Blood Hunter – D&D 5e Class Optimisation Guide

Use dark powers to fight the greater darkness with Matt Mercer’s original blood hunter class.

At a glance

Tactics

Blood hunters are martial warriors, but simple weapon attacks won’t cut it for them like it might for a fighter or barbarian. They must constantly grapple with when and where to use their curses, brands and rites to ensure they’re truly effective.

• Choosing the best hemocraft ability score – One unique feature for blood hunters is that they can choose which ability score is used for their hemocraft features; intelligence or wisdom. As a general rule, wisdom is superior to intelligence. It’s a far more common saving throw and some crucial skills like perception are tied to it. The exception here is if you plan on multiclassing into an artificer or a wizard, or if you’re keen on some knowledge skills, in which case, you should focus on intelligence.
• Choosing the best blood curses – Your blood maledict feature lets you use blood curses on enemies, causing negative effects on them. But not all blood curses were created equally and choosing the best options is important. Blood curse of binding is great for immobilising nasty melee enemies, especially if they have a weaker (or no) ranged optioned. Blood curse of exposure is a great way to deal with resistances and with some coordination, can lead to nullifying this in more profound ways. Blood curse of the fallen puppet works great for downed allies with high attack damage. A rogue using sneak attack might be a good option for example. Blood curse of the marked is great for enhancing damage against a single target. There’s also blood curse of the muddled mind which is great for dealing with concentrating spellcasters.
• When to amplify blood curses – The choice to amplify a blood curse can be tricky as you’ll damage yourself in the process. This feels more impactful at early levels because of your lower HP (despite the lower damage too). This means at higher levels, I’d amplify more liberally for the more powerful effects. This also depends on how beneficial amplifying the curse will be. For example, blood curse of exposure when amplified will tackle damage immunities, but these aren’t common so may often be pointless when resistances are more common. On the other hand, amplifying blood curse of binding will make the binding last a minute instead of a round, enhancing it substantially, in which case I’d often amplify this curse.
• No concentration, no problem – Usually, long lasting conditions occur through spells and, with a few exceptions, require concentration. This means most spellcasters can only afflict with one spell at a time (long term at least). But blood hunters aren’t casting spells, but if you amplify a blood curse like the blood curse of binding, you can amplify this curse, making it last a minute and afflict multiple enemies this way simultaneously.
• Which fighting style? – Blood hunters tend to harm themselves, so have less hit points to play with than other martials. Because of this, I’d lean towards the archery fighting style (as fighting at range is much safer than melee combat) or the dueling fighting style which allows you to wield a shield to increase your AC. It’s rare that martials have the luxury of a ranged build so you may find yourself fighting sword and shield more often. Two handed weapon fighting is an option that sacrifices defence for more damage, but the fighting style will average +1.3 damage per attack with a great sword Vs +2 for archery and dueling. I wouldn’t bother with two weapon fighting at all. Your bonus action will likely be occupied with crimson rites and blood curses making this a waste of a hand that could be holding a shield.
• Crimson rite – You’ll take damage by using this, but it’ll last until your next rest so it’s best to use it early in combat to gain the most benefit. It also happens to cause magical damage so is great against creatures immune to ordinary weapon attacks. Just remember that your weapon attacks become magical but don’t adopt the damage type of your crimson rite. It also only affects one weapon, not both weapons if using two weapon fighting. Picking your damage type is also important. You should style it after the creature you’re fighting, but as a general rule, fire damage is the only commonly resisted damage type in the list and you may want to avoid necrotic damage against undead and psychic damage against things like mind flayers.
• Who to brand – Brand of castigation will cause extra damage against creatures when they damage you or nearby allies. I’d use this against creatures with lots of attacks and lots of hit points (to make it last a while). I’d also try and force the creature into attacking you or nearby allies, probably by getting into melee range of it.
• Brand of tethering – Once you hit level 13, brand of castigation makes it hard for enemies to escape. This makes it great against creatures that might like to teleport or plane shift away before you can kill them.
• Maintaining hit points – As a class that will regularly self-inflict harm as well as possibly throwing themselves into melee combat, you’ll want to invest heavily in resilience. This will likely mean investing in constitution and a better AC, but might also involve regularly topping up hit points with healing and/or temporary hit points from a friendly cleric.

How good is the blood hunter?

The blood hunter is full of wonderful flavour. A dark warrior that has self-afflicted with a powerful curse to help fight the darkness brims with backstory and roleplay potential. Add to this some very unique mechanics that include disrupting enemies and sacrificing one’s own vitality for greater benefits against enemies and there really is no class like it (at least officially published).

It does suffer slightly from some quite situational features (like enhanced tracking against certain creature types). Thankfully, this only affects minor features that are more flavourful than substantial (unlike the ranger who suffers from these kinds of mechanical issues much more).

You’ll also have to balance out your effectiveness with how much punishment you can inflict on your body. It’s an interesting dilemma, but generally, I think the benefits are worth the sacrifice, and remain optional for when survival is most important.

