Order of the Ghostslayer Blood Hunter - Dungeons and Dragons

[@DavidCruickshank]

What a wonderful channel, Rare for youtube to recommend small channels but i'm glad they did

[@TitanGamingTV]

Thanks David -- welcome to the party!

[@Matthias-pj6th]

Order of the Ghostslayer is fun as hell, I decided to go as an Archer (Matt has confirmed that if you apply Crimson Rite to the ranged weapon itself for the bonus rather than the Ammo) with Magic Initiate (Cleric) for Guidance, Thaumaturgy, and Bless and it was hilarious. By the end of the Campaign I had Sharpshooter, 20 Dex, Con, and Wis (I'll admit I lucked out on my stat rolls, also I dumped Str with a 4) and was effectively a better Hunter Ranger with all kinds of other utility due to Blood Maledict + Guidance + Bless while being the hardest hitting member of the group (Each Sharpshooter shot with a non-magical Longbow was 1d8 + 5 + 10 (Piercing) and 1d10 + 5 (Radiant) damage)... in fact, the DM never gave me any magical Bows purely because I was already hitting like a truck all the time (I understand why he did it and don't hold it against him)

[@TitanGamingTV]

Hell of a build!

[@lukecasey2830]

By the way, dont forget to review the additional archetype for the bloodhunter, the order of the lycan. It is by far my favorite archetype of the bloodhunter. Also, great video, keep up the good work :)

[@TitanGamingTV]

Thanks Luke -- its on the list! I should be able to turn it out quickly next week. Super sad I missed it for this release.

[@samtheactualkenku6205]

For those who aren't up to date with the current campaign of the critical role show spoiler alert, Mollymauk is part of this order and not the Order of the Profane Souls

[@Shamrock797]

My brother is currently playing a Scourge Aasimar Ghostslayer Blood Hunter. The thematic elements and combat abilities all work well together (only level 4, so far). I’m going to show him this review! Good one!

[@TitanGamingTV]

That sounds like a really well assembled character! Thanks Jacob, welcome to the party!

[@Raso_AC]

I was shocked to see you have less than 400 subs. Your videos are top notch man! Keep up the good work!

[@TitanGamingTV]

We're pretty new in the KZbin space! Thanks for the kind words, welcome to the party!

[@SnarkyRogue]

I read your comment and was like "wait, that's not right" and saw he had 2.6k. Then I realized you commented a week ago. Damn that's some rapid growth.

[@JasperForge]

To bad we'll never see Molly use the higher level abilities

[@TitanGamingTV]

Yea tis a shame. Was way looking forward to supernal jaunt in action.

[@RagnarokAvatar]

They have made plans to resurrect him

[@chrism6315]

Well, this aged terribly. In all the right ways, of course

[@Surge-kk6ew]

You can see some in vox machina vs mighty Nein

[@vynnxa6416]

I just went into this class after taking 5 levels of Ranger Monster Slayer as a Wood Elf with the Wood Elf Magic feat. With the few levels of Ranger, I was able to get Hunters Mark, Slayers Prey, Protection Against Good & Evil and Zone of Truth, Primeval Awareness, along with 6 ranger spell slots and 2 free spell slots from the fear... it's amazing... I can use Primeval awareness to make large sweeping searches to see if what I'm looking for is in the area. Then the Hunters Bane feat, gives you advantage on tracking it down. Free Pass without Trace to let your party approach while hidden. Hunters Sense to learn everything about the monster once you've found it. Slayers Prey, Hunters Mark, Crimson Rite to stack 3 more dice of damage :D, plus you get double Archers Proficiency so a +4 to hit :D , then you have your Reaction Blood Maledicts that won't interfere with managing your damage stacks, and once you get Supernal Surge... I think you end up rolling 6D8 + 4D6, 9D8(if curse of the mark) + 4D6. :D Can't wait for that level.

[@gradyelliott7594]

For anyone playing in Curse of Strahd, I can tell you the Ghost Slayer Blood Hunter is an excellent choice.

[@johnpiernicky8674]

That’s what I’m playing as when we start

[@PartridgeQuill]

Great explanations, as always. I loved your comments on role play tips for this blood hunter. This is the subclass that sounds most interesting to me of all the blood hunters. Awesome video!

[@TitanGamingTV]

The bit on being able to spectral move multiple times per short rest only occurred to me mid-filming. I was like, I would totally phase through the floor to make lunch right now...

[@bbtman1]

This would not be just a good undead hunter but imagine a blade esk theme where you almost become a half vampire which would explain the corporal form (The form a vampire enters after they are dropped to zero hitpoints) it fits well with the blood theme of the class and the spiritual pre death effect again is very similar to the ghastly form of a vampire

[@TitanGamingTV]

I love it. Blade is a very fitting comparison, bbtman! Welcome to the party!

