Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter
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I hate you. With every breath I take, I fill my soul with loathing for you. If I could scribe every inch of my flesh with words that explained how much I loathe you, I would come up miles short. May my heart be a blade that pierces your heart; may my hate be your downfall.
I know that there is no saving my soul; but at least you won't be better off.
Everyone hates; its a simple fact of our fallibility as mortals. When someone hates someone for far too long, it is called a grudge; these are facts that we all know by heart, within our hearts. A fact that less people know is that hate carries a power of its own, and for those already without a soul, this draws some attention... after all, the one who owns you could decide that you can't use your power to revel in your foes downfall...
And we can't have that, can we?
BECOMING AN UNREPENTANT PACT-BOUND HUNTER
Training is unnecessary; all that it takes is that you HATE enough. We aren't talking a simple everyday hate; the path that you take will ultimately leave you as completely unforgiving and uncompromising, a blade to strike the hearts of those who have done you wrong, whether they believe they have done so or not.
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Alignment: Any non-Good
Special: Favored Enemy Class Feature, Eldritch Blast 2d6, must have gone through a lengthy ritual designed to void your pact with dark forces.
BAB: +4
Skills: Survival 8 ranks, Sense Motive 5 ranks, Spot 8 ranks, Listen 8 ranks
Class Skills
The Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter'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 (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spellcraft (Int) Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Use Magic Device (Cha) and Use Rope (Dex).
Skills Points at Each Level: 6 + int
Hit Dice: d6
Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter
{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Spells
1st|+1
|+0
|+0
|+2
|Hateful Heart, A Pact With Oneself, Purity of Hate|+1 level of existing invoking class
2nd|+2
|+0
|+0
|+3
|Burst of Hatred (Bane)|+1 level of existing invoking class
3rd|+3
|+1
|+1
|+3
|Find the Hated Enemy (Feel Their Fear), Heart of Spite 1/encounter|+1 level of existing invoking class
4th|+4
|+1
|+1
|+4
|Those Who Aid My Enemies Are Enemies Themselves|+1 level of existing invoking class
5th|+5
|+1
|+1
|+4
|Burst of Hatred (Heart-Seeking)|+1 level of existing invoking class
6th|+6
|+2
|+2
|+5
|Hate Made Flesh, Heart of Spite 2/encounter|+1 level of existing invoking class
7th|+7
|+2
|+2
|+5
|Find the Hated Enemy (None Can Hide)|+1 level of existing invoking class
8th|+8
|+2
|+2
|+6
|Burst of Hatred (Thinaun)|+1 level of existing invoking class
9th|+9
|+3
|+3
|+6
|Heart of Spite 3/encounter|+1 level of existing invoking class
10th|+10
|+3
|+3
|+7
|Murder Unjustified and Undue|+1 level of existing invoking class [/table]
Weapon Proficiencies: An Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter gains no new armor or weapon proficiencies.
Hateful Heart (Ex): An Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter has reached beyond the pitiful amount of hate a ranger may muster with their Favored Enemies, truly transforming them into a dagger in the heart of their foe. Once a level in Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter has been taken, select a single creature type that will be your Chosen Foe. From now on, treat your ranger level as being your ECL+your levels in this class to determine the number of Favored Enemies you have and the bonuses to each; however, instead of gaining new Favored Enemies, you gain a new invocation of the highest level you can normally choose, and increase the bonus to your Chosen Enemy by +2.
A Pact with Oneself (Ex): An Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter is not content to be a simple tool for another; their brilliant hate manifests itself in a completely different way. From this point onward, you may select spells from the Ranger spell list as invocations, following the following table; however, these spells retain their original casting time. In addition, you may select spells from the Assassin spell list as if your Invoking level was 5 less than normal. In return for this, you can no longer learn invocations from the Warlock list, due to the breaking of your pact; however, you may gain Warlock blast Shapes and Essences of up to the highest level you can use with the Extra Invocation feat, due to your hate manifesting itself through channels that used to be familiar to you. Any spell that designates a weapon instead applies to your Eldritch Blast.
One exception to this is if the Warlock has been Baptized; they still may take any Invocations that are part of the Baptism, as the process of Baptism fundamentally alters the nature of the Warlock.
{table=head]Level of Spell|Grade of Invocation
1st|Least
2nd|Lesser
3rd|Greater
4th|Dark[/table]
Purity of Hate (Ex and Sp): An Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter is not bound to pathetic requirements like they were when they were barely leashed dogs; they may be of any non-Good alignment. In addition, they may use their Eldritch Blast as an attack action a number of times per round as the number of attacks you would gain from BAB.
