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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Blooded Hunter (PrC, Aberration base)



Zaydos
2015-01-23, 01:37 PM
Blooded Hunter

"The sins of the father are not my sins, but I will burn them from this world and all others." - Leostov Kran Aboleth Hunter

Dread cults, vile breeding experiments, and more have led to an infusion of the blood of creatures anathemic to normal existence into the bloodlines of mortals. Some of these mortals when their heritage is revealed go mad or join the forces of the aberrant masses. The Blooded Hunter, though, turns their heritage against the aberrations fighting against them with whatever force they can bring to bear, accepting the taint in their blood only enough to bring it to bear against their ancestors.

BECOMING A BLOODED HUNTER
A blooded hunter is typically a warrior before they discover their heritage. Becoming a blooded hunter is a matter of balancing the act of embracing and rejecting their aberrant heritage, turning it into a weapon against their most dread ancestors.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Feats: At least 2 aberrant feats.
BAB: +5
Skills: Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 2 ranks.

Class Skills
The Blooded Hunter's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Arcana) (Int), Knowledge (Dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (Nature) (Int), Knowledge (the Planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skills Points at Each Level: 4 + int

Hit Dice: d10



Level
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Special


1st

+1

+2

+0

+2
Aberrant Feat, Favored Enemy (Aberrations) +2, Subtle Heritage



2nd

+2

+3

+0

+3
Aberration Blood, Hunter's Blood



3rd

+3

+3

+1

+3
Deepening Aberration



4th

+4

+4

+1

+4
Aberration Blood, Favored Enemy (Aberration) +4



5th

+5

+4

+1

+4
Aberrant Feat, Aberrant Form



6th

+6

+5

+2

+5
Aberrant Blood, Deepening Aberration



7th

+7

+5

+2

+5
Favored Enemy (Aberration) +6, Manifest Aberration



8th

+8

+6

+2

+6
Aberrant Blood, Sense Aberration



9th

+9

+6

+3

+6
Deepening Aberration, Manifest Aberration



10th

+10

+7

+3

+7
Aberration Feat, Favored Enemy (Aberration) +8, Aberration Blood



Weapon Proficiencies: A Blooded Hunter is proficient in all simple weapons and light and medium armor if they were not already.

Aberrant Feat (Ex): At 1st, 5th, and 10th level a Blooded Hunter gains a bonus Aberrant feat which they meet the prerequisites for.


Improved Aberrant Blood:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood.
Benefit: You skill bonus from each Aberrant Blood feat you possess is increased by 1 for every 2 Aberrant feat you possess.

Aberrant Telepathy:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood, Warped Mind
Benefit: You gain Telepathy out to 5-ft per Aberrant feat you possess.

Aberrant Scent:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood (Inhuman Snout), one other aberrant feat.
Benefit: You gain the Scent special quality.

Cavespawn:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood (Sticky Fingers), one other aberrant feat.
Benefit: You gain a climb speed equal to 1/2 your base land speed.

Acidic Glands:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood, one other aberrant feat, character level 3+.
Benefit: You gain acidic spit. Any bite attack you make deals +1 acid damage +1 per two aberrant feats you possess. In addition you gain the ability to make a ranged touch attack as a standard action to strike an opponent with your acidic spittle dealing 1d8 damage + 1d8 per 3 aberrant feats you possess. This attack has a range increment of 30-ft and can be used up to 5 range increments away.

Improved Acidic Spittle:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood, Acidic Glands.
Benefit: Your acidic spittle deals an additional +1d8 damage, this increases by another +1d8 if you are 11th level or higher.

Aberrant Companion:
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood, ability to call a familiar, animal companion, special mount, or psicrystal.
Benefit: Your familiar, animal companion, special mount, and/or psicrystal gains the Pseudonatural creature template (Complete Arcane, or Lords of Madness version).

Alien Quickness
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood, one other aberrant feat.
Benefit: A number of times per day equal to the number of aberrant feats you possess you may use a swift action as if it were a move action.

Inhuman Ambulation
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood.
Benefit: Your base land speed increases by 5-ft, plus an additional 5-ft for every 2 Aberrant feats beyond the first that you possess.

