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Silva Stormrage
2011-10-08, 01:16 PM
Ebon Marksman

https://www.wallpaperflare.com/static/737/576/939/fantasy-art-archer-purple-illustration-wallpaper.jpg
"They can't escape"- An Ebon Marksman on the hunt.

Role: The main role of an Ebon Marksman is a debuff ranged archery class. With its flurry of arrows and special shots it can apply a wide variety of status effects on enemies. It also has very good mobility and can easily chase down fleeing enemies. It can also track and serves as a decent party face with its focus on charisma and adequate skill list.



Undead or Construct Ebon Marksmen: As several abilities revolve around constitution burn any Ebon Marksman that doesn't have a constitution score loses several abilities important to the class. All class features relating to constitution burn now refer to charisma burn. He recovers charisma burn at a rate of one per day even if he does not normally heal ability burn naturally. These Ebon Marksmans can take ability burn related to Ebon Marksman class features and heal it naturally even if they normally couldn't.

Notes: For all abilities that increase critical threat range by a static amount they are applied after any other effect that multiplies critical threat range. In addition, any ability that requires hit points being sacrificed or ability burn being taken can't be mitigated or reduced in any way. The sacrifice of those statistics is required for the ability to function.



GAME RULE INFORMATION
Ebon Marksmen have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Charisma is the most important ability for ebon marksmen. Their shot dc’s are based on charisma and they have several class abilities that revolve around charisma. Next they need dexterity for a high attack bonus with their ranged weapons.
Hit Die: d10
Starting Age: As ranger.
Starting Gold: As ranger

Class Skills
The Ebon Marksman's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Listen (Wis), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (All, Taken Individually), Ride (Dex), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Spot (Wis),Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at First Level: (6 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Ebon Marksman


Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Special Shots


1st

+1

+2

+2

+0
Death Tracker, Far Shot, Shots, Rebuke Undead
1


2nd

+2

+3

+3

+0
Soul Powered Shot, Shadow Hunter
2


3rd

+3

+3

+3

+1
Stygian Bow
3


4th

+4

+4

+4

+1
Bonus Feat
4


5th

+5

+4

+4

+1
Vampiric Shot
5


6th

+6

+5

+5

+2
Shadow Step
6


7th

+7

+5

+5

+2
Hunter's Mark, Death's Eyes + 3
7


8th

+8

+6

+6

+2
Bonus Feat
8


9th

+9

+6

+6

+3
Volley of the Damned
9


10th

+10

+7

+7

+3
Shadow Archon Form
10


11th

+11

+7

+7

+3
Project Sight, Death's Eyes + 7
11


12th

+12

+8

+8

+4
Bonus Feat
12


13th

+13

+8

+8

+4
Entangling Shadows
13


14th

+14

+9

+9

+4
Shadow Dance
14


15th

+15

+9

+9

+5
Critical Hit, Death's Eyes + 12
15


16th

+16

+10

+10

+5
Bonus Feat
16


17th

+17

+10

+10

+5
Stygian Templar Form
17


18th

+18

+11

+11

+6
Death's Eyes + 18
18


19th

+19

+11

+11

+6
Improved Vampiric Shot
19


20th

+20

+12

+12

+6
Penetrating Shot
20


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Ebon Marksman.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: The Ebon Marksman is proficient with all simple weapons and all ranged martial weapons and with light armor.

Death Tracker: (Su) The Ebon Marksman can track creatures by tracing their links with their recent kills. If the Ebon Marksman finds the corpse of a creature and he knows who killed the creature then he can spend one hour searching for the tenuous link of the creature on the corpse. If the target is within 10 miles per class level then this allows the Ebon Marksman to know exactly where the target is relative to the Ebon Marksman and what direction the target is heading in. This ability can be used once per corpse. If a creature was killed by multiple people then the Ebon Marksman can choose who he tracks. The Ebon Marksman can also use his charisma modifier in place of his wisdom modifier for survival checks to track targets.

In addition, due to an innate sense of souls and living things while tracking a target he can track them even if they remove all forms of normally visible tracks via spells like pass without trace and other effects. Doing so increases the track DC by 10. This still only allows the Ebon Marksman to follow a physical trail and won't help him track targets that simply teleport away. This is a divination effect and also won't work if the target is warded against divinations such as via a Mind Blank spell.

At 8th level this ability improves again, upon finding a corpse slain within the past month the Ebon Marksman can call forth the spirit of the slain body by spending 10 hit points. This otherwise functions as the spell Speak with Dead with a caster level equal to the Ebon Marksman's class level except the Ebon Marksman can only question a corpse once, regardless of how much time passes. If the Ebon Marksman asks the target who killed them the spirit responds in enough details to allow the Ebon Marksman to track them as above and a slain individual will always answer that question if they know the answer.

Far Shot: (Ex) The Ebon Marksman is adept at sniping creatures from far away. He gains the "Far Shot" feat as a bonus feat even if he doesn't meet the prerequisite. In addition, he may treat his Far Shot feat as the feat "Point Blank Shot" for the purposes of prerequisites and any such feats that are limited to 30ft are now able to be used out to 45ft.

Shots The Ebon Marksman has a wide variety of different attacks that he can charge his arrows with. They are listed below and the Ebon Marksman learns one new shot at each class level. The shots take a format of ("Name", (Level Required to take the shot), (HP Sacrificed to fire the shot), (Number of attacks needed to be sacrificed)).

Shots are attack actions that augment a single attack in a full attack or a standard attack action. In a full attack the Ebon Marksman can sacrifice a number of attacks equal to the number of attacks needed to be sacrificed indicated on the shot. If the number of attacks needed to be sacrificed is greater than 1 then it can only be used in a full attack not a standard action.

Shots are supernatural abilities that don't work in an antimagic field.

Each shot deals an indicated amount of damage to the Ebon Marksman. This damage can not be avoided or reduced in any way. However, all shots heal the exact same amount of health they drain if the shot hits its target (Shots with multiple targets only heal the indicated heal back). Certain shots can be augmented by spending more hp to have increased effects. The Ebon Marksman can't sacrifice more hp than his class level on a shot and the extra hp sacrificed is also returned to the Ebon Marksman if the attack hits. If the Ebon Marksman sacrifices enough hit points to drop him into negative HP or kill himself then he may finish firing the shot and wait for the shot to resolve. If the Ebon Marksman receives enough hit points from the shot to prevent him from falling unconscious or dying then it prevents him from doing so. Shots only heal HP if the target they hit is a creature, while some shots can have objects as valid targets they don't return HP if used against objects.

If a projectile imbued with a shot is split into multiple other projectiles from the likes of the Arrowsplit spell, the Splitting Weapon special ability or similar they are not imbued with the same effect as the original projectile and only one of the projectiles is imbued with the shot and regains hit points if it strikes the target. The Splitting Shot is an exception to this rule (See Below).

Any shot that has a DC on it has a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 class level + Ebon Marksman's Charisma Modifier.

Rebuke Undead: The Ebon Marksman can rebuke and command undead as a cleric of his level. He can rebuke undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + his charisma modifier.

Soul Powered Shot (Ex): The Ebon Marksman adds his charisma modifier to damage rolls made with any ranged attack made with a bow, crossbow, sling, thrown weapon or similar ranged weapon attack.

Shadow Hunter: The Ebon Marksman gains some strength through their connection to the plane of shadows and can use Mysteries as a shadowcaster. At 2nd level they can only use fundamentals and gain access to 4 fundamentals which they can use each 3 times per day. They learn a new fundamental mystery every 3rd level after 2nd (5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, 20th).

Every level after 2nd they can choose one non fundamental mystery of any level equal to or less than 1/3rd their class level (Round down). An Ebon Marksman still needs to take every preceding mystery in a path in order to learn a mystery. Also unlike other users of shadow magic an Ebon Marksman doesn't keep track of individual mystery uses. Instead they can use 4 mysteries per day, regardless of the levels of the mysteries. The Ebon Marksman has a caster level for his mysteries equal to his class level. Once they hit 12th level their Apprentice Mysteries become spell like abilities.

At 8th level the Ebon Marksman can use fundamental mysteries at will and can use an additional number of mysteries each day equal to his charisma modifier.

At 14th level the Ebon Marksman gains the Still Mystery (ToM) feat as a bonus feat.

At 20th level the Ebon Marksman gains 3 additional uses of mysteries each day.

Tome of Magic has the vast majority of official mysteries but the excellent Descent of Shadows (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?74519-Descent-of-Shadows-Project-Shadow-Returns) project by Realms of Chaos and the Conduit (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?609515-The-Conduit-Channeling-Thoughts-through-Shadows-with-70-New-Mysteries-PEACH) by myself offer quite an increased selection if your DM approves these sources as well.

Stygian Bow: (Su) The Ebon Marksman can enhance his weapon so that he can put his very soul into it to increase its strength. By taking a -1 penalty on his attack roll the Ebon Marksman can increase the attack's damage by 1 per -1 penalty. The Ebon Marksman can take a penalty to his attack roll no greater than his BAB. The Ebon Marksman must take the same penalty for all attacks in a given round. This ability doesn't stack with other abilities like this such Hank's energy bow or similar abilities.

Bonus Feat: The Ebon Marksman gains any fighter bonus feat, the Track, Urban Tracking (Cityscape) or Darkstalker (Lords of Madness) feats or any new feats listed below at 4th level and every fourth level after. You still must meet any prerequisite in order to take the feat.

Vampiric Shot: (Su) Anytime the Ebon Marksman confirms a critical hit on a target he gains temporary hit points equal to the damage of the attack before it is multiplied by the critical hit multiplier. He also heals one hit point per class level.

Shadow Step: (Sp) As a swift action the Ebon Marksman can shift through the shadows and teleport to another known location within 80ft. This new location must be within line of sight but does not need line of effect. This ability can be used every other round.

At 12th level this ability improves and the Ebon Marksman can overcharge this ability to replicate the spell dimensional door except he can only teleport himself. Once he does this he can't use Shadow Step for 5 rounds. He can overcharge this ability 3/day.

At 18th level the range of this ability increases to 160ft and they can overcharge the ability a number of times per day equal to 3 plus their charisma modifier.

Hunter's Mark: (Su) As a swift action the Ebon Marksman can mark a target within 60ft establishing a connection to their soul and allowing the marksman to track them across the world. The Ebon Marksman always knows what direction the target is as long as he is within 10 miles per Ebon Marksman level and gains a +5 profane bonus to tracking the target. In addition, all of the Ebon Marksman's ranged attacks have a +2 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls against the target.

This mark is not a spell effect and can not be dispelled but it can be removed with a remove curse or break enchantment spell cast on the target with a CL 5 higher than the Ebon Marksman's class level. It is however, difficult to detect as not being a spell effect means detect magic or arcane sight do not register the mark on the subject.

At 12th level this ability no longer has a range. As long as the target is on the same plane as the Ebon Marksman the marksman knows the direction they are in. In addition, at this level they also know the rough magnitude of distance the subject is. The Ebon Marksman learns the most accurate of the following in regards to the target's distance: Within 100ft, within 1000ft, within a mile, within 10 miles, within 100 miles, within 1000 miles, further than 1000 miles.

Death's Eyes: (Ex) The Ebon Marksman is adept at noticing enemies at long distances. The Ebon Marksman gains the indicated bonus as a bonus to spot checks and also to survival checks regarding tracking if the Ebon Marksman possesses the track feat or gather information checks regarding tracking if the Ebon Marksman possesses the urban tracking feat.

In addition the Ebon Marksman gains darkvision out to a number of feet equal to 10 times the bonus to spot checks.

Volley of the Damned: (Sp) As a full round action once per encounter the Ebon Marksman calls upon spirits of archers long past which fire a volley of arrows towards a location of the Ebon Marksman's choice. The volley is a 20ft radius centered anywhere within 5 range increments of the Ebon Marksman's current weapon. These arrows deal the same damage as one of the Ebon Marksman's standard attacks and are all enhanced with one shot that needs to sacrifice 1 attack to function. This attack gives a reflex save for half damage (Dc 10 + 1/2 Class level + Charisma Modifier).

Shadow Archon Form: (Su) As a swift action the Ebon Marksman cloaks himself in shadow, sacrificing his own vitality to power it's effects. All his attack and damage rolls gain a +2 profane bonus and he gains a +5 circumstance bonus to hide while in at least shadowy concealment. Also every round one of his shots takes 1 less sacrificed attack than normal (minimum 1). Finally, every time the Ebon Marksman lands a successful ranged attack on a living or undead creature they regain one hit point. Using this ability deals 1 point of constitution burn to the marksman and the benefits lasts 1 round per class level.