Burst of Hatred (Sp) An Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter has formed a pact with their deep, bottomless hate, and have learned to reform their Eldritch Blast to a more suitable form.
At 2nd level, when you use your Eldritch Blast against a Chosen Enemy, you may elect to either deal normal Eldritch Blast damage or deal xd6 damage, where x is equal to your Favored Enemy bonus against your Chosen Enemy. This choice is taken before any Eldritch Essences or Blast shapes are chosen.
At 5th level, you may choose to make your Eldritch Blast as a Full Round Action; if you choose to do so, you can treat any Chosen Enemies you can sense (able to see, Blindsense, Tremorsense, or the like) as if you have both Line of Sight and Line of Effect to them. This allows you to attack your Chosen Enemies through walls and the like.
At 8th level, any Chosen Enemy you slay with your Eldritch Blast has their soul removed from their body, and stored within yours. As a result, they cannot be resurrected by any means, including Wish, Miracle, or True Resurrection, without your being adjacent to the body and being willing to allow the spell to affect the creature. You may have a number of stored souls equal to your Charisma modifier.
Find the Hated Enemy (Su): An Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter has abilities beyond that of any natural hunter while stalking those that they hate.
At 3rd level, you automatically know whether a Chosen Enemy was within (Charisma Modifier*5) ft of your current position within the last (class level) hours, and have a general sense of which direction they were traveling at the time, and how much time they spent in that area.
At 7th level, you gain Blindsight out to (Charisma Modifier*5) ft, which can only sense Chosen Enemies.
Heart of Spite (Su): Nothing brings an Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter more joy than to spite his enemies; once per encounter, at 3rd level, you may cause any Favored Enemy struck by your Eldritch Blast to have to roll a Will Save against a DC of (10+your Favored Enemy bonus+Charisma Modifier), or lose the use of one of their Extraordinary, Supernatural, or Spell-like abilities for a number of rounds equal to your Charisma Modifier; you may select an ability for them to lose when you use this ability; if they don't have that ability, a different one is chosen at random. You gain an additional use of this ability at 6th level and every 3 levels after that.
Those Who Aid My Enemies Are Enemies Themselves (Ex): You hate, but your hate is rather discriminate; you hate one type of creature above all else. But what of their allies? They are just as worthy of Hatred. At 4th level, you may treat any creature a Chosen Enemy considers an ally as a Chosen Enemy themselves, for the purpose of the actual bonus and for the purpose of abilities keyed of your Chosen Enemy; however, your bonus against them is only 3/4 of your normal Chosen Enemy bonus. You must be aware of the connection between the different creatures to use this ability.
Hate Made Flesh (Ex): The grudges and hates that sustain and power an Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter have reached unimaginably high heights; some might even say epic. After you take the 6th level of this class, you are treated as if you are under the affect of Delay Death (PHB) and and Beastland Ferocity (SpC) as long as you are fighting a Chosen Enemy, and for Charisma Rounds thereafter.
Murder Unjustified and Undue (Su): Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter's care nothing for justice and restraint; those pitiful concepts have long been subsumed by their shear hate. At 10th level, you gain the following abilities.
-Your attacks against your Chosen Enemies deal 50% Vile damage.
-SR 10+ECL+Chosen Enemy Bonus against spells and spell-like abilities used by Chosen Enemies; this applies to all spells they cast at any point with 10' of you, even if the spell does not normally allow SR.
-Immunity to Mind Affecting and Compulsion effects; any attempt to use these types of effects cause the caster to be targeted with a Geas (CL equal to ECL) to hunt down and kill your Chosen Enemies.
-You gain miss chance against your Chosen Enemy equal to (5*Chosen Enemy Bonus).
-You may no longer use any social skills on your Chosen Enemy, and anyone attempting to use social skills on you within 60ft of a Chosen Enemy that you know about gains a penalty to their check equal to your Chosen Enemy Bonus.
PLAYING AN UNREPENTANT PACT-BOUND HUNTER
Quite basically, you focus on your Favored Enemies, which means that you are primarily a damage dealer; however, you can use a couple spells drawn from a nice list to bolster your usefulness in other ways.
Combat: Damage dealing is pretty much your forte, with Invocations like Hunter's Eye increasing damage potential, along with pretty strong debuffs, such as Heart of Spite or Murder Unjustified and Undue.
