Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Tuhljin 12-17-06, 03:22 AM	I have been creating a prestige class designed primarily for relatively high level Rangers that want to focus on improving the synergy between their archery and their animal companion's melee attacks, as well as create a stronger and unique bond between themselves and the animal companion. Edit: At this point, I think the features are pretty much ready to go, but I still need more input on the balance of the class. Still, if you have any comments to offer, please share! Feral-heart Marksman Hit Die: d8 Requirements Feats: Weapon Focus (any shortbow or longbow), Improved Precise Shot, Animal Affinity Skills: Handle Animal 14 ranks Special: Animal companion class feature. The prospective feral-heart marksman must spend five consecutive days alone with his animal companion in a wilderness environment that could be considered natural for the animal before he qualifies for the class. During this time, the two forge a closer bond of understanding and trust. If he replaces this animal companion with a new one after taking levels in this class, he must spend five consecutive days with his new animal companion before his Feral-heart Marksman class features, other than Animal Companion, Wild Empathy, Spells, and Swift Fang (but not excluding the Superior Magic Fang class feature), can again apply to him or be used. In this second situation, he needn't be alone with the animal for the entire time nor must it be spent in the animal's native area, but at least eight hours of each day should be spent alone with the animal in a natural environment such as a forest. Class Skills The feral-heart marksman's class skills are: Climb, Concentration, Craft, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (geography), Knowledge (nature), Listen, Move Silently, Profession, Ride, Search, Spot, Survival, Swim, and Use Rope. Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier. Feral-heart Marksman Lvl BaB Fort Refl Will Special 1st +1 +2 +2 +0 Animal companion, Favored bows, Empathic link, Wild empathy, In tandem +1 2nd +2 +3 +3 +0 Guarded shot, Heightened bond +2, Extended share spells, Spells 3rd +3 +3 +3 +1 Linked will, Opportune strike, Eyes of the Beast 4th +4 +4 +4 +1 In tandem +2, Heightened bond +4, Superior Magic Fang 5th +5 +4 +4 +1 Find Companion, Empowered bond 6th +6 +5 +5 +2 Heightened bond +6, Wolfpack 7th +7 +5 +5 +2 In tandem +3, Dead-eye 8th +8 +6 +6 +2 Awakening, Swift Fang Class Features The following are class features of the Feral-heart Marksman prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Feral-heart Marksmen gain no additional proficiencies in weapons or armor. Animal Companion (Ex): This prestige class's levels count as Druid levels for purposes of determining your animal companion's extra abilities and stats (see PHB pg. 36). (Note that Ranger levels divided by two count as Druid levels for this purpose as well.) Favored bows: Any longbow or shortbow with which you have a Weapon Focus feat is considered a "favored bow" for purposes of other class features that refer to this term. Empathic Link (Su): You gain the same sort of empathic link with your animal companion that a sorcerer has with his familiar. This functions identically to the Empathic Link familiar ability on pg. 53 of the Player's Handbook except that the maximum range of the link is extended from 1 mile to 1 mile per Feral-heart Marksman level. Wild Empathy (Ex): You gain Wild Empathy, as the Ranger class feature. Your Feral-heart Marksman levels stack with the levels of other classes that provide the Wild Empathy class feature. In Tandem (Ex): You gain bonuses to your attack rolls (even when not using a favored bow) against any target that your animal companion has successfully hit this round. Likewise, your animal companion gains this same bonus to his attack rolls against any target you have hit this round. You and your animal companion may weave your actions together to take full advantage of this or perform other tasks. (For example, you might make one attack and hit, then have your animal companion attack the same target and hit, then you make the rest of your attacks for the round, and finally have your animal companion complete his attacks. In this scenario, all but the first attack gained bonuses to the attack roll from In Tandem.) This bonus is +1 at 1st level, +2 at 4rd, and +3 at 7th. Guarded Shot (Ex): Your attacks with favored bows no longer provoke attacks of opportunity from enemies that are threatened by your animal companion. Heightened Bond: Add a bonus to your effective Druid level for the purpose of determining your animal companion's extra abilities and stats. This bonus is +2 at 2nd level, +4 at 4th level, and +6 at 6th level. Heightened Bond