Role-playing Games Asked by Kamil Drakari on August 30, 2020
I saw a question recently about the Blood Hunter class, which confused me because the D&D Beyond page for it is very visually distinct from pages for Homebrew, but everything I’ve seen indicates that D&D 5e has been extremely reticent to introduce whole new classes, instead opting to create more varied class archetypes (e.g. Divine Soul as a Sorcerous Origin). After a little investigation, it seems to be “special” for unspecified reasons. For example, it appears in the list of Classes as neither Official nor Homebrew, but is instead the sole occupant of the “Additional” category. Thus it definitely isn’t “truly official”, but somebody at D&D Beyond (an official rules source) considers it substantially distinct from homebrew.
So the essence of my question is, what separates Blood Hunter from being a normal homebrew class? I can think of a few possibilities, but the actual answer might be a combination, or something else entirely.
Nothing makes the Blood Hunter class inherently special as compared to any other homebrew class published on DMsGuild or D&D Beyond. It's not any more official or AL-legal than any other homebrew class.
The only reason it has a special placement/presentation on D&D Beyond (DDB) is that Matt Mercer and Critical Role have an advertising partnership with DDB. Apparently, as part of that partnership, DDB has agreed to provide special listings for Mercer's homebrew Blood Hunter class and his Gunslinger fighter subclass. (The same items appear on DMsGuild: Blood Hunter,1 and Gunslinger.)
DDB's character creator also lists "Critical Role Content" separately from other "Homebrew Content", presumably for the same reason.
This changelog on the D&D Beyond forum discusses the partnership:
Critical Role Partnership
We are also very happy to finally share that we have entered a long-term partnership with Critical Role!
As part of the sponsorship, we will be adding some of the custom content used at the table in the show, starting with the blood hunter class by Matt Mercer.
You can also see in the screen capture above that a new Critical Role Content category has been added. To enable CR content for your character, toggle that category "on" and you will see the blood hunter as a new option in the builder. You can also see the blood hunter under the 'Additional > Classes' section in the main navigation and classes page.
We plan to incorporate more Critical Role content over the course of the partnership, so stay tuned for that here. Also, if you aren't already a loyal viewer, now is an excellent time to jump in and experience a brand new campaign with the cast of Critical Role! Check out the first episode here.
A Twitter user also asked about the partnership and the officialness of the Blood Hunter class:
Twitter user: The Blood Hunter is listed as an additional class on D&D Beyond, under official classes, was it made official?
Jeremy Crawford: The only official classes in D&D are in the Player's Handbook. For a new class to become official in the future, it must appear in a D&D book or must be announced as official by the D&D team.
D&D Beyond: The Blood Hunter is actually categorized under 'Additional Classes' everywhere it appears in DDB. It is specifically not under 'Official Classes' and is not considered official.
Matt Mercer: This. :)
In short: it's not official. It's basically "homebrew"/third-party content, just like anyone else's, except DDB has given it a special placement/designation because of their partnership with Critical Role.
This will not change with the release of the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount book in March 2020. Though it is the first official Wizards of the Coast book about Matt Mercer's setting of Exandria (and the continent of Wildemount within it), it doesn't affect the status of any other content by Mercer.
According to the product listing on critrole.com, the book will contain several new official character options, including 3 subclasses (the Echo Knight for fighters, and the Chronurgist and Graviturgist for wizards) and a number of new spells from Mercer's new dunamancy type of magic, among other new content. However, it will not reprint the content Mercer published on DMsGuild or in Green Ronin's Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, or make that content any more official.
1 Mercer did release an updated/rebalanced version of his Blood Hunter class in January 2020, but the older version is still available as a separate listing on DMsGuild. He also mentions in this Twitter thread that the version on D&D Beyond will be updated as well.)
Correct answer by V2Blast on August 30, 2020
Matt Mercer explained on Twitter that the class isn't something he wants to tackle for now in official content releases. It hasn't been published in any official WotC material; not even Explorer's Guide to Wildemount which was written by Matt Mercer.
Q: Hey about the Bloodhunter class...is it or is it not in [Explorer's Guide to Wildemount]?
— @chem_psycho on Twitter; January 16, 2020
A: Introducing an entire new CLASS into DnD “officially” is a painstaking, delicate process. The Blood Hunter is still in development for me, so not yet. However, I’ve taken my lessons over the years, and after much tinkering, I should have something cool for folks soon... ;) ?
— @matthewmercer on Twitter; January 16, 2020
Therefore it isn't an official class even if it is on the home page of D&D Beyond with whom he has a partnership and where he updates the class, as confirmed by D&D Beyond and by Matt Mercer.
Answered by Pierre-François Casanova on August 30, 2020
Critical Role is its own non-official source category. It is alongside homebrew and playtest material. Details are in this change log.
Critical Role Partnership
We are also very happy to finally share that we have entered a long-term partnership with Critical Role!
As part of the sponsorship, we will be adding some of the custom content used at the table in the show, starting with the blood hunter class by Matt Mercer.
You can also see in the screen capture above that a new Critical Role Content category has been added. To enable CR content for your character, toggle that category "on" and you will see the blood hunter as a new option in the builder. You can also see the blood hunter under the 'Additional > Classes' section in the main navigation and classes page.
Answered by GcL on August 30, 2020
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