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View Full Version : 3.5 Base Class- Bounty Hunter *PEACH*



PumpkinEater
2009-05-17, 12:11 AM
Anyway, this is my first attempt at making a class, so... it's probably going to be unbalanced ): It's pretty much a combination of a Rogue and a Ranger. ... Oh, and a few tidbits of Assassin.

Bounty Hunter

Hit Dice: d8
Weapon Proficiencies: Bounty hunters are proficient with all simple and martial weapons.
Armor Proficiencies: Bounty hunters are proficient with light armor and all shields.
Skill Points: 6 + Intelligence Modifier (x 4 at first level)
Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Sleigh of Hand, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope

Bounty Hunter
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+0|Favored Enemy I, Track, Nonlethal Strike +1d6

2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+0|Poison Use

3rd|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+1|Evasion

4th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Nonlethal Strike +2d6

5th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+1|Favored Enemy II

6th|
+4|
+2|
+5|
+2|Swift Tracker

7th|
+5|
+2|
+5|
+2|Debilitating Strike

8th|
+6 / +1|
+2|
+6|
+2|Nonlethal Strike +3d6

9th|
+6 / +1|
+3|
+6|
+3|
---

10th|
+7 / +2|
+3|
+7|
+3|Bane of Enemies, Favored Enemy III

11th|
+8 / +3|
+3|
+7|
+3|
---

12th|
+9 / +4|
+4|
+8|
+4|Nonlethal Strike +4d6

13th|
+9 / +4|
+4|
+8|
+4|
---

14th|
+10 / +5|
+4|
+9|
+4|
---

15th|
+11 / +6 / +1|
+5|
+9|
+5|Favored Enemy IV

16th|
+12 / +7 / +2|
+5|
+10|
+5|Nonlethal Strike +5d6

17th|
+12 / +7 / +2|
+5|
+10|
+5|
---

18th|
+13 / +8 / +3|
+6|
+11|
+6|
---

19th|
+14 / +9 / +4|
+6|
+11|
+6|
---

20th|
+15 / +10 / +5|
+6|
+12|
+6|Nonlethal +6d6, Favored Enemy V[/table]

Favored Enemy A bounty hunter may select a creature from the Ranger’s list of Favored Enemies. Due to his extensive study of his chosen type of foe and training in the proper techniques for combating such creatures, the bounty hunter gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against creatures of this type. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures. These bonuses increase by 2 every five levels. At tenth level, a bounty hunter may choose a second Favored Enemy. The bounty hunter receives the same bonuses against the new chosen enemy as he does with the previous one.

Track A bounty hunter gains the Track feat as a bonus feat.

Nonlethal Strike If a bounty hunter can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from his attack, he can deal nonlethal damage to the target at no penalty. Basically, the bounty hunter deals nonlethal damage any time her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the bounty hunter flanks his target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and it increases by 1d6 every four bounty hunter levels thereafter. Should the bounty hunter score a critical hit with a nonlethal strike, this extra damage is not multiplied. This ability is unusable with ranged weapons. A bounty hunter can’t strike with deadly accuracy from beyond that range. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to nonlethal strikes. A bounty hunter cannot nonlethal strike a creature with concealment.

Poison Use Bounty hunters are trained in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.

Evasion At 3rd level, bounty hunters gain the ability to dodge magical and supernatural attacks with unusual swiftness and agility. If a bounty hunter makes a successful Reflex save against an attack that would normally deal half damage on a successful reflex save, the bounty hunter instead takes no damage. A helpless bounty hunter (unconscious, paralyzed, etc.) does not gain the benefit of this ability.

Swift Tracker Beginning at 6th level, a bounty hunter can move at his normal speed while following tracks without taking the normal –5 penalty. He takes only a –10 penalty (instead of the normal –20) when moving at up to twice normal speed while tracking.

Debilitating Strike At 7th level, bounty hunters gain the ability to inflict crippling effects upon their victims at the cost of nonlethal damage. For the purposes of the following feats, treat Nonlethal Strike as the Sneak Attack class feature: Arterial Strike, Deep Poisoning, and Hamstring. Bounty Hunters receive one of these feats as a bonus feat at 7th level. Bounty Hunters may select an additional feat from this list every 4 levels thereafter.

