I'm creating an Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter to go with a character concept I have.
Anyway, I'm puzzled by certain design features and how they work:
1) It says that starting at level 3 when I pick this Order, I can know 4 mutagens. However, I can only create one per short or long rest. The kicker is that they are "unstable" and only last until my next short or long rest. Why would a chemical be able to last for 18 hours sometimes and only last for 2 hours sometimes? (And don't say refrigeration.) I assume that this was intended to prevent the PC from stockpiling mutagens at low levels, but can someone explain the theme here?
2) The descriptions under "Mutagen Craft" state that the character can choose to "flush" a mutagen's effects using a bonus action. I'm guessing most Blood Hunters are not robots and there is no "Flush" button somewhere to push for this to happen. Would this basically be like drinking an anti-toxin? If so, wouldn't that be in the description? This is bizarre.
3) For the Vermillion mutagen, it says that I can drink it for an additional use of my Blood Maledict feature. I'm guessing that means the Blood Curse. Generally, I should be able to invoke the Blood Curse on a creature and then use my bonus action on the same round to cancel the death save disadvantage without canceling the effect of the Blood Curse since the Curse has already been applied. Does that sound right? Is there really any kind of disadvantage then?
1) It’s Mr. Mercer’s adaptation of a Witcher, so there may be some lore from the Witcher games to explain it but I don’t know for sure.
2) It’s more of a “clench your cheeks super hard and burn it out of you like a fever burns out an infection” kind of a feature.
3) The “Blood Curses” are the individual effects of the Blood Maledict class feature. It takes a Bonus Action to consume a Mutagen. It takes an Action to flush the side effects of a mutagen. It takes a Bonus Action to place a Blood Curse on someone. So you would need one BA to drink the Mutagen. Then on your next turn you could apply the Blood Curse as another Bonus Action. You could then use your Action to flush the side effects of the mutagen, but that will affect your action economy.
I see where I misread "Mutagen Craft". It takes a whole action to flush the mutagen from the character's system. I'm not sure that it makes much more sense thematically, but it does make sense as a cost to the PC's action economy.
I feel like #1 is still weird, though, and unnecessarily restrictive. An unused mutagen should just last a certain # of hours. Perhaps 12. To prevent a low level player from abusing the system, introduce a really negative effect to having 2 mutagens in the character's system at the same time until the next RAW Blood Hunter level boost.
I'm creating an Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter to go with a character concept I have.
Anyway, I'm puzzled by certain design features and how they work:
1) It says that starting at level 3 when I pick this Order, I can know 4 mutagens. However, I can only create one per short or long rest. The kicker is that they are "unstable" and only last until my next short or long rest. Why would a chemical be able to last for 18 hours sometimes and only last for 2 hours sometimes? (And don't say refrigeration.) I assume that this was intended to prevent the PC from stockpiling mutagens at low levels, but can someone explain the theme here?
This is a simplification for the sake of fun gameplay rather than 'realism'. Long and short rests are a common milestone in play, so make for practical time tracking points. Saying a mutagen lasts for "6 hours" can be a real pain to track when 6 hours could literally be a single sentence ("You walk for 6 hours, nothing happens"), the entire time you spend in a dungeon, or several times the length of a fight. It's just easier for everyone to say "pick a mutagen each short or long rest, it lasts until the next one". Easy. There is no theme to this, but practicality.
2) The descriptions under "Mutagen Craft" state that the character can choose to "flush" a mutagen's effects using a bonus action. I'm guessing most Blood Hunters are not robots and there is no "Flush" button somewhere to push for this to happen. Would this basically be like drinking an anti-toxin? If so, wouldn't that be in the description? This is bizarre.
Blood Hunters are those that have undergone rituals and transformations to become hunters of monsters. Part of this transformation includes better metabolic control; they can literally will their body into flushing certain substances from their body through a combination of magic and altered physiology.
3) For the Vermillion mutagen, it says that I can drink it for an additional use of my Blood Maledict feature. I'm guessing that means the Blood Curse. Generally, I should be able to invoke the Blood Curse on a creature and then use my bonus action on the same round to cancel the death save disadvantage without canceling the effect of the Blood Curse since the Curse has already been applied. Does that sound right? Is there really any kind of disadvantage then?
You could indeed bonus action consume the mutagen, then use your additional Blood Maledict, then cancel the mutagen on your next turn without ending the blood curse. There's not a massive disadvantage other than 1 turn with disadvantage on death saving throws
Re: Duration of mutagens, I totally get why they wanted to simplify it. However, there is a potential benefit to the PC by houseruling the mutagen to last a set amount of time when unused. It allows the player to craft more than 1 mutagen and to pick from the mutagens created instead of being locked into their initial choice until their next rest. As long as there is a severe enough consequence for having more than 1 mutagen in the PC's body at one time, then that should mostly dissuade abuse of mutagen consumption. RAW, however, it's like the OotM Blood Hunter only has 1 spell slot with a choice of 4 spells known per short rest. Even with the Blood Curse, that's significantly less flexible than Warlocks until level 7.
I play a Mutant Blood Hunter with Wisdom as Hemocraft Modifier. There are Mutagens that increase Strength, Dex and Intelligence respectively, but none for Wisdom. I'm wondering if due to the Wisdom variant being an option there should be a Mutagen that increases Wisdom. Maybe the Int one should just increase the stat you use as Hemocraft Modifier (Int or Wis). Has anyone dealt with that before and what were your solutions?