Rage of the Outer Spheres
Prerequisites: Aberrant Blood, one other aberrant feat, the ability to Rage at least 1/day.
Benefits: When you rage you gain a variety of benefits based on what other Aberrant Feats you have.

Inhuman Reach: You do not suffer the penalty to melee attack rolls, and may make attacks during your turn at an additional +5-ft reach.
Deepspawn: The damage from your tentacle attacks increase as if you had gained 2 size categories.
Durable Form: You gain an additional hit point per aberrant feat you possess, these additional hit points go away at the end of your rage.
Starspawn: Rounds spent flying while raging do not count against the maximum number of consecutive rounds you can fly at a time.
Warped Mind: You may make Concentration checks to obtain a psionic focus when raging and may make them as a swift action.
Waterspawn: While raging rounds spent holding your breath do not count against the maximum number of rounds you can hold your breath.
Alien Quickness: When you use this feat you may instead you use it make an extra attack at your highest attack bonus as a swift action; this extra attack does not stack with those from Haste or similar effects.
Inhuman Ambulation: Your land speed increases by 10-ft.
Cavespawn: You gain a bonus to Climb checks equal to your Strength bonus.
Acidic Spittle: Your bonus acid damage to bite attacks is increased by your Constitution modifier (if positive) and you add your Constitution modifier to damage with your spit attack.


Otherworldly Ki
Prerequisites: Aberration Blood, Ki Power
Benefit: You gain 1 additional use of your ki powers each day. In addition you may expend a use of your ki powers as an immediate action to gain immunity to a single mind-affecting effect which would affect you from a specific source (for example Madgast the Tan's Charm Monster spell, or Umberhulk #3's confusing gaze). This immunity lasts for 1 hour.


Favored Enemy (Ex): At 1st level a Blooded Hunter gains Favored Enemy (as the ranger class feature) bonuses against Aberrations. This grants them a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against aberrations and a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against aberrations, or increases their existing Favored Enemy bonuses against aberrations by +2. At 4th, 7th, and 10th level these bonuses increase by an additional 2.

A Blooded Hunter does not gain a favored enemy bonus against new creature types or improve their bonuses against other creature types even if they have Favored Enemy from another source (such as Ranger).

Subtle Heritage (Ex): A Blooded Hunter suffers only half the normal penalty to Diplomacy, Disguise, Gather Information, and Handle Animal checks due to having Aberrant feats and never suffers more than a -3 penalty to Diplomacy or Gather Information checks due to their Aberrant feats.

Aberration Blood (Ex): At 2nd level, and every even level thereafter, a Blooded Hunter gains Aberration Blood as a bonus feat.

The following are new options for the Aberration Blood feat to facilitate the use of Blooded Hunter in games and give them a wider breadth of abilities and mutations to draw upon and develop.

Luminescent Blood: +3 to Use Magic Device check. Your blood appears to faintly glow beneath your skin making your veins and arteries more prominent and oddly colored.

Axillary Heart (Bulging chest): +3 to Concentration and Constitution checks. You have an extra heart within your chest cavity forcing your ribcage to be slightly larger than normal for your species.

Extra Leg Joints: +4 to Jump checks. Your leg possesses a single additional joint, similar to a second knee.

Squamous Hide: +3 to Hide. You have scales which can shift color slightly.

Telescoping Fingers: +4 to Sleight of Hand. Your fingers are abnormally long and capable of stretching out further.

Finger Cilia: +2 to Disable Device and Open Locks. Tiny hairs cover your fingers, able to reach into intricate machinery and manipulate it.

Emotionless Face: +3 to Bluff. Your face is half frozen in place making it harder for you to show emotion.

Inhuman Snout/Pheromone Receptor: +3 to Sense Motive. Your nose has an inhuman quality to it, unnaturally long and pronounced. It is also capable of picking up pheromones and identifying a wider range of scents.

Hunter's Blood (Ex): At 2nd level a Blooded Hunter gains an untyped bonus to Knowledge (Dungeoneering) checks equal to the number of Aberrant feats they possess as their aberrant heritage gives them an instinctual grasp of these forbidden secrets. In addition the Blooded Hunter adds half this bonus to Knowledge (Arcana) and Knowledge (the Planes) checks.

