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Mulletmanalive
2010-06-03, 06:18 AM
Cannon Alchemist requested that I post this for his amusement, so I have. I know it's not core D&D, but just mentally adjust the saves and remove the defence progression and it'll work fine.

Hunter
"There are things, Agent Shepherd, that go bump in the night. We, are the ones who bump back!"

The world is not what it was fifty years ago. In those times, the only inexplicable things around were the price of fish and how the people of London put up with the smell; now, fairies are officially real, divine prophets are at large, old gods are wandering around and the blasted arcanists keep accidentally summoning things from beyond space. Fortunately, new threats breed new forms of specialists and obsessives to deal with them.

These men are known imaginatively as Hunters in the present day, though there is rarely any clarification as to what they hunt. This is mostly down to the difficulty assigning any overall heading to the supernal creatures that they hunt and partially because many such individuals consider trying to lump all of these creatures together is insulting to the Hunters themselves. There are as many unique and specialised hunters as there are beasts in the world.

Hunters tend strongly towards being grim, hard individuals with rather sizable collections of weapons. Their personalities are fairly varied beyond this point, however, with some being jovial and others being loners of the highest calibre. One could use this class to represent a mage hunter, a fæ-hunter or a big game hunter, were one so inclined.

Prerequisites:
To become a Hunter, a character must meet the following requirements:
Skills: Knowledge (Any one Cultural) 1 rank, Survival 8 ranks
Feats: Big Bag 'o' Guns, Track
Special: Must have fought and successfully slain a creature that becomes his first Dedicated Foe, usually after a great personal loss at the hands of the creature. Others are simply trained in the field after having successfully slain a monster.

{table]Level |
BAB |
Def |
Fort |
Ref |
Will |Special |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5

1 |
+1 |
+1 |
+2 |
+0 |
+0 |Dedicated Foe +2, The Trunk |
+2 |
- |
- |
- |
-

2 |
+2 |
+2 |
+3 |
+1 |
+1 |Lore, Weather-beaten |
+2 |
- |
- |
- |
-

3 |
+3 |
+3 |
+3 |
+1 |
+1 |Dedicated Foe +4 |
+4 |
+2 |
- |
- |
-

4 |
+4 |
+4 |
+4 |
+2 |
+2 |Lead the Hunt |
+4 |
+2 |
- |
- |
-

5 |
+5 |
+5 |
+4 |
+2 |
+2 |Dedicated Foe +6 |
+6 |
+4 |
+2 |
- |
-

6 |
+6 |
+5 |
+5 |
+3 |
+3 |Exorcist |
+6 |
+4 |
+2 |
- |
-

7 |
+7 |
+6 |
+5 |
+3 |
+3 |Dedicated Foe +8 |
+8 |
+6 |
+4 |
+2 |
-

8 |
+8 |
+7 |
+6 |
+4 |
+4 |Nemesis |
+8 |
+6 |
+4 |
+2 |
-

9 |
+9 |
+8 |
+6 |
+4 |
+4 |Dedicated Foe +10 |
+10 |
+8 |
+6 |
+4 |
+2

10 |
+10 |
+9 |
+7 |
+5 |
+5 |Paragon Weapon |
+10 |
+8 |
+6 |
+4 |+2
[/table]
Table Notes: The five columns on the right indicate the number of species that gain a given bonus, based on the heading line. Thus a 5th level Hunter has 1 x +6, 2 x +4 and 3 x +2 Dedicate Foe bonuses.

Hit Dice: d10
Class Skills: Bluff [Cha], Climb [Str], Concentration [Con], [Diplomacy [Cha], Disguise [Cha], Gather Information [Cha], Heal [Wis], Knowledge [Any, taken individually] , Listen [Wis], Manipulate [Cha], Mech-Pilot [Dex], Ride [Dex], Sense Motive [Wis], Spot [Wis], Survival [Wis], Swim [Str]
Skill Points per Level: 4 + Int

Class Abilities:
Weapon and Armour Proficiencies: The Hunter learns to use one Exotic weapon at first level and one additional proficiency at each odd numbered level.

Dedicated Foe [Ex]: At first level, a Hunter chooses one species of monster to specialise in hunting. This is almost always the one that caused them to begin hunting in the first place. From this point on, they gain a +2 bonus on Gather Information, Heal, Listen, Search, Spot and Survival skill checks made in relation to the creature that they hunt, including determining cause of death of victims and other detective work related to them. In addition, they may add this bonus to Damage rolls made against the target and on Saves against the abilities of the creature.

As they advance, Hunters get better at hunting their original quarry and also learn to fight additional foes. At 3rd level, their primary bonus increases to +4 and they may select two additional species to hunt, gaining a +2 Dedicated Foe bonus against them. This scheme continues as shown in the class table, with the header numbers indicating the number of species opposed at each level. Come 10th level, they are able to confront a great many creatures and are a complete nemesis to their initial target.