cannot raise your effective Druid level above your character level. Spells: At every level except 1st, 5th, and 8th, you gain spells per day as a Ranger. If you have 4 or more Ranger levels, these levels directly stack; otherwise, you gain spells as a 4th level Ranger would at 2nd level, as a 5th level Ranger at 3rd level, etc. (Note that you must gain bonus spell slots from Wisdom to actually cast anything as a 4th or 5th level Ranger.) Extended Share Spells (Ex): Your animal companion may now be more than 5 feet away and still benefit from the Share Spells Animal Companion feature (PHB, pg. 36). The distance allowed is extended to 5 ft per Feral-heart Marksman level. Only spells cast as a Ranger are affected by this ability. Linked Will (Su): If you or your animal companion fail a save against a mind-affecting spell or ability, on your next turn if either you or your companion is not under the effect of that spell/ability and the other is, you may reroll the saving throw to immediately break the affect from the one that is affected using you or your companion's applicable save bonus, whichever is higher. If it breaks, you and your companion may act as normal on this turn (assuming nothing else impairs your ability to do so). If the reroll was on behalf of your animal companion (not yourself) and it fails to break on this reroll attempt, and your companion is still affected by the spell/ability on the next round and you are still not affected by it, you can, as a move action or standard action, reroll using your (not your companion's) save bonus to break the spell. If this fails again, you can try again once per round. Opportune Strike (Ex): When you score a critical hit that deals damage against a target, your animal companion may make an immediate attack against the target at its highest bonus with any melee attack it possesses if the animal is threatening it. This attack gains a bonus to hit and damage equal to your Feral-heart Marksman level. Your animal companion can only do this once per round. Eyes of the Beast (Su): If you close your eyes and concentrate for one round, you can see through the eyes of your animal companion instead of through your own eyes. You also hear through his ears and smell what he smells, yet you retain the ability to hear and smell what is around you. You can concentrate as a free action to maintain the link. You instinctively know the difference between what you and your companion are sensing and won't confuse the two, but you suffer a -2 penalty to Listen checks to hear things around you. You may use your own Listen and Spot skill checks or your animal's, whichever is higher, to see and hear things around your companion, but you take a penalty to these checks based on your companion's Intelligence: Int 1 gives -5, Int 2 gives -4, Int 3 gives -3, Int 4 gives -2, Int 5 gives -1, and Int 6 or above gives no penalty. You may use Eyes of the Beast as often as you desire but cannot undertake any strenuous activity while doing so - you may even walk, though you won't see where you're going, at least not with your own eyes. Your companion must be within range of your Empathic Link class feature to create or maintain a link with Eyes of the Beast. Superior Magic Fang (Sp): You gain the ability to cast a special version of Superior Magic Fang (Draconomicon pg. 80) a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier. Your caster level for this ability is equal to your class level multiplied by 2.5 (round down, maximum 20). Instead of targeting yourself, the spell affects your animal companion. The animal must be within 60 feet of you when you activate this ability and both of you must remain within 100 feet of each other for the duration or the effect ends immediately. Find Companion (Su): At will, as an action taking 3 rounds of meditation, you may invoke a supernatural ability that allows you to find the shortest route to your animal companion, provided he is on the same plane you are. This functions identically to the spell Find the Path (PHB pg. 230) except that instead of specifying a location, you are divining a path to your animal companion, the target of this ability can only be yourself, and the duration is 1 hour or until the companion is within 10 feet. If he moves during this duration, the ability will compensate for it. Your animal companion also gains the ability to find you through this method and instinctively learns how to use it, and can therefore generally be instructed to carry out tasks for you at some distance then return without fear of getting lost. Empowered bond (Su): As a standard action, you may empower the bond between you and your animal companion. The animal must be within 60 feet of you when you activate this ability and both of you must remain within 100 