UPDATE 58 PREVIEW 1 - Dark Hunter Ranger

[Torc]

New Archtype for Ranger

New Tree: Dark Hunter
Replaces Arcane Archer

Themes: Assassination, sneaking, hunting, trapmaking, scavenging, throwing weapons


Changes from Base Class

Feats and Features Added:

• Trapfinding (1)
• Trap Making (3)
• Trap Sense +1 (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18) (same as rogue and barbarian)
• Sneak Attack 1d6 (1, 5, 10, 15, 20) (every 5 levels instead of every 2, means they get half of the sneak attack dice as Rogue does, 5d6 instead of 10d6)

Ranger Features Removed:

• All Favored Enemy feats that are not: Vermin, Elf, Aberration, Animal, Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid

Spellbook:



Added:

• Curative Admixtures

Removed:

• Cure spells (they get admixtures)

Skills:

• Dark Hunters gain Open Lock and Disable Device as Class Skills

Past Life

• Dark Hunter: +1 Sneak Attack and +1 Sneak Attack Damage per stack

Core 1:

Underdark Stalker: You gain +5 HP and +1 reflex saving throw per core ability you take in this tree.

Core 3:

On The Hunt: When you strike someone with weapons you gain +1% dodge for 6 seconds, stacking 3 times.

Core 6:

Smoke Trap: Throw a smoke grenade at a target, if they fail a fortitude save (DC20 + Dex Mod + Assassinate + Trap DCs) they lose their immunity to sneak attack and 25% of their fortification for 25 seconds. (Cooldown: 12 seconds)

Core 12:

Escape Through the Dark: Whenever you become Invisible, your Sneak Attack Dice are briefly doubled. This lingers for 5 seconds after you become Invisible and may only trigger once every 60 seconds.

Core 18:

Death Stalker: +25% Sneak Speed. While you are sneaking, you gain a 5% enhancement damage bonus to your melee, ranged and unarmed attacks. This lingers for 10 seconds after you leave Stealth. (note: this does not stack with the Relentless Fury item affix)

Core 20:

Hunter in the Dark: +2 Dex, Int, and Wis. +10% Doublestrike and Doubleshot. +10 Melee and Ranged Power. Your Cull the Weak bonus now applies against enemies that are Blind.

Tier 1:

Dark Wolf: You gain a Black Wolf as an Animal Companion. Each rank also gives you +5 HP.

Wolf Hide: (req Dark Wolf) +2/4/6 PRR

Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks

Bleed the Weak: Imbue Toggle: 1d8 Bleed damage, scaling with Melee Power. Increases to 1d10 vs enemies below 50%, and increases again to 1d12 against enemies below 25%.

Awareness: +1/2/3 Listen, Search, Spot, and to-hit.

Tier 2:

Furor of the Hunter: Your Black Wolf gains +3/6/10 to hit and damage, +2/4/6 Primal Bonus to AC, and its attacks bypass 10%/20%/50% of enemy Fortification.

Assassin's Training: +1/2/3 Assassinate DCs.

Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks

Improved Traps: +1/2/3 to the save DC's of Alchemical Trap Attacks and Magical Traps. Elemental Traps that you place now have a DC equal to 65/80/100% of your Disable Device Skill instead of 50%.

Action Boost: Skills or Sprint

Tier 3:

Primal Energy: Your Black Wolf gains a +2/+4/+6 Primal Bonus to all Ability Scores.

Snap Trap: Toss a snapping trap at the targeted enemy. If they don't make a Fortitude Save (DC 20 + Dex Mod + Assassinate + Bonus Trap DCs) they are rooted in place by the trap's jaws.

Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks

Use Magical Device: +1/2/3 Use Magic Device

+1 Dex / Int / Wis

Tier 4:

Lupine Instincts: Your Black Wolf inherits your Search and Spot scores, and will automatically find traps and secret doors for you assuming you meet the statistical threshold.

