Matt Mercer’s homebrewed class of emo monster hunting, the Bloodhunter, is playtesting now in Daggerheart at last!
Bloodhunter in Daggerheart is something that fans of Critical Role’s fantasy adventure TTRPG have been clamoring for since before the game’s release. Throughout the crowdfunding campaign, throughout the run-up to release, and almost daily on the r/Daggerheart subreddit, you can find folks fiending for the Bloodhunter.
After all, it’s the class responsible for one of your favorite Critical Role characters dying fairly early on in Campaign 2, RIP Mollymauk. Now, you too can spend your precious health to try and take on your enemies – but you know, with Daggerheart’s rule system, that might actually work. And as you’ll see in the playtest, there’s something else exciting about the new Bloodhunter class with implications for the rest of the game. Let’s take a look!
Daggerheart Releases New Bloodhunter Class Playtest
First things first, what is the Bloodhunter? It’s a class that has its origins in D&D, and it came to fame in Critical Role’s Campaign 2. You can still find the 5E version on D&D Beyond. And though it’s been revised a time or two, it still largely lives up to the promise of its premise: you are a class dedicated to hunting the supernatural, and you use your own blood to do it.
As you might imagine, given the name, this means taking damage. After all, if you’re going to use blood powers, you have to actually bleed. And isn’t that always the way? It’s never using someone else’s powers for blood powers (unless you’re playing a Bloodbender). In 5E, this meant taking damage in exchange for gaining benefits. But in Daggerheart?
In Daggerheart, your hit points are much more of a resource. Same with Stress, Armor, and Hope. In Daggerheart Hit Points and Damage are separated by a buffer – your damage threshold. And any character has ways of mitigating the damage taken directly to the Hit Points, which you might want to do with your Bloodhunter.
“Master the art of hemocraftand explore what secrets may be unlocked within the power of your own blood. Bloodhunters are skilled practitioners in relentless pursuit of new magics and the grim abilities waiting to be discovered within themselves!”
Let’s start with a look at the core class features of the new Bloodhunter Playtest. There are two main features. The first, Crimson Rite, is all about enchanting your strikes with bloodthirsty power by spending some of your health. You can mark a Hit point and enchant one of your active weapons. This means that until your next rest, you deal physical or magic damage with that weapon and you add an extra 1d6 damage at level a. At level 5, you add 2d6, and at level 8 you add 3d6. Not bad for a long-lasting boon.
The second feature, Grim Psychometry lets you make a Spellcast Roll with difficulty 12 (not hard to do at all if you’re unfamiliar with Daggerheart) and if you succeed, you can mark a Stress to see visions of violence involving a creature, location, or object you’re inspecting. You also get advantage on any roll to recall lore about the vision.
Three Subclasses? In THIS Economy?
Of course, the most exciting thing about the Bloodhunter is one that carries implications for the rest of the game. The Bloodhunter is the first class released in any form for Daggerheart to feature three different subclass options. Normally it’s two per class, no exceptions. I’m hoping this means we might soon be seeing more subclass options for the core game.
Subclasses, much like in D&D, offer distinctive ways to theme and play your character. Though with Daggerheart you have more customization options than in D&D, so while they matter, they aren’t the only means of customizing your character. And in the case of the Bloodhunter, you have three: the Order of the Ghost Slayer, Order of the Mutant, and Order of the Lycan.
With the Order of the Ghost Slayer, you become a hunter of ghosts who borrows their ghostly powers. You deal extra damage as you get closer to death and can eventually evoke a spectral form instead of taking a normal Death Move. It’s actually quite cool, and I’m so excited to see other classes play with that mechanic.
Order of the Mutant is basically The Witcher – you take mutagenic toxins that can give you all sorts of benefits, but only one at a time to start with. As you level up, you can take more potions and gain more potent buffs.
Finally, Order of the Lycan lets you become a Werewolf, which uses another new mechanic introduced alongside the Bloodhunter playtest: transformations. These are special cards that a GM can hand out to characters whenever the story makes sense. These are things like Ghost or Werewolf or even Demigod.
You can check out the full Bloodhunter playtest, as well as the new transformation cards and the Blood Domain powers at Daggerheart‘s The Void, linked below.
Bloodhunters are back, baybee!
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