powerful character, don’t hesitate to try out a Blood Hunter subclass. If you want to learn more about Dungeons & Dragons, make sure to check out our list of the best D&D 5e companions, along with the best D&D 5e campaigns, and the best D&D 5e classes.