The other challenge is the many different options, mechanics and interactions at play for the blood hunter. Between blood curses, crimson rites, castigation brands and (for subclasses) things like mutagens, hybrid lycanthropic features and pact magic, there’s a lot to keep track of and a lot of potential interactions. This makes the blood hunter a very challenging class to play. I’d steer clear of them for beginners, but if you’re an experienced player looking for something more interesting to play, they’re an excellent option.

4/5

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Optimising a blood hunter

Blood hunters are similar to paladins and rangers when it comes to building them. They need resilience, power for attacks and a decent hematurgy ability score. All of this makes for a class that requires compromise in some potentially important areas.

This makes them difficult to build, but below, I’ve gone into detail about how you can optimise your blood hunter build.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Strength: Potentially important for things like weapon attacks or possibly grapples. For most blood hunters, I’d lean into dexterity over strength as you’ll need at least 14 dexterity for your AC and unless you’re planning on using a two handed weapon or a grapple build, there’s little point in investing in strength (even unarmed strikes from the order of the lycanthrope can use dexterity).
• Dexterity: You’ll want this at least at 14 and probably more. If you’re going for a strength build, I’d stick to 14 to maximise on medium armor. If you’re going to be using ranged or finesse weapons (or unarmed strikes for the order of the lycan) then you’ll likely want this as high as you can.
• Constitution: You’ll want as much resilience as you can get, especially if you’re planning on playing a melee build or using a lot of hematurgy features.
• Intelligence or wisdom: Most blood hunters are not spellcasters, but some of their features use a spellcasting ability for the save DC. You’ll want one of these to be decent, but they’re less important than your martial abilities in most cases. You can choose to use intelligence or wisdom for this. I’d tend to favour wisdom for the more common saving throws, but if you plan on multiclassing as a wizard or artificer(or going heavy on knowledge skills), then intelligence is the way to go.

Options to avoid

• Charisma: You’re very dependant on many ability scores. There’s absolutely no space for being charismatic with a blood hunter.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	10
Dexterity	15	15
Constitution	15	14
Intelligence	10	12
Wisdom	14	13
Charisma	8	8

Skills

Recommended options

• Acrobatics: Most blood hunters should focus on dexterity over strength. If you are a strength build though, swap this out for athletics.
• Arcana: Good knowledge skill. If you have opted for an intelligence hematurgy ability score, then this could be valuable as there aren’t any intelligence-based classes.
• History: Another good option for an intelligence-focused blood hunter.
• Investigation: An often used skill that’s particularly good for an intelligence-based blood hunter.
• Religion: Similarly good option for an intelligence-focused blood hunter.

Options to avoid

• Athletics: Take acrobatics for a dexterity build, but swap this in if you’re a strength build.
• Insight: This is more of a face skill and as you’re definitely not a good party face, I wouldn’t bother with this.
• Survival: Not a hugely used skill and you already get advantage on this sometimes.

Race

I’d consider the following when picking a race for a blood hunter:

• Toughen up: You’re going to be hurting yourself and probably throwing yourself into harm’s way too. The more hit points, resistances and other protective traits you can grab, the better.
• Damage dealing: You’re also there to deal damage. Any race that can enhance this will be useful.
• Innate spellcasting: The order of the profane soul is a particularly natural fit for spellcasting with repeat castings available and the need for free castings of spells. Most blood hunters will have a decent wisdom or intelligence making them a solid option for these traits too.
• Stealthiness: Most blood hunters should have a good dexterity but lack the skills for things like stealth, perception and sleight of hand that go hand in hand with stealthiness. And yet blood hunters make a good fit for a potential scout or stealth role. If you lack a party rogue, you could use your race (and your background or feats) to have a blood hunter compensate in this area.

Recommended options

• Bugbear: Great option for dexterity builds. It makes the most of your high dexterity with stealth proficiency and bonus damage when you attack before an opponent. Long limbs are great for better reach too.
• Duergar: Invisibility is great for a high dexterity class without stealth proficiency. You also get some handy resilience features.
• Hill Dwarf: Wisdom and constitution ability score increases suit a blood hunter well and you get extra HP to aid your durability.
• Hobgoblin: Blood hunters benefit from the support of allies as well as being close to allies to dole out damage on those that attack allies. The hospitality fey gift is especially useful as hematurgy can just drain your temporary hit points which can easily be replenished. You’ll make plenty of attacks rolls and saving throws so chances to turn failures into successes is very useful too.
• Human (variant): A skill of your choice can give you some rogue skills and a feat is very useful and will sometimes compensate for the slightly lower ability score with an increase from the feat.
• Goblin: Extra damage on creatures larger than you is useful and a bonus action to disengage can be good for dodging in and out of combat when you’re worse for wear or need to get to another part of the battlefield.
• Goliath: You’re mainly here for the damage reduction which will help you last longer in combat. Cold resistance is useful here too.
• Orc: Survive a bit longer when knocked to 0HP, dash as a bonus action to get to your enemies sooner and temporary hit points suit a blood hunter nicely for more durability.
• Shifter: Regular temporary hit points and you can take beasthide for higher AC and even more temporary hit points. Wildhunt also makes you more durable by preventing advantage on attacks rolls.
• Simic Hybrid: Constitution increase plus another ability score increase of your choice will suit you well. I’d go for the carapace enhancement for extra AC.
• Warforged: +2 constitution and another ability score increase are great for a blood hunter. You also get +1 AC, some resistances and a skill and tool proficiency (allowing you to partially fill the role of a rogue).
• Yuan-ti Pureblood: Advantage against spells saving throws makes you very resilient to any kind of saving throw plus you’re tough against poison. The innate spellcasting isn’t much help, but you’re not really here for that.