Deepening Aberration (Ex): At 3rd level and every 3rd level thereafter a Blooded Hunter's aberrant nature increases. Select one aberrant feat you possess from the list before and its benefit improves.


Aberrant Companion: You may add your Blooded Hunter levels to your levels in classes (other than Blooded Hunter) which grant familiars, animal companions, special mounts, and/or psicrystals for the purposes of familiars, animal companions, special mounts, and/or psicrystals
Aberrant Scent: You are capable of smelling the very souls of creatures. Your scent ability can be used to determine a creature's alignment with a DC 10 Wisdom check and the strength of their alignment aura (as per Detect Evil) with a DC 15. In addition you automatically know if the source of a scent is alive, dead, undead, animate but not alive or undead, or inanimate.
Aberrant Telepathy: You gain Mindsight as a bonus feat.
Aberration Blood: The bonus to checks provided by your aberration blood doubles (+2 becomes +4, +3 becomes +6, +4 becomes +8), this applies to the bonuses from each instance of Aberration Blood you possess. This does not apply to the additional bonus granted by Improved Aberration Blood.
Acidic Glands: The bonus to bite damage is increased by +4 and the range increment of your acid spit is increased by 30-ft. In addition you ignore 5 points of acid resistance or hardness with the damage granted by this feat.
Bestial Hide: You gain DR 1/- per 2 Aberrant Feats you possess.
Cavespawn: Your climb speed increases to equal your base land speed.
Deepspawn: You gain two additional tentacle attacks. In addition you gain a +4 bonus to grapple checks.
Durable Form: You gain a bonus on Fortitude saves equal to 1/2 the number of Aberrant feats you possess, and a 5% chance of ignoring the extra damage from a critical hit or precision damage per Aberrant feat you possess.
Inhuman Reach: You gain an additional +5-ft melee reach and no longer suffer a -1 penalty to melee attacks.
Inhuman Vision: You gain Blindsense 30-ft + 5-ft per 2 Aberrant Feats you possess. If you have Blindsense at least 60-ft due to this effect you gain Blindsight out to half that distance (rounded down to the nearest 5-ft increment).
Otherworldly Ki: You gain an additional daily use of your ki powers for every 3 Blooded Hunter levels you possess.
Rage of the Outer Spheres: When raging your Strength and Constitution both are increased by an additional +2.
Scavenging Gullet: You can gain nourishment even from inorganic materials (rocks, metal, anything you can swallow). In addition you gain a bonus to saves versus Disease and Poison equal to the number of aberrant feats you possess (this stacks with the bonus granted by Scavenging Gullet and/or Durable Form) and total immunity to ingested poisons.
Starspawn: You may now use your fly speed for any duration without landing and your fly speed increases to equal your base land speed. You may fly while carrying a medium load.
Warped Mind: You gain immunity to confusion and insanity, in addition whenever you successfully make a Will save against a mind-affecting spell or supernatural effect the effect's source must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Charisma modifier) or be confused for a number of rounds equal to the number of aberrant feats you possess. You gain an additional number of power points equal to the number of aberrant feats you possess.
Waterspawn: You gain the ability to breathe water as easily as air and may move through the water as if under the effects of a Freedom of Movement spell.


Aberrant Form (Ex): At 5th level a Blooded Hunter's aberrant blood has laid enough claim to their form that they can no longer be considered humanoid. Their type changes to Aberration, with the Augmented subtype for their previous type. They gain a racial 60-ft darkvision if they did not already have racial darkvision, and gain a +4 racial bonus to one skill of choice.

Manifest Aberration: At 7th and 9th level a Blooded Hunter's aberrant blood begins to manifest more heavily showing a certain link to one species of iconic aberration, usually but not always a species from which they draw their aberrant blood. When this ability is gained a Blooded Hunter must select one aberration from the list below and gains the associated benefit and physical transformation.


