The Sharpshooter

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Sharpshooter
10 Levels


The paladin knocked politely on the door. A heavy grizzled man opened it, holding a meat mallet in his hand. “Yes?”
“I’m going to have to arrest you.”
“No you’re not.” The man raised the mallet.
“You’re not going to try to fight me!” The paladin looked surprised.
“No. He is.” The man gestured behind the paladin. The paladin whirled around, and his expression was frozen in time by the bullethole between his eyes.

The sharpshooter is an expert with the rifle, and can kill from much further than anyone else with the longest ranged weapon ever. This makes them one of the most feared men and women ever. Though more useful at a range, they don’t have to be at a range.
Most sharpshooters are either swordsages, or rangers, though any warrior can benefit.
Requirements
Base Attack Bonus- +7
Feats- Weapon Focus (Rifle or Heavy Crossbow),
Skills- 6 ranks Hide

Features
Hit Die- d8
Feats- Precise Shot
Skills- Balance (DEX), Climb (STR), Hide (DEX), Listen (WIS), Move Silently (DEX), Spot (WIS)
Int Mod+2
Proficiencies- Sharpshooters gain no proficiencies.

Sharpshooter
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+1

|

+2

|

+0

|

+0

|On the Bead +1d6
2nd|

+2

|

+3

|

+0

|

+0

|Miles Away
3rd|

+3

|

+3

|

+1

|

+1

|Accuracy +2
4th|

+4

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|Headshot
5th|

+5

|

+4

|

+1

|

+1

|On the Bead +2d6
6th|

+6/+1

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Deadeye
7th|

+7/+2

|

+5

|

+2

|

+2

|Accuracy +4
8th|

+8/+3

|

+6

|

+2

|

+2

|Unnerring Aim
9th|

+9/+4

|

+6

|

+3

|

+3

|On the bead +3d6
10th|

+10/+5

|

+7

|

+3

|

+3

|Deadly Aim[/table]
On the Bead (Ex)- At 1st level, a sharpshooter can spend a full-round action aiming at a subject to deal an extra 1d6 damage on one attack the next turn. The subject must be more than 60 feet away, and must be susceptible to sneak attacks. The bonus increases to 2d6 at 5th level, and 3d6 at 9th level.

Miles Away(Ex)- At 2nd level, the range increment for heavy crossbows and rifles, while in the hands of a sharpshooter with this ability, doubles.

Accuracy (Ex)- A sharpshooter is prized for accuracy. At 3rd level, they can spend a move action to gain a +2 bonus to a single attack roll made that round, as long as they do nothing in between the actions. This bonus improves to +4 at 7th level.

Headshot (Ex)- At 4th level, in the hands of a Sharpshooter with this ability, the critical multiplier of Crossbows increases to x4, and rifles to x5.

Deadeye (Ex)- At 6th level, the critical threat ranges of rifles and crossbows in the hands of a sharpshooter increases by 1.

[i]Unnerring Aim (Ex)[/i)- At 8th level, whenever the sharpshooter rolls a natural 5 or below on an attack roll with a crossbow or a rifle, he may re-roll, but must take the result of the second roll, no matter what it may be.

Deadly Aim (Ex/Su/Sp)- At 10th level, a sharpshooter can kill with a single bullet or bolt. This ability functions exactly like the Assassin's Death Attack ability, except you only can use it when more than 60 ft away and the Death Attack is triggered by using an attack with On the Bead instead of a sneak attack.

Rifle
{table]Exotic Weapon|Cost|Dmg (S)|Dmg (M)|Critical| Range Increment|Weight|Type
Rifle|2000 gp|5d6|5d8|x4|150 ft|5lbs|Piercing
Bullets (10)|10 gp|-|-|-|-|1lb|-[/table]

[Nostri]

How about for Deadly Aim the character can use precision damage at a range equal to the weapon's range? That would include sneak attack damage and favored enemy damage if I remember correctly...

[RTGoodman]

I homebrewed a Gunslinger PrC, and I couldn't come up with a capstone for a while either. The closest thing I could think of was either letting them use the Hunter's Mercy spell from SpC a certain number of rounds per day, or giving a death attack like the Assassin's.

[Lord Tataraus]

Depending on how you feel about it, I'd suggest a death effect for the capstone ability. Also, why no bowmen? They should be just as accurate? And what about slings? They are accurate as well though they are a lot harder to use (should have never been simple, but oh well).

[RandomFellow]

My two cents:
Add Composite Longbow to list of weapon choices. It's range increment is only 10' less than the Heavy Crossbow.

Deadly Aim (Su) - At 5th level, a sharpshooter has mastered the art of precision shooting from great distances. Whenever the sharpshooter uses his On The Bead (Ex) ability and is at least 300' away, his threat range with his weapon is considered 1 to 20 for critical hits and his critical multiplier increases by 1. (e.g. 19-20/x2 becomes 1-20/x3)

[Ceiling009]

For Deadly Aim... It should be an Auto Crit. You're probably better making it based off the Assassin Death Attack, where if you spend three rounds, which is a decent chunk of time, if you hit with Deadly Aim shot, it's an Auto Critical, which is all affected by Headshot, but does not double the damage dealt by On the Bead (Or it could, after all, 3d6 is only 9 more damage...)

