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View Full Version : [3.5 Base Class] The Hunter - A ranged power base class [PEACH]



CrazyMacGuy
2008-09-21, 06:04 PM
OK... this has been tooling around in my head for about a week now, and I finally got it mostly down on paper, but I'm still thinking over how things are going to work...

Please take a look at what I have so far, and comment, advise, tell me I'm nuts, etc...

HUNTER

The hunter is a character born out of a hard, challenging life. Things were rarely easy, and they were never just given things, everything is earned. Your usual hunter is not very usual at all, ranging from a simple wildlife adventurer killing for his food, to a evil malcontent who hunts humans for fun, letting their rotting corpses attract more targets. The one thing these two have in common is training. A hunters life, is training, always pushing his mind and body to the next level to become more adept at his chosen skills.

Alignment: Any

Hit Die: d8

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

Skill Points at 1st Level: (6 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier.

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

1st|
+1|
+0|
+2|
+2|1st favored enemy, Track, Darkvision

2nd|
+2|
+0|
+3|
+3|Ranged Skill 1

3rd|
+3|
+1|
+3|
+3|Endurance, Camouflage

4th|
+4|
+1|
+4|
+4|Animal companion, (spells)

5th|
+5|
+1|
+4|
+4|2nd favored enemy

6th|
+6/+1|
+2|
+5|
+5|Ranged Skill 2

7th|
+7/+2|
+2|
+5|
+5|Hide in plain sight, (spells)

8th|
+8/+3|
+2|
+6|
+6|Swift tracker

9th|
+9/+4|
+3|
+6|
+6|Evasion

10th|
+10/+5|
+3|
+7|
+7|3rd favored enemy, (spells)

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+3|
+7|
+7|Ranged Skill 3

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+4|
+8|
+8|TBD

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+4|
+8|
+8|(spells)

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+4|
+9|
+9|TBD

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+5|
+9|
+9|4th favored enemy

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+10|
+10|Ranged Skill 4, (spells)

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+5|
+10|
+10|TBD

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+11|
+11|TBD

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+11|
+11|(spells)

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+6|
+12|
+12|5th favored enemy, Ranged Skill 5[/table]

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the hunter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A hunter is proficient with all simple weapons and any ranged weapon, exotic or otherwise and with light and medium armor and shields (except tower shields).

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 1st level, a hunter may select a type of creature from among those given on Table: Hunter Favored Enemies. The hunter gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against creatures of this type. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures.

Hunter Favored Enemies
{table=head]Type (Subtype)|Type (Subtype)
Aberration|Humanoid (reptilian)
Animal|Magical beast
Construct|Monstrous Humanoid
Dragon|Ooze
Elemental|Outsider (air)
Fey|Outsider (chaotic)
Giant|Outsider (earth)
Humanoid (aquatic)|Outsider (evil)
Humanoid (dwarf)|Outsider (fire)
Humanoid (elf)|Outsider (good)
Humanoid (goblinoid)|Outsider (lawful)
Humanoid (gnoll)|Outsider (native)
HUmanoid (gnome)|Outsider (water)
Humanoid (halfling)|Plant
Humanoid (human)|Undead
Humanoid (orc)|Vermin[/table]

At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the hunter may select an additional favored enemy from those given on the table. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by 2.

If the hunter chooses humanoids or outsiders as a favored enemy, he must also choose an associated subtype, as indicated on the table. If a specific creature falls into more than one category of favored enemy, the hunter’s bonuses do not stack; he simply uses whichever bonus is higher.

Track: A hunter gains Track as a bonus feat.

Darkvision (Ex): At 1st level, a hunter gains darkvision of 60'

Ranged Combat Skill (Ex): At 2nd level, a hunter chooses one feat progression from the following list (insert list here). The hunter is then granted the next feat or skill in the progression list, even if he does not have the full prerequisites for that feat. A hunter cannot change his feat progression unless he goes through a rigorous month of retraining with a fellow hunter of which is at least one step in the progression ahead of him. This retraining will cost him __ (suggestions?).

A hunter gains new Ranged Combat Skills in his chosen progression at 6th, 11th, 16th and 20th.

The benefits of the hunter’s ranged skill apply only when he wears light or no armor. He loses all benefits of his ranged skill when wearing medium or heavy armor or carrying more than a light load.

