A few adventurers combine the rogue's stealth with the ranger's tracking capabilities, becoming experts at hunting down one target and eliminating it with class. Instead of learning how to deal with a kind of creature, the relentless hunter adapts his methods in the field to better defeat his foes. Employing trickery, perception, and dedication to the chase, the relentless hunter is a deadly foe.

Role: A relentless hunter cannot perform in all of the situations in which a rogue shines, and he loses many of the ranger's more party-oriented support abilities. The relentless hunter is an assassin with a bit more staying power in combat, whose primary modus operandi is the selection of a target and the elimination thereof. Usually dissatisfied with a sedentary lifestyle, relentless hunters tend to travel to and fro, challenging themselves to hunt bigger and bigger game. Of course, they don't only hunt monsters: relentless hunters are capable of tracking any enemy to the ends of the earth, if the situation calls for it.

Alignment: any.

Hit Dice: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become a relentless hunter, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Base Attack Bonus: +6.

Special: Sneak attack +2d6, ranger's focus class feature.

Skills: Knowledge (geography) 7 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 7 ranks, Perception 7 ranks, Stealth 5 ranks, Survival 7 ranks.

Class Skills

The relentless hunter's class skills are Disguise (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis).

Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table 1-1: Relentless Hunter

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special Hunter's Focus
1st +0 +1 +1 +0 Hunter's focus, monster lore, never forget, track 1/day, +2
2nd +1 +1 +1 +1 Anticipation, favored terrain, focused charge 1/day, +2
3rd +2 +2 +2 +1 Rogue talent, terrain mastery 1/day, +2
4th +3 +2 +2 +1 Ambush, sneak attack +1d6 2/day, +2
5th +3 +3 +3 +2 Blind spot, favored terrain, greater focused charge 2/day, +4
6th +4 +3 +3 +2 Greater anticipation, rogue talent 2/day, +4
7th +5 +4 +4 +2 Team focus, terrain mastery 3/day, +4
8th +6 +4 +4 +3 Favored terrain, improved ambush, sneak attack +2d6 3/day, +4
9th +6 +5 +5 +3 Double focus, rogue talent 3/day, +6
10th +7 +5 +5 +3 Called shot 4/day, +6

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the relentless hunter prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A relentless hunter gains no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Hunter's Focus (Ex): A hunter can focus on a single enemy within line of sight as a swift action once per day. That creature remains the hunter's focus until it is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points or surrenders, or until the hunter designates a new focus, whichever occurs first. The hunter gains a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls against the target of his focus. The hunter gains additional uses of this ability as he gains levels, as illustrated on the table above. The bonus to attack and damage rolls also increases. Uses per day and bonuses stack with those received from the ranger's focus ability.

Boost: You can focus one additional time per day.

Monster Lore (Ex): The hunter adds his Wisdom modifier on Knowledge skill checks in addition to his Intelligence modifier, when making skill checks to identify the abilities and weaknesses of creatures.

Never Forget (Ex): At 1st level, the hunter gains a perfect memory for his chosen prey. He may spend 1 minute sketching the target of his focus from memory. Anyone who knows the subject as an individual recognizes them upon seeing the drawing. The hunter receives a +5 circumstance bonus on any Sense Motive checks to determine if such a person is denying familiarity.

If a hunter shows the sketch to someone familiar with the subject's creature type and maintains conversation for at least 1 minute, he automatically discerns one of the subject's strengths or weaknesses, as if he had succeeded on the appropriate Knowledge check (in addition to however many he identifies with his own Knowledge skill check). He may only benefit from this particular feature once per focus.

Track (Ex): A hunter's class levels stack with levels in all classes with the track ability for the purpose of calculating his bonus on Survival checks made to follow tracks.

Anticipation (Ex): At 2nd level, a hunter is never flat-footed in relation to the target of his focus; he does not lose his Dexterity bonus to AC against his focus and may make attacks of opportunity against his focus, even if he has not yet acted in combat. He still loses his Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized, or if the target of his focus successfully uses the feint action against him. If the hunter has the uncanny dodge ability, this ability is redundant.

