I was trying to build a Blood Hunter to join a ongoing campaign. They seem to have a lot of melee combatants. I was going to make a ranged blood hunter and I was drawn to the Blood Hunter especially order of the profane soul. However, as I was looking for my character to pick up a crossbow I noticed Mystic Frenzy -- would there be any meaningful way to use this as an archer? 

Being able to follow up an Eldritch Blast with a crossbow shot certainly doesn't sound useless. [Tooltip Not Found] could be useful, if you have a way of making your followup ranged attack inflict a save (maybe poison on your quarrels?). Maybe Infestation to force them out of cover before taking a shot, but that's getting pretty niche and specific. 

My first instinct was to go all in with eldritch blast, but not being able to scoop up agonizing blast -- it just made other stuff look better by comparison. 

It may not add +CHA to the damage, but it is still a 1d10-5d10 attack which you have the option of splitting up to be flexible. But I do agree that splitting your focus between Dexterity-based ranged attacks and Charisma-based spell attacks/spell saves is dissatisfying. It's the same problem I have with the Eldritch Knight, honestly, but even worse for a Blood Hunter since you've gone ahead and taken a huge amount of damage to enhance your weapon; why would you then waste actions not attacking with that weapon???

But that said, nothing stopping you from taking two levels of Warlock to get agonizing blast anyway, Warlock dips are easy. 

if i could add rite damage to cantrips... or if i could take the cantrip as a bonus I could attack with bow then do like toll the dead.i just can't seem to figure it out. Just seems like if I'm not doing booming blade then what am i doing? lol

It's worth noting that Profane Soul Blood Hunters use Wisdom, not Charisma, for their Warlocking.  It's the only magic-dippy subclass that changes the spellcasting ability of the parent class.

Much like the War Magic feature of the Eldritch Knight, you could use Mystic Frenzy to add GFB or Booming Blade to one of your attacks.  In this instance you're not actually losing much, especially compared to Fighters - Blood Hunters never go beyond two Extra Attacks anyways, so attacking twice with one of them carrying cantrip damage and both carrying Rite damage is actually pretty respectable damage output.  

Also worth noting is that Mystic Frenzy does not require you to cast a warlock cantrip, nor a "Blood Hunter" one - any ol' cantrip, from any source, will do.  High Elf bonus cantrip, Magic Initiate, multiclass, whatever.

One of the cool little sub-things you can do is use your action to cast Blade Ward, which normally sucks immensely, but then attack anyways using your bonus action.  You still lose a lot of damage, but in certain situations the ability to more or less adopt a strongly defensive stance, defending yourself with your magic without entirely sacrificing your damage, could be worthwhile if you can get more than two basic cantrips.

Otherwise one thing you could theoretically do would be to use Frostbite to continuously debuff enemy attacks, forcing them to roll their first weapon attack each round with disadvantage and help keep the melee goombas alive without entirely sacrificing your weapon damage.  if you're using a crossbow with no Crossbow Expert you lose your Extra Attack anyways, may as well make use of that.

Quote from Yurei1453 >>

It's worth noting that Profane Soul Blood Hunters use Wisdom, not Charisma, for their Warlocking.  It's the only magic-dippy subclass that changes the spellcasting ability of the parent class.

Much like the War Magic feature of the Eldritch Knight, you could use Mystic Frenzy to add GFB or Booming Blade to one of your attacks.  In this instance you're not actually losing much, especially compared to Fighters - Blood Hunters never go beyond two Extra Attacks anyways, so attacking twice with one of them carrying cantrip damage and both carrying Rite damage is actually pretty respectable damage output.  

Also worth noting is that Mystic Frenzy does not require you to cast a warlock cantrip, nor a "Blood Hunter" one - any ol' cantrip, from any source, will do.  High Elf bonus cantrip, Magic Initiate, multiclass, whatever.

One of the cool little sub-things you can do is use your action to cast Blade Ward, which normally sucks immensely, but then attack anyways using your bonus action.  You still lose a lot of damage, but in certain situations the ability to more or less adopt a strongly defensive stance, defending yourself with your magic without entirely sacrificing your damage, could be worthwhile if you can get more than two basic cantrips.

