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An arrow flies from a high mountain aerie, unerringly striking a soldier’s mount. Expecting only a flesh wound, the soldier is stunned to watch his companion of many adventures crumple to the earth. This unfortunate soul has trespassed into the domain of the Master Sniper, and he may not make it out alive. A Master 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, and hit much harder.
Hit Die: d8.
Requirements
To qualify as a Master Sniper, a character must fulfill the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +5.
Skills: Hide 4 ranks, Move Silently 4 ranks, Spot 4 ranks, Craft(bowmaking) 5 ranks.
Feats: Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (any bow or crossbow).
Prestige Class Trainer. In Warj'Arune, you must unlock the 1st level of this prestige class by finding the appropriate trainer. This could be someone else who has the class, an ancient tome full of wisdom, an outsider with relevant abilities / knowledge, or via a number of other means.
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Class Skills
The Master 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 (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str).
Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.
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Class Features
The following are class features of the Master Sniper prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Master Sniper 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.
Table 5–5: The Master Sniper
Class - - - - Base - - - - Fort - - - - Ref - - - - Will
Level - - - - Attack - - - Save - - - Save - - - Save - - - - Special
1st … … … … . +1 … … … . +0 … … … +2 … … … +0 … … … Penetrating Arrows, range increment bonus +10 ft./level
2nd … … … … +2 … … … . +0 … … … +3 … … … +0 … … … Concealment reduction 10%, projectile improved critical +1
3rd … … … … . +3 … … … . +1 … … … +3 … … … +1 … … … Safe poison use
4th … … … … . +4 … … … . +1 … … … +4 … … … +1 … … … Take aim +2, Close Combat Shot
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, Banked Shot
9th … … … … . +9 … … … . +3 … … … +6 … … … +3 … … … Consistent aim 3/day
10th … … … … +10 … … … +3 … … … +7 … … … +3 … … … Concealment reduction 30%
Penetrating Arrows (Ex): At 1st level, all projectiles the Master Sniper fires, for which she has the Weapon Focus feat, ignore some Damage Reduction. For every level of Master Sniper that a character possesses, 1 point of Damage Reduction is ignored (any type). For example, a 5th level Master Sniper would ignore the first 5 points of hardness of an object, or 5 points of DR / adamantine, even if their arrows/bolts were not made of the requisite material.
Range Increment Bonus (Ex): With each level the Master Sniper gains, the range increments of her projectile weapons increase by +10 feet (added after all multipliers). Thus, a 10th-level Master Sniper who has the Far Shot feat would have a 280-foot range increment with a heavy crossbow (120 feet × 1.5 + 100 feet).
Concealment Reduction (Ex): When the Master 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 Concealment, or 40% rather than 50% against an opponent with Total Concealment. Her miss chance drops by an additional 10% per 4 Master Sniper levels she gains thereafter, but this ability never reduces her miss chance against any opponent below 0%.
Projectile Improved Critical (Ex): When the Master Sniper reaches 2nd level, the critical damage multipliers of all her projectile weapons for which she has the Weapon Focus feat increase by +1. Thus, an arrow that normally deals damage ×3 on a critical hit instead does damage ×4 in her hands. When she reaches 7th level, these critical multipliers increase by an additional +1.
Safe Poison Use (Ex): At 3rd level, a Master 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 Master 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.
Close Combat Shot (Ex): At 4th level, a Master Sniper can attack with a ranged weapon while in a threatened square and not provoke an attack of opportunity.
Consistent Aim (Ex): Once per day, a 5th-level Master 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.
Banked Shot (Ex): At 8th level, as a Full Round Action, a Master Sniper can fire a projectile weapon for which she has the Weapon Focus feat against an enemy who is up to 20' from any stable and hard surface that is within range (wall, ceiling, floor, tree, ship's deck, etc.) The enemy is treated as flat-footed for the purposes for this attack. This ability will allow her to shoot around tunnel corners and such by using the opposite wall, though if she doesn't actually see her enemy somehow she must guess the correct square / hex and still suffers from a miss chance (Concealment Reduction applies.)
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