feet of each other for the duration or lose its effects. When you use this ability, select one trait from the list below. The duration of the effect is a number of rounds equal to your feral-heart marksman level. Once you have used this ability, you cannot do so again for 2d4 rounds. Once you have used a specific trait you cannot select it again until you have rested for 8 hours. - Thick hide. You gain DR 2/- and your animal companion gains DR 4/-. - Resist cold. You gain cold resist 4 and your animal companion gains cold resist 8. - Resist heat. You gain fire resist 4 and your animal companion gains fire resist 8. - Impart tactics. Your animal companion gains any bonuses you have to AC, attack rolls, and damage against creatures of a particular type that stem from special training or insight into that type of enemy, excluding racial modifiers. This includes such things as a Ranger's Favored Enemy class feature (though skill check bonuses don't apply) and/or a Knight of the Chalice's Fiendslaying (Complete Warrior, pg. 54), but doesn't include bonuses gained from size modifiers or feats like Dodge. This bonus cannot exceed your feral-heart marksman level. - Threatening aura. You gain a competence bonus to Intimidate checks equal to three fourths of your effective Druid level (the level used for purposes of determining your Animal Companion's abilities), rounded down - including bonuses from Heightened bond but not including any penalties from having a more powerful animal as your companion.* This bonus only applies if you are within 10 feet of your animal companion or the animal is within 15 feet of the target of your Intimidate check. Your animal companion also receives this bonus if you are within 10 feet of the animal or you have attacked the target of its Intimidate check this round or the previous round. In addition, when your animal companion charges or makes a full attack, after all its attacks are resolved it may as a swift action make a single Intimidate check which affects all targets to which it dealt at least 10 damage that round. This works as a standard check to demoralize an opponent (see the Intimidate skill in PHB) except that the animal gains bonuses equal to half the total damage dealt to affected targets that round and creatures that become shaken remain so until Threatening Aura's duration is ended. If a creature fails its modified level check by 10 or more and has fewer HD than the animal companion, it is frightened instead of shaken. (Because this swift action is taken after all of the animal's attacks are resolved, you may use the In Tandem class feature or even the Dead-eye class feature to attack the target before the Intimidate check is made, qualifying the animal for the bonus to its Intimidate check even if you didn't attack the target the previous round. Your attacks don't have to hit or damage the target to qualify this bonus.) * An 11th level Ranger/5th level Feral-heart Marksman would typically gain +10: 5 from Ranger (11/2 rounded down), 5 from this class's Animal companion feature, and 4 from Heightened bond, making 14, 3/4 of which is 10.5 (round down to 10). A 12th level Ranger/8th level Feral-heart Marksman would typically receive +15: ((12/2 Ranger) + 8 + 6)*(3/4). Wolfpack (Ex): Your animal companion gains the Wolfpack [Tactical] feat even if he doesn't meet the prerequisites. (See Races of the Wild, pg. 153.) In addition, your animal companion uses the feat with you in several unique ways, as follows. The animal can use your Bluff check instead of his own if he is within 60 feet of you when using the Distract foe feature. In lieu of the flanking requirement of Distract foe, a successful attack from you, even at range, which deals damage can count if done in two subsequent rounds against a foe the animal threatens. If you enabled the Distract foe action through an attack with a favored bow (rather than only through another ally enabling it through flanking or you enabling it using a different weapon), you gain an immediate single attack at your highest bonus with your favored bow if your companion's Bluff check succeeds. (You cannot apply feats such as Manyshot to this immediate attack.) This immediate attack counts as using an attack of opportunity this round. (Allies in position to give a flanking bonus for the animal receive attacks of opportunity against the foe as normal, per the Wolfpack [Tactical] feat description.) Dead-eye (Ex): To set up for this action, you must study a target for at least 1 round and make a ready action to attack that target with a favored bow when your animal companion attacks it. (You can declare your ready action as part of your round of studying.) When the animal rolls its attack, whether it hits or misses, your ready action triggers. This is a single