I'm looking at creating a Human Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter. Doing my research, I know I need CON for general survivability and INT for my blood curse saves. Then the decision comes for STR/DEX in terms of weapon damage.
Looking at a skill array of 16/16/16/9/9/9 with CON, INT and either STR/DEX in the lead, Dexterity is a strong choice to get my AC up with scale armour, leans into the duellist or archery fighting style, which means I can also pick up a shield and then it also improves my Lycan Predatory strikes. Overall, top notch setup, but I'm conscious that other party members are duellists and it seems like standard sort of build.
What I'm really interested by is having a polearm master Blood Hunter with the Crimson Rite damage also applying to the bonus attack hilt hit, and overall the characterisation that comes with it. However if I do that, I have to either sacrifice DEX, which drops my AC to 13, or INT which makes my Blood Curse saves 9/10.
I just wanted to understand if there was a way for me to make polearm master viable for Blood Hunter without being a glass cannon that is vulnerable to every attack. Thanks!
Sorry, you lost me. Why is this your stat array? If you're stuck with this, the optimal answer is probably to dump INT and only take Blood Curses that don't allow a saving throw. Blood Curse of the Marked is gangbusters for you. Granted, with 9s in all mental stats, you won't be contributing a lot out of combat...
Also, you should probably clear with your DM that the haft of the weapon you're using for Polearm Master is the same "weapon" as the pointy end. Reason being, Crimson Rite requires a bonus action and a rite die investment of HP "per weapon", which under normal circumstances will mean that a dual-wielding Blood Hunter runs into trouble. The bonus action attack on Polearm Master uses a different weapon die than the main action, so I don't know that it subverts this, RAI.
Went with point buy to maximise the priority stats, but happy to go with other recommendations. What would be better suited?
I'm not necessarily concerned about out of combat stuff, I'm joining a pre-existing campaign as a guest for a session or two, so will mainly be interracting with the other players rather than NPC's and i'd prefer to let them lead, remain dominant.
And yes, good flag. I've played a Druid with Polearm master on the Quarterstaff, and we determined that shillelagh applies across the whole 'weapon' so I'm using that as a guide, but the character will be checked over definitely. Either way, it seems to contest my Bonus Action which I might use for Rites...
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I'm looking at creating a Human Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter. Doing my research, I know I need CON for general survivability and INT for my blood curse saves. Then the decision comes for STR/DEX in terms of weapon damage.
Looking at a skill array of 16/16/16/9/9/9 with CON, INT and either STR/DEX in the lead, Dexterity is a strong choice to get my AC up with scale armour, leans into the duellist or archery fighting style, which means I can also pick up a shield and then it also improves my Lycan Predatory strikes. Overall, top notch setup, but I'm conscious that other party members are duellists and it seems like standard sort of build.
What I'm really interested by is having a polearm master Blood Hunter with the Crimson Rite damage also applying to the bonus attack hilt hit, and overall the characterisation that comes with it. However if I do that, I have to either sacrifice DEX, which drops my AC to 13, or INT which makes my Blood Curse saves 9/10.
I just wanted to understand if there was a way for me to make polearm master viable for Blood Hunter without being a glass cannon that is vulnerable to every attack. Thanks!
Sorry, you lost me. Why is this your stat array? If you're stuck with this, the optimal answer is probably to dump INT and only take Blood Curses that don't allow a saving throw. Blood Curse of the Marked is gangbusters for you. Granted, with 9s in all mental stats, you won't be contributing a lot out of combat...
Also, you should probably clear with your DM that the haft of the weapon you're using for Polearm Master is the same "weapon" as the pointy end. Reason being, Crimson Rite requires a bonus action and a rite die investment of HP "per weapon", which under normal circumstances will mean that a dual-wielding Blood Hunter runs into trouble. The bonus action attack on Polearm Master uses a different weapon die than the main action, so I don't know that it subverts this, RAI.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
Went with point buy to maximise the priority stats, but happy to go with other recommendations. What would be better suited?
I'm not necessarily concerned about out of combat stuff, I'm joining a pre-existing campaign as a guest for a session or two, so will mainly be interracting with the other players rather than NPC's and i'd prefer to let them lead, remain dominant.
And yes, good flag. I've played a Druid with Polearm master on the Quarterstaff, and we determined that shillelagh applies across the whole 'weapon' so I'm using that as a guide, but the character will be checked over definitely. Either way, it seems to contest my Bonus Action which I might use for Rites...