[@Kmmc2011]

Thank you for these breakdowns of the Blood Hunter class! Your presentation style of classes is one of my favourites.. you don't beat around the bush and it's helpful!

[@_bats_]

Totally loving this channel. It needs a lot more attention! Of all of the big channels doing content like this, I think Alex seems to have the best grasp of the game mechanics and therefore speaks more authoritatively about how the rules and mechanics work and how that will actually impact gameplay. Super useful stuff! While I hope he keeps covering content with this much depth, but I also hope we get to see more long videos from him covering more general D&D advice.

[@TitanGamingTV]

Thanks for the great feedback iamntbatman! Its very helpful when viewers vocalize their interests -- helps me deliver a more desirable channel. I'll make a note to prioritize a longer form general discussion topic :) Thanks!

[@_bats_]

That's just what I'd like to see more of, but honestly the depth of understanding of game mechanics in these Blood Hunter and Xanathar's subclass videos makes me wish there were Titan Bear Gaming videos covering PHB subclasses, spells, monsters/DM combat tactics, etc.

[@TitanGamingTV]

Thanks pal. I originally aimed towards new releases (for reasons that I think are obvious), but I've had a few folks asking for a sweep of existing material. The people have spoken!

[@asherandai1000]

Much better than your core class review and explanation. Without all the false comparisons it really lets your energy and enthusiasm shine! Ghostslayer is one of my favourite sub-classes for the blood hunter (the other one being Lycan). There is so much useful awesomeness within it, and it feels fantastically balanced. The one gripe i have with it is the 30ft range of the sight upgrade, this also goes for the core class 30ft basic darkvision. It's just a much shorter range than any other source of darkvision i've been able to find, and that really crimps the possibility of doing a ranged blood hunter. Nothing else in the class works against ranged versions of blood hunters except this, and the core options even support ranged characters, which makes it doubly disappointing.

[@TitanGamingTV]

Thanks Kyle. I'm particularly fond of the Ghostslayer myself -- I love phased movement mechanics on weapons-oriented characters (see the new Horizon Walker Ranger from Xanathars Guide). Also 100% agreed on 30ft darkvision, really stymies ranged potential here. 30ft can barely see across some rooms.

[@EvanGaoTV]

YOOOO MOLLYMAUK CHOSE THIS ARCHETYPE!

[@TitanGamingTV]

Sure diiiiiiiid. I'm so thrilled. I can't wait until level-11 to see what Mercer does with Supernal Surge. Some comments have brought up that Spectral/Incorporeal should carry defensive implications, and I'm not sure Mercer has addressed it officially yet.

[@Therese_Dreaming]

@@TitanGamingTV oh buddy :(

[@thatonetryhard8427]

Me and my friends are about to start doing DnD and I was thinking about playing as a blood hunter but I didn't know what order to chose, but after this video I know for sure im gonna pick ghostslayer.

[@claduke]

I’m getting an almost Danny Phantom vibe from this archetype. Particularly the spectral movement ability.

[@oOPPHOo]

I'm gonna ask this community for some advice since I'm torn between playing either a Vengeance Paladin or a Ghostslayer. They both work excellently for my character concept, but he's currently a back-up character for my ongoing Curse of Strahd campaign. We are not exactly an optimized party so I worry he would be too poor a fit and cause even more of our party to die (we've already lost our trickster cleric). Aside from my current swashbuckler, the party now consist of a fiendlock, a valor bard, an arcane trickster and the cleric rerolled a druid though I do not know her specialization yet. I might be able to get some healing/support from the bard and maybe a little from the druid as well, but I worry about playing a blood hunter who relies on damaging himself while also being the only frontline fighter of the party. The Paladin at least has has lay on hands to heal himself mid combat not to mention plenty of ways to make it harder for various enemies to hit him. I should obviously play what I find the most fun to play, but my fun is also tied to whether or not our characters will last until the end of the campaign. Defeating Strahd with characters we all just rerolled before the final encounter doesn't appeal to me so that's why optimization appeals to me here.

[@TitanGamingTV]

Ghostslayer would definitely put some work in in an undead centric game.

[@nomadicchaos406]

I think that thematically this can be a pretty cool subclass to pair up with the Paladin especially the Oath of Vengeance or the Crown. Since you can be this Bloodhunter fueled by a overwhelming obsession that borders on compulsion to kill all things undead and undeath related in order to avenge your family or comrades that your lust for revenge takes you into dabbling in blood magic in order to satisfy your lust for revenge against the undead and fiends that destroyed what you so once preciously protected. In sense becoming the Punisher of Undeath

[@TitanGamingTV]

Love it. Very rich thematically.