Aboleth (Sp): You gain the ability to use Minor Image as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to your Blooded Hunter level and Persistent Image three times per day.
Beholder (Su): Three times per day you may, as an immediate action, generate an anti-magic field. This effect lasts for 1 round and extends 10-ft from you.
Carrion Crawler (Ex): You gain the Scent ability and two times per day, as a standard action, you can exude a single dose of contact poison which has initial and secondary damage of 1 minute of paralysis and a Fortitude DC of 10 + your Blooded Hunter level + your Constitution modifier.
Choker (Ex): A number of times per day equal to one-half your Blooded Hunter level you may take an additional move action during a round.
Chuul (Ex): You grow a mass of paralytic tentacles from your face. These tentacles may be used to make a melee touch attack as a single secondary natural weapon. These tentacles deal no damage but the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + your Blooded Hunter level + your Constitution modifier) or be paralyzed for 1 round, a successful Fortitude save renders a creature immune to your tentacles for 1 hour.
Cloaker (Ex): 3 times per day you may release a subsonic moan. This functions like the Cloaker ability Moan except as noted here. The Unnerve effect can be maintained for up to 1 minute per class level while all others are only used for 1 round at a time. The Will save DC is 10 + your Blooded Hunter level + your Charisma modifier instead of 15.
Grell (Ex): You gain electroreceptive blindsight as a grell out to 60-ft and electricity immunity.
Illithid (Su): You gain the ability to perform a mind blast 3 times per day. All creatures within a 30-ft cone must make a Will save (DC 10 + your Blooded Hunter level + your Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 2d4 rounds; this is a mind-affecting, supernatural ability.
Neogi (Sp): You gain the ability to use Charm Monster as a spell-like ability three times per day with a caster level of twice your Blooded Hunter level.
Umber Hulk (Su): You gain a confusing gaze attack with a range of 15-ft. Any creature meeting this gaze must make a Will save or be confused for 1 round (as the spell confusion). They must make this save each round they meet this gaze; a successful Will save grants immunity to this effect for 1 minute.
Rust Monster (Su): You gain DR 5/non-metal and may, three times per day, perform a touch attack which rusts a metal object as a Rust Monster's tentacle (destroying 10 cubic feet). Touched magic items are allowed a Reflex save (DC 10 + your Blooded Hunter level + your Constitution modifier) to avoid destruction.
Tsochar (Ex): Your tentacle attacks, if any, deal piercing damage as well as bludgeoning and inflict an injury based poison (Fort save DC 10 + your Blooded Hunter level + your Constitution modifier) with initial and secondary damage of 1d3 Dexterity damage.


Sense Aberration (Su): At 8th level a Blooded Hunter learns to allow their blood to call to the blood of their foes. They gain the benefits of the Track feat when attempting to follow the trail of aberrations. In addition they can sense the presence of aberration creatures within 60-ft as if they had Blindsight and gain an additional +4 to opposite Spot and/or Listen checks made against aberrations. Finally as a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity they may concentrate to sense aberrations at a further distance; this requires concentration checks as a 0 level spell if for some reason concentration may be impeded (such as being hit by an enemy) and can be performed defensively. On the first round they sense the number of aberrations within a cone 60-ft long per class level, on the second they sense the distance and direction towards up to 1 plus their Wisdom bonus (if any) aberration creatures within range, on the third and later rounds of sustained concentration they may either detect the distance and direction towards up to 1 plus their Wisdom bonus (if any) more creatures or the strength of one aberration creature whose location has already been determined this way, it's Intelligence and Charisma, and its new location if it has moved, by making a Knowledge (Dungeoneering) check (DC 20 + creature's CR) you may also determine its species (umber hulk, illithid, ullitharid, etc).

Aberration's HDAura Strength
1 or lessMeager
2-5Weak
6-10Moderate
11-15Moderate-Strong
16-20Strong
21 or greaterEpic

