Grim Hollow Wizard Subclass Guide | Demonologist, Plague Doctor & Sangromancy

Deep diving into the daemonologist, plague doctor and sangromancer subclasses.

The setting of Grim Hollow is a dark fantasy world where many survive by accessing forbidden or alternative magical methods. Wizards are those that dabble most deeply into the arcane, seeking the secrets of magical power, and this is the theme of many of Grim Hollow’s wizardly subclasses.

The 2024 version of the Grim Hollow Player’s Handbook has 3 wizard subclasses. They are:

Daemonologist – Access forbidden powers of fiends and celestials without permission.
Plague Doctor – Combine science with spellcraft to create bottled spells and effects.
Sangromancer – Experts in blood magic, able to wield it more powerfully than others.

In this article, I’ll dive into each subclass to provide advice as well as analyse how strong they are and which is the most powerful.

Daemonologist

What are they?

Daemonologists study the powers of celestials and fiends, obtaining their powers without need for pact or gift. Many, including the fiends and celestials themselves, consider such methods blasphemous, making daemonology a risky endeavour.

Key abilities

Fair and foul (lv3)

You get 2 options for spell lists which you can change each long rest. One associated with arch fiends and the other with arch seraphs.

Both are good spell lists, but the arch seraph has bless, which is better than bane. They also have aid which is great defensively, revivify which is a great recovery from death and guardian of faith for some decent damage dealing.

The arch fiend has fear which is good, but geas is very situational. Dark sacrament is a little tricky to engineer for its full benefits, and requires melee range, but can be very potent if you can get a dark blessing.

So both are good options, but I think the arch seraph is more consistently useful and helps a wizard use spells they don’t normally have access to (handy if you don’t have a cleric or druid).

Stolen secrets (lv3)

You can now learn eldritch invocations. You have fewer than a warlock possesses (1-3 depending on your level), and you’ll need to be aware that warlocks are better suited to things like close combat. There are a lot of really good options like armor of shadows (so you’re not always spending spell slots on mage armor), agonising blast or pact of the chain. You can check out my full analysis of all the eldritch invocations for more advice here.

Borrowed tongues and hides (lv6)

Depending on which type of creature you’re siphoning powers from, you either gain necrotic or radiant resistance and can comprehend those types of creatures. You can also change your type once per long rest with a bonus action making this a bit more flexible.

The spells are the more important part of which you choose, but necrotic resistance is probably going to be more useful more often, but you can change type when necessary.

Unearthly countenance (Lv10)

Advantage on charisma checks isn’t that useful for you, especially on something you’ll likely use more in combat as well as the fact wizards aren’t built for charisma.

Better spells from fair and foul is quite good though. This really affects bane, bless, aid and dark sacrament. I like aid best for this as it doesn’t require concentration and at this point, you likely want your concentration on something more substantial than bless, though if you’re saving higher level spell slots, this is a decent boost that makes this more worthwhile.

Flight is great too, especially for a ranged and vulnerable character.

Eternal war eruption (Lv14)

44 average damage and the blinded condition with a 30ft radius is pretty big. This is the equivalent damage of a 7th level fireball with a larger radius and better damage types making this really strong! You also recover a 5th level spell slot making this really strong!

What are they good at?

Daemonologists are pretty good at being wizards with even more spells, a safety feature and loads of potential customisability through eldritch invocations. It’s even possible to build a melee wizard this way (though it’s not the most optimal build).

How effective are they?

They’re a really strong subclass and one of the best wizards available. Flight is a great safety feature, changeable spells known with some enhanced spells and eldritch invocations are a really strong option (a warlock’s best feature). On top of this is the level 14 feature which basically gives you the equivalent of a level 7 spell.

If you want a wizard that’s really good at wizardy things, then a Daemonologist is great. They also have more utility than most and can fill in the partial roles of a cleric (just without the healing) making this a really versatile and potent subclass.

Score: 5/5

Plague Doctor

What are they?

Wielders of both science and spellcraft, plague doctors are capable of distilling concoctions of both harm and healing. As healers, they bring the hope of renewed vitality, but their presence is also, often associated with the fear of pestilence.

Key abilities

Potion craft (lv3)

Proficiency in medicine, herbalism kits and alchemist supplies are all ribbon features. The main attraction is being able to brew potions ahead of combat that contain spells that can be invoked in combat using a bonus action and concentrated on by someone other than you.

Obviously this is difficult to work on enemies so it’s mainly to enhance yourself or allies quickly and to get around the requirements of concentration. For example, you could distill the fly spell to give your monk flight that you don’t have to concentrate on. You could grant your fighter a blur potion that’s going to give disadvantage on attacks against them. Polymorph, greater invisibility, fire shield, haste and many more spells are also great options for this.

This is obviously really good, but you’ll only be able to have one of these in use per combat at most and you can’t just stockpile these for a free spell slot the next day.

Good medicine (lv3)

Alternatively, you can craft a healing potion instead which gets more potent the higher the spell slot used to create it. It’s a good alternative if what you need more is something that can heal.

Bad medicine (lv6)

I think there’s some slightly confusing wording here, but basically you can choose certain effects to harm enemies with by hurling this bad medicine potion and causing a 10ft radius of noxious substance. Those in that radius can be affected by one of a choice of options.

