Main Topic: Blood Hunter Class
Crit Academy discusses Critical Role's Matthew Mercer's custom Blood Hunter Martial Class for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. We take a look at some of the core class mechanics and a few of the archetypes and their powers. Watch to hear our full class analysis.
In a landscape tormented by all manner of beasts, devils, and abominations from beyond the veil, most live in fear of the dark, of superstition, and of the unknown. Some grow hardened by this experience, instead choosing to stand up and fight against the tide of shadow. These folk are called “heroes”.
Some, however, are so fanatical and bent on destroying the anathema that plagues the countryside that they embrace dark, forbidden knowledge. They sacrifice some of their own vital force in dubious, forgotten blood rituals to better understand their enemies. Their methods sometimes blur the line between themselves and the evils they hunt, calling their own humanity into question.
These folk are known as “Blood Hunters.”
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Character Concept:
Patron: Jonathan S
Movie Quotes
My character concept is a Kenku bard that can only talk (mimic) movie quotes and sing-song lyrics. My reasoning is to inject the game with things that are already said out of the game. So your snappy one-liners when you kill a monster or casual conversation in the tavern can be very interesting. Since being a Bard gives the character a worldly knowledge of such matters, it’s easy to explain how the bard knows these quotes.
Monster Variant: Coin Bug Swarms
DM Dave - 3 new a-hole monsters (FIND ARTICLE HERE)
Origin: Swarm of Insects
The coin bug is nearly indistinguishable from any other coin. These critters often lie dormant in caverns waiting for warm creatures to either snatch them up or get close, at which point they attack. On one side the creature’s shell is large, flat cylinder that is colored copper, silver or gold. Bumps along its surface give it the appearance of coin markings. When flipped over, it looks like a normal bug with six legs, eyes, and antennae. Unfortunately, by the time you pick one up, they are crawling all over you. Also, did I mention...they are flesh-eaters?
New feature: False Appearance: While the swarm of coin bugs remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from a pile of coins.
Encounter:
Michael A.
Cursed Habits
When your party reaches a town they find that everyone in the town has an odd quirk, ranging from comical to debilitating. Some may always be in contact with a wooden totem, others may only turn left, end every sentence with "if the gods wish it", or have one eye closed at all times. The explanation given by the townspeople is that their religion involves everyone receiving a "task" from their deity at age 12, which they must perform for the rest of their life. If they perform their task well, they are received into their Valhalla. If they fail to perform their task, they die immediately. These "tasks" are the odd quirks that everyone seems to have.
Further investigation will reveal that the town priest gives the tasks to these people when they've reached their task age. If the party visits him the priest will even try to give the party members "tasks" from the god, which could involve a ritual or some arcane sounding talk followed by the assigning of a task, or by giving the characters an object which endows them with a task when they touch it, etc. I like the idea of handing them an object or getting the party members to voluntarily do something that gives them this "task" because what's really happening is the priest is cursing people under the guise of religion. Someone who is cursed must indeed perform the task given to them or suffer the consequences, which is damage. It could be anything as low as several d6 or d8 or something crazy like 10d10. The damage only needs to be high enough to consistently kill commoners, who have low hp. It could be higher if you want the curse to actually be a threat to the PCs.
To the townspeople, it seems like not fulfilling your task results in instant death. The party members may not instantly die, nor may some people in the town on occasion. The challenge for the party could be to remove the curse from everyone in the town, avoid death themselves, or a combination of those themes.
Magic Item:
Music Box of Blessing
This cherry red music box is embossed with music notes and an angel with outstretched arms.
You may use an action to open the music box. Any number of creatures you choose that can hear the music playing are under the effects of the Bless spell. A creature cannot gain the benefits of the music box until they finish a long rest.
Dungeon Master Tip:
Social Trends and Fashions
A great way to bring your world to life and make visiting cities seem different, unique, and more alive, is through the use of social trends and fashion. This isn’t something get gets enough attention, but is a small detail, and easy to include, but can have a meaningful impact on the living world. While this is something more likely to be followed by those of noble blood, commoners can often feel the need to own a piece of fashion to give the feeling that they’ve been elevated to a little higher level of class.
Picking a particular accessory is a great start to get the attention of the players. Bracelets, cloaks, armbands, barrets, scarves, or even simple hats.
Aside from just a simple detail to flesh out your world, these fashion statements can have many more meanings. For example, if you choose the armband as a fashion accessory in a small city.
The armbands can be made of different cloth materials, a simple and easy way to identify the poor from the wealthy. Or they are different colors, that have been adapted to identify the profession of the person. They could be used to identify social groups or“gangs”.
These trends also can easily allow characters to pick out foreigners and easily allow characters to identify where they came from
A great tool for hooks can come from these, maybe in an adventure to identify who done it. Or someone has used them to frame someone else. Let your imagination run wild.
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick
Lets Accessorize!
When building out your character take a moment to consider something that they wear beyond their armor and weapons. As mentioned in our DM tip, fashion is a great way to make NPC’s stand out, this is especially true for PCs. Adding a simple long scarf that billows in the wind or when you run, can add a simple but stand out feature of your character. Adding a simple Armband with your family's coat of arms can draw the attention of NPCs and PCs to spark conversation related to the accessory.
If you can’t think of anything to help you stand out. Pay close attention to some of the items you gain when you choose your background. The backgrounds know the importance of accessorizing your character to make them unique, so many offer little something extra that fits it. Such as a nobles signet ring, or a sailor's lucky charm. These little accessories create great roleplay opportunities, as well as identifiers of your character.
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