Otherwise one thing you could theoretically do would be to use Frostbite to continuously debuff enemy attacks, forcing them to roll their first weapon attack each round with disadvantage and help keep the melee goombas alive without entirely sacrificing your weapon damage.  if you're using a crossbow with no Crossbow Expert you lose your Extra Attack anyways, may as well make use of that.

Wrote all of this before remembering the specific question was "ranged Blood Hunter".  Derp +_+.  Leaving it here anyways because it's cool/useful, but ehh.
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There's also the "Frying Pan" strategy of taking Create Bonfire, casting it on an enemy you're currently in melee combat with, whacking him in the head because ya can, and when he tries to move out of your bonfire you use the fact that you've taken Sentinel to whack him, erase his movement, and force him to stand in your Bonfire and keep taking damage.  Take Green Flame Blade as well and be the Master of Hellfire, forcing your enemy to be PURIFIED IN FLAMES.  At higher levels, that's 4d8 for Bonfire, 3d8 for Green Flame Blade, 1d10 for your Crimson Rite, and two packets of whatever your weapon ends up being for two weapon attacks per turn.  That is not awful damage, and it's also nothing but two cantrips and your Crimson Rite, so unlike most of the idiot nova chasers and their "Deal 420 damage in one turn with this simple trick!" nonsense, you can drop it whenever and wherever you have two spare turns to do so.

A wood elf Blood Hunter gains Dexterity and Wisdom, the Blunter's two key stats, extra movement speed to close the distance, as well as gaining access to Wood Elf Magic.  WEM gives you your choice of druid spell (i.e. Create Bonfire) and one free cast each of the extremely useful Pass Without Trace and the less useful but still amusing Longstrider.  The bonus spells help alleviate the Profane Soul's...what?  Quarter-casting?  And you can get both your HELLFIAH cantrips and your choice of useful third (and, at tenth level, fourth).

Admittedly, getting both WEM and Sentinel takes a damn while so you may want to prioritize stuff that comes online faster if your game doesn't allow any sort of bonus featery, but it's a cool idea that seems very Blood Hunter-y to me

 

 thanks for all that info! our DM is giving out a free feat so before I saw the team comp i went with magic initiate to grab shillelagh and was going to do some PAM bs lol. but their whole squad is basically melee so I was trying to make something that hangs back.

The frying pan thing isn't that useful for a ranged blood hunter, but that is neat, I'd never considered using bonfire that way with sentinel. [Tooltip Not Found] could sometimes be a better subsequent-round-cantrip to cast while you're cooking than Green Flame Blade, because that bonfire doesn't keep doing damage unless they keep failings saves. 

yeah could be a nice little control tactic. I could do:

T1: Mind Sliver shoot bolt
T2: frostbite/bonfire shoot bolt (if no one else has caused a save)
repeat.

Hm.

Technically, Frying Pan still works if one of the melee goombas in your team has Sentinel, as well.  It's a self-contained combo within the Blood Hunter, but as long as somebody is preventing the critter from moving, you can continue to roast its chestnuts.  In that case Mind Sliver into crossbow shot becomes a Thing if your DM allows UA.

Having been fiddling with this some myself in the builder, there'a also Blood Curse of Binding, which reduces a critter's speed to 0 for a turn on STR save.  If you amplify it, instead the snare sticks until they make the save, no concentration required.  You have to be within 30 feet to start the Blood Curse, but once it's landed you can be wherever.  It's not nearly as reliable as Sentinel, but it does still work and can be done from a distance.

There's also Blood Curse of the Marked, which doubles your Rite damage.  That's mostly useless...but the amplified version causes the target to lose resistance to your Rite's damage type until the beginning of your next turn.

HMMM...Rite of the Flame, Green Flame Blade, Bonfire, AND any Fire spells/weapons/abilities your party can ladle onto whatever is being locked down in the Frying Pan, with no Fire resistance...might be handy.

You most definently can grab agonising blast, just take eldritch adapt

With the warlock dip, take Hexblade so you can make all attacks with Cha while you snare that sweet 120f portable siege cannon spell (eldritch blast)

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