Project Sight: (Sp) The Ebon Marksman becomes able to project a portion of their soul out quite a distance away to give themselves a second perspective to shoot from. As a standard action they may select a single square within 100ft per class level. They project their soul out to the location and as long as they concentrate on this ability they can see 360 degrees from that position, however, they can't hear or use any other special senses from that position. Their normal senses are unaffected and they can see and hear and act normally while concentrating on this ability. Concentrating on this ability is a swift action. The Ebon Marksman can not use any abilities or effects as if they were from the targeted square with one exception, they may use their Hunter's Mark class feature on any viable creature that is within 60ft of the targeted square as a standard action.

This ability does come with some risks though. While this is not a scrying effect and wards against divination won't stop it, detect magic, arcane sight and similar abilities do detect a faint necromancy aura emanating from the square you are spying from. If the effect is dispelled than you obviously can't see from that position anymore and the effect ends but more concerning is that since it is connected to part of the Ebon Marksman's soul spells and supernatural abilities that have an area of effect that contains the target square also target the Ebon Marksman regardless of his true position. He gets a saving throw to resist as normal and damage taken from those effects are halved.

Entangling Shadows: (Su) Now whenever the Ebon Marksman uses shadow step, black tentacles made of shadows spawn within a 10ft radius of his original location. This is treated as Evard's Black Tentacles except it has a radius of 10ft centered on the previous location and it only grapples enemies. It uses the Ebon Marksman's class level as the caster level for the spell and their charisma modifier plus their dexterity modifier for the relevant casting attribute.

Critical Hit: (Ex) The Ebon Marksman can duplicate the effects of the spell Hunter's Mercy (SpC) as a swift action 3 times a day.

Shadow Dance: (Su) The Ebon Marksman has developed a technique to greatly speed up his mobility on the battlefield. Whenever they activate their Shadow Archon ability they may increase the amount of ability burn it inflicts by 1 to gain the benefits of Shadow Dance for the duration of their Shadow Archon form. While under the benifits of Shadow Dance their shadow step class feature can be used as an immediate action or a swift action and it can be used every round. However, if shadow step is used as an immediate action then their entangling shadows class feature does not activate. In addition, all forms of movement for the Ebon Marksman are doubled and can teleport as a move action with a range equal to their movement speed anywhere within line of sight and line of effect. If the Ebon Marksman also activates their Stygian Templar form then they can use shadow step as a free action at any time, even on someone else's turn. They are still limited to one shadow step a round. After they lose the benefits of Shadow Dance then they are exhausted for 2 hours due to the strain of this ability.

Stygian Templar Form: (Su) This ability can only be used if the Ebon Marksman activates their shadow archon class feature. By increasing the ability burn their shadow archon form inflicts by 1 the Ebon Marksman upgrades his Shadow Archon form into a more powerful yet more dangerous form. In addition to all the benefits of shadow archon, the Ebon Marksman gains a plus 6 profane bonus to their dexterity score and an additional attack at his full attack bonus each round. The healing from hitting a creature increases to 5 HP per successful attack. The attacks granted by this form stack with extra attacks granted by haste and similar abilities. Finally while in this form he gains a better ability to manipulate his various shots. Anytime he fires a shot he may apply a second applicable shot to his attack that only consumes a single attack and doesn't modify the action of the shot. The Ebon Marksman still must spend the appropriate amount of hit points on the shot. He has to spend HP on each shot's augmentation options individually and can't spend any more hit points than his class level as normal.

Improved Vampiric Shot: (Su) In addition to the effects of vampiric shot, if the Ebon Marksman rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll and confirms the critical threat than he can restore 1 point of constitution burn and heals an amount of damage equal to the amount of temporary hit points he gained from Vampiric Shot.

Penetrating Shot: (Ex) The Ebon Marksman's attacks have so much force behind them that they can pierce completely through a target and hit the target behind them. If there is an enemy at least 15ft behind a target hit by a ranged attack launched by the Ebon Marksman then the ranged attack also may hit the enemy behind the target. The attack uses the same attack roll as the first but without any effects that only apply to a single attack such as true strike or hunter's mercy. If there is another enemy behind the second target it goes through the second target as well, repeated until there are no more enemies or the attack has hit 5 targets. A shot can only return HP once regardless of how many creatures it hits.


Located here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24452378&postcount=26) due to character limits.




Focused Shot
You have trained to use one particular shot more efficiently than others.
Prerequisite: Special Shots Class Feature
Benefit: When you choose this feat you select one shot that you know. When using this shot you spend 2 less HP than normal.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time selecting a different shot.

Extra Shot
You have a wider variety of tools than most.
Prerequisite: Special Shots Class Feature
Benefit: When you choose this feat you learn one additional shot that you qualify for.
Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time selecting a different shot.

Multifaceted Hunter
Your training involves multiple paths and you draw upon your unique strength to progress your Ebon Marksman abilities.
Prerequisite: Stygian Bow Class Feature
Benefit: You can add 3/4 of your other class levels or racial HD (Round down and to a maximum of +4) to your Ebon Marksman class level for the purpose of determine what shots you qualify for, how much HP you can infuse in your shots and what mysteries you qualify for with your Shadow Hunter class feature.

Inevitable Hunter
Your shots are imbued with the inevitability of death and can bypass some amount of protection.
Prerequisite: One Shot that deals energy damage
Benefit: When your shots deal energy damage you can treat your target's energy resistance as being 10 lower than it normally is (To a minimum of 0). Also you can have your shots that deal energy damage to deal half their damage as normal and half as profane damage.

Relentless Stalker
You become a terror to those you stalk, always appearing without warning. An undetectable, ever looming threat.
Prerequisite: Dark Stalker feat, Hunter's Mark Class Feature, 12 Ranks in Hide, 12 Ranks in Move Silently
Benefit: A creature affected by your Hunter's Mark class feature finds their sense and divinations don't work on you correctly. You can apply your darkstalker feat to any special senses a creature affected by your Hunter's Mark might have. If they fail to beat your relevant skill check then those special senses simply fail to detect you (They get a check for each sense they might have). In addition, any divination spells or effects they might try to cast on you fail to gather any information on you as if you had the spell mind blank active. These defenses only apply to the creature who is marked, other creatures can still use divinations to detect and predict you.

Reforming Shot
Your magical projectiles become reusable via draining the hit points of creatures they hit.
Prerequisite: Stygian Bow class feature
Benefit: Whenever you fire a shot and use a magical projectile if you hit a living creature the magical projectile has a 50% chance of draining the vitality of the creature it just hit and reforming itself back in your quiver or appropriate location on your person (Including extradimensional spaces) with it's magical properties still intact. It takes 10 minutes for a projectile to reform itself and after it does so the initial arrow is reduced to dust. This ability doesn't affect the initial attack of the shot and only has a 50% chance of reforming regardless of if the arrow splits into multiple copies in flight such as via the Splitting Weapon special ability, the Splitting Shot, the Arrowsplit spell or similar abilities.

Astral Stalking
You can now track creature's movement across teleportation effects.
Prerequisite: Death Tracker class feature
Benefit: When tracking a foe and the trail runs cold due to teleportation you can vaguely follow their path they took. By making a DC 25 survival check you can determine the direction they teleported and approximately how far they traveled (Rounded to the nearest 50 miles). Once you reach 12th level you can round to the nearest mile. This feat does not help you with tracking creature who travel across planes though it does inform you if it was planar travel instead of regular teleportation.

If you have the Shadow Step class feature you can use it to follow any teleport effect that has occurred within the last round. By using Shadow Step to teleport into the square where the teleport effect was activated you can follow it to its original destination. Upon using Shadow Step in this way you can choose to appear anywhere within the remaining distance left on the Shadow Step and immediately make a hide check if your location allows you to make a hide check via cover, concealment or some other way.

Thus if an 8th Ebon Marksman used Shadow Step to teleport 40ft to the square where a wizard cast teleport within the last round they would observe the location and could choose to appear anywhere within 40ft of the teleportation spell's destination that would be a valid location to Shadow Step. Once they arrived the Ebon Marksman could immediately attempt a hide check. If he succeeds than the wizard would be non the wiser that he was followed.

Soul Stalking
Your tracking abilities are now exceptionally hard to block.
Prerequisite: Astral Stalking
Benefit: Your Death Tracker class feature is no longer a divination effect and creatures with mind blank or similar effects are no longer immune. If a creature has such an effect it does increase the DC by its caster level (Or the creature's HD if the effect doesn't have a CL). In addition, you keep your connection to the target for much longer. You know the location and direction your target is traveling for a full 24 hours after tracking them with your Death Tracker class feature.

Divine Blood [Divine]
You can fuel your spells and abilities cost with your own power rather than have your body suffer.
Prerequisite: Rebuke/Turn Undead
Benefit: Whenever a spell or ability requires you to pay to activate its effects with Ability Damage, Ability Burn or Ability Drain you may instead sacrifice your turn undead attempts instead of taking the ability damage. You sacrifice 2 turn undead attempts per point of Ability Damage, Drain or Burn. Unlike normal divine feats this can be used as many times per round as necessary.


Ebon Hunter
Focused on tracking skills and dedication to hunting a particular creature over shadow magic
Requires: Ebon Marksman level 2.
Benefit: At the given levels, you do not gain the Shadow Hunter class feature.

Instead, you gain bonuses to tracking and your marksmanship.
At 2nd level you gain both the Track and Urban Tracking feat as bonus feats, or another bonus feat if you already have one of them.
At 3rd level you gain Favored Enemy as a ranger of a level of your Ebon Marksman level. However, you can only select a single creature type rather than select multiple.
At 8th level you can select a second creature type which you gain the same bonuses against as your first creature type. You also gain the Astral Stalking feat as a bonus feat , or another bonus feat if you already have it.
At 14th level you gain a +5 insight bonus on skill checks involving tracking (Either regular tracking or urban tracking). You also gain the Soul Stalking feat as a bonus feat, or another bonus feat if you already have it.
At 20th level you select a third creature type which you gain the same bonuses against.

Nopraptor
2011-10-08, 04:33 PM
great job! I kinda blazed through it but I liked what I saw. no dead levels which is always good and I love the flavor of it. cant say anything about balance because I've been on the sidelines for a while but from what I saw, this is a great class :smallbiggrin:

YouLostMe
2011-10-08, 06:19 PM
Let's see... critique:

Look at stygian bow: That's a big bonus. For every -1 penalty I take (true strike, anyone?) I deal +1.5xdamage. So with that wand of true strike, if I'm using a bow for 1d6+2(Cha) I can make one attack every two turns with a +10 hit bonus and an average of (3.5+2)x10x1.5 + (3.5+2) = 88 damage. That's a lot, even for once every two rounds, and it functions as soon as CLW wands come online--damn early. I recommend putting a cap on the penalty you can take (BAB) and make the increase in damage +.5 instead of +1.5. It'll be like a class-based, more useful version of Power Attack.

You need a better qualification for those Bonus Feats. Either make a list, or let them take [Fighter] and [Tactical] feats or something. If a player decides to use those feats to minmax or take suboptimal feats like WF: Greataxe, give them a hug and a high-five and leave them to it. If you're worried about people not playing ranged with this class, make the other abilities dependent on ranged combat. Like put a clause on stygian that allows it to only apply to ranged attacks.

For a move like Shadow Step that has a 2-round cooldown, why would you be using it more than once (maybe even twice) per encounter? I'd just make this at-will, and then it could be used out of combat without that whole "wait five minute" thing that ToB introduced and people tend to make faces at. With a class like this, you'll wait decently high Charisma anyways, so it wouldn't make all that much of a difference, and it'll be more streamlined.

For Death's eyes, I assume you mean they gain that bonus to Survival when tracking if they have the Track feat? Also, could track be a bonus feat for Ebon Marksmen?

For volley of the damned, what's the use time? Standard action? And why is it spell-like? Also, where does the line of archers go (and why do you need to specify that there is a line of souls anyways?). I recommend changing this to just hitting somewhere within a 5'/2 class levels burst (to tone down the AoE craziness) and have it useable up to short or medium range. That'll be easier to understand and use, and adds a little bit more balance. In addition, instead of having a 2/encounter limit, consider giving a penalty to actions/AC after the using this ability. It will encourage limited use of the ability without a hard cap, and if you make the penalty high enough, players will have to think hard about their position and defensive ability before using this crowd controller.