Advancement: After this point, most Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunters follow a path that allows them to hurt their Chosen Enemies even more, which is to say, practically any path, though a path such as stealing hellfire to make your foes pay seems to be popular.
Resources: Hatred leaves nearly no room for cooperation, and the isolated nature of your powers leave most Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunters with only their own resources to draw on.
UNREPENTANT PACT-BOUND HUNTERS IN THE WORLD
I'm only glad he doesn't hate me...
Thankfully, your kind are rare. You tend to be rather... destructive of the areas you pass through if you happen to encounter a Chosen Enemy.
Daily Life: Wake up. Locate some Chosen Enemies. Kill them. Laugh. Eat Breakfast. Do whatever the hell you want.
Notables: She Who Hates (NE Lesser Tiefling Warlock 3/Ranger 2/Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter 10) was supposedly the first humanoid to ever walk this path; her hate for humans nearly ended in the slaughter of every inhabitant of a large kingdom.
Organizations: There are no known organizations that focus on Hunters, though evil armies do tend to love to get their hands on them.
NPC Reaction
Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunters live in veil of hate, loathing, hate, sadistic glee at the pain of their enemies, and did I mention hate? Their exploits are legends in their own times, told to children to get them to behave. They are seen as monsters of the worst sort... among the race they have as a Chosen Enemy.
UNREPENTANT PACT-BOUND HUNTERS IN THE GAME
Against Chosen Enemies, this class will end combats quickly, through shear damage dealing potential; against others, this class just brings to bear unlimited Ranger and Assassin spells, which is nice, but not too overly powerful.
Adaptation: They could be staunch defenders of nature, by simply replacing the names of abilities, and replacing the Hateful Blast (Thinaun) with something more appropriate.
Encounters: Players who aren't Chosen Enemies should be ignored or even be mostly safe from the Hunter; if they are Chosen Enemies (and why wouldn't they be?), they should get ready to fight someone who focuses specifically on killing their kind, who has some very nasty tricks. And if they are friends with a Chosen Enemy? Their lives are forfeit.
Sample Encounter
Players can come across Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunters practically anywhere, especially if the Hunter is hunting them...
EL 15: You see a slight, petite woman, who would be quite pretty, if it weren't for the fact that her eyes reflect nothing but deep, enduring, bitter hate. She raises a hand, and grins.
She-Who-Hates
NE/Female/Lesser Tiefling/Warlock 3/Ranger 2/Unrepentant Pact-Bound Hunter 10
Init +0, Senses: Listen +, Spot +,
Languages
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AC , touch , flat-footed (+7 Dex)
hp 102 hp (2d8+13d6+45)
Fort +12, Ref +16, Will +15
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Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee
Base Atk +11, Grp +
Atk OptionsEldritch Blast 6d6 (12d6+12 damage against Chosen Enemies)
Combat Gear
Invocations Known
Supernatural Abilities
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Abilities Str 9, Dex 24, Con 17, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 30
SQ
Feats
Skills
Possessions
Slayer of the Execrable
People think of hatred as if it were a mere spectrum; what they don't realize is that it can be thought of more as a endless cycle. Hatred begets hatred, destroying anything that could be considered loving about a person. Enter the Slayer of the Execrable, a being so consumed with their own hatred that they begin to lose any form of Empathy that they may have; we hate, they LOATHE. Their hatred often begins from a single source, which eventually flows out, tainting all it touches.
Requirements: Favored Enemy Class Feature with a bonus of at least +10, Must have slain at least 100 of your Favored Enemies of each type you have as a Favored Enemy, at least a quarter of which must be noncombatants and at least 5 of which must be infants. Must be Evil (duh.)
{table=head]Level|Benefit
21st|None Escape
24th|Contagious Hatred
27th|Unknowable Hatred
30th|May Their World Burn[/table]
None Escape (Su): A Slayer of the Execrable has achieved status as a true and dire threat to his enemies, so much so that his mere presence near them is like an illness. Whenever a Slayer of the Execrable kills a Favored Enemy, every creature that is a Favored Enemy that can see the attack must make a Will save against 10+1/2 Slayer of the Execrable's Hit Dice+Favored Enemy Bonus or come down with Dread Wasting, a pure manifestation of their belief that the Slayer is going to kill them next, no matter how impossible it would be for the Slayer to attack them next (this means this ability includes people scrying the area, dreaming of the area, etc). A successful save means that that person is immune to the Dread Wasting of that particular Slayer of the Execrable for 24 hours.
Spoiler
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Dread Wasting
Infection DC: Contact 10+Favored Enemy Bonus
Incubation: 1d4 days, the last of which the disease can be spread.