ranged attack, but if you have the Manyshot feat you may use it to fire multiple arrows. The target is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC for this attack, even if the target has the Uncanny Dodge class ability. For the purpose of this ability, studying the target means you spend a full round within 1 range increment of the target (using the favored bow you will use to make an attack as a guide) and you can see the target clearly that entire time, and that you aren't moving more than your base speed, making any attacks that round, or performing any other strenuous activity. Awakening (Sp): Upon reaching 8th level, the Feral-heart Marksman gains the power to "awaken" his animal companion. At the completion of a ritual lasting 24 hours and involving the expenditure of 1,000 gold worth of precious stones, your animal companion is awakened, similar in several respects to the results of the Druid spell awaken (PHB pg. 202) but it is not the same ability. You must have spent at least one month with the animal as your companion to perform the ritual upon it. As part of the ritual, the Feral-heart Marksman must cast speak with animals to communicate directly with the animal and seek its permission to awaken it. If he is unable to cast the spell, the ritual will fail. Due to the nature of the relationship between feral-heart marksmen and their animal companions, if the animal has been treated well, it will assuredly accept the offer. (The spell awaken makes the rule that awakened animals cannot serve as animal companions; this rule is not applicable to this class feature.) Your awakened animal companion gets up to 14 base Intelligence, but its Intelligence score cannot be more than your score minus 2. It also gains +2 Charisma and +2 HD. An awakened animal companion's alignment will match its master's and it will remain loyal if treated well. Its type becomes magical beast (augmented animal); however, spells and abilities that affect creatures of the type "animal" (such as the animal growth spell) can still affect it if the animal allows them to. Finally, it can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any), though many animals awakened in this fashion prefer not to speak if they don't have to. Swift Fang (Ex): You may now use your Superior Magic Fang class feature as a swift action which does not provoke an attack of opportunity. In addition, all magic fang spells you cast as divine spells (including greater magic fang and the like) are cast as if they were affected by the Eschew Materials, Silent Spell, Still Spell, and Quicken Spell feats without using up a higher level spell slot. NOTE: Also see the spell Resurrect Animal Companion further down the page. It isn't technically part of this prestige class, as it can be used by any Ranger or Druid, but it is a very useful addition and any comments you may have on it are also welcome.
Tuhljin 12-17-06, 06:15 PM	I'm thinking about adding something to the "Threatening aura" trait to make it more worthwhile. I just threw this together in about a minute so I don't know how balanced it'd be, but here's an idea: Your animal companion gains a +10 competence bonus to Intimidate checks. In addition, when your animal companion takes a full attack action that round, as a swift action it may make an Intimidate check against all targets to which it dealt at least 10 damage during that round. This check gains half the damage dealt as a bonus. Each affected target must make a Will save (DC equals the Intimidate check) or become shaken for the remaining duration of the Threatening aura plus one round. If a creature fails its save by 10 or more and has fewer HD than the animal companion, it is frightened instead of shaken.
Tuhljin 12-19-06, 10:05 PM	Changes: Awakening shouldn't prevent the animal from being affected by friendly spells such as animal growth due to its type being changed. An awakened animal companion's alignment will match its master's. All of the Empowered Bond abilities have been adjusted. Please let me know if I've gone overboard. :) Are these abilities too powerful? Too convoluted?
Tuhljin 12-23-06, 03:31 AM	Any comments? Suggestions? Mud slinging?
spiderboy4 12-23-06, 02:54 PM	what I really like about the Prc is the use of the animal companion, but I'm wondering if it relies too much on it. What happens if your buddy is killed in the middle of combat. My favorite is the free attack from the companion on a critical hit. Maybe something like distracting shot: if you hit an opponent that your animal companion is threatening, your animal companion gains a +2 dodge bonus against that opponent until the start of your next round. Might not be enough dodge bonus for being a higher lvl Prc, so maybe, ranged flanking with your animal companion or somethin....