I'm not sure why Shadow Archon has the name that you've given it--the ability doesn't seem to fit. The penalty is all right, but if you're going for making him squishier via the use of this ability, why not just give a small duration penalty to HP and saves? Constitution burn isn't fun, and because of the long time it takes to recover, it'll just encourage a 15-minute workday. If you balance the ability with a penalty during combat, players will go for nova-ing when they are safe or combat is near a close, which provides a shifting dynamic, and avoids the vancian problem. However, balance on this is pretty much fine as-is if you'd like to keep it.

Holy crap the entangling is ridiculous. This ability needs to be toned down, or else your Ebon Marksman is going to teleport, entangle, run away, and then shoot and kite. It's especially bad because the bonus is huge and will most likely last the entire combat. Maybe you could make the ability an AoE Reflex save v. Entanglement for a turn or two, but this ability is le crazies without a fix.

Whenever I see things like Hunter's Mark, I imagine them to be tank abilities--encouraging the target to beat the snot out of the guy using the ability, or to back away. However, this just seems like +2 to attack and +5 damage... which is more bookkeeping at a high level than +5 damage seems worth. I'd just give them marks equal to their ChaMod and allow them to intuitively know the direction to their target all the time. No combat bonuses necessary--this guy gets enough stuff to make up for that all ready.

AHHH SUPER CRIT! I can see the usefulness here, but it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the class (except for your vampire ability). It's your only per-day encounter, and basically says "Do a buttload of damage with a regular attack", unlike other per-day effects like smiting or spells. What I mean to say is that it's not iconic, and that's what bothers me.

Looking at shadow dance, I basically see 2 points of Con Burn traded for avoiding an attack. And 2 points of Con burn is -1 HP/level, -1 Fort, and heals after two days, so using it multiple times is really painful. That really doesn't seem worth it. Especially since this is a high level, and the ability is "shadow dance" I'd give them a mode of movement where any movement they make is just considered teleporting. That's badass, avoiding AoOs, and has cool flavor. You could additionally allow them to teleport as an immediate action, but change the penalty to dazing or exhaustion or something.

Stygian Templar is gross. It's again -1 HP/level, -1 Fort, and only heals after two days, and gives you the slightly-decent ability to attack once more. So you might kill something faster. Maybe. But if you're stacking things like manyshot or such, this is a mediocre benefit traded with a really annoying penalty. It's also not as interestingly thematic as the rest of the stuff here.

Improved Vampiric Shot doesn't seem to be on the class table, and is also not very useful in combat. It'll apply on slightly less than 5% of the marksman's attacks, and out of combat it basically encourages carrying a bag of rats around and shooting them when you're low on Constitution. I don't like it.

Penetrating Shot is strong, especially if it applies on every attack, but it's a capstone, so I don't care all that much.

ON SHOTS:
There is a certain point in combat where -1 HP isn't important at all. I'd say that if you're several levels above the requirement for a certain shot, you can just ignore the HP cost for the sake of less bookkeeping.

Cold Shot seems like it would be ridiculously good at high levels, though I can see the HP balancing out. You're sacrificing 2 HP for the chance to deal +3.5 damage on average, which isn't too bad. The big deal is that as long as you don't die in combat, you can just get healing out of combat.

Steady Shot is ridiculous. Enjoy never missing again, and wreaking havoc with stygian. I don't think you should be allowed to augment this, or make the penalty scale with a greater loss of attacks, or dazing the shooter, or something like that.

Bleeding Shot is cool. This sacrifice of HP seems to play in a lot...

Strafing is all right. I'd just say "this shot allows the Ebon Marksman to make an attack during a move action". If someone needs to full attack while moving, it'll be implied that they have to make a shot for each attack.

Plague Shot bothers me, because it high levels -4 HP isn't too much but 1d2 Con is a big deal, especially since augmenting this increases the DC as well. At level 15, you have around 86 HP with +1 Con, and you can drop to 48 HP and deal 10-20 Con damage (enough to take even some high-level creatures and NPCs out of the game completely). That's not too terrible, but something about it seems very abusable.

Holy **** Leech Shot is huge anti-caster ammo. Way too strong. This should be a much later ability, and cost several attacks, since it's so good for caster-killing. Imagine firing this 4 times with manyshot, only paying 6 HP, and taking out almost all of a wizard's appropriate spells prepared for the day.

Ghost Shot is cool.

Curved Shot is cool.

Explosive Shot is cool.

At this point, I've just realized something. Why not just make the HP cost equivalent to the level required to use the shot? There would be less bookkeeping, and the difference of 1 or 2 HP isn't that big. The occasional ability like Death Shot that warrants a big penalty could just be documented within.

ahhh my laptop is dying. Well, that's it thus far. I may come back and critique more later.

Fun class. Thank you for posting it.

Silva Stormrage
2011-10-08, 07:11 PM
Let's see... critique:

Look at stygian bow: That's a big bonus. For every -1 penalty I take (true strike, anyone?) I deal +1.5xdamage. So with that wand of true strike, if I'm using a bow for 1d6+2(Cha) I can make one attack every two turns with a +10 hit bonus and an average of (3.5+2)x10x1.5 + (3.5+2) = 88 damage. That's a lot, even for once every two rounds, and it functions as soon as CLW wands come online--damn early. I recommend putting a cap on the penalty you can take (BAB) and make the increase in damage +.5 instead of +1.5. It'll be like a class-based, more useful version of Power Attack.

You need a better qualification for those Bonus Feats. Either make a list, or let them take [Fighter] and [Tactical] feats or something. If a player decides to use those feats to minmax or take suboptimal feats like WF: Greataxe, give them a hug and a high-five and leave them to it. If you're worried about people not playing ranged with this class, make the other abilities dependent on ranged combat. Like put a clause on stygian that allows it to only apply to ranged attacks.

For a move like Shadow Step that has a 2-round cooldown, why would you be using it more than once (maybe even twice) per encounter? I'd just make this at-will, and then it could be used out of combat without that whole "wait five minute" thing that ToB introduced and people tend to make faces at. With a class like this, you'll wait decently high Charisma anyways, so it wouldn't make all that much of a difference, and it'll be more streamlined.

For Death's eyes, I assume you mean they gain that bonus to Survival when tracking if they have the Track feat? Also, could track be a bonus feat for Ebon Marksmen?

For volley of the damned, what's the use time? Standard action? And why is it spell-like? Also, where does the line of archers go (and why do you need to specify that there is a line of souls anyways?). I recommend changing this to just hitting somewhere within a 5'/2 class levels burst (to tone down the AoE craziness) and have it useable up to short or medium range. That'll be easier to understand and use, and adds a little bit more balance. In addition, instead of having a 2/encounter limit, consider giving a penalty to actions/AC after the using this ability. It will encourage limited use of the ability without a hard cap, and if you make the penalty high enough, players will have to think hard about their position and defensive ability before using this crowd controller.

I'm not sure why Shadow Archon has the name that you've given it--the ability doesn't seem to fit. The penalty is all right, but if you're going for making him squishier via the use of this ability, why not just give a small duration penalty to HP and saves? Constitution burn isn't fun, and because of the long time it takes to recover, it'll just encourage a 15-minute workday. If you balance the ability with a penalty during combat, players will go for nova-ing when they are safe or combat is near a close, which provides a shifting dynamic, and avoids the vancian problem. However, balance on this is pretty much fine as-is if you'd like to keep it.

Holy crap the entangling is ridiculous. This ability needs to be toned down, or else your Ebon Marksman is going to teleport, entangle, run away, and then shoot and kite. It's especially bad because the bonus is huge and will most likely last the entire combat. Maybe you could make the ability an AoE Reflex save v. Entanglement for a turn or two, but this ability is le crazies without a fix.

Whenever I see things like Hunter's Mark, I imagine them to be tank abilities--encouraging the target to beat the snot out of the guy using the ability, or to back away. However, this just seems like +2 to attack and +5 damage... which is more bookkeeping at a high level than +5 damage seems worth. I'd just give them marks equal to their ChaMod and allow them to intuitively know the direction to their target all the time. No combat bonuses necessary--this guy gets enough stuff to make up for that all ready.

AHHH SUPER CRIT! I can see the usefulness here, but it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the class (except for your vampire ability). It's your only per-day encounter, and basically says "Do a buttload of damage with a regular attack", unlike other per-day effects like smiting or spells. What I mean to say is that it's not iconic, and that's what bothers me.

Looking at shadow dance, I basically see 2 points of Con Burn traded for avoiding an attack. And 2 points of Con burn is -1 HP/level, -1 Fort, and heals after two days, so using it multiple times is really painful. That really doesn't seem worth it. Especially since this is a high level, and the ability is "shadow dance" I'd give them a mode of movement where any movement they make is just considered teleporting. That's badass, avoiding AoOs, and has cool flavor. You could additionally allow them to teleport as an immediate action, but change the penalty to dazing or exhaustion or something.

Stygian Templar is gross. It's again -1 HP/level, -1 Fort, and only heals after two days, and gives you the slightly-decent ability to attack once more. So you might kill something faster. Maybe. But if you're stacking things like manyshot or such, this is a mediocre benefit traded with a really annoying penalty. It's also not as interestingly thematic as the rest of the stuff here.

Improved Vampiric Shot doesn't seem to be on the class table, and is also not very useful in combat. It'll apply on slightly less than 5% of the marksman's attacks, and out of combat it basically encourages carrying a bag of rats around and shooting them when you're low on Constitution. I don't like it.

Penetrating Shot is strong, especially if it applies on every attack, but it's a capstone, so I don't care all that much.

ON SHOTS:
There is a certain point in combat where -1 HP isn't important at all. I'd say that if you're several levels above the requirement for a certain shot, you can just ignore the HP cost for the sake of less bookkeeping.

Cold Shot seems like it would be ridiculously good at high levels, though I can see the HP balancing out. You're sacrificing 2 HP for the chance to deal +3.5 damage on average, which isn't too bad. The big deal is that as long as you don't die in combat, you can just get healing out of combat.

Steady Shot is ridiculous. Enjoy never missing again, and wreaking havoc with stygian. I don't think you should be allowed to augment this, or make the penalty scale with a greater loss of attacks, or dazing the shooter, or something like that.

Bleeding Shot is cool. This sacrifice of HP seems to play in a lot...

Strafing is all right. I'd just say "this shot allows the Ebon Marksman to make an attack during a move action". If someone needs to full attack while moving, it'll be implied that they have to make a shot for each attack.

Plague Shot bothers me, because it high levels -4 HP isn't too much but 1d2 Con is a big deal, especially since augmenting this increases the DC as well. At level 15, you have around 86 HP with +1 Con, and you can drop to 48 HP and deal 10-20 Con damage (enough to take even some high-level creatures and NPCs out of the game completely). That's not too terrible, but something about it seems very abusable.

Holy **** Leech Shot is huge anti-caster ammo. Way too strong. This should be a much later ability, and cost several attacks, since it's so good for caster-killing. Imagine firing this 4 times with manyshot, only paying 6 HP, and taking out almost all of a wizard's appropriate spells prepared for the day.

Ghost Shot is cool.

Curved Shot is cool.

Explosive Shot is cool.

At this point, I've just realized something. Why not just make the HP cost equivalent to the level required to use the shot? There would be less bookkeeping, and the difference of 1 or 2 HP isn't that big. The occasional ability like Death Shot that warrants a big penalty could just be documented within.

ahhh my laptop is dying. Well, that's it thus far. I may come back and critique more later.

Fun class. Thank you for posting it.

Stygian bow IS supposed to be a power attack for ranged weapons actually. I am not sure how you got multiplication in there. If the Ebon Marksman takes a -4 penalty to hit he should gain a + 6 bonus to damage. I will add the BAB cap though, I forgot to add that :smallsigh:.

Bonus Feats I agree. I was just trying to make it so that they only grab ranged feats but I will just make it fighter bonus feats + track. If they want to go sword and bow in accord than thats cool I guess (Even my picture has a sword in the background :smallwink:)

Ya shadow step has the limit on use because in an earlier draft you could spend multiple uses to go farther and it didn't have a cooldown. I like the idea of a teleporting class anyway so I will just make it at will.

Death's Eyes: yes the survival bonus is for tracking. Changed.

Volley of the damned is supposed to be a full round action. Why wouldn't it be spell like? If it was supernatural it wouldn't provoke and ghostly arrows attacking you seems like spell resistance would apply too. Me saying that there is a line of souls is just fluff to say where the arrows come from. The problem with making it a burst is that it doesn't make much since for archers to fire in a burst area. A line makes much more sense. Also it was supposed to have a 1/encounter limit on it. Not sure how that got out of my final draft :smallconfused:.