Bane of Enemies Whenever a bounty hunter would succesfully deal damage to a favored enemy, he or she may apply her Nonlethal Strike damage.

playswithfire
2009-05-17, 08:54 AM
Looks alright to me, but I may not be the best judge of balance. Thematically, you may want to consider looking at Justiciar in Complete Warrior, particularly if you want there to be an option to bring the bounties in alive, maybe with nonlethal strike and/or some form of hog-tie as an alternate combat style/alternate class feature to the sneak attack?

Given that Track is based on Survival, which is a WIS skill, for synergy's sake, you may want to make the death attack also WIS-based or let them add their INT mod to Survival checks or something.

lesser_minion
2009-05-17, 08:55 AM
At the moment, I think this may need a little more work. There seems to be little this class does that couldn't be done by building your character carefully, and you also have a lot of dead levels (players like to get something new at every single level).

The archetype you've chosen for this class also seems too narrow for a base class in 3.x - it might work as a 4e class, but even then it would probably make more sense as a selection of themed powers and a paragon path. It's not too bad a problem - base classes can work with overdefined archetypes, but generally they need to be made mechanically pretty distinct from other base classes.

Try to come up with a few new abilities - things that you cannot get any other way. Something relating to investigation would complement the noncombat side of the class, and Bane of Enemies could be made into a scaling ability of some sort (Avoid death attack. It's just not worth it).

On the balance side of things, it actually looks underpowered. It could be reasonable when both SA and Favoured Enemy apply, and it has plenty of skill points and an extensive skill list which allow it to act as a skillmonkey, but I don't really see why someone would take this class in general play (it would be absolutely fine as a player customised class, however).

Ideally, the class should be a little more effective in combat than a bard or about on par with a psychic warrior.

PumpkinEater
2009-05-17, 09:37 AM
I'm not quite sure I know what you mean about avoiding Death Attack :) Sorry.

Umm... if you mean what I think you mean, then would changing the Bane of Enemies ability so that it instead applies Sneak Attack damage automatically to the Favored Enemy work?

How about giving them Hamstring (trade 2d6 sneak attack damage to halve victims speed), Arterial Strike (trade 1d6 sneak attack damage to make the victim bleed), or Deep Poisoning (trade 1d6 to 5d6 sneak attack damage to improve weapon Poison's DC by 1 to 5)? This at 7th level?

I also just realized that this class didn't have Evasion... whoops :smalltongue:

lesser_minion
2009-05-17, 10:30 AM
Actually, I quite like the "always apply SA damage to favoured enemies" idea - this could lead to characters picking the same selection of favoured enemies though - Undead, Contructs, Oozes, Giants (huge or larger ones are sometimes immune, IIRC) and Magical Beasts will probably come up pretty routinely.

I'd suggest rolling both of the class' scaling features (Favoured Enemy and Sneak Attack) into one package (Bane of Enemies is quite a good name for it). This could be something along the following lines:

+1 to hit/+d4 damage vs. a nominated favoured enemy (choose three different ones) +1 to hit, +1d4 to damage an unaware, flanked or flat-footed opponent Both bonuses increase with level - the character may also select new favoured enemies and change existing ones as he gains levels.





You will also need something noncombat-related, just to match up to the fluff - a skilled bounty hunter should be able to find his target, as well as take them down.

Xallace
2009-05-17, 10:34 AM
Alright, new class, let's get started.


First off... PEACH stands for "Please examine and critique honestly", right? ... I sure hope it does.

Certainly does.


Anyway, this is my first attempt at making a class, so... it's probably going to be unbalanced ): It's pretty much a combination of a Rogue and a Ranger. ... Oh, and a few tidbits of Assassin.

Looks it.


Bounty Hunter

Hit Dice: d8
Weapon Proficiencies: Bounty hunters are proficient with all simple and martial weapons.
Armor Proficiencies: Bounty hunters are proficient with light armor and all shields.

OK, this works. You might want to bump up the armor to Medium. Maybe because I'm thinking Boba Fett, I think a bounty hunter would be able to utilize a little more armor; not as much as your typical fighter, but more than a rogue.


Skill Points: 6 + Intelligence Modifier (x 4 at first level)
Class Skills: Balance, Bluff, Climb, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Sleigh of Hand, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope

Alright, so it's a skill monkey. I can dig it. List makes sense, but I think you'll want to add Survival to the class skills, especially because you give them the Track feat.


