Tonight we did a one-shot as our usual Sunday DM has been dealing with some real-life issues that have kept our Spelljammer game from taking off, as it were. With the sort of restrictions that I'd normally get from the DM of the one-shot (we're a D&D group with three experienced DMs) lifted, I decided to give Matt Mercer's Blood Hunter a try.
I rolled up a Reborn Blood Hunter with the Order of the Ghostslayer subclass (the one that seemed the easiest to pick up.)
While I only got a single turn in combat, so far the kind of "premise" of the class is starting to coalesce. My general sense is that Mercer does a bit of over-designing, though a virtue of his style that I hadn't really appreciated is that it's more about character-building choices than things to choose between in combat.
By level 3 (the level at which we were playing,) I had the following features:
I have a Blood Maledict, choosing Blood Curse of Binding. You learn more curses as you level up, but at this point you have just one. Once per short rest, you can use a bonus action to curse a target. They typically make a saving throw (determined by the curse) with a DC based on your intelligence (I had a +2, so DC was 12). The target has to have blood to be a valid target, unless you amplify it.
Amplifying the Blood Maledict requires you to lose HP equal to a roll of your Hemocraft die, which starts at a d4 and goes up a die with each tier of play - basically like a Martial Arts die. Amplifying the curse will typically make it more powerful and last longer.
You get additional uses of Blood Maledict as you level up, eventually getting four at level 17. You also learn more curses over time as well, eventually getting 5 by level 18.
At 2nd level, you get a fighting style - choosing between two-weapon fighting, great weapon fighting, archery, or dueling. I went with Archery, as I wanted to (I guess hypothetically, eventually) go with Crossbow Expert.
You also get Crimson Rite. This is the class' big source of damage and also a somewhat weird mechanic. You basically choose fire, cold, or lightning damage (the rites have cooler names) and then, as a bonus action, you can take damage equal to a roll of a hemocraft die and then a weapon you have in hand will now deal extra damage of the chosen type, using your hemocraft die. So, with Rite of the Frozen, my hand crossbow deals 1d6+4 (I rolled well for stats) piercing damage plus 1d4 cold damage. This lasts until you finish a short or long rest... or until you aren't holding the weapon at the end of your turn. And this, I think, is a little odd. Basically, you can use your crimson rite through a whole slew of combat encounters as long as you hold on to your weapon. You learn more of these at later levels, eventually getting three, the last of which can be necrotic, psychic, or thunder damage.
At level 3, I picked my subclass, the Ghostslayer, which gives you a bonus Crimson Rite, called Rite of the Dawn, which does radiant damage and, on top of that, also gives you resistance to necrotic damage, deals an extra hemocraft die to undead targets, and causes your weapon to shine bright light for 20 feet.
Additionally, you get to use Blood Maledict an extra time, and you don't need to amplify it to use it on creatures without blood.
So, one thing of note is that paying the HP for your crimson rite is not too bad even after a couple levels. The one time I used it, I lost only 2 of my 28 HP, for a pretty substantial buff that lasts until you take a rest. Granted, a bad roll when you're already in trouble can give you a very bad day - as we saw in Campaign 2 of Critical Role.
I suspect Crossbow Expert might be a strong way to maximize Crimson Rite damage - you can actually put it on two weapons for dual-wielding, but this requires paying the HP cost twice. (Technically the rules say nothing about a weapon being unable to bear multiple instances of your Crimson Rite, but I cannot possibly imagine that the rules intend for that kind of behavior). I also think that, given the self-damage you do, it might be wise to adopt a ranged fighting style.
The class does have some support for two-handed weapons, but I will say that after my experiences as a strength-based dual-wielding ranger, having to balance Strength, at least +2 to Dex, decent Con and decent Wisdom, that can be a lot - here you'd just swap Wisdom out for Intelligence. By going Dex - either with finesse or ranged weapons - you can let that be your top stat. Indeed, because I started with a +4 to Dexterity, I was even able to just use Studded Leather instead of Scale Mail and have decent AC with no penalty to Stealth.
The Blood Hunter most certainly fits the "monster hunter" archetype that I've often written about, and while I think that the Ranger could fit, thematically, in that role (especially with the Monster Slayer subclass) this one does bear some examination. I cannot decide if it's overpowered or not. I'm always hesitant to allow players to use unofficial player options, but I might examine this a bit more thoroughly and see if I'd allow it in my campaigns. I love the flavor of it. It'll just be a question of what I think about its mechanics. But there's a lot of stuff to go over.
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