Shadow archon is named like that because I was having trouble thinking of a name and my brother was spamming archons in starcraft 2's desert strike map :smallbiggrin:. I personally don't mind ability burn damage. I don't mind ability burn. It heals at a rate of 1/day also not 1/2 days. I wanted to keep the idea of a class that sacrifices hp to attack his foes.

Entangling shadows... :smallredface: whoops I misremembered what evards black tentacles did. I meant to just be similar to that. Decreasing the grapple bonus.

I based hunters mark off the wow hunter's ability which basically does what i made it do except it doesn't have a + to hit. I think I will tone down the plus to damage to 2 since this class gets enough of that as is.

Critical Hit. While the class features don't revolve around critical hits some of the shots definitely do and it is a different form of "Super damage" attack than smite and other similar attacks.

Okay ya I like your idea for shadow dance. I will add the movement becomes teleporting. Though also I think you miss how it works. It allows you to use shadow step as an immediate action 1/round for the duration of shadow archon. I think exhaustion is a better debuff for it though, I will limit the ability burn to shadow archon and stygian templar.

On Stygian templar, ya I wasn't sure where to go with it. I wanted it to be a big sacrifice in hp and survivability but to increase killing capacity. I could have just made it shadow archon + but I wanted to give it its own thing. Probably will change it if I get a good idea for it.

Improved vampiric shot is the ebon marksman's way of regaining ability burn. It isn't supposed to be that strong and I might move it up so that they get it earlier but I don't see a problem with it really. (Other than it not being on the table :smallredface:) I will change it so that they can't just shoot rats to get con from it though.

Penetrating shots. Ya I like the capstone and it makes this person very very effective at killing armies if they march in tight formations.


Shots

Yes I realize that at higher levels the -1 to hp is going to matter not at all when people are dealing 100 damage each round. However, that is where augmentations are supposed to change. Firing a 1d6 cold shot isn't going to hurt you much but it isn't going to help really either.

Also something I think you might of missed is that you can only sacrifice hp equal to your HD. So you can't sacrifice all your hp but 1 to deal super damage on one attack.

Cold Shot: Well at level 20 they can sacrifice 18 hp for + 9d6 damage. Thats basically a sneak attack with energy type damage. Pretty good but isn't unbalanced imo.

Steady Shot. I don't think its never miss territory but ya it does give to much a bonus to hit. Nerfed

Strafing: I figured I would just be a bit redundant to stop some rule lawyery type from saying "it doesn't say I NEED to"

Plague shot... I think with the hp limit to augmenting that you seemed to have missed it is balanced. At lvl 20 you can only sacrifice enough to deal 5-10 con damage. Then again thats per attack. So I think I will make it just do 1 point of con + 1/4 hp

For leech shot I think you missed the clause: "this shot can only be fired once a round" :smallwink:

Thank you once again for the in depth review. I am glad you enjoyed it.

mootoall
2011-10-08, 07:44 PM
Alignment: Any Non Good
Hit Die: d8
Starting Age: As ranger.
Starting Gold: As ranger

All looks good, but I'd recommend removing the alignment requirement. It doesn't seem necessary, based on the class features.


Class Skills
The ebon marksman's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Listen (Wis), Hide (Dex), Knowledge (Religion), Ride (Dex), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis),Tumble (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at First Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

I'd even give them 6 + Int skill points, to match the Ranger. If you want all of the skills you'll need to be competitive (Spot, Listen, Hide, Survival, Move Silently, Tumble, Concentration) you're going to be very MAD without it.

[

*Table snip*

Good chassis, and even more reason to bump the skill points up to Ranger level.


Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Ebon Marksman.

Death Tracker: (Su) The ebon marksman can track creatures by tracing their links with their recent kills. If the ebon marksman finds a corpse of a creature and he knows who killed the creature than he can spend one hour searching for the tenuous link of the creature on the corpse. This allows him to know exactly where the creature is and what direction he is heading in. This ability can be used once per corpse. If a creature was killed by multiple people than the ebon marksman can choose who he tracks.

I like it, but it makes murder mysteries trivial. Perhaps give it a "Within one hour per Ebon Marksman level of the creature's death" clause?

Far Shot: (Ex) The ebon marksman is adept at sniping creatures from far away. He gains the far shot feat even if he doesn't meet the prerequisite and also it is treated as "point blank shot" for any prerequisite concerning it.

Why not just grant Point Blank Shot? I mean, it's a minor enough bonus that it's not overpowering.

Shots The ebon marksman has a wide variety of different attacks that he can charge his arrows with. They are listed below and the ebon marksman gains them at a rate indicated in the above table. The shots take a format of ("Name", (Level Required to take the shot), (HP Sacrificed to fire the shot), (Number of attacks needed to be sacrificed)).

Shots are attack actions that augment a single attack in a full attack or a standard attack action. In a full attack the ebon marksman can sacrifice a number of attacks equal to the number of attacks needed to be sacrificed indicated on the shot. If the number of attacks needed to be sacrificed is greater than 1 than it can only be used in a full attack not a standard action.

Shots are supernatural abilities that don't work in an antimagic shield.

Each shot deals an indicated amount of damage to the Ebon Marksman. This damage can not be avoided in any way. However, all shots heal the exact same amount of health they drain if the shot hits it's target (Shots with multiple targets only heal the indicated heal back). Certain shots can be augmented by spending more hp to have increased effects. The ebon marksman can't sacrifice more hp than his class level on a shot and the extra hp sacrificed is also returned to the ebon marksman if the attack hits.

Any shot that has a dc on it has a dc equal to 10 + 1/2 class level + charisma modifier.

I like the concept of Shots. However, as I'll explain in just a little bit, you might want to make the DCs Wis based.

Soul Powered Shot (Ex): The ebon marksman adds his charisma modifier to damage on all ranged attacks.

I'm going to recommend this be changed to adding its Wisdom bonus, so that it synergizes with the Zen Archery feat. Archery's a weak combat style as it stands, and allowing Wisdom SAD (especially considering how important Spot checks are) might not be a bad idea.

Stygian Bow: (Su) The ebon marksman can enhance his weapon so that he can put his very soul into to increase it's strength. By taking a -1 penalty on his to hit roll the ebon marksman can increase the attacks damage by 1.5 per -1 penalty.

I'd recommend adding a clause similar to Power Attack, where you can only take a penalty up to your BAB.

Bonus Feat: The ebon marksman gains any feat that directly improves archery at 4th level and every 4 levels after. He must meet the prerequisite for this feat. Feats like knowledge devotion which increase all attack rolls and damage rolls do not apply. Only feats like woodland archer or rapid shot qualify.

Yeah, you need to be more specific with this. Check out Kellus' Saggitarius, and use his list of bonus feats?

Vampiric Shot: (Su) Anytime the ebon marksman deals a critical hit on a target he gains temporary hit points equal to the damage of the attack before it is multiplied by the critical hit multiplier.

I like it, since most archery builds shoot enough arrows to make crits commonplace. Maybe add an improved ability later that allows crits to be made against undead or constructs?

Shadow Step: (Sp) As a swift action a number of times equal to his charisma modifier times per encounter the ebon marksman can shift through the shadows to another location within 60ft. This new location must be within LoS. This ability has a 2 round cooldown.

Excellent "Hunter Pursues" power.

Death's Eyes: (Ex) The ebon marksman is adept at noticing enemies at long distances. The ebon marksman gains the indicated bonus as a bonus to spot checks and also to survival checks if the ebon marksman posses the track feat.

Spot bonuses are extremely useful to any archer. Kudos. However, this brings up a couple points that I should've brought up earlier. Bonus Feats and Skill bonuses should not count as class abilities. Feel free to include them, because they're nice, but I still look at them as dead levels. Include a fluffy, but unique, ability whenever you give a bonus feat or skill bonus as well.

Volley of the Damned: (Sp) The ebon marksman calls upon spirits of archers long past which fire a volley of arrows in a path in front of the ebon marksman. The line of souls is 5ft/Class level and the arrows hit all targets 5ft/class level away from the line. These arrows deal the same damage as the ebon marksman's standard attack and are all enhanced with one shot that needs 1 attack to function. This attack gives a reflex save for half damage (Dc 10 + 1/2 Class level + Charisma Modifier) and can be used twice an encounter.

Very cool. You might want to model this after the Volley rules from Complete Warrior (?Heroes of Battle?) though.

Shadow Archon: (Su) As a swift action the Ebon Marksman gathers up energy from around him and uses it to bolster his attacks and form. All his attacks deal an additional 2 damage and have a + 2 profane bonus to hit. Also every round one of his shots takes 1 less sacrificed attack than normal (minimum 1). Using this ability deals 1 point of constitution burn and the benefits lasts 1 round per class level.

I agree that the name doesn't sound right. Perhaps something like Viscious Shot, or something evoking the idea of gathering harmful shadow energy around the bow.

Sense target: (Ex) The ebon marksman has an acute sense of where creatures are around him. He gains blindsight out to 100 feet. This radius is multiplied by 10 when it is used to find the last creature targeted with Death's Track.

100 foot Blindsight, while it sounds powerful, is actually pretty fair, considering a wizard can have 100 foot Mindsight, which is better, at level 6.


Entangling Shadows: (Su) Now whenever the ebon marksman uses shadow step black tentacles spawn within 10ft of the original location. Any enemy in the area needs to make a grapple check versus the grapple check of the tentacles or be grappled. The tentacles bonus to grapple is 8+Ebon Marksman's BAB + Ebon Marksman's Charisma Modifier. Creatures not grappled still have their movement speed halved. These tentacles last for 1 minute per class level.

Firstly, a bit of simplified language might be something like "When the Ebon Marksman uses his Shadow Step ability, he may cast Evard's Black Tentacle's, without provoking attacks of opportunity, originating at any point within ten feet of him," and then include your DC calculation. Other than that, it does seem a little weird that they create tentacles wherever he just left from. Shouldn't it be from where he arrives, so he can trap whoever he's seeking to hunt?

Hunter's Mark: (Su) As a free action the Ebon Marksman can mark a target within 60ft. This mark is visible to the ebon marksman if the ebon marksman is within 10 miles per the ebon marksman's charisma modifier. This mark is undetectable by the target and the ebon marksman can only mark one target at a time. This ability increases the damage dealt to the target by the ebon marksman by 5 and increase the to hit roll of the ebon marksman's ranged attacks on the target by 2.

Nice tracking/Favored Enemy-like boost. I really like it.

Critical Hit: (Ex) Once per day per charisma modifier the ebon marksman can increase the crit range of any of his ranged weapons by 4 (ability stacks with any ability that increases crit range). This effect lasts one attack and activation is a free action.

This would be better executed by allowing a 3/day Quickened Hunter's Mercy, I think.

Shadow Dance: (Su) The ebon marksman has mastered the art of being mobile and dancing around the battlefield. This ability can only be activated when shadow archon is active and activating this ability deals 1 point of con burn. While the current use of shadow archon is active shadow step only takes an immediate action to use and it has no cooldown. However, if shadow step is used as an immediate action entangling shadows does not activate.

I really don't like ability burn, since it can't be healed out of combat. I'd recommend making it damage, so that it's closer to a /encounter penalty, rather than a /day penalty.

Stygian Templar: (Su) This ability can only be used while shadow archon is activated. By taking 1 point of con burn damage the ebon marksman upgrades his Shadow Archon form into a more powerful yet more dangerous form. In addition to all the benefits of shadow archon, in this form the ebon marksman gains an additional attack at his full attack bonus each round. Also the ebon marksman can take another point of constitution burn damage to gain an additional attack at his full attack bonus. He can gain a number of extra attacks equal to his bab/4. Also while in this form all attacks gain a + 3 to hit and damage. This lasts until the original shadow archon ability runs out.

I like it, but again, change burn to damage so it's not an all day debuff.

Improved Vampiric Shot: (Su) In addition to the effects of vampiric shot, if the ebon marksman rolls a natural 20 on an attack roll and confirms the critical hit than he can restore 1 point of constitution burn and heals the full critical hit damage.

Meh. If you change burn to damage this does nothing impressive, and even as it stands it's not enough to be a stand alone ability.

Penetrating Shot: (Ex) The ebon marksman's attacks have so much force behind them that they can pierce completely through a target and hit the target behind them. If their is an enemy at least 15ft behind a target hit by a ranged attack launch by the ebon marksman than the ranged attack also hits the enemy behind the target. The attack uses the same attack roll but can not be a critical hit. If there is another enemy behind the second target it goes through the second target as well, repeated until there are no more enemies or the attack has hit 5 targets.