It implies multiple effects can be used when creating with higher levels spell slots, but later says only 1 effect can be used on a creature. This means you could have variable effects targeting different creatures, but only 1 each. I think this is the RAI, but it’s not definitely clear. Either way, I think it makes little sense expending higher level spell slots for this.

Some of the effects are better than others. For example, 1d4 damage per turn can become quite high if there are quite a few party members. If it’s a small party though, probably 2d6 per round may be better as the enemy gets hurt by making actions and bonus actions.

Sadly, the acid damage is worse. That’s 1 damage per round if using a 1st level spell slot when other options are granting significantly more. It’s not worth using higher level spell slots making this redundant.

As a replacement for a 1st level spell, I think this is quite good. Poisoned on a few enemies is better than most 1st level spells accomplish and the damage could easily add up to more too. As long as you can land it among a small group.

Breathe it in (lv10)

Poison and necrotic damage grant temporary hit points equal to the damage taken which is a really unusual and interesting way to do something like damage resistance. You’re also immune to the poisoned condition.

Medicinal master (Lv14)

Extra healing from good medicine is decent. Extra damage on bad medicine for the acid damage makes this a better damage option than the others. Disadvantage on the saving throws also makes bad medicine a potentially worthwhile option too. I still think using actual spells will usually be better for the party but there’s more harm and healing you can do if you want to go that route. And if you only want to bottle a 1st level spell, bad medicine is going to be better than that.

What are they good at?

Having 2 concentration spells going at once (through their potions) and providing defensive spells to allies very quickly. There’s a bit of healing in here too which can be handy if you lack a healer as well as some damage and debuffing.

How effective are they?

Spells in potions is really good, even if you can only have one active at a time. It’s perhaps a shame that good and bad medicine are tied to this same one potion limit as I think spells in a bottle are generally just better and makes it hard to justify anything else.

This is a shame as it can make most other features for the plague doctor kind of redundant, unless you only want to use 1st level spell slots on this (which you may do later in the adventuring day).

But potions in a bottle and the flexibility of healing and harm are just so good that it remains a good subclass, even if I wished good and bad medicine were more viable choices for your potions.

Score: 4/5

Sangromancer

What are they?

Sangromancy is more commonly known as blood magic, and while it has negative connotations, it is no more evil than other forms of magic. The nature of it means that it’s wielders must make personal, physical sacrifices to access the powers it grants.

Key abilities

Sangromancy savant (Lv3)

You essentially have access to all Sangromancy spells and can chose them for your spell book and get some options for free.

Full-blooded (lv3)

Normally, Sangromancy spells will be fueled in part by your hit dice. Normally this also determines the potency of these spells too. Wizards only have d6s for their hit dice making this inferior for them.

This features prevents this being a restriction by giving you d12s in a quantity that increases with your level. Essentially, until you expend all your Sangromancy dice, your Sangromancy spells will hit harder than for other characters.

Sanguine vigor (lv6)

More hit points equivalent to the tough feat is good. You also recover hit points when casting Sangromancy spells. This definitely motivates the use of more Sangromancy spells. It just needs balancing with your Sangromancy and hit dice. Still, free healing without expending action economy is good.

Blood for blood (lv10)

You can now expend a Sangromancy or hit die to deal a bit more damage when you hit a creature. I’m not sure this is better than being able to cast your Sangromancy spells which would often do this damage plus extra effects, but if you have dice to spare, this can be good, or if you really need to boost your damage a bit.

Red renewal (lv14)

This is going to do a decent amount of regenerating of Sangromancy dice which will help you keep using your Sangromancy spells. I wouldn’t waste this on hit dice as they are half as effective and you should be focusing on using Sangromancy dice on your spells more than hit dice as they work better and can’t be used for healing during rests anyway.

What are they good at?

Sangromancy. If you want a wizard that’s any good at blood magic, this is the way to go. They’re also a bit tougher than most wizards too.

How effective are they?

Sangromancers live and die by how much your tactics rely on using Sangromancy spells. If you want to build around those spells, this subclass is the way to go. However, if you’d rather be blasting fireballs around, then the Sangromancer is going to be a bit wasted on you.

Fortunately, there are some quite good Sangromancy spells to play with, but don’t take this subclass if they don’t interest you as this subclass is just there to facilitate having decent Sangromancy spells.

Score: 3/5

Which Grim Hollow wizard subclass is best?

All the wizard subclasses make good options, and there’s a good amount of variety in what’s on offer here.

As much as I like the idea of playing a Sangromancer, all their features feel more like they’re facilitating blood magic, rather than enhancing a wizard beyond their standard capabilities.

Plague doctors on the other hand, have an excellent 3rd level feature in the form of brewed spells, but nothing later fully exceeds this. This on its own is worth playing a plague doctor for, but means it’s not a top subclass in terms of raw power.

Daemonologists though, haven’t risked forbidden power for nothing! They have lots of flexibility with some pretty good new spells known, eldritch invocations, temporary flight and a very powerful AoE damage dealer that’s equivalent to a 7th level spell. They have a bit of everything going for them with a lot of utility and flexibility on top, making them the best wizard subclass in my opinion.

What do you think of Grim Hollow’s wizard subclasses? Let me know in the comments below.