Backgrounds

You’ll mainly want your background for some extra skills. I’d recommend trying to grab things like stealth, sleight of hand and perception to make you into something of a scout, especially if you’re going for a dexterity build.

Below I’ve included the backgrounds that work well for a blood hunter.

Name	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency	Languages	Equipment
Imvestigator	2 of insight, investigation or perception	Disguise kit, thieves’ tools	None	Magnifying glass, evidence from a past case, common clothes, 10gp
Sailor	Athletics, perception	Navigator’s tools, vehicles (water)	None	A belaying pin, 50ft of silk rope, lucky charm, common clothes, belt pouch containing 10gp
Urchin	Sleight of hand, stealth	Disguise kit, thieves’ tools	None	Small knife, city map, pet mouse, token to remember your parents by, common clothes, pouch containing 10gp

If you do really want to go down the route of a scout, the urchin background gets you the closest to fulfilling that ambition.

Choosing your subclass

Blood hunters don’t just take on dark powers through their blood magic. As they gain experience, they will gain powers from some other dark source as well. This might come from taking on the curse of lycanthropy, imbibing mutagens, making a pact with an otherworldly patron or simply embracing hematurgy more profoundly.

Your choice of subclass will depend on the flavour and curse you want to take as well as the approach you want to have to combat. I’ve summarised these for you below:

Feats

Instead of taking an ability score improvement, you can opt to take a feat (if your DM allows it). A variant Human can also take a feat at first level and some DMs will grant these to characters at level 1.

I’d suggest the following feats for a blood hunter:

• Defensive duelist – Grab a rapier and shield, invest in dexterity and this will give you reactionary protection to turn a hit into a miss.
• Fey-touched – Misty step works well for moving where you need to be. I quite like the idea of grabbing hex or hunter’s mark for a blood hunter for greater damage. For more ways to optimise for this feat, check out my fey-touched guide.
• Gunner – Allows you to use firearms alongside your extra attack. A pistol and a shield could work nicely and you can use it capably in close combat.
• Heavily armored – Proficiency with heavy armor will let you completely ignore dexterity if you want to go with a strength build.
• Lucky – Turn potential successes or failures in your favour with an extra d20 roll. Great option for any class.
• Mage slayer – Get better at dealing with spellcasters.
• Mobile – Great for hit and run tactics if you don’t want to be left too vulnerable.
• Sentinel – Great if you’re going to be working with allies to get some extra opportunity attacks.
• Shadow-touched – 2 free castings of spells expands your spell uses nicely and invisible is a great option for a possible scout.
• Sharpshooter – Great option for ranged blood hunters that want to attack from a greater distance.
• Shield master – Great for shield wielding blood hunters to increase your durability.
• Skilled – Great way to help you fulfill your potential as a scout class.
• Tough – More hit points is a great option for the often damaged blood hunter.

Weapons

Technically, blood hunters are proficient in whatever weapons they choose. Part of your decision here will come down to whether you’re focused on strength or dexterity. I’d generally suggest a dexterity build which means wielding ranged or finesse weapons.

I’d suggest opting for the following approaches:

• Sword and shield: Generally, playing it safer is best as you’ll often be hurting yourself. A shield will help here. Grab a rapier as the highest damage finesse weapon for a dexterity build or a longsword for a strength build.
• Ranged: Grab a longbow for your highest damage projectile that can take advantage of your extra attack. Things like crossbows, pistols and muskets can do more damage, but rely on reloading. There are feats for this if you want to go this route and a pistol can be wielded with a shield if you have the gunner feat.
• Two handed weapons: Your highest damage option. Go for a great sword but just be aware, you’ll sacrifice defence for damage output with this build.

Two weapon fighting is usually poor on a blood hunter. You’ll often have your bonus action occupied with other features and things like your crimson rite will only work on one of your weapons.

Armor

I’d generally opt for medium armor until your dexterity hits about 18-20, at which point, you can switch to light armor and potentially outperform medium armor.

Grab a breastplate if stealth is important for you or halfplate if it isn’t. Once your dexterity is high enough, you can take studded leather instead.

I’d usually opt for a shield for a blood hunter too.

Blood hunter builds

Below are a couple of builds you can use for inspiration for your blood hunter. I’ve taken these up to level 3 to show how these would look.

Other class guides

Not sure a blood hunter is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other class and subclass guides.