Actually, I think this is another thing replicated by a low level Ranger spell. Might want to check those out. Spell Compendium, I think, but I don't remember the name.

*Shots list snipped*
All in all, shots look good.

Comments bolded and italicised.

Edit: Gah, mostly ninja'd!

Silva Stormrage
2011-10-09, 12:40 PM
Comments bolded and italicised.

Edit: Gah, mostly ninja'd!

Sigh the forum ate my post after I had finished reply to you... :smallmad:

Oh well

I will change the skill points. He is a bit too MAD right now if he needs a bit of int too.

Stygian Bow: Changed

I like the idea of a class that needs 2 key stats and then 2 semi important ones. (Dex + Cha, Con + Str respectively)

Death's Tracker: It doesn't tell you who killed the murdered. It just tells you where he is. Its no worse than contact other plane or similar divination.

Vampiric Shot: Ya he does need some way of criting undead. I will add that.

Bonus Feats: Changed

Volley of the damned was supposed to be a "movie type" volley where they fire their arrows in a straight line. While unrealistic it is a lot cooler in my opinion.

sense Target: I might increase the radius at later levels but I don't think its that bad right now.

Entangling Shadows: Changed wording. It is also meant as a fleeing move not a chasing move. He should be able to outrun almost anyone already. If someone is within melee range of him he can jump away and have them then rooted in place.

Critical Hit: Changed I didn't know that spell existed :smalltongue:

I actually like ability burn because its really hard to remove. I didn't want shadow archon and stygian templar to be used every encounter.

Thanks for the review :smallbiggrin:

YouLostMe
2011-10-10, 02:38 PM
Oh, I see that penalty < HD thing... oops. :smallredface:

I'm still not in favor of the Shadow Archon and reliant abilities (I made the 2-day-heal comment because Archon requires 1 con burn and something like Shadow Dance requires 1 con burn, for a total of 2 con burn for only 1 round of usefulness). Penalties to action or restricted action is always mechanically a better tradeoff for short-term benefits than things like ability burn and other long-term detriments, IMO, because it doesn't encourage a 15-minute-workday.

Looking at the shots, they all make sense with the class level cap. One more thing, though. Would you mind putting that qualifier around the list of shots, that way I don't forget about it again when I print this class off for my game?

jiriku
2011-10-10, 05:30 PM
Sense Target: Permanent 100-ft blindsight is rather too good for 11th level. This shuts down most illusions, most ambush scenarios, many defensive miss chances, and while it's similar to Mindsight, as mootoall pointed out, using Mindsight to set the bar for what all classes should be capable of is not a place where I think you want to go. At 11th level, this would be more appropriate with a limited radius, like 30 ft to match the range of Point Blank Shot, improving to 60 ft and perhaps even 100 ft as you advance in level.

1,000 ft blindsight on a marked target is likewise not such a good idea - this destroys the common trope of the BBEG encounter in which the villain escapes to menace the heroes another day. It's fun to be a good tracker, but if you're too good at tracking, then it stops being fun because there's no challenge involved. And it's a little too implausible if every single major villain somehow has teleport and/or Darkstalker, but only if there's an Ebon Marksman in the party.

Hunter's Mark: This ability doesn't work if the marksman has a Charisma of 11 or lower. Also, how exactly is the mark "visible" from 10 miles away? Normally, I'd expect terrain obstructions to break line of sight.

Volley of the Damned: The phrase "all targets" rather than "all creatures" raises some questions in my mind. Do you need to individually target creatures within the volley? Does this allow you to avoid friendly fire? Does this mean that a creature you can't target (perhaps because it is hiding and has evaded your blindsight with the Darkstalker feat) isn't at risk of being hit?

SHOTS
Black Arrow: This is probably too good for the level, as the ability to create extremely capable minions as a free action during combat is a very substantial benefit. This ability is especially potent because it doesn't really need augmenting - instead, it automatically scales in power as your opponents become more powerful, and the 5-round duration is enough to swing most encounters.

Kill Shot: This shot has the potential to annoy the DM, since it requires him to calculate and track the kill shot threshold for every opponent on the board. In large encounters where the ebon marksman is engaging multiple targets whose hit point totals are changing rapidly, that could slow gameplay more than you'd like. Perhaps you might go with something simpler like, "wounded" or "currently suffering from a bleed effect".

Quick Shot: The drawback on quick shot is easily avoided, since the ebon archer can spend his next round moving, using a magic item, attacking with Manyshot or Shot on the Run, or firing a litch regen volley of the damned instead of making a full attack. Better if you made the EM spend an attack now in order to be entitled to a quick shot before the beginning of his next turn.

Shadow Shot: The lack of a save concerns me.

Lucky Shot: Rerolls are good, but they aren't that good. You could offer this shot 2-4 levels sooner.

Elfstone
2011-10-10, 09:36 PM
I would say that for a class focused on taking damage (He is GOING to miss, most of the time for awhile before higher levels bring magic items) his HD is a bit low.

Yes the traditional archer has 1d8 (ranger and scout) but this archer could use a d10 or even d12.

S'all I got for a quick look.

Silva Stormrage
2011-10-11, 08:42 PM
I still like the ability burn. It isn't that hard to hold back and not use those forms. I did change the shadow dance to exhaustion because it was not as strong.


Sense Target: Permanent 100-ft blindsight is rather too good for 11th level. This shuts down most illusions, most ambush scenarios, many defensive miss chances, and while it's similar to Mindsight, as mootoall pointed out, using Mindsight to set the bar for what all classes should be capable of is not a place where I think you want to go. At 11th level, this would be more appropriate with a limited radius, like 30 ft to match the range of Point Blank Shot, improving to 60 ft and perhaps even 100 ft as you advance in level.

1,000 ft blindsight on a marked target is likewise not such a good idea - this destroys the common trope of the BBEG encounter in which the villain escapes to menace the heroes another day. It's fun to be a good tracker, but if you're too good at tracking, then it stops being fun because there's no challenge involved. And it's a little too implausible if every single major villain somehow has teleport and/or Darkstalker, but only if there's an Ebon Marksman in the party.

Hunter's Mark: This ability doesn't work if the marksman has a Charisma of 11 or lower. Also, how exactly is the mark "visible" from 10 miles away? Normally, I'd expect terrain obstructions to break line of sight.

Volley of the Damned: The phrase "all targets" rather than "all creatures" raises some questions in my mind. Do you need to individually target creatures within the volley? Does this allow you to avoid friendly fire? Does this mean that a creature you can't target (perhaps because it is hiding and has evaded your blindsight with the Darkstalker feat) isn't at risk of being hit?

SHOTS
Black Arrow: This is probably too good for the level, as the ability to create extremely capable minions as a free action during combat is a very substantial benefit. This ability is especially potent because it doesn't really need augmenting - instead, it automatically scales in power as your opponents become more powerful, and the 5-round duration is enough to swing most encounters.

Kill Shot: This shot has the potential to annoy the DM, since it requires him to calculate and track the kill shot threshold for every opponent on the board. In large encounters where the ebon marksman is engaging multiple targets whose hit point totals are changing rapidly, that could slow gameplay more than you'd like. Perhaps you might go with something simpler like, "wounded" or "currently suffering from a bleed effect".

Quick Shot: The drawback on quick shot is easily avoided, since the ebon archer can spend his next round moving, using a magic item, attacking with Manyshot or Shot on the Run, or firing a litch regen volley of the damned instead of making a full attack. Better if you made the EM spend an attack now in order to be entitled to a quick shot before the beginning of his next turn.

Shadow Shot: The lack of a save concerns me.

Lucky Shot: Rerolls are good, but they aren't that good. You could offer this shot 2-4 levels sooner.

On blind sight. I am trying to get this class AWAY from the point blank shot limit of 30ft. I actually debated the range and got 100 from the fact that it is the distance where it is out of range of most chargers (60ft for most 80ft for barbarians or others with fast movement). 1000 Feet prevents BBEG's from fleeing? I have never seen a BBEG get away WITHOUT teleportation. My pc's or I just hunt them down. How would one flee? Invisibility? At lvl 11 you should be able to just throw up a glitterdust and find him that way too.

Hunters Mark: I really didn't think of a character with a charisma penalty playing this class whoops :smallredface:. I wasn't clear how it was visible. It would just float above the terrain and grow larger essentially.

Volley of the Damned: Meant all creatures in it. Changed.

On Shots

Black Arrow: Hmm your right. I think I will make it so that it can affect x HD and the augment is increase the HD it can affect by 1 for 1 hp.

Kill Shot. The DM doesn't have to keep track of all the hp of the people. Just the one it targets. Okay the creature has max 242 hp and he now has 55 hp. 25% is 60 so he is below it and it deals extra. Its a simple arithmetic problem...

Quick Shot: How is that "Avoiding' the downside. The point of the downside was that you couldn't fire as many shots in the next round. If you don't fire at all then its working :smalltongue:.

Shadow Shot: Ya but a save kinda kills it too. Its only 1 round duration and the target can't be affected by anything. Weirdly enough it is also a decent "save an ally" move.

Lucky shot: ya it could be moved up a bit probably. I just don't have enough high end shots as it is.



@Elfstone: Thats a good point, I will change his HD.
Thanks for the comments guys.

If anyone has any suggestions for some more high level shots I am all ears :smallbiggrin:.

jiriku
2011-10-12, 01:25 AM
1000 Feet prevents BBEG's from fleeing? I have never seen a BBEG get away WITHOUT teleportation. My pc's or I just hunt them down. How would one flee? Invisibility? At lvl 11 you should be able to just throw up a glitterdust and find him that way too.

Escape/misdirection options this shuts down (by making it obvious where the opponent is and where he's going):

flee the scene
mislead
hide in plain sight
concealing oneself within a glamer
And yes, the humble invisibility spell and all its variants. Glitterdust doesn't work very well against invisible people who move and have good Hide checks.

Purely off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.

Flip it around and put it from the other direction. Suppose an NPC ebon marksman puts a Hunter's Mark on one of the PCs, and the party attempts to approach him through stealth. Is it inordinately difficult for them to do so? What other PC classes can you think of that have class features comparable to all-day 100-ft blindsight?




It would just float above the terrain and grow larger essentially.

What happens when the Ebon Marksman or his marked target is indoors?



Kill Shot. The DM doesn't have to keep track of all the hp of the people. Just the one it targets. Okay the creature has max 242 hp and he now has 55 hp. 25% is 60 so he is below it and it deals extra. Its a simple arithmetic problem... This would be my point. It forces an arithmetic calculation every round. Suppose you're running a large encounter with six NPC ebon archers who killshot the party while a caster softens them up with damaging AoE spells -- now your players have to do the math. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than most because two of the players in my group have mathematics learning disabilities, but its usually best to avoid unnecessary arithmetic. And this arithmetic is unnecessary.


Quick Shot: How is that "Avoiding' the downside. The point of the downside was that you couldn't fire as many shots in the next round. If you don't fire at all then its working :smalltongue:.

Dealing double, triple, or quadruple damage to all foes in a large AoE doesn't really count as "not firing as many shots in the next round." Just puttin' that out there. :smalltongue:

Silva Stormrage
2011-10-12, 10:37 PM
Escape/misdirection options this shuts down (by making it obvious where the opponent is and where he's going):

flee the scene
mislead
hide in plain sight
concealing oneself within a glamer
And yes, the humble invisibility spell and all its variants. Glitterdust doesn't work very well against invisible people who move and have good Hide checks.

Purely off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.

Flip it around and put it from the other direction. Suppose an NPC ebon marksman puts a Hunter's Mark on one of the PCs, and the party attempts to approach him through stealth. Is it inordinately difficult for them to do so? What other PC classes can you think of that have class features comparable to all-day 100-ft blindsight?

Mindbender... a 1 level dip that is really easy to take and gives you access to 100ft mindsight at the cost of a feat. Also if they are approaching through stealth why do they need to be within 100ft? The casters should all get a surprise round from that distance. The fighters could easily just have fly cast on them so that they can charge at 120ft away.



What happens when the Ebon Marksman or his marked target is indoors?
Hmmm... okay good point. I am changing it so that the Ebon Marksman always knows the direction of the target.

This would be my point. It forces an arithmetic calculation every round. Suppose you're running a large encounter with six NPC ebon archers who killshot the party while a caster softens them up with damaging AoE spells -- now your players have to do the math. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than most because two of the players in my group have mathematics learning disabilities, but its usually best to avoid unnecessary arithmetic. And this arithmetic is unnecessary.