Bounty Hunter
*Class Table*

Alright now we start seeing some problems. Firstly, your Will Save progression needs fixing right there. You left in a "+x" and it suddenly jumps to +12 at 20th level.

Nextly I agree that there are too many dead levels, and no abilities that you couldn't get anywhere else. But let's take a look at what you've got before we get started on that.


Favored Enemy A bounty hunter may select a creature from the Ranger’s list of Favored Enemies. Due to his extensive study of his chosen type of foe and training in the proper techniques for combating such creatures, the bounty hunter gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against creatures of this type. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures. These bonuses increase by 2 every five levels.

According to the text here, I gain 1 favored enemy of the course of all 20 levels. I don't think you intended that.


Track A bounty hunter gains the Track feat as a bonus feat.

Makes sense.


Sneak Attack If a bounty hunter can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from his attack, he can strike a vital spot for extra damage. Basically, the bounty hunter deals extra damage any time her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the bounty hunter flanks his target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and it increases by 1d6 every four bounty hunter levels thereafter. Should the bounty hunter score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this extra damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks can count as sneak attacks only if the target is within 30 feet. A bounty hunter can’t strike with deadly accuracy from beyond that range. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to sneak attacks. A bounty hunter cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment, or striking the limbs of a creature whose vitals are beyond its reach.

Alright, Sneak Attack works for the class. But I actually think that we should remove Sneak Attack and replace it with another feature. I mean, everyone gets Sneak Attack! But we ought to go for something similar to sneak attack, in that it deals with flanked or flat-footed opponents. Catching opponents by surprise seems like it should be this class's forte anyway.


Poison Use Bounty hunters are trained in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.

OK, I can dig it.


Swift Tracker Beginning at 6th level, a bounty hunter can move at his normal speed while following tracks without taking the normal –5 penalty. He takes only a –10 penalty (instead of the normal –20) when moving at up to twice normal speed while tracking.

Makes sense.


Bane of Enemies If a bounty hunter studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (bounty hunter’s choice). While studying the victim, the bounty hunter can undertake other actions so long as his attention stays focused on the target and the target does not detect the bounty hunter or recognize the bounty hunter as an enemy. If the victim of such at attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + half the bounty hunter’s class level + the bounty hunter’s intelligence modifier) against the kill effect, the target dies. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim’s mind and body become enervated, rendering the target helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per level of the bounty hunter. If the victim’s saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once the bounty hunter has completed the 3 rounds of study, he must make the death attack within the next 3 rounds. If a death attack is attempted and fails (the victim makes the save) or if the bounty hunter does not launch the attack within 3 rounds of completing the study, 3 new rounds of study are required before he can attempt another death attack.

So it's Death Attack, but the new name makes it seem like you can only use it on your Favored Enemy(/Enemies). Maybe I missed that in the description.

Alright, so here's some ideas I think might help:

Mutable Favored Enemy: Preferrably named something more flavorful (say, Mark Bounty?). You only get one Favored Enemy, but you can change it under certain conditions-- perhaps daily. Of course, you'll want to change your FE to whatever your current mark is.
And acquire multiple FE over the course of the class, but maybe not at the same rate that the bonuses accrue.
Bane of Enemies: Death Attack certainly works for this class without much modification-- I'd say reduce the amount of time needed to use it, but only allow it on one of your current Marks (that is, a Favored Enemy).
Poison Use: I'd say wrap this into another ability that lets you deal non-lethal damage without penalty, representing a necessity for alternatives when capturing targets.
Sneak Attack: I mentioned getting rid of this, but if you can deal non-lethal damage at will then SA would be pretty useful. However, I'm still of the opinion that if you can come up with a more flavorful ability, go with that one.
Surprise!: Perhaps a later (capstone, level 20?) ability could be that you get your own surprise round in combat, and can act in the surprise round if you get ambushed or something.

Well, I hope that helped. I'm a little tired right now, so I hope I wasn't non-sensical or rude.

PumpkinEater
2009-05-17, 10:57 AM
OK, this works. You might want to bump up the armor to Medium. Maybe because I'm thinking Boba Fett, I think a bounty hunter would be able to utilize a little more armor; not as much as your typical fighter, but more than a rogue.

Maybe I'll do that... I'm not totally sure.



Alright, so it's a skill monkey. I can dig it. List makes sense, but I think you'll want to add Survival to the class skills, especially because you give them the Track feat.

