Well hey, the last post was my attempt to start a monster-hunting variant of the Ranger from more or less scratch, and I realized that I am not the first person to have this idea.
Ghostfire Gaming (whose podcast I listen to frequently) has their Grim Hollow setting, a Dark Fantasy world that really matches the gothic-horror vibes that I often like to use (though I'd say my setting is a little broader, and honestly, the more comfortable I get with homebrewing, the more I'm likely to push it fully into modern-fantasy/New Weird vibes, though the latter certainly contains plenty of horror elements along with sci-fi).
Anyway, I splurged (eh, it was 40 bucks) on the Grim Hollow Player's Guide to get a look at this as well as the several subclasses within on D&D Beyond.
The Monster Hunter's intended flavor and vibe is certainly the kind of thing I've been trying to figure out. Let's see how they approach it:
One of the most remarkable aspects of the class is that it's designed with the intent of making an Intelligence-focused martial class. While Paladins like Charisma and Eldritch Knights use Intelligence for their spellcasting, the intent, as I see it, with the Monster Hunter is that you truly set Intelligence as your primary stat, and rely on Dexterity or Strength as a kind of secondary thing. It's arguably more akin to a Battle Smith Artificer in this sense, though it comes by it in a very unusual way.
Actually, this idea doesn't truly kick in until level 5, when you get Expert Strike. This feature lets you add your Intelligence modifier to attack and damage rolls with weapons and unarmed strikes.
Now, the reason that I think this incentivizes putting Intelligence first is that it will boost both ranged and melee weapons, giving you more versatility. That being said, ultimately it'll be very powerful to get Intelligence up along with one or both of these stats. Because it kind of breaks one of the unspoken design rules in 5E, which is that outside of magic items or the Archery feat, you shouldn't be able to get an attack bonus that's higher than +11.
Let's assume that we're focusing on Dexterity and Intelligence. I whipped up a Monster Hunter at level 9 (where my Wizard is, currently) and built him around Black Powder Pistols (there's actually a bit of redundancy using the Blackpowder Pistol Expert feat with another core Monster Hunter feature - I'll need to see if there's any other feat to ignore the loading property, though I guess there's always Gunner from Tasha's). Rolling stats, I got actually some insane ones, but if we figure the usual of starting with a 17 in one stat and a 16 in another, by the time we hit level 5, if we get a General Feat that boosts our 17 stat (Mage Slayer feels appropriate as our level 4 option) we're looking at, say, +4 to Dex and +3 to Int, meaning we've got a +10 to hit at level 5 and +7 to damage rolls. That could even be +12 if we take Archery as a fighting style - but let's say we don't in case we want to remain versatile (I took the Advance Weapon Proficiency fighting style to get the Blackpowder Pistols).
I think the typical thing you'd get from a WotC class would be either to add your Intelligence only to the damage (even that's rare) or simply fully replace your Strength or Dexterity with Intelligence. By allowing you to add Int on top of the other stat, you have the potential to skew the numbers significantly.
However, the approach to Extra Attack is very, very unconventional:
Monster Hunters get a feature that will let them make an attack as a reaction in nearly all rounds (especially if they're using a ranged weapon) with their 3rd level feature, Studied Response. If a creature you can see within 60 feet makes an attack against you or an ally, you can attack them (I think before their attack resolves) as a reaction - and if you miss, you get your reaction back!
However, you don't get the standard, normal Extra Attack until level 11.
So, this raises some interesting questions, balance-wise. Are Studied Response and Expert Strikes more than a compensation for waiting until tier 3 for Extra Attack?
Let's math it out a bit:
First, let's consider solely Expert Strikes. Studied Response is probably going to go off very often, but there are scenarios where it won't, like if you're focused on melee weapons and the monster isn't close enough for you to attack.
If we have our +4/+3 spread like we mentioned above, and let's say we're attacking with a pretty standard 1d8 weapon, naturally 1d8+4 twice (17 average) is going to do better than 1d8+7 once (11.5). However, because we're also adding the Intelligence to our attack, the math gets more complicated:
Let's assume we're fighting a Nightbringer Vampire (a fitting and thematic foe) and one that a level 5 character could reasonably go up against (it's a little on the tough side, but I also think this math works for levels 5-7). The point, ultimately, is that they have an AC of 16. That means that our standard Extra Attacker is going to have to roll a 9 or higher to hit, giving them a 60% hit chance. Our Expert Striker, though, only needs to roll a 6 to hit, giving them a 75% hit chance.
So, Expert Striker is doing 75% of 11.5 (8.625), plus 5% of 4.5 (.225, for crits) for a total average of 8.85.
The Extra Attacker is doing 60% of 8.5 (5.1) plus that same .225, or 5.725, but twice, for a total of 11.45.
The latter is clearly better until we look at the potential for a reaction to use Studied Response, which adds another 8.85. If that's every single turn, we're looking at 17.7 damage per round. It turns out that as long as we're getting to use Studied Response about 30% of the time or higher, we're managing to outclass standard Extra Attack.
Obviously, this is just one scenario.
What I will say, though, is that Extra Attack is only partially a damage boost (it is a big one) but it's also a "feel good" boost. In tier 1, when you only get one attack per turn, missing really, really sucks. Extra Attack makes it more likely that you'll feel like you did something useful on your turn.
In a system like Draw Steel, where you can't miss, there's no need for something like Extra Attack. But in D&D, as it works, this smoothing can feel more satisfying than one big blow - something Rogues often struggle with.
Again, though, with Studied Response, you sort of get Extra Attack anyway - and even earlier than other classes.
I'll also note that dual-wielding seems very strong with a system like this - you can pick up the Two Weapon Fighting Style feat, but even if you don't, I think you'll be adding Intelligence to attacks with your off-hand strike.
Anyway, the book not only has this class with four subclasses for it, but also I believe three subclasses for all 12 PHB (2024) classes (sadly no Artificer - it's not in the SRD). So, I'll be doing a more thorough review (not sure I'll make posts about all of it, but I'm eager to see what I might allow in my campaigns).
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