I play a Mutant Blood Hunter with Wisdom as Hemocraft Modifier. There are Mutagens that increase Strength, Dex and Intelligence respectively, but none for Wisdom. I'm wondering if due to the Wisdom variant being an option there should be a Mutagen that increases Wisdom. Maybe the Int one should just increase the stat you use as Hemocraft Modifier (Int or Wis). Has anyone dealt with that before and what were your solutions?
I wonder if it is a holdover from before the Blood Hunter revision that made them an INT-centric class rather than the old WIS-centric class.
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I'm creating an Order of the Mutant Blood Hunter to go with a character concept I have.
Anyway, I'm puzzled by certain design features and how they work:
1) It says that starting at level 3 when I pick this Order, I can know 4 mutagens. However, I can only create one per short or long rest. The kicker is that they are "unstable" and only last until my next short or long rest. Why would a chemical be able to last for 18 hours sometimes and only last for 2 hours sometimes? (And don't say refrigeration.) I assume that this was intended to prevent the PC from stockpiling mutagens at low levels, but can someone explain the theme here?
2) The descriptions under "Mutagen Craft" state that the character can choose to "flush" a mutagen's effects using a bonus action. I'm guessing most Blood Hunters are not robots and there is no "Flush" button somewhere to push for this to happen. Would this basically be like drinking an anti-toxin? If so, wouldn't that be in the description? This is bizarre.
3) For the Vermillion mutagen, it says that I can drink it for an additional use of my Blood Maledict feature. I'm guessing that means the Blood Curse. Generally, I should be able to invoke the Blood Curse on a creature and then use my bonus action on the same round to cancel the death save disadvantage without canceling the effect of the Blood Curse since the Curse has already been applied. Does that sound right? Is there really any kind of disadvantage then?
1) It’s Mr. Mercer’s adaptation of a Witcher, so there may be some lore from the Witcher games to explain it but I don’t know for sure.
2) It’s more of a “clench your cheeks super hard and burn it out of you like a fever burns out an infection” kind of a feature.
3) The “Blood Curses” are the individual effects of the Blood Maledict class feature. It takes a Bonus Action to consume a Mutagen. It takes an Action to flush the side effects of a mutagen. It takes a Bonus Action to place a Blood Curse on someone. So you would need one BA to drink the Mutagen. Then on your next turn you could apply the Blood Curse as another Bonus Action. You could then use your Action to flush the side effects of the mutagen, but that will affect your action economy.
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I see where I misread "Mutagen Craft". It takes a whole action to flush the mutagen from the character's system. I'm not sure that it makes much more sense thematically, but it does make sense as a cost to the PC's action economy.
I feel like #1 is still weird, though, and unnecessarily restrictive. An unused mutagen should just last a certain # of hours. Perhaps 12. To prevent a low level player from abusing the system, introduce a really negative effect to having 2 mutagens in the character's system at the same time until the next RAW Blood Hunter level boost.
In playtest for 5e, people said tracking time was too much bookkeeping, that’s why most things in 5e reset on rests instead. 🤷♂️
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This is a simplification for the sake of fun gameplay rather than 'realism'. Long and short rests are a common milestone in play, so make for practical time tracking points. Saying a mutagen lasts for "6 hours" can be a real pain to track when 6 hours could literally be a single sentence ("You walk for 6 hours, nothing happens"), the entire time you spend in a dungeon, or several times the length of a fight. It's just easier for everyone to say "pick a mutagen each short or long rest, it lasts until the next one". Easy. There is no theme to this, but practicality.
Blood Hunters are those that have undergone rituals and transformations to become hunters of monsters. Part of this transformation includes better metabolic control; they can literally will their body into flushing certain substances from their body through a combination of magic and altered physiology.
You could indeed bonus action consume the mutagen, then use your additional Blood Maledict, then cancel the mutagen on your next turn without ending the blood curse. There's not a massive disadvantage other than 1 turn with disadvantage on death saving throws
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Re: Duration of mutagens, I totally get why they wanted to simplify it. However, there is a potential benefit to the PC by houseruling the mutagen to last a set amount of time when unused. It allows the player to craft more than 1 mutagen and to pick from the mutagens created instead of being locked into their initial choice until their next rest. As long as there is a severe enough consequence for having more than 1 mutagen in the PC's body at one time, then that should mostly dissuade abuse of mutagen consumption. RAW, however, it's like the OotM Blood Hunter only has 1 spell slot with a choice of 4 spells known per short rest. Even with the Blood Curse, that's significantly less flexible than Warlocks until level 7.
I play a Mutant Blood Hunter with Wisdom as Hemocraft Modifier. There are Mutagens that increase Strength, Dex and Intelligence respectively, but none for Wisdom. I'm wondering if due to the Wisdom variant being an option there should be a Mutagen that increases Wisdom. Maybe the Int one should just increase the stat you use as Hemocraft Modifier (Int or Wis). Has anyone dealt with that before and what were your solutions?
I wonder if it is a holdover from before the Blood Hunter revision that made them an INT-centric class rather than the old WIS-centric class.
"Not all those who wander are lost"