Slayer in the Dark: Killing an enemy grants you a +5 Morale bonus to Melee and Ranged Power, stacking 2/3/4 times. Duration: 20s
Sneak Attack Training: +1 Sneak Attack die and +1 to hit when performing sneak attacks

Smoke Bomb: Smoke Bomb SLA

+1 Dex / Int / Wis

Tier 5:

Ferocity: You gain +10% Doublestrike and Doubleshot. Your Black Wolf gains 25% Attack Speed and 100% Fortification Bypass.

Stone's Hue: Your Camouflage spell also grants the target +1 PRR per 2 caster levels, max caster level 20.

Death Attack: Ranged Assassinate. Balance TBD. From the pen and paper source, this is essentially a copy of the ability Assassinate from Assassin, so we're looking into a way to differentiate it from the Rogue ability. Open to suggestions on this front!

Blade Specialization: You gain a +1 Competence bonus to Critical Damage Multiplier with your weapons. If you have Improved Critical: Piercing, this bonus to Threat Range is doubled.

Dark Sight: You have True Seeing. You may also toggle this on to gain Underdark Sight while within the Underdark.

Known Issues:

• Several icons have not been finalized.
• All visual effects have not been finalized.
• The Tier 5 Death Attack is not complete, see tree for details.
• Open Lock and Disable Device skill trains have some issues

[BurnerD]

So Arcane Archer ceases to exist?

[Cadic]

The final core say it applies to "Cull the weak" ability, but that ability isn't listed anywhere in the tree. Is that supposed to be "Bleed the Weak" instead? Also shouldn't the class get something to blind enemies if they are going to have to rely on blinding them for that core?

[Yamani]

So Arcane Archer ceases to exist?

Just like the other archetypes these are selectable at character creation. You can still play regular ranger which will have AA if you want.

[MJtheKing]

This looks exciting! It combines my two favorite classes

So Arcane Archer ceases to exist?

No, It still exists for regular Rangers. This is for the new Ranger Archtype. The archtype won't have access to Arcane Archer.

[Yamani]

Bleed the Weak: Imbue Toggle: 1d8 Bleed damage, scaling with Melee Power. Increases to 1d10 vs enemies below 50%, and increases again to 1d12 against enemies below 25%.

So why just melee power? Rest of the tree has both melee and ranged aspects. Including a ranged assassinate. But this scales to just melee power...

[unbongwah]

Feats and Features Added:

• Trapfinding (1)
• Trap Making (3)
• Trap Sense +1 (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18) (same as rogue and barbarian)
• Sneak Attack 1d6 (1, 5, 10, 15, 20) (every 5 levels instead of every 2, means they get half of the sneak attack dice as Rogue does, 5d6 instead of 10d6)

Oooh, finally I can have a pure ranger with trap skills and some extra sneak attacks to boost Deepwood Stalker. Will the sneak attacks stack with rogue levels / Enhancements and/or half-elf rogue dilettante?

Dark Wolf: You gain a Black Wolf as an Animal Companion. Each rank also gives you +5 HP.

Rangers finally get a pet too? Don't understand why it's implemented as an Enhancement rather than an inherent feat, but hey, it's long overdue regardless.

Blade Specialization: You gain a +1 Competence bonus to Critical Damage Multiplier with your weapons. If you have Improved Critical: Piercing, this bonus to Threat Range is doubled.

Is the threat range bonus a Competence one? I.e., does it stack with Deepwood Stalker's or gnome's racial (light picks, shortswords) +1 range bonus?

[Assassination]

So this is a pretty interesting tree for Tempest rangers. I like the trapping stuff added, the sneak dice, really cool.

Would you consider taking the tier 5 boost to crit range for piercing weapons and putting it in say core 4?

This would allow short swords to be competitive with scimitars. I would really love to be able to use shortswords.

