The Best 11 Feats for Blood Hunters by Subclass

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

Blood Hunters are a unique class to the Critical Role franchise. Since Critical Role is the main reason D&D became mainstream, it is good of D&D Beyond and Wizards of the Coast to do them a solid and incorporate them into their orbit.

Blood Hunters have a string of unique abilities that put them solidly in their own camp. They are kind of like Rangers or Paladins in that they have a mix of martial and spellcasting abilities.

They are also kind of like Warlocks in that they are morally gray edgewalkers who do weird and borderline evil things to become monstrous monster hunters.

If anything, we would say they are to Warlocks what Rangers are to Druids, Paladins are to Clerics, and Artificers are to Wizards. Similar flavor, different balance of spellcasting and martial ability.

When choosing feats for your Blood Hunter, you’ll need to consider who or what you do specifically and how you like to do it.

This is a tactical decision more than a role-playing one.

The Best Feats for All Blood Hunters

As a Blood Hunter, you will be a martial character. There is no way to avoid that.

While there is the spellcasting subclass of Blood Hunters, the bulk of your abilities directly relate to martial combat for you to try to focus too much on anything else.

But, that’s okay! You will be a unique martial class that is badass enough to justify your edgelord status.

So, we’ve picked three feats that every Blood Hunter should consider depending on where they like to be in the battlefield.

This choice is largely determined by which option you choose for the Fighting Style ability you get early on. This choice allows you to focus on what loadout you typically wield.

Here are your options:

  • Archery: +2 to attack rolls with ranged weapons
  • Dueling: Gain +2 to damage rolls when your offhand is empty
  • Great Weapon Fighting: Reroll a 1 or 2 on a damage die
  • Two Weapon Fighting: Add your ability modifier to your off-hand attacks

This decision will affect where you are in the fight, and it will therefore affect which feat you should take at 4th level — or at 1st level if you are a Variant Human.

Variant Human

Whenever we are talking about feats, you definitely need to consider the Variant Human subrace. This grants you an extra feat at first level.

The only mechanical drawback here is the lack of darkvision, though there are many classes that deal with light and dark in different ways.

Mechanically speaking, Variant Human is your best option.

For flavor, though, you may decide to choose a different race — and you should consider being a non-human.

However, if you are playing a game where only the numbers and not your personality matters, play a Variant Human, and take one of these introductory feats at 1st level.

Defensive Duelist

As far as Fighting Styles go, most of your abilities for Blood Hunter require to have a hand free, so Dueling is your best bet there.

If you have taken Dueling, it is only natural for you to consider the Defensive Duelist feat. You will get a reactionary bonus to AC that will compliment your +2 to damage and leave your hand free to do all of our nifty Blood Hunter stuff.

Aberrant Dragonmark

This is a rare feat to see on one of these lists. However, your Blood Maledict and its various rites all deal damage to you.

The +1 to Constitution granted by this feat will make that hurt less. In addition, you gain a sorcerer cantrip and a 1st-level sorcerer spell usable once per short or long rest.

Since your Blood Maledict deals 1d4 damage at lower levels, you should absolutely take the false life spell.

This way, you gain 1d4 + 4 Temporary HP that you can use before you use your Blood Maledict, thus sparing you from the damage you will take at least once.

As far as cantrips go, this is completely up to you. You could use green-flame blade to improve your melee attacks, mold earth to grant you cover, or even fire bolt or chill touch to give you a nice ranged option.

Medium Armor Master

Blood Hunters gain proficiency in Medium Armor and shields; however, many Blood Hunters stick with light armor because they want to keep the high Dexterity bonus without that inconvenient disadvantage to stealth checks.

This feat will take care of that for you. So, regardless of which Fighting Style you chose, this feat will allow you to do that in medium armor with no penalty.

In addition, you will be able to add 3 instead of 2 to your AC if your Dexterity is high enough.

With this feat, you could SNEAK around in half-plate with a +3 Dex bonus and a shield. That’s a 20 AC (21 with the Defensive Duelist Feat) if you can afford the 750 gp price tag.

The Best Two Feats for Every Blood Hunter Subclass

There are four different Blood Hunter Subclasses, and each one is as awesome as the last. The variability in the classes give you a range of options when deciding where you want to be on the battlefield.

Order of the Ghost Slayer

Ghost Slayers are Undead hunters of the highest order. Looking at their specific abilities reveals their focus on fast movement and targeted attacks.

Therefore, for this subclass, we recommend you take the Archery Fighting Style and the Medium Armor Master at earlier levels. For your 4th– or 8th-level feat, you should take either Mobile or Sharpshooter.

Mobile

Your Aether Walk ability allows you to travel through the Ethereal Plane. When you do that, you can move through solid objects as if they were difficult terrain.

Well, guess what? With Mobile, difficult terrain doesn’t bother you. You can go straight through the maze without worrying about the walls slowing you down.

In addition, if you take the Archery Fighting Style like we recommend, you can back up as a reaction without provoking an attack of opportunity.

