Blood Hunter

Blood hunters are clever warriors driven by an unending determination to destroy evils old and new. Armed with rites of secretive blood magic and a willingness to sacrifice their own vitality and humanity for their cause, they protect the realms from the shadows — even as they remain ever vigilant against being drawn to the darkness that consumes the monsters they hunt.
You must have an Intelligence score of 13 or higher and a Strength or Dexterity score of 13 or higher in order to multiclass in or out of this class.

The Blood Hunter

Levels	Proficiency Bonus	Hemocraft Die	Features	Blood Curses	Alchemical Formulae Known
1st	+2	1d4	Hunter's Bane, Blood Maledict	1
2nd	+2	1d4	Fighting Style, Crimson Rite	1
3rd	+2	1d4	Blood Hunter Order, Alchemical Formulae (1)	1
4th	+2	1d4	Ability Score Improvement	1
5th	+3	1d6	Extra Attack	1
6th	+3	1d6	Brand of Castigation, Blood Maledict improvement	2
7th	+3	1d6	Blood Hunter Order feature, Crimson Rite improvement, Alchemical Formulae (2)	2
8th	+3	1d6	Ability Score Improvement	2
9thth	+4	1d6	Grim Psychometry	2
10th	+4	1d6	Dark Augmentation	3
11th	+4	1d8	Blood Hunter Order feature, Alchemical Formulae (3)	3
12th	+4	1d8	Ability Score Improvement	3
13th	+5	1d8	Brand of Tethering, Blood Maledict improvement	3
14th	+5	1d8	Hardened Soul, Crimson Rite improvement	4
15th	+5	1d8	Blood Hunter Order feature, Alchemical Formulae (4)	4
16th	+5	1d8	Ability Score Improvement	4
17th	+6	1d10	Blood Maledict improvement	4
18th	+6	1d10	Blood Hunter Order feature	5
19th	+6	1d10	Ability Score Improvement	5
20th	+6	1d10	Sanguine Mastery	5

Class Features

As a Blood Hunter, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per blood hunter level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per blood hunter level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: Alchemist’s supplies
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Intelligence
Skills: Choose three from Acrobatics, Arcana, Athletics, History, Insight, Investigation, Religion, and Survival

Equipment

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

• a martial weapon or two simple weapons
• a silver martial or simple weapon
• a light crossbow and 20 bolts
• studded leather armor or scale mail armor
• an explorer’s pack and alchemist’s supplies

Hunter’s Bane

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 checks to recall information about such creatures.

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 Hemocraft modifier

(your choice between Intelligence or Wisdom)

Blood Maledict

Also at 1st level, you gain the ability to channel—or sometimes sacrifice—a part of your vital essence to curse and manipulate creatures through hemocraft magic. You know 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 at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level. Each time you learn a new blood curse, you can also choose one of the blood curses you know and replace it with another blood curse.

Each time you use your Blood Maledict feature, you choose which curse to invoke from the curses you know. While invoking a blood curse, but before it affects the target, you can choose to amplify the curse by taking necrotic damage equal to one roll of your hemocraft die. This damage can’t be reduced in any way. An amplified curse gains an additional effect, noted in the curse’s description. Creatures that do not have blood are immune to blood curses unless you have amplified the curse.

Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use it again. You can use Blood Maledict twice between rests starting at 6th level, three times starting at 13th level, and four times starting at 17th level.

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 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

Also at 2nd level, you learn to invoke a rite of hemocraft that infuses your weapon strikes with elemental energy. As a bonus action, you can activate any rite you know on one weapon you’re holding. The effect of the rite lasts until you finish a short or long rest. When you activate a rite, you take necrotic damage equal to one roll of your hemocraft die. This damage can’t be reduced in any way.

While the rite is in effect, attacks you make with this weapon are magical, and deal extra damage equal to your hemocraft die of the type determined by the chosen rite. A weapon can hold only one active rite at a time. Other creatures can’t gain the benefit of your rite.

You choose one rite from the crimson rites below when you first gain this feature. You learn an additional crimson rite at 7th level, and again at 14th level.

Rite of the Flame. The extra damage dealt by your rite is fire damage.

Rite of the Frozen. The extra damage dealt by your rite is cold damage.

Rite of the Storm. The extra damage dealt by your rite is lightning damage.

Rite of the Dead. The extra damage dealt by your rite is necrotic damage. (Prerequisite: 14th level)

Rite of the Oracle. The extra damage dealt by your rite is psychic damage. (Prerequisite: 14th level)

Rite of the Roar. The extra damage dealt by your rite is thunder damage. (Prerequisite: 14th level)

Blood Hunter Order

At 3rd level, you commit to an order of blood hunters whose philosophy will guide you throughout your life: the Order of the Ghostslayer, the Order of the Lycan, the Order of the Mutant, or the Order of the Profane Soul, each of which is detailed at the end of the class description. Your choice grants you features at 7th level and again at 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

Starting 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, when you damage a creature with a weapon for which you have an active crimson rite, you can channel hemocraft magic to sear an arcane brand into that creature (no action required). You always know the direction to the branded creature as long as it’s on the same plane as you. Further, each time the branded creature deals damage to you or a creature you can see within 5 feet of you, the branded creature takes psychic damage equal to your Hemocraft modifier (minimum of 1).

Your brand lasts until you dismiss it or until you use this feature to apply a brand to another creature. Your brand can be dispelled with dispel magic, and is treated as a spell with a level equal to half your blood hunter level (maximum 9th level).

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 gain a supernatural talent for discerning the secrets surrounding mysterious relics or places touched by evil. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check to recall information about the sinister or tragic history of an object you are touching or your current location, you have advantage on the check. At the DM’s discretion, a suitably high roll might cause your character to experience brief visions of the past connected to the object or location.