Ah thats probably just a diffrence in groups then. My group has 2 math wizs one of which does math problems for fun :smallbiggrin:. If I was the DM though I would have 25% of their hp written down.

Dealing double, triple, or quadruple damage to all foes in a large AoE doesn't really count as "not firing as many shots in the next round." Just puttin' that out there. :smalltongue:

Oh right... THAT ability... Whoops forgot about that :smallredface: I still don't want to make the target know if the Ebon Marksman is going to use quick shot or not in the round. Give me a bit to think of a good fix

Okay answers in bolded

Does anyone have any suggestion for high level shots?

jiriku
2011-10-13, 01:50 PM
Soul-stealing arrow forces a save-or-die, and makes it difficult to resurrect an opponent slain by the arrow.
Disintigration arrow, as the spell.
Phantom arrow shoots through walls and accurately strikes incorporeal and ethereal creatures.
Hunting arrow searches out a marked target anywhere within its maximum range, flying independently as an animated object with a fly speed of 500, pursues target and keeps attacking each round until it hits.
Invisible arrow attacks as an invisible creature and the ebon marksman can effectively snipe without revealing his position unless opponents make a DC 20 Spot check to notice the vector of the invisible arrow.
Detonating arrow kills target and causes a violent explosion.
Antimagic arrow affects target as antimagic ray.
Exorcism arrow ejects possessing spirits and acts as a dismissal against an extraplanar creature.
Reality-warping arrow creates localize planar rift, sucking nearby objects and creatures into the rift and depositing them on a random plane.
Path arrow creatures temporary, magical, unbreakable pathway from ebon marksman's feet to the point of the arrow's impact.
Dispelling arrow dispels magic on hit as a targeted or area greater dispel magic.
Poison arrow generates deadly poison with a strength determined by points invested. No chance of poisoning the ebon marksman.

Silva Stormrage
2011-10-16, 01:18 PM
Soul-stealing arrow forces a save-or-die, and makes it difficult to resurrect an opponent slain by the arrow.
Disintigration arrow, as the spell.
Phantom arrow shoots through walls and accurately strikes incorporeal and ethereal creatures.
Hunting arrow searches out a marked target anywhere within its maximum range, flying independently as an animated object with a fly speed of 500, pursues target and keeps attacking each round until it hits.
Invisible arrow attacks as an invisible creature and the ebon marksman can effectively snipe without revealing his position unless opponents make a DC 20 Spot check to notice the vector of the invisible arrow.
Detonating arrow kills target and causes a violent explosion.
Antimagic arrow affects target as antimagic ray.
Exorcism arrow ejects possessing spirits and acts as a dismissal against an extraplanar creature.
Reality-warping arrow creates localize planar rift, sucking nearby objects and creatures into the rift and depositing them on a random plane.
Path arrow creatures temporary, magical, unbreakable pathway from ebon marksman's feet to the point of the arrow's impact.
Dispelling arrow dispels magic on hit as a targeted or area greater dispel magic.
Poison arrow generates deadly poison with a strength determined by points invested. No chance of poisoning the ebon marksman.


Whoops I somehow missed this post.

These are all great shots. I will add most of them.

gparali
2012-02-02, 02:41 AM
I will be playing this in agame and I wanted to ask a couple of questions.

Can he use his bonus feats to take fighter only feats? Like Weapon Specialisation?

Also,

Certain shots can be augmented by spending more hp to have increased effects. The ebon marksman can't sacrifice more hp than his class level on a shot and the extra hp sacrificed is also returned to the ebon marksman if the attack hits.

Does that include the base sacrifice or only hp sacrifice used for augmentation.

Silva Stormrage
2012-02-02, 02:52 PM
I will be playing this in agame and I wanted to ask a couple of questions.

Can he use his bonus feats to take fighter only feats? Like Weapon Specialisation?

Also,


Does that include the base sacrifice or only hp sacrifice used for augmentation.

No he can not take fighter only feats. Despite having fighter bonus feats he still doesn't have a fighter level which allows him to take weapon specialization.

Also he can only sacrifice a number of hp equal to his class level including the augmentations. So a level 7 Ebon Marksman with cold shot could only augment it by 6 because the base cost is 1 and 6 + 1 equals 7 his class level.

gparali
2012-02-02, 04:00 PM
Just reading your shots



Splitting Arrow (6,4,2): This shot splits into two different arrows. This attack can be used to hit two targets or the same target. The arrows have the same attack roll for to hit purposes.


Do both attacks need to hit to retreive your HP?


Hellfire Shot (8,8,2): With this shot the ebon marksman fires two arrows into the air. Within seconds a 20ft radius area within 100ft of the ebon marksman takes 1d6 damage/class level with a reflex save for half damage as a rain of shadowy hellfire rains from the sky.
Special: This attack never refunds HP that it inflicts to the ebon marksman.


What kind of damage does it do? Shouldn't it have a level cap? At greater levels I could fire two of these per round. I won't be able to retreive the HP but they don't seem like a lot.

Soul Draining Shot, Reality Warp shots and Disintergrating shot look kinda strong, although I may be wrong. Maybe it seems that way to me because as long as you hit, you can keep firing them.

Silva Stormrage
2012-02-04, 12:57 AM
Just reading your shots




Do both attacks need to hit to retreive your HP?



What kind of damage does it do? Shouldn't it have a level cap? At greater levels I could fire two of these per round. I won't be able to retreive the HP but they don't seem like a lot.

Soul Draining Shot, Reality Warp shots and Disintergrating shot look kinda strong, although I may be wrong. Maybe it seems that way to me because as long as you hit, you can keep firing them.

For splitting only one of the arrows needs to hit to gain HP back.

I changed hellfire shot a bit, it now needs augmentation to deal additional damage.

I am not that worried about the Save or Die shots. At that level casters have been slugging around save or dies at a MUCH higher save dc for a bit. Charisma is important for an Ebon Marksman but they can't focus on it like a wizard can int. They need a high dexterity and a decent strength and a pretty high con as well.

Silva Stormrage
2015-08-06, 02:28 AM
So I am going through my old homebrews and trying to bring them up to my new levels of standards as well as fix up the tables for them. This one I actually like for the most part I just did some number tweaking. The biggest change I ended up doing was for the undead ebon marksmen who now just take charisma burn instead of having a separate pool of points for those abilities.

Debihuman
2015-08-07, 08:51 AM
List of shots: the numbers in the parentheses don't match up to anything in Format of the Shots. It needs to spell out for us dummies.

Debby

Silva Stormrage
2015-08-08, 12:14 AM
List of shots: the numbers in the parentheses don't match up to anything in Format of the Shots. It needs to spell out for us dummies.

Debby

Nice catch.

I tried listing out the descriptions on each shot but it ended up looking really messy. So instead I put an example in the shot section and spelled it out in depth so you don't have to scroll back up to the top where shots are described. Hopefully that makes it clearer.

Debihuman
2015-08-08, 07:05 AM
That does indeed explain all those numbers now.

Thanks

Elandris Kajar
2015-08-10, 02:59 PM
For an ACF: favored enemy as ranger, but they start with two, and they can only special shot favored enemies.

They could get bonuses on the snipe hide checks, and be able to shoot in Melee.

Silva Stormrage
2020-04-10, 02:24 AM
Okay so reworking some of my old homebrews and Ebon Marksman was next on the list since I finally finished the Conduit class as well.

Changes

Readjusted the levels they got certain abilities (Hunter's Mark, etc)
Added many more utility abilities to aid their fluff for hunting and tracking down enemies
Nerfed some of their more offensive shots to shift their role from pure offensive glass cannon to the more stealthy pursuit archer I had intended them as
In that vein added some shadowcasting to their abilities to give them some extra utility and variety from Ebon Marksman to Ebon Marksman
Also added an ACF to swap out that class feature for those of you who don't want to use or learn Shadowcasting
Also added a variety of new utility and high level shots to round out the class better and gave the Ebon Marksman more shots per level to select
A lot of spelling/grammar fixes... wow I was kinda surprised at how bad it was.

Miss Disaster
2020-04-12, 05:28 PM
I like the new tweaks, Silva. Very cool umbral-flavored class.

I'm gonna add this one to my homebrew-legal class options for my players in my Shadowfell campaign (3.P Rules).

Silva Stormrage
2020-04-15, 03:53 AM
I like the new tweaks, Silva. Very cool umbral-flavored class.

I'm gonna add this one to my homebrew-legal class options for my players in my Shadowfell campaign (3.P Rules).

Excellent, I am glad you like it! Tell me how it goes if anyone decides to play it with the new changes. :smallbiggrin:


Edit: As I need more space for my shots now and I didn't have an extra post I am storing them here for now.

List of Shots

The format for the shots are as follows:
Example Shot Name (Ebon Marksman level required to take this shot, Number of Hit Points the Ebon Marksman needs to sacrifice in order to fire this shot, how many attacks in a full attack or standard action attack that need to be used to fire this shot): Description of the shot
Augmentation: How you can sacrifice more hit points to improve the damage of the shot. You may not fire a shot if it requires you to spend more hit points than your Ebon Marksman level.


Cold Shot (L:1, HP:1, A:1): This shot fires one attack that deals an additional 1d6 cold damage.
Augmentation: For every extra 3 HP sacrificed add 1d6 cold damage.

Steady Shot (L:1, HP:1, A:1): This shot fires one focused attack that has a + 1 to hit.
Augmentation: For every extra 3 HP sacrificed add another + 1 to hit.

Bleeding Shot (L:1, HP:1, A:1): This shot fires one attack that causes a persistent wound on a living creature hit that deals 1 damage each round for a number of rounds equal to the Ebon Marksman's charisma modifier (Maximum 5 rounds). Multiple wounds caused from different bleeding shots stack with themselves. Any form of magical healing, fast healing or regeneration causes this wound to be healed.
Augmentation: For every extra 3 HP sacrificed the bleeding damage is increased by 1. If the bleed damage is increased to 4 or more per round, fast healing, regeneration and magical healing don’t automatically cause this wound to be healed unless the effect heals more than 50 Hit Points at once (Such as from a Heal spell).

Strafing Shot (2,2,1): This shot fires one attack that can be fired while moving. The Ebon Marksman can move his base movement speed when firing this shot. If this shot is used in a full attack then every shot needs to be a strafing shot in order for the Ebon Marksman to be able to move.

Plague Shot (2,2,1): This shot fires one attack that is augmented with a powerful plague that deals 1 con damage to the target. A fortitude save negates this damage. Immunity to diseases renders one immune to this shot.
Augmentation: For every extra 3 HP sacrificed add 1 con damage and + 1 DC.

Disrupting Shot (2,2,1): This shot disrupts focus and blasts apart concentration. It functions as a normal attack unless it hits someone trying to concentrate on a spell or other effect. This shot is treated as dealing double its damage for the purposes of the concentration skill and how hard it is to maintain concentration. Thus if this shot hit a spellcaster attempting to cast a spell and it dealt 10 points of damage than the spellcaster would have to make a DC 30 concentration check or lose the spell (DC 10 + 10*2). The spellcaster would only take 10 points of damage though.
Augmentation: For every extra HP sacrificed add 2 to the DC of the concentration check to maintain concentration.

Leech Shot (3,2,1): This shot fires one attack that drains casters and psionics of spells and power points. If this shot hits then the target loses one random spell from his highest spell level or power points equal to 1/2 his HD.
Augmentation: For every 6 HP sacrificed this shot drains another spell or power points equal to 1/2 the targets HD.
Special: This shot can be fired only once a round.

Ghost Shot (3,3,1): This shot fires one attack that ignores armor, shield and natural armor bonuses to AC.
Augmentation: By spending 10 extra hit points this shot can become incorporeal phasing through objects thinner than 5ft. It is still blocked by force effects and other effects that block incorporeal creatures.

Entangling Shot (3,3,1): This shot applies the effect of a tanglefoot bag to the shot entangling any creature hit. This shot can not glue creatures to the floor
Augmentation: By spending 6 extra hit points the target must make a reflex save or be glued to the floor as normal for tanglefoot bags. The reflex save is standard for shots rather than the base DC for a normal tanglefoot bag.


Curved Shot (4,2,1): This shot fires one attack that curves around walls or similar blockades. If the Ebon Marksman has LoS or can otherwise pinpoint the target's square this attack does not need to be fired in a straight line and will home in on the target as long as there is a direct path to the subject. Roll to hit as normal.

