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Things are about to get a little bloody. Darrington Press has officially released a new Daggerheart playtest featuring the fan-favorite Blood Hunter class; a brutal dark warrior archetype long tied to Critical Role. You can download the class info now directly from The Void, a section on the official Daggerheart website that features ongoing playtesting materials.
So just how does this new Daggerheart version of the Blood Hunter stack up? Below, we take a look at what’s included.
What is the Blood Hunter?
The Blood Hunter class was originally created in 2015 by Critical Role’s Matt Mercer for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. It was used by actor Vin Diesel in the 2015 Geek & Sundry one-shot D&Diesel. Mercer later refined the class officially publishing on DMsGuild, where it grew in popularity. It later became the very first unofficial third-party class to be featured on D&D Beyond, along with four subclasses: Order of the Ghostslayer, Order of the Lycan, Order of the Mutant and Order of the Profane Soul.
The class was later featured prominently in several Critical Role campaigns, most notably through Taliesin Jaffe’s Mollymauk Tealeaf in Campaign Two and Chetney Pock’O’Pea in Campaign Three.
Mechanically, the Blood Hunter is a martial class that wields cursed blood magic known as hemocraft, which allows them to sacrifice their own vitality to deal extra damage, enchant weapons with elemental energy and unleash other effects supernatural effects. Blood Hunter Subclasses (known as Orders) also gain unique abilities, including the ability to transforming into monstrous hybrids or using mutagenic elixirs to enhance their combat prowess.
How does the Blood Hunter work in Daggerheart?
The new Daggerheart variant of the Blood Hunter is similar to the D&D 5e version, in that they are martial spellcasters who channel their own vitality through hemocraft. Mechanically, this allows them sacrifice Hit Points or spend Hope to empower attacks, cast spells or mark enemies with curses. Core abilities include Crimson Rite (which lets you enchant weapons with blood-fueled energy for extra damage), Blood Maledict (which targets foes for enhanced precision) and Grim Psychometry (which allows you to glimpse past acts of violence for insight). Their magic thrives on self-harm and risk, with additional abilities such as Power Through Pain rewarding them for fighting on the edge of death.
The class also offers three distinct subclasses: the Ghost Slayer, who becomes more powerful the closer they are to dying and can slip between life and death; the Mutant, who drinks volatile mutagens to enhance physical or mental traits at a cost; and the Lycan, who transforms into a werewolf and harnesses feral regeneration and strength. Their spell list is combat focused with options like Blood Spike and Burning Blood, curses such as Glyph of Hemorrhaging, and healing rituals like Weave the Flesh and Vampiric Strike.
Final Thoughts
With the Blood Hunter now joining Daggerheart, Darrington Press continues to bridge the gap between Critical Role’s D&D legacy and its new original system. It’s not yet clear what upcoming supplements the class will be appearing in, but given its popularity, it’s likely we’ll be seeing it soon.
In the meantime, you can download the Blood Hunter playtest materials now from the Daggerheart website.