The Blood Hunter, an original D&D class developed by Matt Mercer specifically for Vin Diesel to play in a special episode of Critical Role, is available to play in Daggerheart. The Blood Hunter is a clear homage to the Witcher, a martial warrior with magical abilities that are viscerally connected to their blood - here's how it works.
As DnD classes go, the Blood Hunter was a little bit underpowered - but it was Mercer's first ever homebrew class, so we'll cut him a little slack. Since Daggerheart is a fundamentally separate system, the new version is riffing on the same theme from a different starting point - and this time, Spenser Starke , Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins have all helped Mercer to cook.
A playtest version of the new class is available to download for free from the The Void hub, and adds three new subclasses and Blood Domain spells to the game.
The core class features are all connected to blood, of course. All Blood Hunters can use a Crimson Rite, Marking a Hit Point and enchanting one of their active weapons to deal extra damage; and they can spend three Hope to Blood Maledict a target, granting them advantage on action rolls against the target until they finish a rest or take Severe damage.
The three subclasses represent different Orders of Blood Hunter. The Order of the Ghost Slayer walk the borders between life and death, and their Crimson Rite improves the closer they are to dying; the Order of the Mutant is a straight up riff on Witchers, gaining powers from imbibing mutagenic toxins that heighten some abilities and dull others; and the Order of the Lycan are Werewolves, who don't really need much more explanation.
The new Blood Domain spells are… well, they're bloody. Many of them either cost your health, or reward you for getting injured: the Lifeblood Talisman requires you to Mark a Hit Point and conjures a talisman into existence, which allows the bearer to spend hope to reduce the damage from Major or Severe hits; while Power Through Pain grants a bonus to your damage rolls equal to twice your number of marked Hit Points.
One of the great pleasures of Daggerheart is seeing familiar tropes from DnD reimagined from the ground up under a totally different mechanical framework. Will this be the definitive version of the Blood Hunter? We'd love to hear what you think - and particularly how you fare playtesting it - in the official Wargamer Discord community.
If you're a DnD player who's still on the fence about Daggerheart, check out Mollie Russell's great Daggerheart review to understand what makes the system tick.