PDA

View Full Version : [D&D] [Class] Hunter


The Hive Custodian
25th of February, 2006, 17:06
Another first draft. You'll notice I built this in much the same way as the martial artist.

Hunter (replaces ranger)

Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Skill Base: 6.
Class Skills: Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Use Rope (Dex).

Base Attack Bonus: +1 per level (as fighter).
Good Saves (2 + 1/2 per level): Fortitude, Reflex.
Poor Saves (1/3 per level): Will.
Armor and Weapon Proficiency: Simple weapons, martial weapons, light armor, shields.

Class Features:
Favored Enemy/Terrain (Ex): At 1st level, the hunter selects a type of creature from among those given on Table: Ranger Favored Enemies, a type of terrain from the following list: aquatic, desert, forest, hills, marsh, mountains, plains, underground, or a type of planar terrain from the following list: fiery, weightless, cold, shifting, aligned, cavernous.
If the hunter chooses a favored enemy, 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, they get a +2 bonus on weapon damage rolls against such creatures.
If the hunter chooses humanoids or outsiders as a favored enemy, they must also choose an associated subtype, as indicated on the table.
If the hunter chooses a favored terrain, the hunter gains a +2 bonus on Hide, Listen, Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (nature), Move Silently, Spot, and Survival checks made in that type of terrain.
At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the hunter may select an additional favored enemy or terrain.
Different favored enemy and favored terrain bonuses do not stack.

Track: A hunter gains Track as a bonus feat.

Hunter's Guile: At 1st level and every odd level thereafter (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, and 19th level), the hunter gains a Hunter's Guile ability. See Hunter's Guile Abilities, below.

Hunter's Cunning: At 2nd level and every four levels thereafter (6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level), the hunter gains a Hunter's Cunning ability. See Hunter's Cunning abilities, below.

Hunter's Acumen: At 4th level and every four levels thereafter (8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level), the hunter gains a Hunter's Acumen ability. See Hunter's Acumen abilities, below.

Spells: At 4th level, the hunter gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the ranger spell list. A hunter must choose and prepare their spells in advance (see below).
To prepare or cast a spell, a hunter must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a hunter's spell is 10 + the spell level + the hunter's Wisdom modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a hunter can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Their base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Ranger. In addition, they receive bonus spells per day if they have a high Wisdom score. When Table: The Ranger indicates that the hunter gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, they gain only the bonus spells they would be entitled to based on their Wisdom score for that spell level. The hunter does not have access to any domain spells or granted powers, as a cleric does.
A hunter prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though they cannot lose a prepared spell to cast a cure spell in its place. A hunter may prepare and cast any spell on the ranger spell list, provided that they can cast spells of that level, but they must choose which spells to prepare during their daily meditation. The hunter's caster level is equal to half their class level.

Hunter's Guile Abilities
Endurance: The hunter gains Endurance as a bonus feat.

Extra Favored Enemy/Terrain (Ex): The hunter gains a new favored enemy or terrain.

Focused Enemy/Terrain (Ex): The hunter chooses one of their favored enemies or terrains. The hunter's favored enemy or favored terrain bonus against that favored enemy or terrain increases by 2. The favored enemy or terrain bonus cannot exceed twice the number of favored enemies and terrains that the hunter has.

Swift Tracker (Ex): The 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.

Wild Empathy (Ex): The hunter can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check to improve the attitude of a person. The hunter rolls 1d20 and adds their ranger level and their Charisma bonus to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, the hunter and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal visibility conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute, but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
The hunter can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but he takes a –4 penalty on the check.

Woodland Stride (Ex): The hunter may move through any sort of undergrowth (such as natural thorns, briars, overgrown areas, and similar terrain) at their normal speed and without taking damage or suffering any other impairment.
However, thorns, briars, and overgrown areas that are enchanted or magically manipulated to impede motion still affect the hunter.

Hunter's Cunning Abilities
Bonus Feat: The hunter gains a bonus feat. This ability can be selected multiple times.

Hunter's Acumen Abilities
Animal Companion: This ability functions like the druid ability of the same name, except that the hunter's effective druid level is their hunter level - 3. A hunter may select from the alternative lists of animal companions just as a druid can, though again their effective druid level is their hunter level - 3. Like a druid, a hunter cannot select an alternative animal if the choice would reduce their effective druid level below 1st.