Dark Augmentation

Starting at 10th level, the magic of hemocraft suffuses your body to permanently reinforce your resilience. Your speed increases by 5 feet, and you have a bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws equal to your Hemocraft modifier (minimum of +1).

Brand of Tethering

Starting at 13th level, the psychic damage from your Brand of Castigation increases to twice your Hemocraft modifier (minimum of 2). Additionally, a branded creature can’t take the Dash action, and if it attempts to teleport or to leave its current plane by any means, it takes 4d6 psychic damage and must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the attempt to teleport or leave the plane fails.

Hardened Soul

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

Sanguine Mastery

Upon reaching 20th level, your mastery of blood magic reaches its height, mitigating your sacrifice and empowering your expertise. Once per turn, whenever a blood hunter feature requires you to roll a hemocraft die, you can reroll the die and use either roll.

Additionally, whenever you score a critical hit with a weapon for which you have an active crimson rite, you regain one expended use of your Blood Maledict feature.

Blood Curses & Alchemical Formulae

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Blood Curses

Subclasses

Order of the Ghostslayer
Order of the Lycan 
Order of the Mutant 
Order of the Profane Soul

by Joma Cueto

Marred but resolute, his grimacing face dripping with sweat, a half-orc reddens a finger in the blood of his own wounds, then draws a glowing ruby glyph in the air between him and the bloody behemoth facing him. He grips the weightless sigil, twisting it to unleash streams of dark energy that curse the blood of the monster’s own veins to even the odds.

A mysterious half-elf swathed in a worn cloak and rugged leather armor carefully investigates the site of a roadway massacre, her eyes flashing with recognition as she meditates on the remnants of the grisly scene. Suddenly, she jumps to her feet, certain in the knowledge of what creature was responsible, where it can be found—and how little time she has before it kills again.

Stepping into lightless chambers filled with ancient dust and lingering whispers, the halfling picks up the warning of imminent danger from the scraping of bone and claw on nearby stone. She winces as she runs her blade across her palm, the steel transmuting blood and essence into glowing runes of powerful magic, eager to brand and burn the flesh of her enemies.

Blood hunters are clever warriors driven by an unending determination to destroy evils old and new. Armed with rites of secretive blood magic and a willingness to sacrifice their own vitality and humanity for their cause, they protect the realms from the shadows—even as they remain ever vigilant against being drawn to the darkness that consumes the monsters they hunt.

by Lodovico Sartirana

Sacrifice to Preserve Life

Far from the judging eyes of society, blood hunters have mastered the secretive techniques of hemocraft, finding blood magic’s esoteric nature effective against evils that resist divine rebuke or arcane bindings. Through careful study and practice, blood hunters hone the rites of hemocraft into unique combat techniques, forfeiting a portion of their own health to call blood curses down upon their enemies or summon the elements to aid their strikes. Willing to suffer whatever it takes to achieve victory, these adept warriors have forged themselves into a potent force dedicated to protecting the innocent.

A Monster to Fight Monsters

Whether driven by the wish to make a difference, the need to take vengeance, or the hope of finding a place to belong in an uncaring world, every blood hunter has their own reasons for undertaking the ritual of the Hunter’s Bane that starts them on this path. In joining an order of blood hunters, one also joins a family bound by service to each other and a common cause. For many, this might be the only family they have left—or have ever known—making the kinship felt between blood hunters an all-but-unbreakable bond.

Outside the camaraderie of their orders, however, the life of a blood hunter is not an easy one. The ritual of the Hunter’s Bane can leave a character visibly changed, and prone to unsettling the people around them. Likewise, witnessing hemocraft can invoke superstitious fears from even the most learned scholars. While some cultures have come to accept the good deeds of many blood hunter orders, many blood hunters hide their calling unless absolutely necessary. They feel more comfortable in the wilds and wastes of the world, or drift through the outskirts of society, protecting the poor and defenseless from dark intention and the corrupting touch of fiends.

In choosing this path, every blood hunter irrevocably gives a part of themself to their cause—physically, emotionally, and sometimes morally. Each order of blood hunters practices its own ideals and methods, often employing techniques with dark origins that test the strength and will of those who employ them. Many wrestle with the fear of losing this struggle. And so a life of discipline and vigilance drives a blood hunter’s travels as they wander the countryside, in search of like-minded adventurers and whispers of dark deeds afoot.

Creating a Blood Hunter

As you create your blood hunter character, think about why you were driven to this lifestyle—and why you strive to give up everything to dwell in the darkness with the evils you hunt. Do you seek a sense of purpose and security, which you found among the order that has taken you in? Have you always carried a seed of darkness within you, so that you look for compatriots who can watch over and prevent you from succumbing to it? Were you once a holy warrior who strayed from your faith and was cast out, even as you yearn to give yourself over to the cause of protecting the innocent?

What is your relationship with the powers of hemocraft and the abilities it promises? Do you respect and fear the ancient power that surges through your veins, embracing your gifts and using them freely? Are you worried that this power will eventually turn you into one of the monsters you hunt? Or has your study instilled you with the confident clarity that makes you certain you can control these gifts for the greater good?

As well, what made you leave the comfort of your order to strike out on your own? Do you intend to return, or have you decided you have more to learn in the world? What strengths or assets do you seek in other adventurers that can help you meet your goals?

Though most blood hunters follow a path of good or neutrality in their pursuits, some have fallen to the dark, seductive side of hemocraft. These blood hunters use their abilities for selfish and evil purposes, often leading to their expulsion from the orders that trained them.

by Lodovico Sartirana

by Lodovico Sartirana