Endurance: A hunter gains Endurance as a bonus feat at 3rd level.

Camouflage (Ex): A hunter of 3rd level or higher can use the Hide skill in any sort of terrain, provided he has taken 10 minutes to study this surroundings, even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment. This is the hunters innate ability to find places to hide or blend in even where others would not.

Animal Companion (Ex): At 4th level, a hunter gains an animal companion selected from the following list: badger, camel, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, horse (light or heavy), owl, pony, snake (Small or Medium viper), or wolf. If the campaign takes place wholly or partly in an aquatic environment, the following creatures may be added to the hunter’s list of options: manta ray, porpoise, Medium shark, and squid. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the hunter on his adventures as appropriate for its kind.

This ability functions like the druid ability of the same name; except that the hunter’s effective druid level is one-half his hunter level. A hunter may select from the alternative lists of animal companions just as a druid can, though again his effective druid level is half his hunter level. Like a druid, a hunter cannot select an alternative animal if the choice would reduce his effective druid level below 1st.

Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): While in any sort of terrain, if the hunter has taken at least 10 minutes to study the surroundings, a hunter of 7th level or higher can use the Hide skill even while being observed. This is the hunters trained skill to control his body and his movements to blend with the surroundings, even when others would not be able to.

Swift Tracker (Ex): Beginning at 8th level, a hunter can move at his normal speed while following tracks without taking the normal -5 penalty. He takes only a -10 penalty (instead of the normal -20) when moving at up to twice normal speed while tracking.

Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, a hunter can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the hunter is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless hunter does not gain the benefit of evasion.

FMArthur
2008-09-21, 06:24 PM
I could help with suggestions if I knew what the Hunter is supposed to be. Flavor-wise, is it a Hunter of people, like an assassin, or a Hunter of animals, like a normal woods-guide/tracker-type? Is it supposed to be just a nonmagical Ranger? Fluff is the power source of crunch. :smallwink:

Err, wait, it looked nonmagical to me but you've got "(spells)" listed on your chart, so is it a bit of a caster? Could you describe how you want the hunter to diverge from the ranger?

CrazyMacGuy
2008-09-21, 07:24 PM
I could help with suggestions if I knew what the Hunter is supposed to be. Flavor-wise, is it a Hunter of people, like an assassin, or a Hunter of animals, like a normal woods-guide/tracker-type? Is it supposed to be just a nonmagical Ranger? Fluff is the power source of crunch. :smallwink:

Err, wait, it looked nonmagical to me but you've got "(spells)" listed on your chart, so is it a bit of a caster? Could you describe how you want the hunter to diverge from the ranger?

Well, I really want them to be essentially a ranger, but the spells is where things need to change, because the rangers spells, in a word, suck (my opinion of course).

I'm going to work on the fluff, because that is sorely lacking right now.

The Ranged Skill is going to be a series of feats that the ranger gets for free, working up to a capstone at 20th, in three or so different flavors (attack, damage, special trees, etc.)

I put spells on the chart about where the ranger gets more powerful... and adjusted so that it made sense on a chart (even spacing and all).

Lappy9000
2008-09-21, 07:31 PM
Well, I really want them to be essentially a ranger, but the spells is where things need to change, because the rangers spells, in a word, suck (my opinion of course).

Wouldn't it be alot eaiser just to fix the Ranger spells as opposed to making a class that's basically a ranger, but only kinda-sorta?

What I mean is, would a player pick a hunter over a ranger? Unless, of course, it's a replacement for the ranger, in which case it looks fine.

Just my opinion, but I think that dead levels aren't the worst thing in the world. I'd rather have a couple of dead levels as opposed to giving more stuff that just clutters up both the description and the player's character sheet just for the sake of adding more to the class.

CrazyMacGuy
2008-09-21, 08:03 PM
Added some fluff... but more is rolling around in my head, I just need to get it to come out... Will update again later~

afroakuma
2008-09-21, 08:58 PM
This is... very much a ranger. Even the flavor seems ranger-y. Angst ranger, but ranger. I like the idea of a ranged hunting specialist, but I don't know that it needs to have, for instance, an animal companion. I can see where you're going with Ranged Skill, but once again, it seems a lot like the ranger's Combat Style, limited to the archery side.

I would solidify the core class concepts first, then build it more from the top down. If you really feel the ranger bits, then pick them right off the bat, toss the rest and build with them.