Camouflauge (Ex): Minimum hunter level 8th. The hunter can use the Hide skill in any sort of natural terrain, even if the terrain doesn’t grant cover or concealment.

Evasion (Ex): On a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, the hunter 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.
Improved Evasion (Ex): The hunter still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but also only takes half damage on a failed save. A helpless hunter does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): Minimum hunter level 12th. The hunter can use the Hide skill even while being observed.

Venom Immunity (Ex): Minimum hunter level 8th. The hunter gains immunity to all poisons.

Exchange Notes
The hunter's Favored Enemy/Favored Terrain ability is considered a Medium ability.
Hunter's Guile abilities are considered Minor abilities.
Hunter's Cunning abilities are considered Medium abilities.
Hunter's Acumen abilities are considered Major abilities.

With the DM's permission, an ability can be exchanged for an ability of equivalent type from another class.

nightinverse
25th of February, 2006, 17:14
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

I like Ranger being the most shit-tastic class.

The Hive Custodian
25th of February, 2006, 17:16
It actually doesn't get more abilities than the standard Ranger for the first dozen levels or so. After that the standard Ranger suddenly stops getting many abilities... odd that.

Doomsmile
25th of February, 2006, 17:17
Yah. ... wait- was that an isult?... hey....

The Hive Custodian
25th of February, 2006, 17:21
You have to admit it's better than 3.0, though.

Daedalus
25th of February, 2006, 17:54
That actually looks like fun.

I'd like to see how you'd revamp the Rogue class. Consider that a request.

The Hive Custodian
25th of February, 2006, 17:59
Hmm... that will probably be more difficult; the Monk and the Ranger are actually fairly similar in many respects, being both combat classes, but the Rogue is... different. I'll see what I can do, though.

nightinverse
25th of February, 2006, 18:08
The Rogue is good as is, my favored class.

Daedalus
25th of February, 2006, 18:16
Same here, I just want to see what THC can do with it.

nightinverse
25th of February, 2006, 18:23
Fine, fine, of course.

generaljimX
27th of February, 2006, 10:33
I really like this. It has all the same stuff as a regular ranger, but it offers more versatility. I'm actually considering being a ranger now.

The Hive Custodian
27th of February, 2006, 11:38
I'm actually trying to write some Class Design Rules to generalize this type of class conversion. If all goes well, multiclassing base classes will be obsolete... assuming I don't go insane first. Perhaps it is best if I didn't try to include spellcasters in the first version...

Doomsmile
27th of February, 2006, 14:43
Hey! Don't go crampin' my ranger style, man. Unfortunately, this remake removes the statistical reason I took ranger- being able to dual-weild without an insane dexterity. In short, I fear Ersi's going to have to stick with the PHB ranger.

The Hive Custodian
27th of February, 2006, 15:10
Heh... there's eight guests (search spiders, no doubt) viewing this forum at the moment...

In any case, dual-wielding is an issue that we need to decide how far we want to address it; I've written some things, but it would be a rather major change to the rules, which I'm wary of. On the other hand, it's also a rather large problem:

To use Ersi as an example, if she went with a greatsword instead of a double sword, she'd be able to take the archery combat style instead, gaining Rapid Shot and Manyshot. She'd also free up a feat slot for not having to take an Exotic Weapon Proficiency feat. With a +1 greatsword and Weapon Focus (greatsword) instead of Exotic Weapon Proficiency (double sword), she'd have an attack bonus of +14/+9 and deal 2d6 + 10 (17 average) damage per hit, versus what she has now: +11/+6 for 1d8 + 7 (11.5 average) and +11/+6 for 1d8 + 3 (7.5 average), for a total of 19 average. However, using Power Attack for 3 with the greatsword results in 23 average damage at the same attack bonus as the double sword; quite an advantage. Furthermore, attacking with two weapons requires a full round action; if only a standard attack is available, the greatsword is twice as damaging as the double sword.
So, under standard rules and classes, if Ersi went with a greatsword instead of a double sword, she'd be better at melee, and be able to take the two ranged combat style feats instead of having to use them for dual-wielding. Unless you're a rogue, at current two-weapon fighting is fairly useless, because it costs feats and doesn't really increase your damage. It is patently suboptimal.

