Dungeons & Dragons 5e: Best Blood Hunter Builds | Game Rant
The blood hunter is a bit different from the average Dungeons & Dragons playable class. It's not part of the original pack, and it's not an official add-in like the newer artificer. Instead, blood hunters are the creation of famed dungeon master Matthew Mercer and made available to the general public through an optional add-on.
Sure, there are plenty of homebrewed classes out there, but this is the only one crafted by Mercer--and presented as an option on the official D&D Beyond website. So, while the blood hunter class isn't quite official, it's still part of D&D lore (and it brings some pretty nice flavor for roleplaying, too).
Blood hunters are, to put it simply, the D&D version of a Witcher: they're a warrior who dedicates their life to hunting monsters but utilizes dark power and blood magic to do so, becoming a more like the monsters they hunt in order to do so successfully.
In terms of combat flavor, it's also got some similarities to the warlock's Pact of the Blade. Players who want a well-written, fun-to-play class that tends more towards 'dark fantasy' than 'high fantasy' may wish to find out more about the mysterious blood hunter.
In terms of playable races, the best bets for a strong blood hunter are hill dwarves, wood elves, stout halflings, variant humans, and half-orcs. Let's start with hill dwarves: they're one of the races, along with half-orcs, that wouldn't seem like a good blood hunter race at first glance, and there are downsides. For hill dwarves, the main drawback is their reduced movement speed, but they make up for it and more with a flat constitution bonus and extra hit points. Yes, blood hunters are dexterity-based fighters who also need a decent amount of wisdom, but this is a class that willingly sacrifices hit points during a battle to activate certain abilities. For blood hunters, a good constitution is a must.
Then there's the stout halfling, with an awesome +2 bonus to dexterity and +1 to constitution. They're also resistant to poison, which it never hurts to have, and get the halfling's unique and amazingly useful Lucky trait as well. Wood elves, meanwhile, have an equally fantastic--slightly different-- bonus to both dexterity and wisdom, and the base elven race comes with some handy magical abilities that make the wood elf a strong choice. Variant humans are just good at everything, so of course, they'd be a great blood hunter, while half-orcs have a bonus to strength and constitution plus Savage Attacks and Relentless Endurance. This might seem better-suited to a strength build (which is possible for blood hunters, though dexterity is better), the half-orc's race abilities make them a viable candidate regardless of the primary stat.
As mentioned above, blood hunters work best as a dexterity-based martial fighter, so dexterity should be given the highest ability score value. The second most important stat is constitution, quickly followed by wisdom; if dexterity should be a 15 or higher, then constitution should be roughly at a 14 and wisdom at 13 (or, if possible, higher as well). The next couple of stats can be changeable since technically either strength, intelligence, or charisma could be the dump stat and the blood hunter could still function. However, when going for the 'best build,' here's the ruling: several of the blood hunter's class abilities are determined by intelligence, so keep this from being the dump stat.
Then, charisma may not be terribly important, but it's still the base for all social stats--and useful if multiclassing, say, into a warlock--so that's a good enough reason to keep this one at second-to-last in importance. Finally, there's strength, and the only time strength shouldn't be the dump stat is if the player is going to multiclass into a fighter or something similar. Otherwise, blood hunters have proficiency in strength saves already and can't wear heavy armor, so there's really no reason to do anything but give strength the low throwaway number.
Blood hunters each belong to a different Order, and those make up the available subclasses that players can choose from. There's the Order of the Lycan, the Order of the Mutant, the Order of the Profaned Soul, and the Order of the Ghostslayer.
Of those subclasses, Lycan is the outrageously overpowered Order that wins the award for "best build." It's also the subclass which, as the name spells out, allows the character to take on a werewolf's form--which could make for some interesting roleplaying. In this subclass, the blood hunter gets an outstanding bonus to AC and damage resistances, reliable damage output, mobility, and tons of endurance. And, as the Lycan blood hunter levels up, any drawbacks of the subclass become insignificant; with a dexterity-based character (as recommended before) there's no way to go wrong with an Order of the Lycan blood hunter.
However, if being a werewolf isn't to some players' tastes, both the Profaned Soul and Ghostslayer are also quite good. The only subclass significantly below the others in terms of power is the Order of the Mutant; the Ghostslayer is the blood hunter's baseline and Profaned Souls are versatile and easy to customize, so taking the dexterity build with either of them would also work for a decent blood hunter.
When it comes to critical skills, a well-built blood hunter needs to get proficiency in insight. Survival is also a good choice--no, it's not the most commonly-used skill, but tracking is another of the blood hunter's special skills. If any character is going to be the party's tracker, it would likely be the blood hunter. Finally, it's a good idea for blood hunters to grab acrobatics; being a dexterity-based fighter, acrobatics will likely come in useful with most physical stunts they pull. If the character also has decent intelligence then the player should consider taking arcana and investigation, but neither skill will be of much help if intelligence is the dump stat.
Medium Armor Master is a no-brainer for feats, as it's the heaviest type of armor a blood hunter is capable of equipping. On most builds, Dual Wielder is also a key feat to heave--unless the blood hunter uses a two-handed weapon, in which case Great Weapons Master is the feat to take. Sentinel is a good feat to pair with the blood maledict ability, and Lucky is just one of those feats that look good on any character; regardless of the character, Lucky is going to be a big help.
To round out the blood hunter, any sort of background that grants stealth, thieves' tools, or perception is a good choice--think Spy, Outlander, Sailor, or Soldier. After those final touches, the blood hunter should be ready to strike out into the world (and the campaign) with the best build possible backing them.
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