"Species" in this case indicates a specific type of monster. This is simply a case of the foe being a Rugaru, Werewolf, Vampire or Sprite under most circumstances but the categories get a little wolly in other cases. For Constructs, elementals are divided by material, golems by material and undead and robots are considered species each. For demons, aliens and angels, the skills involved are so alike that the bonus applies in full only against a specific species but against all similar creatures, the Hunter adds half his bonus anyway. Alternatively, a Hunter may specialise in hunting members of a particular Supernal Prestige class [not Arcanist, Priest or Psion but pretty much any other class], using their commonalities against them.

The Trunk: Though its form varies, Hunters always have a container of some type full of useful weapons and the like. For some, it is a great rolling wardrobe of equipment, while for others, it is a selection of hidden pockets in their saddle bags but the effect is the same. When they have some clue as to what they are facing, they may root through their Trunk for suitable tools to confront it. Searching the chest requires one minute.

To determine if they have anything helpful, the Hunter must roll 1d20 + their Class level + their Int bonus + any Dedicated Foe bonuses they may possess against a DC of 10 + the creature's CP. Success indicates that they have something that will be useful against the creature. The first item has a 50% chance of being protective and 50% of being a weapon or 10 rounds of ammunition capable of hurting it. For every 5 points that the check was passed by, the Hunter has an additional item, following an alternating pattern (protective, offensive, protective etc).

Lore: Hunters collect folklore and rumour like a magnet collects iron filings. By second level, this habit has blossomed into an unhealthy body of lore on the messed up. When making Knowledge checks to determine Lore on a Supernal [as opposed to a natural or extraterrestrial] creature, the Hunter may add their class level and any Dedicated Foe bonuses they may have to the check.

Weather-Beaten [Ex]: Far too many cases of being chilled to the bone by supernal fear, confused by illusions or burned by breath weapons have made the Hunter almost magically gifted at avoiding such horrors. As long as they know the creature well enough to have it as a Dedicated Foe, the Hunter usually totally avoids the effects of its mythical attacks.

Whenever he makes a save against an ability possessed by a Dedicated Foe, if the save would result in a reduced effect, the effect is instead negated. This means that a successful Reflex save against a blasting spell would negate the damage and a successful Will save against a spell that causes a Shaken condition on a save would negate the effect entirely.

Lead the Hunt [Ex]: Hunters always follow a pack mentality when working and if others are willing to listen, will impose the same guidance and "best to lead" attitude on them. As a Swift action each round, a 4th level Hunter may grant all allies within 30ft bonuses equal to half his Dedicated Foe bonuses. While doing so, he commits his voice to giving advice and so cannot cast spells, disrupt spellcasting or give orders in a round that he uses this. Allies so assisted retain these bonuses

Exorcist: By 6th level, all Hunters have confronted a demon or something similar and been forced to learn to hunt such things. They gain Exorcist as a bonus feat, regardless of whether they meet the prerequisites. They may add their Dedicated Foe bonus to rolls to drive out spirits or create Devil's Traps. Should they already possess this feat or the Paragon feat, they instead gain Blessed Consecration. If they already have that, they may choose any feat they desire.

Nemesis [Ex]: An 8th level Hunter can literally feel monsters when they are around. Their skin crawls when a Dedicated Foe comes within 10ft per point of their Dedicated Foe bonus relating to that creature. This primary feature is automatic, while they can determine the direction to the foe by concentrating as a Full action.

In addition, when attacking Dedicated Foes, the Hunter deals +1d6 Mangle damage on any successful hit.

Paragon Weapon [Su]: All Hunters spend their lives searching for the best tools to kill their hated foes. Those who make it to 10th level are assumed to have come into possession of one of the impossibly rare Paragon weapons. The form of this weapon is determined by the GM and need not be of a type that the character has any particular skill with. Paragon weapons are magical and ignore all forms of Armour, Damage Reduction and negates all forms of Regeneration. In addition, all wounds, no matter how slight are considered to be Massive Damage hits.

If the weapon is a ranged one, the Paragon is able to uncover 1d6 bullets by spending 2 hours of prep time.

Notes:
This class works based on a more "TV/Movie" set of sensibilities than a normal D&D class so bear with me.

Big Bag 'o' Guns: (Converted to D&D)
You are sufficiently light fingered and paranoid that you have access to a large selection of suitable weapons at about an hour's notice.
Description: During Downtime, you may spend about an hour to meet contacts, bully folk and search your stashes to retrieve a single non-magical weapon or item with a cost no greater than 100gp per level. You may use this ability once in any given mission or adventure chain [GM's discretion]. The item is returned to your stash by force of habit after use so you can't or won't sell it.