Unfortunately, the solution requires major changes to the rules: a pile of feats need to be rewritten, and the modifiers for two-weapon fighting tweaked.

I am planning to reduce the Dexterity requirement to 13. First off, Multiweapon Fighting only requires a 13, and wielding half a dozen weapons has got to be a lot harder than wielding two. Second, it's perhaps the most common complaint about Two-Weapon Fighting. Finally, it won't unbalance the game--the ones who are decent dual-wielders right now already have high Dexterity, and again the style isn't really that good anyway. It's not like sword and shield style or two-handed weapon style have ability score requirements.

Should I post what I have, or is this too drastic?

nightinverse
27th of February, 2006, 15:21
Post it, and we will consider.

I've always House Ruled as 13.

The Hive Custodian
27th of February, 2006, 15:26
Aye sir!

Daedalus
27th of February, 2006, 16:52
Bah, I personally am quite fond of suboptimal builds with more flavour; perhaps that's the reason why I disengaged from D&D in the first place; it actively rewards being as meta-game twinkity as possible, and punishes active creativity.

Doomsmile
27th of February, 2006, 17:10
I dunnow, Ersi's actually a more than adiquate foe, especially considering that she'd been developing independant of game systems for over a year before being plonked down into this game.
Oh, and people get mad at you if you munchkin, like how I'm still miffed that our wizard-cleric in my IRL D&D game just arbitrarily switched dieties out of character (finding an excuse for it IC) because it suited his plan for power better. Stupid RPGA-ers.

The Hive Custodian
27th of February, 2006, 17:20
I like solid builds with good flavor. Furthermore, I believe that good flavor should never prevent someone from having a solid build.

I used to be more of a twinker than I am today. Twinking doesn't have quite the appeal that it used to:

The proliferation of 3.5 splatbooks has raised twinking to incomprehensible proportions. I, having only the SRD to run on, cannot compete with people who combine races, classes, feats, and creatures across multiple publications to create characters that can cast hundreds of spells each round, permanently increase their ability scores by millions of points each week, and so forth, even if I wished to. I wish I were kidding. At this point, twinking is not amusing any more; it has lost all practical purpose.
Breaking the system is easy. A twinker does not need to understand the system, does not need to catch its nuances and patterns; does not need to know any mathematics beyond elementary school level; does not need to have the imagination to create new things. A twinker needs a collection of books, an eye for the flaws in them, and an appetite for destruction. It is a more challenging and worthy endeavor to improve the system.
Feral Anthropomophic Baleen Whale Barbarian/Frenzied Beserker. I mean, seriously. What kind of person writes that down on a character sheet?

Daedalus
27th of February, 2006, 17:32
@DS: yeah, I found a distinct hatred of the RPGA after my first game with them. Twink = why?

@THC: that third statement amused me muchly. Can I borrow it and integrate it into my Sig o' Doom [tm]?

Doomsmile
27th of February, 2006, 17:44
My enjoyment of RPGA waned conciderably when people complained at me for role-paying that my character was a bit of a coward after being nearly killed five times in her recent lifetime... in game.

The Hive Custodian
28th of February, 2006, 06:12
@THC: that third statement amused me muchly. Can I borrow it and integrate it into my Sig o' Doom [tm]?
Of course.

Doomsmile
28th of February, 2006, 08:22
You forgot one thing, THC: the whale obviously has to be a half-dragon.

generaljimX
28th of February, 2006, 12:08
Sooooo obviously. Funny thing is, I actually think that's funny.

The Hive Custodian
28th of February, 2006, 12:39
You forgot one thing, THC: the whale obviously has to be a half-dragon.

We could pile on templates ad infinitum. Whatever gets the point across.

nightinverse
28th of February, 2006, 13:04
D&D has never punished my creativity, but that is because I evaluate everything before use and more often bite my tongue than bring out the twink.

We're good enough roleplayers at this point that this system can't hurt us. On to Cyberpunk 2020... and perhaps... Prince Valiant!

treehouse
19th of July, 2006, 03:43
I really like this, THC. Versatility is always a good thing, and it sometimes removes the need for kooky multiclassing combos. The ranger also gets a general power boost, which it needed (yes, even with the 3.5 changes).

nightinverse
19th of July, 2006, 08:39
Thread-movement... eyes bleeding.

It is a refreshing alternative, yes.