[@stickytim64]

Divine smite and the radiant rite active= rip undead things

[@chaddixon9764]

Hmmm, I think Taliesen will pick up this one subclass.

[@TitanGamingTV]

I'd love to see it. Honestly Taliesin has a broad enough personality range I could see him on all three of these.

[@TheMarsBriggs]

With his carnival background, I wouldn't be surprised by him picking the Mutant one. That being said, I hope it's this one, Ghostslayer is my favorite.

[@randomdemon2841]

Just found out in the latest episode that he has gone Ghostslayer :D Im so looking forward to it :D

[@chaddixon9764]

Random Demon Freaking called it!!

[@randomdemon2841]

Noximus Jamaicanus yep, no way he could miss the goth option hahaha

[@MrDuckly77]

So what do you think now that we know Taliesin has chosen Ghostslayer? Do you think he'll stay with it or muliti-class out of it?

[@TitanGamingTV]

I think he'll stay the course for a good while -- there's some solid gems for powers pretty far into the class. Might go like they did last time, take 3ish levels of multiclass for flair near the end of the game :)

[@ColtNomad]

I'm about to start a ghost slayer. I've been playing a ranger/ rogue but through rp and soon having to face vampires and undead, he is allowing me to take the trail to become a blood hunter and rewrite my character sheet. I'm super excited for this change.

[@TitanGamingTV]

Nice character progression, rjzantow! Way to lean into the change!

[@ColtNomad]

Thanks TBG, I'm really loving the way our DM is allowing us to change classes through RP. The original Blood Hunter of the group died but was saved by the Raven Queen and became a shadow sorcerer/Warlock of the Raven Queen. Through him I am able to change now, also. I love the idea of really embracing the Supernal ability and using it in rp and downtime like you suggested. Definitely going to use that idea.

[@TitanGamingTV]

I think the Supernal quality appeals to me as a person -- like in one of those 'what superpower would you have' kind of quizzes. Would change my whole life. Holler back with shenanigans! Also I am super in love with the rotating class concept based on story telling. Sounds like you've got a pretty flexible group of players to pull that off.

[@ColtNomad]

I will definitely let you know what kind of shenanigans I get into. Especially since it'll be a little difficult to give up on my previous thieving ways. The group is definitely the best I've ever been with and makes me look forward to Tuesdays, which is our normal gaming day.

[@Andrija722]

Will there be video on Lycan order? :)

[@TitanGamingTV]

Look for it early this week! It's almost here! Welcome to the party Andrija!

[@Charlie-bn2vq]

One of my current characters is a deep gnome blood mage with 3 levels of blood hunter order of the profane soul while another is a Minotaur blood hunter order of ghost slayer

[@_Jeremyxlewis]

I’ve heard a lifetimes worth of ‘thematically’

[@lukecasey2830]

Adding your wisdom modifier on top of your dex or strenght modifier to damage is a pretty exploitable perk. If you have 20 in dex and wis and decide to dual wield with the duel wield fighting style, you're on your way to being overpowered. Now youre adding 10 (5 wis + 5 str) damage to 3 attacks, so 30 damage, plus rite damage (3 dice because you are attacking 3 times) and your weapon damage (also 3 dice). So lets say youre an 11 lvl bloodhunter with, lets say... 18 in wisdom and dex. You've taken the dual wielder feat and a level in ranger because of that lovely hunters mark. Youre dealing 6d8 (3d8 rapier damage, 3d8 rite damage) +3d6 (Hunters mark) +24 (4 + 4 x 3) damage per round. Thats 61 damage on average... at 12th level... thats also not considering magic items which there will be at 12th level... thats more damage than a 20th level fighter wielding a greatsword or a 20th level frenzy barbarian. Dont forget that 20th lvl rangers deal on average 35 damage a round. So if I were matt, I would just leave that tiny sentence out of that archetype. By the way, I am not a power gamer, but I like to know the maths behind the dice that I am rolling and like comparing damage dealt by all of the classes, and that archetype feature sounded a red alert for me

[@TitanGamingTV]

It is good to be wary of adding too many familiar mechanics to a class/archetype definition. Gotta track those totals to know if you're going too far.

[@sajanpatel9313]

luke casey honestly you should play test this. There is a lot of bonus action competition for the Blood hunter and it might be a lot of damage but also make you a glass cannon. Sometimes things seem over/under powered when theory crafting but are actually balanced at play tables. An easy example of this is a Barbarians frenzy rage and how for most people I've seen, it's not that much of a problem dealing with the exhaustion level. IMO you should play test it then tweet Mercer your results.

