Cursed Predator

All Rangers have their methods of hunting, stalking, and tracking their prey. Bitten, bargained for, or maybe just born with it; Cursed Predators are those who hunt with the powers of lycanthropy, vampirism, or other curses to help improve their skills in the wild and on the streets.

(In Regards to Backstory):

Your backstory may make more sense if you had this curse since 1st level, but the abilities might be a bit overpowered for such a level. If this is the case, I recommend taking the Paladin approach where you swear to your curse or acquire your curse at level 1, but do not gain the benefits of it until level 3. It might be a tad hard to play up this with a party, but once you find your footing it will work out fine. (Alternatively, start the campaign at level 3 to make life easier.)

Hunter’s Curse

Your drive to hunt has brought you to the brink of desire and you have become cursed as a result. At 3rd level, you gain a curse that will be stuck with you through the rest of your life. You can pick from the following:

• Lycanthropy
• Vampirism
• Eternal Revenant

When you choose one of these you are permanently cursed, which can not be removed or changed unless by DM’s discretion. However, given your Ranger training, you can not pass your curse on to others and can not be cursed with Vampirism or Lycanthropy as a result. You do not become the Player Characters as Lycanthropes or Vampires when you pick this subclass and do not gain what you would gain from that rule set. Below are the listed benefits of each choice and their unique circumstances: 

Lycanthropy: The most diverse of the curses, Lycanthropy has the following benefits to all variants: 

• You gain a natural weapon that fits your specific type of lycanthropy with the following stats: 5ft range, (attack bonus to hit) 2D4 + damage bonus (Piercing, Slashing, or Bludgeoning damage). This becomes 2D6 at level 7, 2D8 at level 11, and 2D10 at level 15.
• At 5th level you gain: 
• You gain Keen Smell
• You gain Keen Hearing

• You gain the ShapeChanger ability that relates to your specific lycanthropy. (Pages 206-211 MM)

The following are specific to your type of lycanthropy at 3rd level:

• Werebear: 
• Your gain a +2 to you Strength or +1 to your Constitution and Wisdom.
• Proficiency in Athletics

• Wereboar:
  • You gain +2 to your Constitution or +1 to your Strength and Wisdom.
  • Proficiency in Survival

• Wererat: 
  • You gain +2 to your Dexterity or +1 to your Strength and Charisma.
  • Proficiency in Stealth or Deception

• Weretiger: 
  • You gain a +2 to your Charisma or +1 to your Strength and Constitution. 
  • Proficiency in Acrobatics

• Werewolf:
  • You gain +2 to your Wisdom or +1 to your Dexterity and Strength
  • Proficiency in Nature

Vampirism: Of the curses, the most iconic for its weaknesses, but here it is a very strong and regal route to take for the Cursed Predator. You gain the following at 3rd level: 

• A +1 to all of your stats
• Proficiency in a Charisma Skill of your choice
• You gain the following cantrip: Vampiric Bite: 1 Action, 5ft range, Components: S, Duration: Instantaneous. Your fangs extend and become laced with the poison and evil of your curse. You make a melee attack, on a hit dealing 1D8 necrotic damage and gaining Hit Points equal to half of the damage rolled rounded down. This spell’s damage increases by 1D8 at 7th level (2D8), 11th level (3D8), and 15th level (4D8). 
• At 5th level you gain: 
• The Shapechanger ability which allows you to change into a Tiny Bat (Page 304 PHB).
• The Spider Climb ability
• The Vampire Charm ability (Page 297 MM)

-When taking this version, you are treated as Undead. 

Eternal Revenant: Not as well known as the previous two, Eternal Revenants suffer from the desire to forever hunt for a prey that always changes, never staying the same person for too long; and hatred always somewhere in your heart. You gain the following at 3rd level: 

• A +2 to Strength and Constitution and a +1 to your Wisdom or Dexterity
• Proficiency in a Strength or Wisdom Skill of your choice
• Undead Hunter: 90ft range, as a Bonus Action you may choose a target that is affected by the Hunter’s Mark spell and increase the D6 by 1. You may not use this ability again until the target is dead or you choose a different target affected by Hunter’s Mark. 
• At 5th level you gain:
• +1 to your AC
• The Vengeful Gaze ability: As a Bonus Action you choose a target within 30ft that can see you and that target makes a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. On a failure, the target is frightened until you deal damage to it or until the end of your next turn. At the end of each of the target’s turns it can make the save again, with disadvantage, ending the frightened condition on itself if it succeeds. 
• You gain Vengeful Hunter: If you fail a check related to your Favored Enemies, you may redo the rolls, using the highest roll as your check. You can only use this ability once per check.

-When taking this version, you are treated as Undead. However, you have Turn Immunity (see page 259 MM).  

Bump in the Night

At 3rd level, you also gain a sense of dominance while in your Favored Terrain. While in your Favored Terrain, you gain advantage on stealth checks and create an aura of fear or dread while enemies are within your line of sight, causing them to have disadvantage against being Frightened or Charmed.

Cursed Spell List

Cursed Hunter Spells

Awakened Bloodlust

At 7th level, you become much more aggressive as you use your cursed skills more in battle. While you are attacking a target that is Bloodied you gain the ability to score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. 

Growing Curse

At 11th level, you gain a feature depending on which curse you choose at level 3:

 

• Lycanthropy: you gain the following ability: Full Moon Frenzy. Whenever you make a melee weapon attack that isn’t your natural weapon attack, you can make a follow-up natural weapon attack. If you choose to do this, enemies other than the person(s) you targeted have advantage on weapon attacks made against you until the start of your next turn.

• Vampirism: you gain the following ability: Children of the Night. As an action, you can call Swarms of Bats equal to your Wisdom Modifier (see page 337 MM) to fight with you. They take their turn at the same time as you, and will attack the enemy that you are attacking. Swarms last for 2 minutes, but a swarm leaves earlier if it’s HP is reduced to half or if you send them away as a bonus action. Once you use this ability you can not use it again until you finish a long rest.

• Eternal Revenant: you gain the following ability: Relentless Endurance. (See the Half-Orc ability on page 41 of the PHB).

 

 

Harrowing Haunt

At 15th level, you gain the following benefits to your Primal Awareness ability:

• While in Favored Terrain, you may cast Primal Awareness without the use of a spell slot, however the ability can not be used again for 1 hour.
• If you pick up any Favored Enemies while using Primal Awareness in non-favored terrain, you regain your spell slot used.
• If you pick up Favored Enemies while in Favored Terrain, they gain a sense of dread over themselves for an unknown reason, causing all Favored Enemies within the 6 mile area to take a -1 to there AC.