Favored Terrain: At 2nd level, a hunter may select a favored terrain from the ranger Favored Terrains table. This works exactly like the ranger favored terrain ability. The hunter gains an additional favored terrain at 5th and 8th level, and he can increase the bonus from an existing favored terrain as described in the ranger ability. If the hunter has abilities from other classes that only work in a favored terrain (such as a ranger’s camouflage and hide in plain sight abilities), those abilities work in favored terrains selected as a hunter.

Focused Charge (Ex): At 2nd level, when a hunter makes a charge attack against the target of his focus, the -2 penalty to AC from charging does not apply to attacks made by the target of his focus.

Rogue Talents: At 3rd level, and every three levels thereafter, the hunter hones his powers of subterfuge. This functions as the rogue talent class feature. A hunter cannot select an individual talent more than once. If a hunter has the advanced talents class feature, he can choose from the advanced talents instead. For any talents with effects dependent on his rogue level, he adds his rogue level to his hunter level to determine his effective rogue level.

Terrain Mastery: At 3rd level, a hunter selects a favored terrain to master. This functions as the horizon walker terrain mastery class feature. The hunter masters an additional terrain at 7th level.

Ambush (Ex): Even extraordinarily careful enemies become susceptible to a hunter's surprise attacks when he begins the hunt. At 4th level, the target of a hunter's focus no longer gains the benefits of uncanny dodge against a hunter's attacks.

Sneak Attack (Ex): This ability is exactly like the rogue ability of the same name. The extra damage dealt increases by +1d6 at 4th and 8th level. If a hunter gets a sneak attack bonus from another source, the bonuses on damage stack.

Blind Spot (Ex): The hunter is an expert of disappearing into the gaps in his target's perception. He can use the Stealth skill even while being observed by the target of his focus.

Greater Focused Charge (Ex): At 5th level, in his haste to attack his prey, a hunter see paths previously obscured. He may charge against the target of his focus even through difficult terrain or spaces occupied by allies (but not spaces occupied by enemies).

Greater Anticipation (Ex): At 6th level, the target of a hunter's focus no longer gains a flanking bonus to attack rolls when flanking the hunter, and cannot make special attacks reliant on flanking (such as sneak attacks) against him. Creatures flanking the hunter with the target of the hunter's focus benefit from flanking as usual—the focus target still counts as a flanker. If the hunter has the improved uncanny dodge ability, this ability is redundant.

Team Focus (Ex): When a hunter leads the assault on his prey, his allies follow his cues, improving their efficiency as a team. At 7th level, when the hunter declares his focus, he may select a number of allies within 30 feet up to his Wisdom modifier. For the duration of his focus, the selected allies benefit from all teamwork feats the hunter possesses, but only in relation to the target of his focus. This effect is suppressed if the target is immobilized or rendered unconscious, and it ends permanently if the hunter is killed.

Improved Ambush (Ex): At 8th level, the hunter counts as having rogue levels equal to his character level + 4 for the purpose of flanking the target of his focus.

Double Focus (Ex): At 9th level, the hunter gains the ability to focus on two quarries at once. He must select both targets when he activates his hunter's focus (still a single swift action). This expends two daily uses of his ability. If he changes his focus prematurely, he loses sight of both his targets. Killing or subjugating one target does not end the focus effect on the other, however.

Called Shot (Ex): At level 10, a hunter may make sneak attacks at any range against the target of his focus. In addition, before rolling his attack when making a sneak attack against the target of his focus, the hunter may choose to forego any number of his sneak attack dice. If he does, he gains +1 on his attack roll for each die thus sacrificed. Unlike normal bonuses to attack, these are calculated as a bonus to his raw roll: if they push the hunter's attack roll into critical threat range, he has threatened a critical, and may roll to confirm.