Blood Hunter, Order of the Lycan options for CoS (no spoilers)

[Saiga]

We'll be starting a Curse of Strahd campaign, and the Blood Hunter class by Matt Mercer has been approved by the DM. I'm going to use the Order of the Lycan for my character, and I'm hoping to be able to create a viable Strength-based Lycan. I'm aware that Dexterity is far more optimal, but I really want to focus on strength for the flavour of it.

Here's what I've come up with. It's standard point buy, there will be a Sanity score but that will either result in a +2 point buy - letting me leave at ten - or assigned to us based on our backstory. So I'll ignore sanity for now.

Variant Human with +1 Str/+1 Con and Heavily Armored: 17/10/14/10/14/10. At level 4, I'll take Heavy Armor Master giving me 18 strength and the damage reduction benefits. Probably going Dueling style with a longsword, so that I can use grappling/prone shenanigans in my human form as well. Greatsword and GWF is probably better, or I might go shortswords + TWF for style.

Side note: I started with 14 Con instead of 16 because I don't want to reduce any stat below 10 for roleplaying reasons. I also only plan on using Crimson Rite on my claws.

To compare against the Dex build I would otherwise use:

Variant Human with +1 Dex/+1 Con and Medium Armor Master: 10/16/14/10/14/10. Probably TWF with shortswords because I'm not a fan of rapiers and it just seems cool.

Now, on the surface the Dex build is just flat-out better. Starting AC is higher (17 vs 16), there is no disadvantage on Stealth checks, the maximum AC caps out the same and I will have +1 higher AC in Hybrid form. If I don't manage to get better armor during the adventure (we've been hinted that we won't be able to buy shop items, and there are one or two other heavy armor uses to compete with for loot) then the Dex build looks like it will offer too much to be better than strength. Prioritizing Dex and having MAM means that my character could also effectively use stealth for scouting or escaping certain situations.

On the other hand, if I can at least get full plate than my AC is only outclassed while in Hybrid form, and HAM gives me a lot of survivability. Plus, higher strength means better grappling/shoving checks, which I think will both be useful and give me some more fun combat options.

So my question: would the advantages of the Strength build be good enough for the flavour of it? Or for an adventure as deadly of Curse of Strahd (and I know the DM won't be pulling punches) should I go with the Dex build to try and be more efficient/optimal? I guess I am just not sure how much of a difference the two builds will have in play.

PS: No spoilers please!

[GlenSmash!]

Hi. Blood hunter seems pretty thematic to the campaign, I look forward to hearing how it goes. Order of the Lycan has some pretty sweet stuff. being able two use one Crimson Rite on both of your claws is a great advantage. Unfortunately all of the fighting styles fail to help when using your claws. So it will almost be like you are playing two different characters. One human, and One beast.

Also, note that if you wearing heavy armor you will lose the +1 from Resilient hide. I think you would be better off in Medium armor and not using two feats. In fact I don't think there are a lot of feats that help out the Lycan all that much. I would consider going Non-Variant human. You could Point Buy for 16,14,14,11,14,10. You would have an AC of 17 in half plate, and 18 while in Hybrid transformation. I would put all ASIs into Strength for more Damage and Constitution to mitigate Crimson Rite damage

Strength plus Grappling & Shoving is a great way to lock down an opponent, however you won't get the Advantage on strength Checks while not in Hybrid form, so it is a little sub-par compared to say, a Barbarian grappler. You could just grapple in Hybrid form, and use a one handed sword to gain the benefit from dueling, at least until your claw damage catches up, but you would be wasting the bonus action claw attack by using a free hand for grappling.

All in all it's a totally viable build, I don't think you'll find it bad at all.

I agree that probably the "Best" Lycan build would be Dex based. Non-Variant Human with Point buy for something like 11,16,16,10,14,10. Since the Claws won't work for two weapon fighting I would go for an archer in Human form, then transforming into a Hybrid when wanting to get into Melee.

[Saiga]

I didn't consider regular human, however I don't think it is much of a benefit.

With Variant, both Heavily Armored and Heavy Armor Mastery give +1 strength so it doesn't hurt my final stat spread at all. I can hit either 20 strength or 18 strength/16 con, the same if I went standard human. My initiative and dex saves would be worse, but I get +1 AC in my human form and the damage reduction from Heavy Armor Mastery. Plus an extra feat from being Variant Human.

The fact that Heavy Armor prevents me from getting +1 AC from my Hybrid form is only relevant if I have Medium Armor Mastery. Without it, the +1 AC in Hybrid form only brings up my AC to what Heavy Armor would provide anyway. It's only when compared to Variant Human with MAM (and equal AC before the Hybrid bonus is applied with no Stealth disadvantage) that I think heavy armor is outclassed.

Looking at that point buy, I think MAM is still better than +2 Con. Not only does it increase my AC, but it makes Stealth an option which suits my high AC. The Archery fighting style is definitely a good idea, though.

The fact that grappling doesn't work so well outside of Hybrid form and the fact that I can't grapple + prone on the same turn and then and get my bonus claw attack are both a bummer. However, from what I understand I don't need both hands free to use the bonus claw attack, so it shouldn't be an issue on subsequent turns.

[GlenSmash!]

I had forgotten that both the Heavy Armor Feats give +1 to Strength. Than makes it better than I had considered. I prefer my Lycans to be stealthy, so I still favor Medium Armor Master.

I only consider non variant humans for really MAD characters, but I think Bloodhunters, particularly Lycans, are pretty dang MAD. You'll want a High Str or Dex as a Main Stat, High Con for more HP for your Crimson Rites, and High Wis to keep from going berserk and attacking the party. Feats like Tough and Lucky can help with those last two though.

You make a good case for starting Variant human with Medium Armor Master. That's going to be Pretty big AC from the Start and no stealth disadvantage is pretty thematic for a Lycan.