Source: Masters of the Wild
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 stealtly, 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.
Hit Die: d8
Table: The Deepwood Sniper
Class level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | 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% |
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 |
Requirements
To qualify as a deepwood sniper, a character must fulfill the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Hide 4 ranks, Move Silently 4 ranks, Spot 4 ranks.
Feats: Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (any bow or crossbow).
Class Skills
The deepwood sniper's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (bowmaking) (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Survival (Wis).
See Chapter 4 of the Player's Handbook for skill descriptions.
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 bow or crossbow weapons with which the character is proficient.
Keen arrows (Ex): At 1st level, all projectiles the deepwood sniper fires from a bow or crossbow behave as if they were keen weapons in addition to any other properties they may 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 bow or crossbow increase by 10 feet (added after all other modifiers). Thus, a 10th level deepwood sniper who had 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 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 bows or crossbows only.
Projectile improved critical (Ex): When the deepwood sniper reaches 2nd level, the critical damage multipliers of her bows or crossbow weapons increases by +1. Thus, an arrow that normally deals x3 damage on a critical hit instead deals x4 in her hands. When she reaches 7th level, these critical multipliers increase by an additional +1. This effect will not stack with any other spell or ability that provides the same effect.
Safe Poison Use (Ex): At third level a Deepwood Sniper can use poison without any chance of poisoning herself (see Perils of Using Poison in Chapter 3 of the Dungeon Master's Guide).
Take Aim (Ex): A 4th-level Deepwood Sniper can gain a +2 bonus on her attack rolls with a bow or crossbow 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.
Consistant Aim (Su): Once per day, a 5th-level Deepwood Sniper can reroll one attack roll that she has just made with a bow or crossbow. 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 bows or crossbows only.