Whoops :smalltongue: I'll fix that.



Alright now we start seeing some problems. Firstly, your Will Save progression needs fixing right there. You left in a "+x" and it suddenly jumps to +12 at 20th level.

Yeah... I already found two mistakes like that... thanks, I'll fix it right away :smallsmile:



According to the text here, I gain 1 favored enemy of the course of all 20 levels. I don't think you intended that.

Actually, I intended 2... whoops. Time to fix that too.



Alright, Sneak Attack works for the class. But I actually think that we should remove Sneak Attack and replace it with another feature. I mean, everyone gets Sneak Attack! But we ought to go for something similar to sneak attack, in that it deals with flanked or flat-footed opponents. Catching opponents by surprise seems like it should be this class's forte anyway.

I'll try thinking of something :smallsmile:



So it's Death Attack, but the new name makes it seem like you can only use it on your Favored Enemy(/Enemies). Maybe I missed that in the description.

You can only use it against Favored Enemies, yeah. But, I mentioned earlier that I was probably going to change it so that instead of it being a Death Attack, you would just automatically apply Sneak Attack damage.



Mutable Favored Enemy: Preferrably named something more flavorful (say, Mark Bounty?). You only get one Favored Enemy, but you can change it under certain conditions-- perhaps daily. Of course, you'll want to change your FE to whatever your current mark is.
And acquire multiple FE over the course of the class, but maybe not at the same rate that the bonuses accrue.

Well, this class was originally supposed to have only two favored enemies (I realize that I forgot to put that in). Mark Bounty, hmm? Do you mean for that to target only one individual?



Poison Use: I'd say wrap this into another ability that lets you deal non-lethal damage without penalty, representing a necessity for alternatives when capturing targets.

Hmm... I was actually thinking more along the lines of the poison disabling the target :smallsmile:



Sneak Attack: I mentioned getting rid of this, but if you can deal non-lethal damage at will then SA would be pretty useful. However, I'm still of the opinion that if you can come up with a more flavorful ability, go with that one.

Hmm... well, I am trying to think of another "more flavorful ability" right now :D



Surprise!: Perhaps a later (capstone, level 20?) ability could be that you get your own surprise round in combat, and can act in the surprise round if you get ambushed or something.[/list]

I'll consider it. I just need to see how the rest of the class turns out :smallsmile:


Well, I hope that helped. I'm a little tired right now, so I hope I wasn't non-sensical or rude.

This was very helpful :smallbiggrin:

PumpkinEater
2009-05-17, 11:53 AM
Okay, well, I'm not going to make any actual changes yet, but this is what I have:

Nonlethal Strike If a bounty hunter can catch an opponent when he is unable to defend himself effectively from his attack, he can deal nonlethal damage to the target at no penalty. Basically, the bounty hunter deals nonlethal damage any time her target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the bounty hunter flanks his target. This extra damage is 1d6 at 1st level, and it increases by 1d6 every four bounty hunter levels thereafter. Should the bounty hunter score a critical hit with a nonlethal strike, this extra damage is not multiplied. This ability is unusable with ranged weapons. A bounty hunter can’t strike with deadly accuracy from beyond that range. Any creature that is immune to critical hits is not vulnerable to nonlethal strikes. A bounty hunter cannot nonlethal strike a creature with concealment.

Debilitating Strike At 7th level, bounty hunters gain the ability to inflict crippling effects upon their victims at the cost of nonlethal damage. For the purposes of the following feats, treat Nonlethal Strike as the Sneak Attack class feature: Arterial Strike, Deep Poisoning, and Hamstring. Bounty Hunters receive one of these feats as a bonus feat at 7th level. Bounty Hunters may select an additional feat from this list every 4 levels thereafter.

Bane of Enemies no longer is a Death Attack, but instead automatically applies the Nonlethal Strike to all Favored Enemies.

Dogmantra
2009-05-17, 12:27 PM
Nonlethal Strike

It's nice, like sneak attacking with a sap, but how about saying that they can deal lethal damage with it too, either taking an attack penalty, or doing d4s of damage?

PumpkinEater
2009-05-17, 12:56 PM
It's nice, like sneak attacking with a sap, but how about saying that they can deal lethal damage with it too, either taking an attack penalty, or doing d4s of damage?

Well, I just took it from the Justicar's class ability, basically. I just made it slightly weaker.