[@lukecasey2830]

Sajan Patel The fact that you sacrifice health to do rite damage is a good balancing method and the fact that you would have to sacrifice double that to do rite damage on two weapons is also something to consider. And the fact that you have to expend a bonus action to attack three times, not benefitting from your blood maledict is also something to consider. You could make everything even worse after that by taking 2 levels in fighter so you do 122 damage in one round at 14th level though. I would say its just not worth it though, just replace that ability with the ability to, once per long rest, add your wisdom modifier to attack rolls (not damage rolls) for a minute, like the paladin ability. And if you hit an undead creature while this ability is active, it has to make a wisdom saving through against your spell save dc or be frightend of you for one round. There, thats a lot better and a lot more badass. No op damage output, cool roleplay aspekt "youre so good at killing undead, their frightend of you" and everyone's happy

[@joshholmes1372]

Well if you take standard array, and variant human you are at 16 dex 14 wis, 14 con and take dual wield feat. Add 2 ASIs for 20dex 14 wis. You would be extremely squishy though with minus 22 health from both your rites. The bonus action economy can be made up for by using a blood maledict that activates on reactions such as Eyeless or one of the anti magic ones, which also shore up the fragility a bit. My bloodhunter at 3 is ghostlayer with crossbow expert feat so I can be a somewhat squishy ranged fighter and still get 2 attacks with only 1 cast of rite. Adding archery style also makes it even more likely my attacks hit. I figure once I get supernal surge I will have a heavy xbow and will whip that out for 3d10 attack rounds, and switch back to hand xbow when I run out of supernal surges.

[@stugod5000]

love the video, just curious will you cover Matt Mercer's other Homebrew or even the classes/feats/vestiges from the critical role campaign guide?

[@TitanGamingTV]

I can do so if you'd like me to! I'm a shameless critter myself, so I'm happy to cover anything the critter audience wants.

[@stugod5000]

Awesome dude, it really helps as i have members of my D&D table who are massive critters and your videos help with explaining the mechanics in a fun way

[@TitanGamingTV]

Glad to hear I'm helpful, Stugod5000, thats why I hit the record button :) What are your players rocking currently from the Tal'dorei setting? Maybe I can hit those first.

[@stugod5000]

a half-orc Path of the Juggernaut with the cruel feat , two gunslingers but one uses the artificers gunsmith and cabal's ruin, a shadar-kai gloom stalker/ blood domain cleric who has the deathwalkers ward and fenthras and finally a half-elf arcane tricksters who pretends to be a sorcerer and uses a lot of stage/ street magic. all around level 6-7

[@TitanGamingTV]

That's some real meat at your table! I bet each session is a friggin riot.

[@FallOfHermes]

Do you have resistance against slashing piercing and bludgeoning damage while in the spectral supernal surge form?

[@TitanGamingTV]

In my opinion, yes you sure would. I'd pick one of the spectral-ish monsters from the monster manual and grab those resistances/immunities. Poison, grapple, movement impairment. It all makes sense here. If its too powerful, then dial back how much the player can do this at the table by limiting uses per day or the duration of the ability.

[@TenKAlej]

Anyone know why Taliesen has unlimited uses on his blood maledict? Because in dnd it says u can only use one per short rest. Or am i understanding it wrong?

[@TitanGamingTV]

What makes you think Taliesin treats it as unlimited uses? Is there a fight where he uses it more than once? If so, its a mistake -- its one use per short rest in its class definition.

[@TenKAlej]

I looked into it, but i realized i was confusing vicious mockery with a blood maledict.

[@TitanGamingTV]

Ahh good that you found it. Cheers.

[@TenKAlej]

Thank you for taking the time and replying to my question!

[@TitanGamingTV]

Its what I'm here for!

[@sebaseba6710]

Awesome!

[@pacceli2009]

can you make ne about the Order of the Immortal ?

[@dmacfarl87]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/babCYYx3l8urnqM Pretty sure this doesn't exist? I can't see it referenced anywhere in Hallowed Veins.

[@cameronburns2636]

I'm playing a 4th level Ghostslayer, i find him to be a pointless character untill 7th level

[@TitanGamingTV]

The 3rd level Ghostslayer feature is pretty limited, I'll admit, since it only affects undead (and radiant as a damage type is further still mostly only useful against undead-type things). That's a lot doubled down on undead. Perhaps it could have been something like, getting half your wisdom modifier as bonus damage on all rite damage rolls, which ups to full wisdom modifier at 11?