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I think I'll use an assassin-esque Death Attack there.

In my game, crossbows are really new. They were introduced around 100 years ago, and with the rifle, introduced only 20 years ago, are the most feared weapons of the age. Slings are horse-back weapons, or peasant weapons, depending on which culture, and bows are not considered proffesional's weapons. Bows are divided into shortbows, bows, and longbows. ok, Longbows are proffesional. I may consider adding them. But i'm not using composite bows. Longbows act like composite longbows.

[Vael Nir]

you could also check out the dead shot and gunman classes from the warcraft RPG...

dead shot would be the sniper class... things like concentrate a full round on a target and gain +4d6 damage, upgrade your gun to do an additional 1d6... stuff like that, it's a 10 level class.

gunman is also a 10 level class, it's a bit more versatile. you get feats like pistol swap, which allows you to spend all your attacks drawing and firing your pistols (if the first one is magical, the bonus goes to all others as well), bayonet charge (charge with a bayonet and shoot at the end of the charge), favored gun (+1/2/3/4/5 att/dmg with one gun of your choice, depending on level), whites of their eyes (more damage and accuracy on a close shot) and some other fluff.

I play a rogue/gunman in our warcraft campaign, it's fun.

[Nebo_]

I'd recommend taking a look at the Rifleman PrC from Iron Kingdoms.

Also, why is On the Bead limited to 60'? Isn't this supposed to be a sniper class?
I'd change it to the weapon's range increment at the very least.

[Fax Celestis]

Make Deadly Aim be power word: kill Cha mod/day.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

@ Nebo_ Check again. It says more than 60 ft.

Power Word: Kill? That works crunchwise, though i still like a plain old Death Attack better.

[lord of pixies]

soo....................weres the rifle stats

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I'll get to it, i'll get to it. I should have them up by 10:00

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

ok, 4 minutes of schedule, but the rifle stats are up. I want them to be 1 hit KO on commoners, but not horrible against mid level PC's. They should still be a danger to low-level PC's. I tried to balance it by making it extremely expencive. They would also be hard to find, rare, and you would be very lucky to get one, as a PC. The class would be used most often with the crossbow option.

I just realized i forgot to put in the crit section.

[Bago!!!]

I think you should make the class a little harder to get into or make it into a ten level PrC. Cause what you gain from this class is incredible. Head shot is just plain powerful! It takes the Rifleman PrC four levels to gain a 3x critical. And that deadly aim with all the right items could make any PC into a ridiculous guy, killing kings and lords and even dragons from a great distance while remaining hidden, if they pull off the right stuff.

Now, would Miles Away stack with Far Shot?

And how would the Death attack work in this case?

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Let's see, miles away doubles your range increment, and far shot increases it by half. I would say that you multiply your range increment by 1 1/2.

Death attack would work like usual, except only when you're 60 ft away. There would be no difference in the mechanics.

I agree, this is a bit to powerful. I could spread the abilities out, 1 per level, and add a new ability, making this a 10 level PrC. I like that idea. I'd need a new ability for level 8, though, and I'm running out of ideas. I'm going to make it harder to get in as well. Up the Bab pre-req to 7, i think, combined with making it a 10 level, that sounds good to me.

[Neftren]

I would highly suggest just upping the BAB requirements, adding Far Shot as a requirement as well as Precise Shot and Imp Precise Shot or whatever they're called. So you'd have to have at least 4 feats to qualify. Good for shooty fighters, so I would probably up to BAB +7.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Updated to a 10 level PrC

[Brom]

I would highly encourage you not to make it a 10 level PRC and to also make Imp. Precise Shot a pre-req. Reason being -- Imp. Precise Shot is a 14th level Fighter feat.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

I'm just putting Precise Shot, not Imp. Precise Shot.

[tyckspoon]

It looks okay now, and perhaps a little bit weak; the boosts you're giving it aren't enough to make up for having the class use weapons that can't make full attacks or get Strength bonuses to help make up the damage.

Errors/Omissions: The crit range of a crossbow is already 19-20/x2. The Deadeye ability does nothing for a crossbow sniper as written. Typical wording for this kind of ability is 'doubles the threat range' (eg, 17-20 for a crossbow and 19-20 for a rifle) or 'increases the threat range by X numbers' (18-20 bow, 19-20 rifle for an increase of 1.)

Death Attack: As written, this does nothing. The Assassin's Death Attack requires the user to make a sneak attack, and your Sharpshooter has no sneak attack. I would change your end line to something like "except you only can use it when more than 60 ft away and the Death Attack is triggered by using an attack with On the Bead (or Accuracy?) instead of a sneak attack."

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Thank you for the error-spotting.