The Bowman [3.5 Base Class, PEACH]

[Eloel]

Hit Die:
d8

Class Skills
The bowman’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at 1st Level

(6 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level

6 + Int modifier.


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

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Archery Style, Least Archery Training

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Skill Mastery +2

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|Damage Boost I

4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1|Accuracy Boost I

5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1|Damage Boost II

6th|
+6|
+5|
+5|
+2|Skill Mastery +4

7th|
+7|
+5|
+5|
+2|Lesser Archery Training

8th|
+8|
+6|
+6|
+2|Accuracy Boost II

9th|
+9|
+6|
+6|
+3|Damage Boost III

10th|
+10|
+7|
+7|
+3|Skill Mastery +6

11th|
+11|
+7|
+7|
+3|Damage Boost IV

12th|
+12|
+8|
+8|
+4|Accuracy Boost III

13th|
+13|
+8|
+8|
+4|Greater Archery Training

14th|
+14|
+9|
+9|
+4|Skill Mastery +8

15th|
+15|
+9|
+9|
+5|Damage Boost V

16th|
+16|
+10|
+10|
+5|Accuracy Boost IV

17th|
+17|
+10|
+10|
+5|Damage Boost VI

18th|
+18|
+11|
+11|
+6|Skill Mastery +10

19th|
+19|
+11|
+11|
+6|Superior Archery Training

20th|
+20|
+12|
+12|
+6|Archery Mastery[/table]



Archery Style (Ex)
At first level, a bowman chooses an archery style to focus on.
The choices are;
Mounted Archery
http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/770/103466.JPG
Sniper
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/draco_gallery/75616.jpg
Volley Shooter
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/rs_manyshot_med.jpg

Least Archery Training (Ex)

At 1st level, the bowman's training provides him with a benefit depending on his chosen archery profession.

Mounted Archery; Anytime during a double-move by his mount, a mounted bowman may make a single shot with no penalty on the attack roll. This counts as his standard action for the round.

Sniper; The penalty to hide after shooting decreases to -10, from -20.

Volley Shooter; The volley bowman gets his choice of Rapid Shot or Manyshot as a bonus feat. He need not meet the prerequisites.


Skill Mastery (Ex)

A 2nd level, a bowman gains a +2 bonus to Spot and Listen skills.

Also, depending on his chosen profession, he gets extra bonuses to skills.

Mounted Archery; Ride and Handle Animal

Sniper; Hide and Move Silently

Volley Shooter; Jump and Tumble

At every 4th level after 2nd level, the bowman gains another +2 bonus to his skills.


Damage Boost (Ex)

At 3rd level, a bowman gains the ability to deal extra damage, depending on his profession.

Mounted Combat; +1d6 damage on all ranged attacks if the mounted bowman moves a minimum of 60ft before shooting. Moving with his mount counts as movement for the purposes of this boost.

Sniper; +2d8 damage anytime the sniper shoot a single arrow as part of sniping. (See Hide skill for details on sniping). This is not precision damage, and is multiplied on critical hits, yet it only applies to a single arrow per round.

Volley Shooter; +2 damage on all ranged attacks.

At levels 5, 9, 11, 15 and 17, the bowman gains this ability again, stacking with itself.


Accuracy Boost (Ex)

At levels 4, 8, 12 and 16, a bowman gains +1 to all attack rolls with bows.


Lesser Archery Training (Ex)

At 7nd level, the bowman's training improves and gains extra benefits out of his training.

Mounted Archery; The bowman's mount's speed while the bowman is riding it increases to 1.5x what it normally is.

Sniper; The penalty to hiding after shooting is reduced to 0

Volley Shooter; Once per round when a volley shooter makes an attack with his bow, he can fire an extra shot. All attacks he makes that round is at a -2 penalty. This can be combined with Manyshot or Rapid Shot.


Greater Archery Training (Ex)

At 13th level, the bowman's experience with his chosen profession increases, and he has additional benefits for his training.

Mounted Archery; A mounted bowman can make his full attack while his mount moves upto double it's (improved) speed, shooting his arrows at anytime he wishes. (So he can shoot his first iterative before moving, his second iterative at some point during the movement, and his third iterative when the mount stops)

Sniper; A sniper gains +5 to his attack rolls anytime he would get the extra damage from the Damage Boost ability.

