Blood Hunter

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Class Features

Hunter's Bane

Beginning at 1st level, you have survived the Hunter’s Bane, a dangerous, long-guarded ritual that alters your life’s blood, forever binding you to the darkness and honing your senses against it. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track fey, fiends, or undead, as well as on Intelligence ability checks to recall information about them.   The Hunter’s Bane also empowers your body to control and shape hemocraft magic, using your own blood and life essence to fuel your abilities. Some of your features require your target to make a saving throw to resist the feature’s effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:   Hemocraft save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier.  

Blood Maledict

At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel, and sometimes sacrifice, a part of your vital essence to curse and manipulate creatures through hemocraft magic. You gain one blood curse of your choice, detailed in the “Blood Curses” section at the end of the class description. You learn one additional blood curse of your choice, and you can choose one of the blood curses you know and replace it with another blood curse, at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.   When you use your Blood Maledict, you choose which curse to invoke. While invoking a blood curse, but before it affects the target, you can choose to amplify the curse by losing a number of hit points equal to one roll of your hemocraft die, as shown in the Hemocraft Die column of the Blood Hunter table. An amplified curse gains an additional effect, noted in the curse’s description. Creatures that do not have blood in their bodies are immune to blood curses, unless you have amplified the curse.   You can use this feature once. Beginning at 6th level, you can use your Blood Maledict feature twice, at 13th level you can use it three times between rests, and at 17th level, you can use it four times between rests. You regain all expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.  

Fighting Style

At 2nd level, you adopt a style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.   Archery You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.   Dueling When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.   Great Weapon Fighting When you roll a 1 or 2 on a non-rite damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.   Two-Weapon Fighting When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.  

Crimson Rite

At 2nd level, you learn to invoke a rite of hemocraft within your weapon at the cost of your own vitality. Choose one rite from the Primal Rites list below to learn.   As a bonus action, you can activate a crimson rite on a single weapon with the elemental energy of a known rite of your choice that lasts until you finish a short or long rest, or if you aren’t holding the weapon at the end of your turn. When you activate a rite, you lose a number of hit points equal to one roll of your hemocraft die, as shown in the Hemocraft Die column of the Blood Hunter table.   For the duration, attacks from this weapon deal an additional 1d4 damage of the chosen rite’s type. This damage is magical, and increases as you gain levels as a blood hunter, as shown in the Hemocraft Die column of the Blood Hunter table. A weapon can only hold a single active rite at a time.   You learn an additional Primal Rite at 7th level, and access to an Esoteric Rite at 14th level.  

Primal Rites

Choose from the following:   Rite of the Flame. Your rite damage is fire damage.   Rite of the Frozen. Your rite damage is cold damage.   Rite of the Storm. Your rite damage is lightning damage.  

Esoteric Rites

Choose from the following:   Rite of the Dead. Your rite damage is necrotic damage.   Rite of the Oracle. Your rite damage is psychic damage.   Rite of the Roar. Your rite damage is thunder damage.  

Blood Hunter Order

At 3rd level, you commit to an order of blood hunter martial focus. Choose Order of the Ghostslayer, Order of the Profane Soul, Order of the Mutant, or Order of the Lycan, all detailed at the end of the class description. The order you choose grants you features at 3rd level, and again at 7th, 11th, 15th, and 18th level.  

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.   Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.  

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.  

Brand of Castigation

At 6th level, whenever you damage a creature with your Crimson Rite feature, you can choose to sear an arcane brand of hemocraft magic into it (requires no action). You always know the direction to the branded creature, and each time the branded creature deals damage to you or a creature you can see within 5 feet of you, the creature takes psychic damage equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 1 damage).   Your brand lasts until you dismiss it, or you apply a brand to another creature. Your brand counts as a spell for the purposes of dispel magic, and the spell level is equal to half of your blood hunter level (maximum of 9th level spell).   Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.  

Grim Psychometry

When you reach 9th level, you have a supernatural talent for discerning the history surrounding mysterious objects or places touched by evil. When making an Intelligence (History) check to recall information about a darker past surrounding an object you are touching, or a location you are present in, you have advantage on the roll. The information gleaned often leans towards the more sinister influences of the past, and sometimes conveys visions of things previously unknown to the character on higher rolls.  