There is a snag, however. You have to make a melee attack before moving as a reaction.

Therefore, we recommend using thrown weapons (which still benefit from the Archery Fighting Style). This way, your Rite of the Dawn is still beneficial without being all up in the nasty Undead’s face.

Sharpshooter

Again, we recommend being mid-ranged combatants with this subclass and using either thrown weapons or a hand-crossbow. With that loadout, Sharpshooter is an easy pick.

You will gain twice the distance with your ranged weapons and be able to ignore all but full cover.

Furthermore, if you know you are fighting something with a low AC (like a Zombie!), you can take the -5 to hit and deal an additional +10 to damage, potentially one-shot killing a zombie or two each round.

Order of the Lycan

This class is completely focused on your Hybrid Transformation feature, which grants you unarmed attacks, amazing defenses, and a bonus to melee damage.

Therefore, you will be in melee with this class. Furthermore, because of your tendency to flip out and attack the nearest creature, you will be deep in melee, far away from your allies.

To make sure that happens, we chose two feats that will put you where you need to be and help you stay there.

Charger

This feat is a no-brainer. Use your bonus action to dash headlong into the fray. You’ll be doing that anyway.

But when you have this feat at your disposal, you’ll gain extra damage to boot.

Tough

This is a simple, very not-flashy feat. Extra HP. That’s it. Some folks may be put off by the fact that you don’t get a bunch of other nifty little tricks with this one.

The thing is, though, as a Blood Hunter, you DO get nifty tricks. Those tricks rely on you having the extra HP to spare, though.

Furthermore, if you are in melee, you will need that extra HP since everyone will be focusing their attacks on you, you scary rampaging monster.

Order of the Mutant

This is a weird subclass of a weird core class. It just is. Blood Hunter by itself relies on loads of specialized rules and quirky abilities.

This subclass takes that even further, allowing you to do things no other class, feat, or spell allows you to do.

However, like all Blood Hunters, each mutagenic ability comes with its own drawback.

These two feats will help you to deal with those drawbacks, thus giving you the freedom to let your freak flag fly — or, rather, your mutant mask… metastasize?

Magic Initiate (Artificer)

If you look at the drawbacks of all of the various mutagenic abilities, they typically give you a penalty to a saving throw or skill check.

Therefore, you’ll want to use this feat to gain the guidance and resistance cantrips to neutralize that as best you are able.

For your 1st-level spell, consider cure wounds or false life to give you the cushion to use your Hemocraft die and absorb the associated damage.

Eldritch Adept

Like Magic Initiate, this gives you access to a new spell. We recommend using this ability to take the warlock invocation, Fiendish Vigor.

This will give you an endless supply of Temporary HP to buffer you against your Hemocrafting. The difference is that you can use it at will, which means you could potentially never take damage from that ability again.

Order of the Profane Soul

These feats are dependent upon you being able to talk your DM into doing a little House Ruling and allowing your Rites to affect your Eldritch Blast instead of a weapon. There are valid arguments for this. Check it out:

Eldritch Blast is no more powerful than a Heavy Crossbow. It is a long-range 1d10 that can attack multiple targets, provided you have a way to ignore the loading property of which there are several (Artificer Infusion, Crossbow Expert being the two most common).

Also, a heavy crossbow allows you to add your Dexterity bonus to the damage. Not so with Eldritch Blast.

Eldritch Blast is a key feature of the Warlock class, thus making it customizable through Warlock invocations. There is a precedent to modifying and improving the Eldritch Blast, and Order of the Profane Soul is a Warlock-adjacent class.

If your DM still thinks it’s too powerful, then offer this concession:

Your Rites will be restricted to only affecting your Eldritch Blast instead of any weapon you pick up like other Blood Hunters.

That ought to do it. Once that is established, pick these feats:

Spell Sniper

This will grant you a range of 240 feet with your Eldritch Blast (which is still less than the Warlock invocation) and the ability to ignore all but total cover. You will also gain an additional cantrip.

Since your spellcasting modifier will be Intelligence or Wisdom, we recommend either choosing shillelagh from the druid list or shocking grasp from the Wizard list.

This will give you a way to make a melee spell attack if threatened while still being able to take advantage of your Mystic Frenzy ability.

Eldritch Adept

This gives you access to a warlock invocation, which you can use to act like you’re a real warlock and not some edgelord imitation. We recommend using this ability to take the warlock invocation, Agonizing Blast.

This will allow you to add your Charisma bonus to your Eldritch Blast, which will help you stack up the damage over time.

If, for some silly reason, your DM does not let you substitute your Eldritch Blast for a weapon concerning your blood rites, then take Fiendish Vigor.

This will give you an endless supply of Temporary HP to buffer you against your Hemocrafting. The difference is that you can use it at will, which means you could potentially never take damage from that ability again.

Final Thoughts

Blood Hunters are a unique class with some unique abilities that can put them pretty much anywhere on the battlefield.

Your choice of feats will determine your effectiveness in that place.

Choose wisely, and roll on.

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