Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this but I can't seem to find anywhere specific to Blood Hunters. Anyhoo, I have a question relating to the Order of the Lycan subclass.
Basically, what I want to know is, if I arm a Lycan Blood Hunter character with a two-handed greatsword, am I missing out on anything by not using Predatory Strikes instead? I ask because I had this idea last night of a character who (as a punishment) has been chained to an ancient cursed greatsword that allows them to "trade pain for strength," but also has the unfortunate side effect of slowly turning them into a blood-crazed psycho berserker.
The Order of the Lycan ticks a lot of the boxes of what I had in mind if I go ahead and create this character for play, but it appears that the subclass was written with unarmed strikes in mind (or at least it encourages players to use unarmed strikes) thanks to the rules for Predatory Strikes, so I'd just like to know if I'm missing out on anything major by using a two-handed weapon instead of unarmed strikes for this subclass.
Depends on what you mean by "missing out". Great weapon fighting isn't the best fighting style there is but it's good enough. You'll miss out on the better AC you'll get from a onehanded weapon + a shield but again, not a huge problem.
If you are thinking of missing out on the bonus action attack for making an unarmed attack, that's only going to be a problem until level 5. Then you can make one greatsword attack, one unarmed attack and then a bonus action unarmed attack. Depending on how often you're going to use blood curses you might not even be able to use your bonus action for another unarmed attack.
Personally, if I make a strength-based order of the lycan I'd probably go with a longsword (or warhammer or similar versatile weapon) and shield using the dueling fighting style. That seems to be the most optimized option. If you think greatsword is cooler, go for that, you'll still kick ass. :)
Apologies if this is the wrong place to post this but I can't seem to find anywhere specific to Blood Hunters. Anyhoo, I have a question relating to the Order of the Lycan subclass.
Basically, what I want to know is, if I arm a Lycan Blood Hunter character with a two-handed greatsword, am I missing out on anything by not using Predatory Strikes instead? I ask because I had this idea last night of a character who (as a punishment) has been chained to an ancient cursed greatsword that allows them to "trade pain for strength," but also has the unfortunate side effect of slowly turning them into a blood-crazed psycho berserker.
The Order of the Lycan ticks a lot of the boxes of what I had in mind if I go ahead and create this character for play, but it appears that the subclass was written with unarmed strikes in mind (or at least it encourages players to use unarmed strikes) thanks to the rules for Predatory Strikes, so I'd just like to know if I'm missing out on anything major by using a two-handed weapon instead of unarmed strikes for this subclass.
Depends on what you mean by "missing out". Great weapon fighting isn't the best fighting style there is but it's good enough. You'll miss out on the better AC you'll get from a onehanded weapon + a shield but again, not a huge problem.
If you are thinking of missing out on the bonus action attack for making an unarmed attack, that's only going to be a problem until level 5. Then you can make one greatsword attack, one unarmed attack and then a bonus action unarmed attack. Depending on how often you're going to use blood curses you might not even be able to use your bonus action for another unarmed attack.
Personally, if I make a strength-based order of the lycan I'd probably go with a longsword (or warhammer or similar versatile weapon) and shield using the dueling fighting style. That seems to be the most optimized option. If you think greatsword is cooler, go for that, you'll still kick ass. :)
Sounds good, thank you very much! ^_^