Doomwind Shot (4,3,1): This shot fires one attack that blows back opponents. If they are hit with this attack then they must make a fortitude save or be bull rushed 20ft in a direction chosen by the Ebon Marksman. An opponent can resist this with either a strength check with a DC of 11 + the Ebon Marksman's charisma modifier. Size modifiers of the creature apply to this check.

Obscuring Shot (4,3,1): This shot fires one attack that obscures their vision. If they are hit with this attack then they take a -4 penalty to spot checks and have to roll twice against any miss chance and take the worse roll. This lasts for 10 minutes. If they are hit again by this shot they increase the penalty to spot by 1/2th of the penalty that the new shot would have normally applied. If their penalty ever hits -40 they become utterly blind and lose all special senses they might possess regardless of immunities to blindness they may have.
Augmentation: For every extra 1 hp sacrificed it increases the penalty to spot by 2.

Sluggish Shot (5,4,1): This shot fires one attack that weakens a creature's reflexes and ability to dodge. This applies a dexterity penalty of 1d6+2 for 5 minutes.
Augmentation: For every extra 2 hp sacrificed the penalty increases by 1
Special: This shot can affect one target at a time. If the Ebon Marksman hits another creature with this shot then the penalty instantly ends on the first target.

Black Arrow (5,4,1): This curses the target. If the target dies within one round then it rises as an undead minion under the control of the Ebon Marksman. This undead keeps the exact statistics of the monster except it gains the undead type loses all non extraordinary abilities and loses its con score (its total hp however is unaffected and is restored to full hit points). The creature must have HD equal to or less than 8. The undead lasts for 5 rounds. If the Ebon Marksman successfully rebukes and commands the creature than it's duration lasts until the Ebon Marksman releases the creature at which point the undead is immediately destroyed.
Augmentation: For every extra 1 hp sacrificed it increases the HD cap by 1.

Darkness Shot: (5,5,2): This shot is cloaked in shadows and is quite difficult to spot. A character needs to make a spot check (DC 20 + the Ebon Marksman’s charisma modifier), failure to spot it means the opponent is denied dexterity against this shot. When this shot hits their target it explodes in a burst of darkness upon hitting, acting as deeper darkness within a 30ft radius. The Ebon Marksman can see through this darkness without issue. Even if this shot misses the shot explodes into darkness (Though the Ebon Marksman does not regain hit points if the shot misses). This darkness lasts for ten minutes.
Augmentation: This shot has two options for augmentation. If you spend 4 additional hit points then you create a radius of darkness which completely blocks vision instead of reducing it to shadowy concealment. If you spend 6 hit points then the darkness created by this shot is always treated as within range of your shadow step class feature meaning no matter where you are as long as you are on the same plane you can teleport to the darkness created by this shot.. You can combine these two augmentation options by spending 10 extra hit points.

Death Shot (6,4 * Number of attacks sacrificed,All): This shot fires one attack that deals damage equal to all the normal attacks normally fired in a full attack. This doesn't multiply bonus damage dice from abilities such as sneak attack or bardic music. The Ebon Marksman can choose to not sacrifice all the shots he can make in a full attack if he so wishes to avoid taking more damage or if he can make more attacks than he can spend hit points on. However, if he does so it will reduce the damage of this shot accordingly and he won't be able to make use of those other attacks, they are simply wasted for this turn.
Special: This shot takes a full round action as well as also taking a swift action so that the Ebon Marksman can't use any swift actions on his turn nor can he use this shot if he took an immediate action last turn.

Splitting Arrow (6,6,2): This shot splits into two different projectiles. This attack can be used to hit two targets or the same target. The arrows have the same attack roll for to hit purposes.
Special: If either of these projectiles hit this shot returns hp.

Assassin Shot(6,4,2): This shot requires calm aim and brutal accuracy. This shot functions like an assassin’s death attack except as noted here. The Ebon Marksman needs to study a target for a full minute before they can use this shot. The Ebon Marksman can obviously use this shot with a ranged weapon but must be within one ranged increment of their weapon in order to use this shot. The DC to resist death/paralysis is the normal shot DC. A creature immune to critical hits or precision damage is immune to this shots effects (But not the regular damage dealt by the arrow)
Augmentation: For every 3 extra HP sacrificed the number of rounds needed to study the target are reduced by 1.


Freezing Shot (7,6,2): This shot fires an attack that immobilizes the target and incases them in a block of ice. The target must make a reflex save or be encased in ice (The target can spend a full round action to attempt a strength or escape artist check at DC 20 to break free). If he fails his save, treat the target as entangled and if they were standing on the ground then can't move from his position until he escapes or the ice is destroyed. While the target is entangled every round at the start of their turn they take 5d6 cold damage. The ice has 50 HP and hardness 8.
Augmentation: For every extra 2 hp sacrificed it increases the dc of the strength/escape artist check by 1, the ice's HP increases by 10 and the penalties relating to being entangled increase by 1 and the damage dealt each round increase by 1d6

Dazing Shot (7,6,2): This shot fires an attack that dazes the target. If the target fails a fortitude save then the target is dazed for 1 round. If he succeeds his movement speed is halved for a number of rounds equal to the Ebon Marksman's charisma modifier.
Augmentation: For every extra 3 hp sacrificed it increases the dc by 1.

Kill Shot (7,7,1): This shot deals an additional 1d4 damage per class level and has it's critical threat range increased by 3 to targets under 25% health. This bonus damage does not apply against creatures immune to critical hits.
Special: This shot can only be fired once a round and the Ebon Marksman does not regain the health that this shot inflicts if the target is not below 25% health.

Hellfire Shot (8,6,2): With this shot the Ebon Marksman fires two arrows or similar projectiles into the air. Within seconds a 20ft radius area anywhere within 2 range increments of the Ebon Marksman's current weapon takes 6d6 hellfire damage with a reflex save for half damage as a rain of shadowy bolts of hellfire rain from the sky. This area must still be within the Ebon Marksman's line of effect.
Augmentation: For every 2 extra hp sacrificed the damage is increased by 1d6.
Special: This attack never refunds HP that it inflicts to the Ebon Marksman.

Terrifying Shot (8,8,2): This shot fires one attack that causes the opponent to tremble in fear. If they fail a will save then the target is panicked for 2 rounds. If they succeed they are only shaken for 2 rounds.
Special: This shot can only affect one creature at a time. If another creature is hit by this effect it fades from the first creature.

Pursuit Shot (8,5,1): This shot fires an attack that prevents them from fleeing or covering their tracks. If this attack hits a creature, they must make a will save or be affected by the effects of the spell dimensional anchor. In addition, if the target fails their saving throw the Ebon Marksman gains a +5 bonus to survival or gather information while tracking the subject with the track or urban tracking feat respectively. Both the dimensional anchor and the tracking bonuses last for one hour.
Augmentation: If you spend 8 hit points on this shot you can also ignore any immunity to divination the subject has for the purposes of tracking the target (See the Ebon Marksman's Death Tracker class feature) and even if the target succeeds on their saving throw they are affected by dimensional anchor for one round per class level.
Special: This shot can only be affecting one target at a time. Using this shot on a second creature causes its effects to fade from the first.

Slowing Arrow (9,9,2): This shot fires one attack that reduces the number of attacks in a full attack that the target can take by 1 (minimum of 1). This effect lasts for 5 rounds.
Augmentation: For every 5 hp sacrificed this shot reduces the number of attacks that can be taken by 1.
Special: This shot can only affect one creature at a time. If another creature is hit by this effect it fades from the first creature.

Spectral Barrage (9,9,1): While using Volley of the Damned improved with this shot it only affects a 10ft radius instead of 20ft. This 10ft radius however deals double damage to all enemies hit and evasion and improved evasion don't function against this attack.
Augmentation: For every 5 HP sacrificed this ability increases the multiplier by 100% (goes from double damage to triple to quadruple, etc)
Special: This shot can only be used to improve the volley of the damned ability and never returns the HP lost to this shot.

Shadow Path (9,6,1): This shot fires one attack at an object within range. Make an attack roll against an ac of the object and if it hits then a bridge of shadow particles 20ft wide forms from you to the object. This bridge can hold you up and an extra 1000 pounds. Any creature you do not wish to be able to step on the bridge simply slips through the bridge as if it was not there. Anything that exceeds the weight limit also falls through the bridge. This bridge lasts for one hour or until it is destroyed by a disintegrate or similar effect that can destroy force objects. Even if the object this path is anchored to moves the bridge itself does not and is anchored in place.
Special: This shot never returns HP.

Draining Arrow (10,8,1): This shot fires one attack that deals half normal damage. If the target dies within one round after being hit by this attack then the Ebon Marksman regains one point of constitution burn and two hit points per class level.
Special: This ability only refunds constitution burn and hit points if the target is a creature whose CR is at greater than or equal to the Ebon Marksman's ECL/2.

Quarry Shot (10,10,1): This shot requires the Ebon Marksman to be outdoors (Or at least not have a ceiling of 50ft or less above his head) and fire this shot straight up after thinking of a particular creature he wants to track. The arrow then flies towards a creature the Ebon Marksman wants to track before disappearing in a burst of shadows. The Ebon Marksman learns the current direction that the creature is from the Ebon Marksman's current position as well the distance from their current point (Rounded to the nearest mile). After an hour the Ebon Marksman learns about the target's location and distance again relative to wherever the Ebon Marksman is at that point. The Ebon Marksman can only select a target whom they have seen personally or whom they have tracked with their Death Tracker ability.

This shot can be used safely three times per day. After that each additional time inflicts 1 point of constitution burn.
Augmentation: For every 3 extra HP sacrificed the Ebon Marksman learns about the target's location an additional time an hour after the previous one.
Special: This shot never returns hit points and the damage inflicted by this shot can not be healed for an hour.

Quick Shot (10,10,1): This shot fires one attack at a moment's notice. This attack functions as normal but is fired as an immediate action.
Augmentation: For every hp sacrificed this attack deals an extra point of damage.
Special: Using this ability makes it so the Ebon Marksman fires one less attack in his full attack in the next round.

Immolating Arrow (11,10,2): This shot fires one attack that deals half normal damage. The target then takes the same amount of damage inflicted by this attack as fire damage on the start of their next four turns.
Augmentation: For every extra 3 hp the duration is increased by 1 round.
Special: Only one creature can be affected by this shot at a time. If another creature is hit by this ability then it fades from the first. Also this shot can't affect the same creature multiple times.

Confusing Arrow (11,11,3): This shot fires one attack that deals normal damage. If the target is hit then he has to make a will save or be forced to attack the nearest creature for 2 rounds. The target attacks the nearest creature with the most effective attacks they have access to. This is a mind affecting ability.
Augmentation: For every 3 HP the save dc and duration increases by 1.

Poison Shot (11,6,1): This shot only functions if the Ebon Marksman's ammunition is coated in a type of poison. That poisons base poison DC is either its regular DC or DC for this shot, whichever is higher. In addition, if the shot hits the target is affected by the dose of poison, even if the shot doesn't deal damage or if the poison is an ingested or inhaled poison and normally wouldn't affect someone through an injury.
Augmentation: For every 3 extra HP the save DC of the poison increases by 1. If you spend 10 extra HP you can ignore poison immunity on the target for this shot, however the creature gets a +5 bonus on their saving throw.

Lighting Burst Shot (12,11,3): This shot fires one attack that deals 50% extra damage. This shot automatically hits and the target and everyone within 10ft of the target can make a reflex save for half damage. The Ebon Marksman still rolls an attack roll in case the ability is a critical hit. This shot deals all it's damage as electricity damage. A flatfooted opponent automatically fails their saving throw against this attack.
Augmentation: For every 3 extra hp sacrificed the effect is increased by 5 ft.
Special: This ability only returns hp if the initial target fails his reflex save.

Ghostly Snipe (12,8,1): This shot fires one attack whose projectile is completely invisible and wounds by draining the target's lifeforce rather than through physical wounds. This attack is treated as if made by an invisible creature. If a target is hit by this attack and he didn't see the Ebon Marksman fire this attack he can not deduce the direction the attack came from unless he can see invisible objects. Even if he can he needs to make a DC 20 spot check to identify the direction of the attack.
Augmentation: If the Ebon Marksman spends 7 hp then this shot is also a touch attack.