Damage: 1d6 Wisdom Burn
Special: Creatures that are not one of the Slayer of the Execrable who originally caused the disease's Favored Enemies are immune to this disease. This disease is supernatural in nature, and as such ignores resistance to normal diseases, only being stopped by immunity to magical diseases. As long as at least 1 point of the Wisdom Drain remains, only epic magic may remove this disease; even resurrection will leave the Wisdom Burn and disease in place.
Contagious Hatred (Su): Hatred begets itself, and feeds itself, and a Slayer of the Execrable has an obscene amount of hatred to begin with. At 24th level, all of the Slayer of the Execrable's Favored Enemy Bonuses increase by 2, and in addition, they gain a special aura with a radius of 1 mile/Favored Enemy bonus; calculate this radius independently for each Favored Enemy they have.
-For every minute that the Slayer of the Execrable speaks with anyone, that person's starting attitude towards the Slayer of the Execrable's Favored Enemies is one grade lower. This lasts one week, or until they leave the aura, whichever comes sooner.
-Every settlement within the radius of the Slayer of the Execrable's aura has their attitude towards the Slayer of the Execrable's Favored Enemies reduced by one grade for every week they remain within that radius. This lasts for one year.
-Creatures reduced to at least Unfriendly are automatically behave as if they were Friendly towards the Slayer as long as the Slayer is fighting with a Favored Enemy; if they are reduced to Hostile, they are behave as if they were Helpful, and so on. This lasts until there are no surviving Favored Enemies within sight (or other equivalent sense.)
As an example, if a Slayer with Favored Enemy (Gnomes) +10 spoke to
someone for 2 minutes, that person's initial attitude towards any Gnomes they meet within the next week is hostile. Note that this effect even affects Favored Enemies themselves; if the same Slayer of the Execrable lives above a hidden city of Gnomes for two weeks, every Gnome will be treated as Hostile towards any gnome they don't already know.
DM's Note
Spoiler
Show
This aura should start to show its effect with xenophobia and general dislike towards any given Favored Enemy type, slowly ramping up to irrational hatred. Visualize the attitude of the former Confederate states after the American Civil War towards African Americans; that is about how bad this gets. This ability is fully capable of resulting in wars and pogroms, with people a year later looking back, and going "what have we done?"
Unknowable Hatred (Ex): Hatred can go beyond the level of emotion, to become someone's whole personality, their entire reason to live, and their very means to twist an enemy's strength against itself. At 27th level, a Slayer of the Execrable gains immunity to mind affecting abilities, and is treated as having the Hivemind ability, shared with all of their Favored Enemies within a 100 ft radius; their Favored Enemies do not gain any of the benefits of this ability. Essentially, this means that a Slayer is incapable of being flanked or flatfooted unless all of his Favored Enemies within 100 ft are as well. Additionally, they are treated as if they were one of their Favored Enemies if it would be beneficial; for example, if there is a door that can only be opened by Dwarves, and the Slayer has Favored Enemy (Dwarf), they can go through the door as if they were a Dwarf. Finally, as long as an actual member of one of their Favored Enemies is within 100 ft, the Slayer of the Execrable cannot be killed in any manner; they still lose hit points, but cannot be killed in that manner (they also stay conscious and fully capable of taking their full compliment of actions, no matter how far into the negatives they may be.). If killed in any other manner, they simply get back up after 1 round, free of any negative conditions affecting them.
May Their World Burn (Sp): What do mortals know of hatred? Certainly nothing like this. Once per Favored Enemy, a Slayer of the Execrable may perform a ritual, requiring that they capture and slowly kill one of their Favored Enemies over the period of a week. After the ritual is completed, every member of the tortured creature's extended family is irrevocably slain, as their souls are forced to follow their family member. This ritual ignores spell resistance and does not allow a save, works across planar boundaries, only ignoring family members that are not themselves Favored Enemies; a family member is any creature that shares blood relations with the creature, or a creature that was adopted into that creatures familiar unit. This ritual may only be applied to a member of any given Favored Enemy once.
Final Destiny: You are the Bogeyman; though your body may have died, you are immortalized in legends everywhere. Your name is spoken as a curse, and you have gone down in the annals of history as the worst monster to have ever worn a "civilized form". The wars and pogroms you cause write your name in blood and screams across the landscape, and you will eternally exist as an echo in the voices of those who hate those that you hated.
Re: GitP PrC Contest XXVII: Epically Destined
Originally Posted by segtrfyhtfgj
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