Faerûnian Prestige Class : Black Blood Hunter
The People of the Black Blood are lycanthropes united only by their reverence for Malar, the Beastlord. The basic credo of Malar's church - survival of the fittest and winnowing of the weak - is evil in a dispassionate way, but the god grants exceptional power to those who supplement that bestial level of evil with torture, rape, and other truly vile acts.
Black blood hunters come from all classes, and both afflicted and natural lycanthropes are eligible for the prestige class. Rangers, druids, and barbarians are common among the hunters, but only because they are common among the People of the Black Blood. Clerics of Malar often choose this path as well because they enjoy having the ability to cast spells in animal form.
Black blood hunters have no organizational structure. Some bands of People of the Black Blood include hunters; others do not. Some of the hunters have risen to leadership of their packs, while others wish only to participate in the hunt.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Black Blood Hunter, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Race: Any lycanthrope
- Alignment: Any
- Skills: Control Shape 8 ranks (afflicted lycanthrope only), Jump 6 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks, Survival 6 ranks
- Feats: Power Attack, Vile Natural Attack,
- Patron: Malar
Class Skills
The Black Blood hunter's class skills are Climb, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Spot, Survival, and Swim.
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are class features of the black blood hunter prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Black blood hunters gain no proficiency with any weapon, armor, or shield. Armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand, and Tumble, and double the normal armor check penalty applies to Swim checks.
Greater Curse of Lycanthropy (Su): The DC of the Fortitude save required to avoid contracting lycanthropy from the character's bite attack increases by an amount equal to his black blood hunter level.
Lycanthropic Spell (Ex): A black blood hunter with spellcasting ability can cast spells normally in his animal or hybrid form, as though he were a druid in-wild shape using the Natural Spell feat.
Wild Items (Ex): A black blood hunter can use armor with the wild special ability, a wilding clasp, or any similar item designed for a druid to use while in wild shape. For the purpose of using such items, all the black blood hunter's lycanthropic forms count as wild shapes.
Animal Aspect (Su): Starting at 2nd level, a black blood hunter gains the ability to take on limited characteristics of his animal form while remaining in his humanoid form. Once per day, he can gain the Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution of his animal form without actually adopting that shape. In addition, his natural armor bonus increases by +2. All these changes last for 1 minute per black blood hunter level. The black blood hunter can use this ability twice per day at 4th level, three times per day at 6th level, four times per day at 8th level, and five times per day at 10th level.
Wild Empathy (Ex): A black blood hunter of 2nd level or higher can use body language, vocalizations, and demeanor to improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions like the druid class feature of the same name, except that the character adds his black blood hunter level to his 1d20 roll instead of his druid level. Furthermore, he gains a +8 racial bonus (rather than the normal +4) when using this ability with normal or dire animals of the same kind as his animal form.
If the black blood hunter also has the wild empathy ability from another class (such as druid or ranger), levels of that class stack with his black blood hunter levels for the purpose of determining the bonus on the wild empathy check.
Improved Hybrid Form (Ex): At 3rd level, a black blood hunter gains the ability to use his animal form's special attacks while in hybrid form.
Improved Vile Natural Attack (Su): At 4th level, a black blood hunter deals an additional 1d4 points of vile damage with each successful natural attack, rather than the 1 point that the Vile Natural Attack feat allows. Vile damage can be healed only by magic cast within the area of a consecrate or hallow spell.
When he reaches 8th level, the vile damage he deals with a natural attack increases to 1d6 points.
Improved Damage Reduction (Su): When the black blood hunter reaches 5th level, his lycanthropic damage reduction improves by 5 points to 10/silver if he is an afflicted lycanthrope, or to 15/silver if he is a natural lycanthrope. When he reaches 10th level, his damage reduction can be bypassed only by magic silver weapons.
Faster Change (Ex): A black blood hunter of at least 6th level can change to or from animal or hybrid form as a move action rather than a standard action.
Quick Change (Ex): A 9th-level or higher black blood hunter can change to or from animal or hybrid form as a free action.
| Black Blood Hunter | Hit Die: d8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +2 | +0 | Greater curse of lycanthropy, lycanthropic spell, wild items |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +0 | Animal aspect 1/day, wild empathy |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +1 | Improved hybrid form |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Animal aspect 2/day, improved vile natural attack 1d4 |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +1 | Improved damage reduction (+Y/silver) |
| 6th | +4 | +4 | +5 | +2 | Animal aspect 3/day, faster change |
| 7th | +4 | +5 | +5 | +2 | - |
| 8th | +6 | +6 | +6 | +2 | Animal aspect 4/day, improved vile natural attack 1d6 |
| 9th | +6 | +6 | +6 | +3 | Quick change |
| 10th | +7 | +7 | +7 | +3 | Animal aspect 5/day, improved damage reduction (magic and silver) |
Source: Player's Guide to Faerûn