Blood Hunter Class (2020) (5e)
Blood Hunter - A Martial Class for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Often feared or misunderstood¸ and driven by an unending drive to destroy the wicked¸ blood hunters are clever¸ arcane warriors who have bound their essence to the dark creatures they hunt to better stalk and survive their prey. Armed with the rites of forbidden blood magic and a willingness to sacrifice their own vitality and humanity for the cause¸ they protect the realms from the shadows¸ ever vigilant to avoid becoming the same monsters they choose to hunt. Harnessing the dark abilities granted by the use of hemocraft blood magic to enhance their combat prowess¸ these warriors hunt the wicked with blade and curse¸ sacrificing their own vitality to gain the upper hand and bring their quarry down. This includes the Order of the Ghostslayer¸ Order of the Profane Soul¸ Order of the Mutant¸ and Order of the Lycan archetypes for the Blood Hunter class. Author's Note: This was my first homebrew class waaaaay back before DMs Guild first started¸ and I had a LOT to learn. Originally spawned as a handful of variant abilities I designed for Vin Diesel guesting on my D&Diesel one-shot to promote his film "The Last Witch Hunter" (in which I was given no context for his character other than the trailer)¸ the internet was loudly requesting me to release what class he played. Needing to heavily expand upon those small features¸ I cobbled together my first attempt at this class with meager design experience and tossed it to the internet with a wince. A handful of years of iterations¸ and incredible amounts of very well-thought out feedback from the web later¸ I've learned so much more about fun design and balance... and I wanted to take a crack at redesigning this class from the ground up. Deep consideration brought me to shift the secondary ability score focus from Wisdom to Intelligence¸ as the hemocraft magic was more arcane in nature¸ and there was little representation for an Intelligence-based martial class. Along with this came many changes to improve the ease of tracking abilities like the Crimson Rite¸ while adding some new features and utility to the class and its Orders (including the Brand of Castigation). Massive rebalancing has been applied throughout the class¸ and each Order eventually receives its own unique Blood Curse¸ as well as a unique modification to their Brand. While the first release of any new design will have its problems¸ I feel much more confident about the direction of this class and its place in my games and world. I hope you enjoy this newly fashioned¸ improved release of the Blood Hunter! -Matthew Mercer (P.S. If you would still prefer to use the older version¸ you are certainly welcome to do so! You can find it HERE )