Volley Shooter; Once per round when a volley shooter makes an attack with his bow, he can fire an extra shot. All attacks he makes that round is at a -1 penalty. He can choose to use this extra shot with or without his extra attack from Lesser Archery Training at his choice. The penalties stack.

Superior Archery Training (Ex)

At 19th level, a bowman masters his archery style.

Mounted Archer; A mounted bowman's mount can move upto 3x it's speed as a full round action. The mounted bowman can make all his attacks at whatever speed his mount is moving at (as per Greater Archery Training), without penalties.

Sniper; The sniper chooses to use this ability before he makes a sniping attack. If he hits with the attack, he automatically scores a critical hit. A missed shot wastes the attempt. The sniper can only attempt to use this ability once every 1d4+1 rounds.

Volley Archer; As per Lesser Archery Training, the volley archer gains an extra shot. He now can fire 3 extra shots, with each attack that round at -3 penalty, 2 extra shots with -1 penalty, or a single extra shot without penalty.


Archery Mastery (Sp)

At 20th level, the bowman is a true master of archery. He can allocate 5 points of enhancement bonus on his bow. This allocation takes 10 minutes, and can be done once per day. He can only have a maximum of 5 points allocated this way. As new enhancements are added, the old ones are lost.

So, a +1 Shocking Greatbow could be made into a +6 Shocking Greatbow, or a +1 Shocking Flaming Burst Icy Burst Thundering Greatbow.







As you guys might have noticed, this is still in a draft-y form. Any help would be appreciated.

[Eloel]

So, anyone?

[Admiral Squish]

It's a nice gesture, but really, a ranger does it better. You're just handing out bonuses to attacks and damage. Situational bonuses, too. This class needs flavorful, unique abilities. Like, a volley attack that targets anything in a ten-foot radius. Or a sniper ability that scales like a rogue's sneak attack. As of now, it's both horribly underpowered and terribly boring.

No nice way to say it, really... :smallfrown:

[TabletopNuke]

Making the formatting easier to read and navigate would also help a lot. For starters, try putting the names on the abilities in bold.

Also, I think you left out skills and Hit Dice.

[Eloel]

Making the formatting easier to read and navigate would also help a lot. For starters, try putting the names on the abilities in bold.

Also, I think you left out skills and Hit Dice.

Looks better?

[TabletopNuke]

Yes, but you left "ranger" in the skill entry.

Now you'll have to try pitting this against a standard ranger to see if they are about the same power, or if this is too weak.

[Eloel]

Yes, but you left "ranger" in the skill entry.

Now you'll have to try pitting this against a standard ranger to see if they are about the same power, or if this is too weak.

Oops, fixed.

Also, versus a ranger, any of the three 'professions's should be slightly better.

I'm just not happy with not giving a mount for the mounted archer, but I couldn't find a way to fit it in.

[TabletopNuke]

That's an excellent point. You could make mounted combat improvement a smaller feature of the class, and get rid of the mounted combat style. On the other hand, you could create a class variant that focused on mounted archery, and got an animal companion suitable as a mount in exchange for some other class features.

[FlamingKobold]

I think the better option for you to consider is to break it up into three classes. That way you can make each one have more unique abilities, and not worry about making sure that they all get abilities at the same level. This allows you to give them all exciting class features that scale with level.

Volley archer: Some sort of scaling variant of manyshot and/or rapid shot. Have the arrows go up and the penalties go down with level. Add in bonus damage for more successful hits on one individual creature, and the flavor is much better. Remember to give them other abilities too, such as shooting everyone in a certain radius. Maybe have that scale with level too.

Mounted: This one is strange. At low levels, a horse or the like is higher. At high levels, think of the movie Avatar, with people flying on giant birds shooting. Give it a mount, for sure. Then add in abilities like bonuses to dodge, hit and damage while mounted. This one is probably the hardest to bring up to a decent power level.

Sniper: Something like sneak attack, except 1d8. Just make it focus one one single shot rather than the exact sniping mechanic, as well. Like, double damage, then triple, then quadruple, with one shot.

Keep in mind what you want to balance this to. Ranger/fighter: You'll be fine. ToB: Problem.

Another solution would be to make a ton of abilities and make them maneuvers. I'm doing this right now as well: an archer that uses maneuvers and "stances," which ends up being quite powerful. A bit mystical, however...