Exorcist:
You have fought the Unholy and survived long enough to be able to trap them and drive them out. Religion is usually less important than what is effective for most exorcists.
Prerequisites: Knowledge [Religion] 4 ranks
Description: Becoming an Exorcist grants access to the following abilities:

[I]Hold at Bay: A strongly presented holy symbol can work wonders for Intimidating the Unholy. Against the unholy, when in possession of a holy symbol relevant to their religious region of origin, you may use your Knowledge [Religion] score in place of your Intimidate score for purposes of threatening the Unholy. Shaken Unholy enemies cannot move closer to you by any means and will be driven back if you advance towards them no faster than a Shift. Attempts to move faster break the effect.

Drive Out: As a Full action, you may chant canticles of unbinding and expulsion to drive out possessing creatures. Doing so requires a Knowledge [Religion] check against a DC of 10 + 5 per HD of the possessor + 5 per point of the possessor's Cha bonus. Failure wracks the target with pain, rendering it sickened and grants a +2 bonus on subsequent checks. This bonus is lost if you are disrupted or fail to continue in the next round, that bonus is lost. If successfully exorcised, the Unholy being returns to whence it came, usually hell or its anchor. Unlike Paragons, you have to use a handbook of rituals to actually get this ability to work unless you have more HD than your opponent [there are many different rituals to work through if you lack faith].

Devil's Snare: You can draw a Devil's Snare over the course of minutes. This is a diagram similar to an arcane casting circle that can be used to trap demons, ghosts or whatever if you can get them to enter the circle. A snare can be covered and will still be effective and come in many different power levels. A snare requires one minute to draw per level of the creature to be bound, which cannot be greater than your Knowledge [Religion] ranks. A being of greater power than it can hold enters a circle, it can just wander out if it wishes, though it feels a tugging sensation.
Special: If you possess this feat and take the Blessed Consecration feat, you gain the Anoint Weapon ability from the Paragon feat in addition to the normal benefits.

Blessed Consecration [Tactical]:
Religions come with a large number of rituals and some of them are so basic that even laymen can use them. The reason for this is probably because these things are minor enough to actually increase the amount of faith the god receives.
Prerequisites: Knowledge [Religion] 6 ranks, either Exorcist or Paragon.
Description: You gain the following rituals to help you combat the unholy:

Bless Water: [6 ranks] As a ritual that takes 10 minutes, you can bless up to one pint of water per rank of Knowledge [Religion] that you possess. This water is converted to Holy Water in the process. This ritual requires a silver holy symbol of your faith, which must be left in the water to keep it good, or else it must be transferred to inscribed silver containers.

Consecrate Ground: [8 ranks] As a ritual that takes 8 hours, you may lay a blessing on an area so that it is toxic to the Unholy as long as at least 5 people pray on the location each day. The ritual uses 10 gallons of Holy Water, sprinkled over the location at various times of the ritual. Unholy creatures cannot set foot on territory blessed by a character with more ranks in Knowledge [Religion] than they have levels. If forced to do so, they take 1 point of damage per point difference between their level and the strength of the blessing each round. Their powers do not function across the edges of the terrain feature and spirits automatically disperse if they cross the boundary.

Anoint Weapon: [6 ranks] As a five minute ritual, you may use one charge [a quarter pint] of Holy Water to anoint a melee weapon of your choice [the weapon must have no moving parts] or one piece of ammunition. This weapon deals +1d6 damage against Unholy enemies and, if you possess more Knowledge [Religion] ranks than their HD, the weapon can bypass Damage Reduction of up to the weapon's base maximum damage.

A few minor points to finish: The capstone will need replacing to function properly in D&D. As it is, if you were running a Supernatural game, like as not, there would be basically no magic weapons, so it would work fine.

I'm not sure about using Dedicated Foe against spellcasters. That's up the GMs to decide for themselves. Works fine in my system, but there magic is prestige rooted.

For reference, Bobby and Rufus are both around 8th level in this class, the Winchesters are both around 4-6th and the Vampire hunting chap [S1, E21] and Colt are about the only ones who could lay claim to all 10 levels. Gordon Walker has at least a couple of levels in this but then starts down a modified Corrupt Avenger path [Heroes of Horror]. We don't really see enough of the father to get a good sense of his abilities.

If anyone wants to suggest tweaks to bring this back into line with Core D&D, i'm happy to listen. Capstone is probably a core part of that.

TheLonelyScribe
2010-06-03, 10:48 AM
I haven't seen this show, but this class has got me interested! Not energetic enough at the moment to comment on mechanics, but the fluff is great, and the abilities seem to match the concept well.

The_Admiral
2010-06-03, 04:59 PM
Oi I am not amused.
what are the numbers on the right end of the table?

Mulletmanalive
2010-06-03, 05:46 PM
Dedicated Foe bonuses. The headers are the number of creatures at each bonus. I can't reproduce the merged cell header in the hypertext so i tried to explain it in the text. Let me see if i can fiddle it about a bit.

The_Admiral
2010-06-04, 09:04 PM
O yeah one more thing thank you