Tuhljin 12-23-06, 05:31 PM	That might be a good idea ... give some more survivability to the animal since they're pretty easy to hit. Thank you for the comment. :) Any other ideas from anyone? Do you think it's fairly balanced?
Tuhljin 12-26-06, 11:26 PM	Here are some ideas for additional class features to add survivability to the animal companion. I'm not sure if they are needed. The PrC seems pretty heavy in features already, but maybe too much does rely on the animal to not give it some safeguards. Distracting Shot (Ex): If you hit an opponent with a favored bow that your animal companion is threatening, your animal companion gains a +2 dodge bonus to AC against that opponent until the start of your next round. (From spiderboy4's idea. Gained perhaps at 3rd level.) Diehard (Su): As long as both you and your animal companion are within range of the Empathic Link ability, both of you gain the effects of the feat Diehard. (Gained at 5th level.) Empathic Bond (Su): Any time your animal companion takes enough damage (after DR and resistances are factored) to bring it to less than a fourth of its total hit points (maximum 30hp), the Feral-heart Marksman may immediately choose to negate half of the damage (rounded down) and instead take that amount upon himself. The type of damage dealt to the Marksman is the same type the animal took but no damage resistance or energy resistance applies. If this damage would kill the Marksman or if the animal companion will be killed outright even after half the damage is subtracted, he cannot use this ability. The Feral-heart Marksman may do this once every round with no penalty, but if he chooses to do so again that round he must make a DC 12 Constitution check or take 1 Constitution damage. The DC increases by a cumulative 2 points every time he chooses to use this ability after the second time in a round. This ability can only be used if the animal is within 100 feet of its master. (Gained at 8th level.) Suggestions and thoughts are welcome. Does anyone else agree with spiderboy4 that the animal companion is too vulnerable to hits and damage? Or is the class fine as-is?
Tuhljin 12-31-06, 04:00 AM	So let's say that your animal companion's survivability didn't hack it. Howsabout access to a new spell? Resurrect Animal Companion Conjuration (Healing) Level: Drd 4, Rgr 4 Components: V, S, M, DF Casting Time: 10 minutes Range: Touch Target: Dead animal companion touched Duration: Instantaneous Saving Throw: None; see text Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless) This spell functions like resurrection, except as follows. You may only target your own deceased animal companion which may not have been dead for a period longer than 1 week per caster level. The subject does not lose any levels or points of Constitution; however, once revived, the animal is exhausted and has 2 Constitution damage. Material Component: Diamonds worth a total of at least 5,000 gp.
Tuhljin 01-02-07, 02:59 AM	:bump:
Tim4488 01-02-07, 04:43 PM	I'm sorry to say I can't offer much help on the class, but I will say I really really like the Resurrect Animal Companion spell. Well done, it fits the flavor and rules of both classes and I'm surprised no one thought of it earlier.
Tuhljin 01-05-07, 11:07 PM	Thank you for the comment! As it stands, I think I'll be leaving out the extra animal companion survivability ideas (Distracting Shot, etc.) and just see how it goes. If the animal takes too much of a beating, I'll reconsider things and see what some friends (including the DM) think about it. The Resurrect Animal Companion spell isn't technically part of the PrC - it can be used by any Ranger or Druid - but I think it works well and (unlike Distracting Shot, etc.) it will be put in play. :) Edit: The only thing I wonder about is the price to the spell - 5,000 gp may be too much. Perhaps 2,000 gp worth of diamonds instead?
Tuhljin 01-13-07, 06:19 PM	I shuffled some abilities around and added these class features: Extended share spells, Superior Magic Fang, and Swift Fang. Also, another caster level is now "lost" at 8th level. The class still seems quite feature-heavy, but I don't know if I'd call it overpowered. What say you?
Tuhljin 02-23-07, 10:47 PM	Edited the text at the top to reflect the current state of the class. Also added a cap to the caster level of Superior Magic Fang. (In other words, "bump.")