Most rangers are going to go tier 5 in tempest if they are melee, this tree would be a great second tree if the crit range was

moved to core 4, or even tier 4 in the enhancements. Nice work.

[Scrag]

My first TR coming up will be some mix of rogue(1)/warrior(2)/ranger. This would make life sweet, being able to take max'd out skills at level one as rogue many of which _are dark hunter class skills_.

I am thinking to go assassin tree, dark hunter tree. You would wind up with _12_ bonus sneak dice, +those from hunter and rogue 1. And those dice _double_ if you come out of invis.

Can someone clarify that they mean invis, and not hidden?

[Smokewolf]

Like most of what I see here except the loss of Arcane Archer. Would suggest removing Tempest instead as this Archetype is most likely to be played as a ranged build.

Anyways, as is this is so good, should we say RIP Rogues?

-Smoke

[Yamani]

Like most of what I see here except the loss of Arcane Archer. Would suggest removing Tempest instead as this Archetype is most likely to be played as a ranged build.

Or just go elf and get elven AA on top of all this

[Smokewolf]

Or just go elf and get elven AA on top of all this

There is a good chance that using the Elf Racial AA may not be allowed if the archetype prohibits it.

[voxson5]

Does the companion scale & is it equipable a'la druid/arti/PM pet?

I'm assuming a (half) elf can just bypass the arcane archer lockout?

[Baahb3]

So you made a tree that focuses on a useless pet in anything harder than Hard difficulty and trapmaking which I have not seen used in ever.


Slow clap....

[Kivandel]

Blade Specialization: You gain a +1 Competence bonus to Critical Damage Multiplier with your weapons. If you have Improved Critical: Piercing, this bonus to Threat Range is doubled.

1. Is this means that, for example, rapier becomes 12-20 in Threat Range with IC:Piercing (18-20 base + 3x2 doubled feat)?
2. Why only for melee weapons (no IC:Ranged)?

[rabidfox]

Could they get accelerate spell as a meta-magic feat option? The feat currently has the arti/alch prereq but it would be good to be able to grab for dark hunter's healing vials.

[Gralhota]

New Archtype for Ranger

New Tree: Dark Hunter
Replaces Arcane Archer




Tier 1:

[INDENT]Dark Wolf: You gain a Black Wolf as an Animal Companion. Each rank also gives you +5 HP.
[/LIST]

Can I use the wolf and the pale master skeleton together?

[Xgya]

1. Is this means that, for example, rapier becomes 12-20 in Threat Range with IC:Piercing (18-20 base + 3x2 doubled feat)?
2. Why only for melee weapons (no IC:Ranged)?

The +1 will be doubled. So the Rapier goes 18-20, 15-20 (feat alone), 13-20 (+1 competence x2 because you have IC:Piercing)

Can I use the wolf and the pale master skeleton together?

You can't summon two pets together. If you have two classes with pets, trying to summon one while the other is out gets you a warning.

[Rull]

Bleed the Weak: Imbue Toggle: 1d8 Bleed damage, scaling with Melee Power. Increases to 1d10 vs enemies below 50%, and increases again to 1d12 against enemies below 25%.

Death Attack: Ranged Assassinate. Balance TBD. From the pen and paper source, this is essentially a copy of the ability Assassinate from Assassin, so we're looking into a way to differentiate it from the Rogue ability. Open to suggestions on this front!

huh?

also the crit range (melee only?) is a bit vague

[Gralhota]

The +1 will be doubled. So the Rapier goes 18-20, 15-20 (feat alone), 13-20 (+1 competence x2 because you have IC:Piercing)



You can't summon two pets together. If you have two classes with pets, trying to summon one while the other is out gets you a warning.

Thanks for the reply but...

These archetypes then have nothing to offer me.

DRUIDA, classic summoners, has no support for minions.

They should change the name of the game, at least they wouldn't pay royalties.

For those who expect Wizard archetypes, only in 2024 or more. Wizards are always at the bottom of the list.