PLAYING A BLOODED HUNTER
Blooded Hunters are normally driven crusaders pursuing the darkness that ultimately beget them. They are often prone to solitude due to their abominable heritage and ever progressing mutations often drive them from the hearts of human, and humanoid, civilization. As such many blooded hunters find themselves forced towards self-sufficiency, although their experience with creatures which can easily through sheer chance disable one hunter leads them to band together or find other adventurous souls with which to hunt.
Combat: Blooded hunters do not use radically different forms of combat than before they became blooded hunters, instead their abilities improve their base combat capabilities. Their bonus feats give them a wide array of aberrations which can provide limited flight, swim speed, darkvision, extended melee reach, tentacles, bonuses to Will saves, and natural armor. They also serve to increase some of these numbers due to the nature of heritage feats; they will most likely have, for example, +5 natural armor and +5 to Will saves against mind-affecting effects. Blooded Hunters go beyond these effects gaining certain further aberrant effects, both from these feats and outside of them. These abilities can extend to functional flight, confusion gaze, damage reduction, among other things. In addition Blooded Knowledge is worth noting for its synergy with Knowledge Devotion as it grants a minimum of +2 (when gained) and +5 (when the PrC is completed) to Knowledge (Arcana) and (the Planes) as well as further improving their capabilities against aberrations which combined with Favored Enemy become quite potent.
Advancement: A blooded hunter might focus on pursuing additional aberrant feats to get the most from those feats which scale with number invested; they already will have at minimum 10 aberrant feats by the time they complete this PrC but could have as many as 16 as a human; this path is usually not to be advised however. More likely a blooded hunter will pursue other avenues with their remaining feats to obtain powers not offered by aberration heritage, such as increased damage from Power Attack, Knowledge Devotion, or easier full attacks with Travel Devotion. Once they have completed the path of Blooded Hunter they will likely pursue other martial paths to obtain greater skill and combat power.
Resources: There are few, if any, resources unique to aberrant hunters. They often rely upon the same resources as any other aberrant hunters, and some can even get access to the resources that are usually only available to the cults of those they hunt and their descendents.

BLOODED HUNTER IN THE WORLD
"I don't trust 'em, too unnatural for my blood."

Blooded Hunters are often distrusted by the common populace due to their mutations and aberrant heritage. Many distrust their proclamations of being hunters of their aberrant forefathers, instead suspecting them as being agents of the same.
Daily Life: Wake up. Wings hurt. Wings always hurt after sleep. Stretch wings. Run some water through the gills to keep them from being clogged. Follow some leads. Kill a few grell. Be attacked by ignorant townsfolk. Drop grell heads at their feet and berate them as ignorant ingrates. Leave town. Be approached by thankful parent seeking to apologize. Get invited in for chicken dinner. Eat. Sleep in a barn for a change :smallsmile:
Notables: Thromgrim Durkanon was a dwarven blooded hunter who is still remembered in high esteem by the Durkanon clan to this day for how he held the gate of Kurthrom against the umber hulk legions and their neogi masters. Telaz was a human blooded hunter who, after years of facing against the illithids finally joined them and spent several years afterwards undermining the settlements he had once defended for the chance to join the Elder Brain in death.
Organizations: Some blooded hunters have tried to found large scale organizations to gather their kind, these organizations often attract moles from aberration cults and usually end up doomed. That said they do exist in a sort of loose cell structure. This network, which works against aberrant incursions into humanoid lives, is a loose federation that primarily functions as an information source, although sometimes provides expert aid to adventurers and aberration hunters.

NPC Reaction
Either they are recognized as aberration hunters or, more likely, they are ostracized for their aberrant nature.

BLOODED HUNTERS IN THE GAME
Blooded Hunters gain 8 bonus aberrant feats. In addition to +3 to 5 skills (a minor benefit) and possibilities like wings, tentacles, and extended reach certain aberrant feats scale with the number of aberrant feats this gives you an additional +4 to Natural Armor and/or Will saves most likely changing these feats from +1 to +2 to these aspects to granting +5 to +6. That is the largest direct numerical change, although they also gain a +8 to damage and many skill checks against Aberrations. They also choose several aspects including options of fully functional flight, DR 5+/-, +5 or more to Fortitude saves, and their special attack options of which they get two can include reactive anti-magic, stunning attacks, or even confusing gazes.
Adaptation: By swapping their Favored Enemy bonus to Favored Terrain (underground) or a bonus against a group opposed to aberrations within the setting the Blooded Hunter could easily be changed into an aberrant cultist class, this change might necessitate the addition of Knowledge (Religion) to their skill list possibly in place of Knowledge (Nature).