General Prestige Class : Deepwood Sniper
An arrow flies from a high mountain aerie, unerringly striking a paladin's mount. Expecting only a flesh wound, the paladin is stunned to watch his companion of many adventures crumple to the earth. This unfortunate knight has trespassed into the domain of the deepwood sniper, and he may not make it out alive.
A deepwood sniper is patient, careful, quiet, and deadly accurate. She is a stealthy, long-range terminator whose arrows sail accurately from much longer ranges than those of other archers. In addition, she has magical abilities to help her shafts fly true.
Because of their alertness, dexterity, patience, and affinity for the bow, elves of almost any character class make excellent deepwood snipers. For a long time, elves would train only those of their own race in these techniques, but more recently some half-elves, halflings, and humans have joined the ranks of the deepwood sniper.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Deepwood Sniper, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Hide 4 ranks, Move Silently 4 ranks, Spot 4 ranks.
- Feats: Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (any bow or crossbow).
- Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Class Skills
The deepwood sniper's class skills are Balance, Climb, Craft (bow-making), Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, and Swim.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
The following are class features of the deepwood sniper prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Deepwood snipers gain no weapon or armor proficiencies. All weapon-related abilities of this prestige class apply only to projectile ranged weapons with which the character is proficient.
Keen Arrows (Ex): At 1st level, all projectiles the deepwood sniper fires behave as if they were keen weapons in addition to any other properties they might possess. Thus, a normal arrow fired by a deepwood sniper has a threat range of 19-20 instead of 20. This effect does not stack with any other keen effect.
Range Increment Bonus (Ex): With each level the deepwood sniper gains, the range increments of her projectile weapons increase by +10 feet (added after all multipliers). Thus, a 10th-level deepwood sniper who has the Far Shot feat would have a 280-foot range increment with a heavy crossbow (120 feet x 1.5 + 100 feet).
Concealment Reduction (Ex): When the deepwood sniper reaches 2nd level, her miss chance against opponents with concealment drops by 10%. Thus, she has a miss chance of 10% rather than 20% against an opponent with one-half concealment. Her miss chance drops by an additional 10% per four deepwood sniper levels she gains thereafter, but this ability never reduces her miss chance against any opponent below 0%.
Magic Weapon (Sp): At 2nd level, the character can produce an effect identical to that of a magic weapon spell cast by a cleric of her deepwood sniper level. This ability is usable once per day on projectile weapons only.
Projectile Improved Critical (Ex): When the deepwood sniper reaches 2nd level, the critical damage multipliers of all her projectile weapons increase by +1. Thus, an arrow that normally deals damage X3 on a critical hit instead does damage X4 in her hands. When she reaches 7th level, these critical multipliers increase by an additional +1.
Safe Poison Use (Ex): At 3rd level, a deepwood sniper can use poison without any chance of poisoning herself.
Take Aim (Ex): A 4th-level deepwood sniper can gain a +2 bonus on her attack rolls against a stationary target by aiming carefully Taking aim is a full-round action, and if the target moves more than 5 feet during that period, the bonus is lost. No additional benefit exists for spending more than 1 round aiming. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level.
Consistent Aim (Su): Once per day, a 5th-level deepwood sniper can reroll one attack roll that she has just made with a projectile weapon. She must keep that result, even if it is worse than the original roll. She can use this ability twice per day at 7th level and three times per day at 10th level, though each use must relate to a different attack roll.
True Strike (Sp): At 10th level, the deepwood sniper can produce an effect identical to that of a true strike spell cast by a cleric of her deepwood sniper level. This ability is usable once per day on projectile weapons only.
| Deepwood Sniper | Hit Die: d8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +1 | +0 | +2 | +0 | Keen arrows, range increment bonus +10 ft/level |
| 2nd | +2 | +0 | +3 | +0 | Concealment reduction 10%, magic weapon, projectile improved critical +1. |
| 3rd | +3 | +1 | +3 | +1 | Safe poison use |
| 4th | +4 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Take aim +2 |
| 5th | +5 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Consistent aim 1/day |
| 6th | +6 | +2 | +5 | +2 | Concealment reduction 20%, keen edge |
| 7th | +7 | +2 | +5 | +2 | Consistent aim 2/day, projectile improved critical +2 |
| 8th | +8 | +2 | +6 | +2 | Take aim +4 |
| 9th | +9 | +3 | +6 | +3 | Consistent aim 3/day |
| 10th | +10 | +3 | +7 | +3 | Concealment reduction 30%, true strike |
Source: Masters of the Wild