Umbral Spy (12, 10, 2): This shot is fired at the target's shadow and deals no damage. However, the target's shadow's AC only has an AC of 10 + The target's size modifier + the target's dexterity modifier. If this shot successfully hits then the Ebon Marksman can use the creature's senses and hear/see out of their ears and eyes for an hour. This doesn't interfere with the Ebon Marksman's normal senses and they can detect and use any special senses the target may have such as blindsight or true seeing, though obviously they would only benefit from these special senses when observing what the target is sensing. This shot even allows the Ebon Marksman to eavesdrop on telepathic communication (But not regular surface thoughts). A creature can notice an affected creature’s shadow behaving strangely with a spot check opposed by the Ebon Marksman’s hide check. A dispel magic doesn't remove this effect and it isn't detectable as a magic effect. However, a remove curse or break enchantment removes the effect. This shot is not a divination effect. The Ebon Marksman can only have a number of Umbral Spy shots active equal to his charisma modifier. Any further cause a random previous connection to fail. The Ebon Marksman can dismiss any active Umbral Spy shot with a free action.
Augmentation: For every 2 extra HP sacrificed the duration of this shot increases by one hour. If the Ebon Marksman spends 6 extra HP then when he concentrates as a standard action he can attempt to eavesdrop on the target's surface thoughts (As the spell detect thoughts). This is negated by a will save which prevents future eavesdropping. However, a successful save doesn't negate the rest of this shot's effects.

Headshot (13,10,2): This shot fires increases the critical threat range of the attack by 5 and the crit multiplier by 2. This attack automatically misses if it does not score a critical threat and it also automatically confirms critical threats. This shot deals no damage to a creature immune to critical hits.
Special: This shot can only be used once a round

Greater Black Arrow (13,12,2): This curses the target. If the target dies within one round then it rises as an undead minion under the control of the Ebon Marksman. The Ebon Marksman animates the creature as an undead creature with a CR of no higher than 7. The target creature must be a creature capable of being raised as that type of undead and you can not apply undead templates to the target creature. The animated creature does not retain any of it's previous memories or personality and is more akin to the target's body being puppeted around via negative energy than a traditionally animated undead. Undead created by this ability can not create spawn if they normally possess it. This undead creature is automatically commanded via the Ebon Marksman's rebuke undead ability and added to their control pool if they have HD available. An undead animated via this ability counts as having half of their HD for purposes of Ebon Marksman's rebuke undead ability (Round up). If they do not have enough HD in their rebuke undead pool to command the undead then it remains animated for 1 minute. Once the undead has been released from the Ebon Marksman's control it is immediately destroyed.
Augmentation: For every extra 2 hp sacrificed it increases the CR of the undead by 1.
Note: The DM may choose to forbid certain undead from being animated if they deem such creatures as needing special circumstances to arise.

Antimagic Arrow (13,13,3): If this shot hits it deals normal damage and the target is affected as if hit by antimagic ray. In addition the attack itself is cloaked in an effect similar to an antimagic field allowing it to bypass and ignore any ongoing spell, spell like or supernatural defenses on the creature or similar ongoing effects that would normally block it's path. This antimagic aura covering the projectile does not suppress its magical or weapon special enchantments or even ongoing spells affecting the projectile. Every round at the end of the target's turn they may make a new saving throw to end this effect.
Augmentation: For every 2 hp the DC for this shot increases by 1.

Shadow Shot (14,12,3): This shot fires one attack that deals no damage but breaks apart a creature hit into a mass of living shadows. The target can take only move actions and can't hurt or be hurt by anything. The target reforms 1 round later.
Special: This shot can only be fired once every 5 rounds.

Dispelling Shot (14,11,3): This shot fires one attack that dispels effects on the target. If this attack hits the target is affected by a targeted greater dispel magic and every other enemy and ongoing spell effect within 20ft is affected by the aoe version of greater dispel magic. The caster level for this greater dispel magic is equal to the Ebon Marksman's class level.

Soul Corroding Shot (14,5,1): This shot fires one attack whose damage can't be healed. Half of the damage dealt by this shot is profane damage which can not be healed until either the Ebon Marksman is dead or one week has passed. Any attempts to heal the profane damage before then fail unless the caster of a spell, power, supernatural ability or similar effect passes a caster level check DC 21 + Ebon Marksman's Class Level (If the effect doesn't have a caster level tied to it use the creature's HD or Class Level as appropriate). Fast Healing, regeneration and similar effects always fail to heal this damage. In addition this shot bypasses regeneration of all types and deals its full damage as lethal damage against such creatures.

Lucky Shot (15,10,1): The Ebon Marksman can roll 2d20 to for their attack roll on this shot and choose which d20 roll to use.

Homing Shot (15,10,2): This shot fires one attack and can only affect a target affected by his hunter's mark ability. If this attack misses, then the arrow keeps attacking every round until the target is either hit or farther than the max range of the weapon used to fire this shot. The arrow has a fly speed of 500ft for targets that flee from it.
Special: This shot only recovers HP if the first or second attack hits.

Chip Shot (15,8,2): This shot fires one attack that lowers a target or object's defenses. If this attack hits the target's natural armor and damage reduction or hardness (as appropriate) is reduced by 3 to a minimum of (0). This reduction lasts for one minute and stacks with itself to a maximum reduction of 15. Every time the reduction is applied the one minute duration resets.
Augmentation: By spending 5 more hit points the reduction in damage reduction and hardness increases by 3 to 6.

Gravity Pull Shot (16,12,2): This shot fires one attack that deals no damage, if it hits then the target pulls enemies towards him at an alarming rate. Any enemy within 30ft of the target is pulled to the nearest square towards the target and lands prone in that square. The enemy can make a strength check to resist this against a dc of 21 + the Ebon Marksman's charisma modifier. You can target a particular square with this shot pulling all nearby creatures as above.

Soul Drain Shot (16,16,4): This shot fires one attack that deals normal damage and it drains the target's soul from their body. If they fail a fortitude save then their soul is ripped from their body and die if this shot kills a target (via damage or by having their soul ripped out) then a small onyx crystal forms at their location locking their soul within while their body disintegrates. As long as the crystal remains they can't be resurrected except by a wish or a miracle which shatters the crystal. This prevents effects such as a Lich's Phylactery and similar abilities. The saving throw for this ability is 4 lower than normal. This is a death effect. However, it still functions on undead creatures despite their normal racial immunity. Even if a creature succeeds on their saving throw if a creature is slain within 1 round of being hit by this shot the crystal is still formed as described above and they can't be resurrected.

Sniper's Shot(16,8,2): With this shot the Ebon Marksman transforms the projectile into a mass of life force not affected by wind or gravity. This shot ignores all penalties for ranged increments and can fire at any creature within LoE to the Ebon Marksman whom they can target.

Shadow Step Shot (17,10,2): While under the benefits of shadow dance the Ebon Marksman can only fire this shot as their first action after using their Shadow Step ability. This attack deals double damage and the target is flatfooted against this attack.

Disintegrating Shot (17,15,3): If this arrow hits the target is affected as if hit by the psionic power psionic disintegrate at a ML equal to the Ebon Marksman's class level. This shot is resisted by power resistance. This shot destroys up to 10ft of physical matter or one force magical effect such as a wall of force that it collides with before hitting its target as the power psionic disintegrates.

Perfect Shot (17,10,2): This shot is enhanced to track and home in on the target's life force, always striking true. This shot is treated as if the Ebon Marksman had cast the spell Limited Wish to guarantee a successful hit. In addition this shot negates all miss chance percent and all cover other than total cover. The projectile still must be able to actually hit the creature so this shot can't hit a creature who is enclosed in a force cage for example.
Special: This shot only recovers hit points if it threatens a critical hit.

Reality Warp Shot (18,16,4): This shot fires one attack that breaks apart the fabric of the world. If this shot hits a target or a 5ft square then it opens up a maelstrom of energy that sucks all creatures and objects within 20ft of the arrow to be sent to each be sent to another plane (Determined randomly). A Will Save negates this effect on the initial target and all other creatures are allowed a reflex and a will save to negate the effect. All creatures and objects are sent to different random planes and don't necessarily end up in the same location. This shot's saving throw DC is 4 lower than normal.
Special: If this shot is used to hit a square it does not return HP.

Entropy Shot (18,9,3): This shot fires one attack that inflicts negative levels upon a target. If this shot hits a target they take 1d6+1 negative levels. Even if they have immunity to negative levels they still take at least one negative level from this shot. This shot only functions on living creatures.

Shadow Gate (18,8,1): By tracking the target's lingering life force this shot prevents even the most elusive target from escaping. This shot has two functions. First this shot can be fired at a position the target ended their turn within the last two turns. This shot then explodes in a burst of shadowy energy once it connects with that spot and attacks that creature the Ebon Marksman was targeting. This attack strikes the creature regardless of where the creature is currently even if the creature is on a different plane. The Ebon Marksman rolls their attack roll as normal except they resolve this attack as an incorporeal touch attack. This attack only deals half its normal damage but deals all of its damage as profane damage. The Ebon Marksman of whether their attacks connected with their target and are aware if a creature they strike with this shot in this manner dies from one of these shots.

The second function of this shot can be fired at the location where a creature has used a teleport, planar travel or similar ability since the start of the Ebon Marksman's last turn. When this shot hits the location a 10ft wide circular shadow portal forms. This shadow gate shows the location which the teleport effect went to. Creatures who enter this gate end up at the same location that the teleport or planar travel ability deposited the creature. This portal lasts until the end of the Ebon Marksman's next turn. The portal is one way and once a creature travels through they can't travel back, in fact the portal doesn't have any visible appearances at the portal's destination.
Augmentation: For every 2 extra HP the shot deals an extra point of damage when used in the first manner. For every 4 hp the portal's radius increases by 5ft and duration lasts for 1 extra round.

Explosion Shot (19,18,4): This shot fires one attack that causes the target to explode. If the target is hit by this attack he takes normal damage. If he fails a fortitude save his form explodes, killing him and dealing 1d8 fire damage per 2hd it has to all creatures within 30ft of them (A reflex save halves this damage).

Piercing Shot (19,12,3): This shot fires one attack that causes the target to slowly weaken. If the target is hit by this attack he takes normal damage and a -2 penalty to all saving throws for five rounds. If they are struck again by this shot the penalty's duration is reset to 5 rounds and the penalty increases by one half of the penalty the new shot would have inflicted. For every -4 penalty to saving throws the target currently is suffering from this shot then the Ebon Marksman can suppress one immunity the target is benefiting from granted to them by a spell or a magical item. This suppression lasts as long as the penalty to saving throws lasts.
Augmentation: For every 2 hp spent increase the penalty to saving throws by 1.

Forceful Shot (19,16,2): This shot is infused with a substantial amount of the Ebon Marksman's life force and becomes a pure force bolt towards his foes. This shot deals double damage and inflicts all of its damage as force damage. In addition, it bypasses effects that deflect or reflect projectiles such as Deflect Arrows, Wind Wall, the Friendly Fire spell or even the epic feat "Exceptional Deflection". Finally this shot ignores critical immunity from creature's struck by it.

Arrow Storm (20,20,5): This shot fires two attacks at every target within the first range increment of the Ebon Marksman's weapon. These attacks can be augmented with one shot that only takes one attack. This shot can only be augmented to 10hp and it doesn't make the ebon marksmen lose more hp.
Special: This shot never returns hit points.

Shadow's Descent(20,20,4): By firing this shot at a location the projectile bursts into a powerful mist of darkness and a storm quickly radiates in a 60ft spread from this point. This storm lasts for one minute and has several effects. 1) The area is under the effect of a Freezing Fog spell (SpC), 2) All creatures in the area suffer the effect of the spell Dimensional Anchor, 3) The area is pitch black as the spell Blacklight heightened to a 9th level spell and finally 4) Every round a creature starts their turn within this area they gain one negative level.

The Ebon Marksman and their projectiles ignore all of these effects and can see and move through the effect without issues. They can only have one such Shadow's Descent active at any one time, using this shot a second time causes the first to disperse.

Special: This shot never returns hit points.

Ability Break Shot(20,20,4): This shot is infused with a deadly concoction of negative energy designed to alter and cripple a creature's abilities. If a creature is hit by this shot the Ebon Marksman can select one of the following, a supernatural ability, a spell like ability, an immunity or their ability scores. This shot's effects depend on what was selected.

Supernatural, Spell Like Ability or Immunity: The ability or immunity selected is suppressed for one minute, becoming unable to be activated or simply suppressed as appropriate.
Ability Scores: The creature takes a -8 penalty to all their ability scores.


If the creature doesn't have the selected ability or damage reduction/spell resistance than this shot doesn't do anything and the Ebon Marksman is alerted that the creature doesn't have such an ability