Dark Augmentation

Upon reaching 10th level, arcane blood magic suffuses your body, permanently reinforcing your resilience. Your speed increases by 5 feet, and whenever you make a Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution saving throw, you gain a bonus to the saving throw equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of +1).  

Brand of Tethering

Starting at 13th level, the psychic damage from your Brand of Castigation increases to twice your Intelligence modifier (minimum of 2 damage).   In addition, a branded creature can’t take the Dash action, and if a creature branded by you attempts to teleport or leave their current plane via ability, spell, or portal, they take 4d6 psychic damage and must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the teleport or plane shift fails.  

Hardened Soul

When you reach 14th level, you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed and frightened.  

Sanguine Mastery

Upon becoming 20th level, you hone your control over blood magic, mitigating your sacrifice and empowering your capability. Once per turn, whenever a blood hunter feature requires you to roll a hemocraft die, you can choose to reroll the die and choose which result to use.   In addition, whenever you score a critical hit with a weapon attack empowered by your Crimson Rite, you regain one expended use of your Blood Maledict feature.

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Starting Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a martial weapon or (b) two simple weapons
• (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) hand crossbow and 20 bolts
• (a) studded leather armor or (b) scale mail armor
• an explorer’s pack

 

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Subclass Options

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Blood Hunter Orders

There are a handful of secretive orders of blood hunters that guard their cryptic techniques and rituals. One must adhere to one of these orders to even be granted access to the Hunter’s Bane rite that starts their journey, and only once they’ve proven their dedication and ability will the secrets of the order begin to be revealed. It’s within these small, enigmatic sects that the real power of a blood hunter is learned.  

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Order Of The Earthbound

A neverending cycle of life and death. As one is born, another must return to the soil beneath their feet. These are the tenets that the Order of the Earthbound must live by. This subsect of blood hunters originates from those who draw their connection to blood magic from the lifeblood of the earth and life around them, often finding roots in older, more archaic forms of druidic magic. Through ritual sacrifice of their own lifeblood they can gain powers that have been sought since the earliest of mortal creation. By offering themselves to the soil, the soil and its inhabitants offer their power in return.  

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Order of the Dark

Blood hunters who join the Order of the Dark often have little choice in embracing the unknown. Those inducted, often called Darklings by the other orders, lose themselves in the moment during combat, often becoming machines of death and decay with little rhyme or reason.  

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Order of the Ghostslayer

The Order of the Ghostslayer is the oldest of the orders, having originally rediscovered the secrets of blood magic and refined them for combat against the scourge of undeath. Ghostslayers seek out and study the moment of death, obsessing over the mysteries of the transition and how it can become corrupted by unholy powers to rise once more. Tuning their abilities to annihilate such abominations, these zealous blood hunters seek out the sources of such necromantic energies, intent to destroy them wherever they arise.  

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Order Of Hatred

The Order of Hatred was forged from the blood-soaked earth of a vulnerable world. The burning grief born out of loss, the boiling anger of prejudice, easy answers to hard questions, all things the Order of Hatred seeks out, as it directs and focuses the latent power of hatred, however misguided it might be in its targets. Usually accepting only humans and half-elves, the ranks of the Order of Hatred largely consist of those with hatred to spare, and nowhere to direct it. Where there's a tragedy, the Order of Hatred's priests will be there to recruit and adopt. Members of the Order of Hatred are usually lawful evil or lawful neutral, as the organization teaches that all acts done in the name of cleansing the world are justified They often worship lawful gods of war.  

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Order of the Inquisition

Of all the Orders of Blood Hunter in the World Within Walls, the Order of the Inquisition is the most accepted by the world's various nations. Working closely with several nations, the Inquisition has been given much leeway in their fight against corruption. Most Orders specialize in hunting down different monsters, threats to humanity. However, this order understands that humanity themselves are the true monsters. The biggest threats to an orderly and peaceful society come from within, and these must be cut out like the cancer they are.  

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Order of the Lycan

Of the many terrible curses that plague the realm, few are as ancient or as feared as Lycanthropy. Passed through blood, this affliction seeds a host with the savage strength and hunger for violence of a wicked beast. The Order of the Lycan is a proud order of blood hunters who undergo “The Taming,” a ceremonial inflicting of lycanthropy from a senior member. These hunters then use their abilities to harness the power of the monster they harbor without losing themselves to it. Through intense honing of one’s own willpower, combined with the secrets of the order’s blood magic rituals, members learn to control and unleash their hybrid form for short periods of time. Enhanced physical prowess, unnatural resilience, and razor sharp claws make these warriors a terrible foe to any evil that crosses their path. Yet, no training is perfect, and without care and complete focus, even the greatest of blood hunters can temporarily lose themselves to the bloodlust.  

