Hunting the King's Enemies

[Palanan]

Rebels, pretenders, inconvenient relatives: every king has his headaches, and sometimes extradition treaties aren't worth the parchment they're scribbled on. Sometimes you need someone you can rely on to hunt these people down, wherever they've gone to ground, and bring them back to their rightful place--down at your feet for the punishment they deserve.

I'm looking for build ideas for a royal agent, someone capable of pursuing a target across a continent without attracting notice, who can be both forceful and discreet when the occasion requires. I'd like this to be around fifth or sixth level, preferably little to no magic, focused on hunting targets and returning them alive. What could work here?

.

[Seclora]

Rebels, pretenders, inconvenient relatives: every king has his headaches, and sometimes extradition treaties aren't worth the parchment they're scribbled on. Sometimes you need someone you can rely on to hunt these people down, wherever they've gone to ground, and bring them back to their rightful place--down at your feet for the punishment they deserve.

I'm looking for build ideas for a royal agent, someone capable of pursuing a target across a continent without attracting notice, who can be both forceful and discreet when the occasion requires. I'd like this to be around fifth or sixth level, preferably little to no magic, focused on hunting targets and returning them alive. What could work here?

.

Rogue or ranger setting up to go into the Bloodhound(Complete Adventurer, p. 28) or Justiciar(Complete Warrior, p. 47) Prestige Class. Neither class relies on magic, both focus on non-lethal damage, tracking their quarry, and with the Urban Class Features Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) You can enter Bloodhound at level 5 as a ranger without having to even burn a feat. See if you can take the 'Rival Organization' alternate class feature for Ranger(same web enhancement) for the organization 'King's Most Wanted List' to get the most out of your favored enemy bonus.

[Flickerdart]

Ideally you'll want to keep your targets sedated while returning them to face judgment. Remember that you can beat them into the negatives with impunity while using a sap. A creature with 10000 points of non-lethal damage is still very much alive, but won't be waking up any time soon.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Seclora
Rogue or ranger setting up to go into the Bloodhound(Complete Adventurer, p. 28) or Justiciar(Complete Warrior, p. 47) Prestige Class.

I appreciate the suggestions, but the BAB requirement for Justiciar means a ranger couldn't enter until seventh level, which is a little outside my range.

Both of these PrCs are thematic, but the benefits from the first couple levels aren't all that tempting. The Bloodhound's mark ability is very weak at the first couple of levels, and the XP penalty would be a real liability.

The main benefit from starting those PrCs is avoiding attack penalties for dealing nonlethal damage. Is there a feat that would do this instead?

[Baroknik]

Subduing Strike from BoED is a general feat that allows for non-lethal damage from any melee weapon without a penalty. Bonus: it lets a rogue do the same with his SA dice.

[Kioran]

I appreciate the suggestions, but the BAB requirement for Justiciar means a ranger couldn't enter until seventh level, which is a little outside my range.

Both of these PrCs are thematic, but the benefits from the first couple levels aren't all that tempting. The Bloodhound's mark ability is very weak at the first couple of levels, and the XP penalty would be a real liability.

The main benefit from starting those PrCs is avoiding attack penalties for dealing nonlethal damage. Is there a feat that would do this instead?

I cannot answer that, but you could also use a "Merciful" weapon, which deals a good amount of extra damage in return for making it nonlethal.

Intuition would also make me build the character as either an Unearthed Arcana Urban Ranger or Rogue, then either staying in those classes or picking up Bloodhound - or Streetfighter (CW), also a pretty decent prestige class.

[fishyfishyfishy]

How open is your table to adapting setting specific material? Dark Lantern from 5 Nations is a decent prestige at later levels that can fulfill this. As an Urban Ranger you enter as early as level 6. The first level isn't all that great but it has the feel you're going for.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Baroknik
Subduing Strike from BoED is a general feat that allows for non-lethal damage from any melee weapon without a penalty.

Excellent, thanks. Very useful indeed.


Originally Posted by Kioran
…Streetfighter (CW), also a pretty decent prestige class.

Hm. Streetfighter (from Complete Adventurer) doesn't seem to offer much in the renegade-hunting department.


Originally Posted by fishyfishyfishy
Dark Lantern from 5 Nations is a decent prestige at later levels that can fulfill this. As an Urban Ranger you enter as early as level 6. The first level isn't all that great but it has the feel you're going for.

I don't think I'd ever looked at that PrC before. It's a good suggestion, but the first level isn't too useful for what I had in mind, and it's designed more for espionage than retrieval.

At this point I'm tempted to use a feat-rogue or an urban ranger, since most of these PrCs start too late to help with what I need. Are there any feats that would be useful for the general concept?

.