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Order of Mage Hunters

Knowledge is a rug of a certain size, the world is larger. It’s not what remains uncovered at the edges that should worry you, rather what is swept beneath.
——Mark Lawrence, Book of the Ancestor

Long ago, the originators of the Order of Mage hunters were mages themselves - arcane practitioners of the highest degree when the Chief Archmages of the enclave focused on the immortality promised by lichdom. The order began harvesting the lives of the innocent population of the surrounding areas until a small cadre of the lower mages banded together and revolted against the chiefs of their order. In the centuries since then, The brothers and sisters that initiated the excision of the cancerous evil from their numbers have honed their use of blood magic, transforming them into assassin-mages and dedicating themselves to the eradication of mages that use their magic for what they deem as reprehensible.  

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Order of the Mutant

The process of the Hunter’s Bane is a painful, scarring, and sometimes fatal experience. Those that survive find themselves irrevocably changed, enhanced. Some found this experience exalting, embracing the ability to alter one’s own physiology through a combination of hemocraft and corrupted alchemy. Over generations of experimentation, a splinter order of blood hunters began to emerge, one that focused on brewing toxic elixirs to modify their capabilities in battle, altering their blood and, over time, become something beyond what they once were. They called themselves the Order of the Mutant. Researching their targets to know their strengths and weaknesses, these blood hunters can alter their biology to be best prepared for the coming conflict.  

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Order of Old Medicine

The powers governing the cycle of life tend to be seen as ambivalent; if not directly benevolent by most of its adherents. But the hunters who join this order willingly seek out and even master the most sinister aspects of the cycle of life. The witch doctors, shamans, and green knights that ascribe to this Order understand that withering is the next natural step of burgeoning. They treat themselves as simply a means to keep this cycle running smoothly, sacrificing the vitality of self and foe through their unique brand of hemocraft magic to this end.  

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Order of the Profane Soul

Those who have taken to the Order of the Profane Soul have seen the limits of hemocraft against some of the most ancient and cruel fiends and terrors of the world. Unable to pursue beings of such power, creatures able to vanish amongst the nobles without a trace, or bend the mind of the most stalwart warrior with but a glance, this order trusted in their resilience and delved into this same well of corrupting arcane knowledge, making pacts with lesser evils to better combat the greater. While they may have traded a part of themselves, members of this order believe the power gained far outweighs the price, for even devils now quake when they know they’ve drawn the attention of the Order of the Profane Soul.  

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Order of the Scale

The Dwelling of Dragons. The homeland of untold numbers of dragons. Following their formation of their continent, some individuals recognized the danger these creatures presented. These Blood Hunters founded a new order, based around a new version of Hunter's Bane derived from dragon's blood. You know the saying, fight fire with fire...  

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Order of the Spider

Found most commonly in the underdark the order of the spider is typically made up of either male drows or slaves used to hunt down creatures to bizarre or dangerous for a normal warrior. The order focuses on poison's both using them and countering them as well as the strange creatures and locations that haunt the underdark.  

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Order of the Spirit Warden

The process of the Hunter's Bane is painful and often deadly. This near death experience grants some of the Hunters the ability to peer in the veil beyond death. But a few have gone further, linking the spirits of the dead to their body. Through zealous practice with masters, they learn to enhance their ability by sacrificing the ghostly essence. This power is a dangerous one, and many have lost their sanity to the voice from beyond the grave.  

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Order of the Vampire

A blood hunter of The Order of the Vampire is touched with certain dark gifts. Though they do not fully embrace an unholy transformation like their Order of the Lycan brethren, they harness the power of vampires to become more socially inclined than other blood hunters. Members of this order are able to insert themselves within social circles more easily, using blood to gain knowledge and thereby power over others. Should diplomacy not garner the desired result, their brush with vampirism enables empowered blood curses as well as a unique blood curse that makes them adept at controlling enemies. These blood hunters manipulate to create advantages, then strike with their imposing will fueling their vicious attacks.