The SagitteerVERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS. Though all 20 levels are filled out the class is in dire need of criticism. I'm pretty happy with levels 1-10 so far, but I still have a lot of work ahead of me, and even those levels could stand to be tweaked and/or massively edited. Amechra, feel free to work on your own version, as I'm sure we both have very different ideas of what a ranged attacker should be doing. For reference, here's the
LINK for the Battlelord.
MY NOTES:
1) A Ranged attacker's job is not to take down big brutes and thus it doesn't need as much of a damage boost (though it could still use a more modest one).
2) A Ranged attacker's job is, in it's most simplistic form, to never miss, and beyond that, to take down targets that would ordinarily be difficult to hit.
3) Even at low levels monsters whose job it should be for the ranged attacker to take down have powerful defensive at-will spell-likes such as Blink and Greater Teleport and shapechanging abilities. A ranged attacker should not be fooled by illusions and needs a way to strike between dimensions (a scaling extraordinary ability based on Spot checks would be nice I think).
4) A Ranged attacker should, in theory, be based on single accurate/lethal shots rather than a flurry hoping for crits.
5) Position, speed, and terrain are all important to a ranged attacker.
6) A fall back melee plan, similar to the Monk's unarmed damage progression, wouldn't be out of place.Alignment: Any
HD: 1d8
Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Unarmed Strike | Speed Bonus |
1st | +1 | +0 | +2 | +2 | Agile Finesse, Astrological Aim | 1d6 | +10ft |
2nd | +2 | +0 | +3 | +3 | AC Bonus, Spatial Awareness | 1d6 | +10ft |
3rd | +3 | +1 | +3 | +3 | Greater Finesse | 1d6 | +20ft |
4th | +4 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Stargazer, Star's Grace +1 | 1d6 | +20ft |
5th | +5 | +1 | +4 | +4 | Cometfall | 1d8 | +20ft |
6th | +6/+1 | +2 | +5 | +5 | Counter Charge | 1d8 | +30ft |
7th | +7/+2 | +2 | +5 | +5 | Saturnine Sway | 1d8 | +30ft |
8th | +8/+3 | +2 | +6 | +6 | Ace in the Hole, Star's Grace +2 | 1d8 | +30ft |
9th | +9/+4 | +3 | +6 | +6 | Astrological Answers | 2d6 | +40ft |
10th | +10/+5 | +3 | +7 | +7 | Hide in Plain Sight | 2d6 | +40ft |
11th | +11/+6/+1 | +3 | +7 | +7 | Coronal Strike | 2d6 | +40ft |
12th | +12/+7/+2 | +4 | +8 | +8 | Starseeker, Star's Grace +3 | 2d6 | +50ft |
13th | +13/+8/+3 | +4 | +8 | +8 | Improved Stargazer | 2d8 | +50ft |
14th | +14/+9/+4 | +4 | +9 | +9 | Celestial Phase | 2d8 | +50ft |
15th | +15/+10/+5 | +5 | +9 | +9 | Astrological Revelation | 2d8 | +60ft |
16th | +16/+11/+6/+1 | +5 | +10 | +10 | Mercurial Haste, Star's Grace +4 | 2d8 | +60ft |
17th | +17/+12/+7/+2 | +5 | +10 | +10 | Meteor Shower | 2d10 | +60ft |
18th | +18/+13/+8/+3 | +6 | +11 | +11 | Greater Stargazer | 2d10 | +70ft |
19th | +19/+14/+9/+4 | +6 | +11 | +11 | Cosmic Awareness | 2d10 | +70ft |
20th | +20/+15/+10/+5 | +6 | +12 | +12 | Seraphic Gate, Star's Grace +5 | 2d10 | +70ft |
Class Skills (6+Int): Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Escape Artist, Handle Animal, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nature), Knowledge (The Planes), Listen, Move Silently, Ride, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, and Use Rope.
Weapons and Armor Proficiency: A Sagitteer is proficient with all simple weapons, and all martial thrown or ranged weapons. A Sagitteer is proficient with light armor but not with shields.
Agile Finesse (Ex): A Sagitteer gains Improved Unarmed Strike and Weapon Finesse as bonus feats without needing to meet their prerequisites. He also gains a boost to his Unarmed Strike damage and to all his speeds as shown in the table above.
Astrological Aim (Su): A 1st level Sagitteer gains the benefits of the Precise Shot and Wild Talent feats. While Psionically Focused he ignore the distraction penalty to Spot checks and an amount of distance penalty equal to -2/class level.
Further, once per day per point of his Wisdom modifier, he may expend his Psionic Focus in order to reroll a single ranged attack roll. If he does, he can ignore cover or concealment effects if their caster level is equal to or lower than his Sagitteer level. Effects with no listed caster level use the HD of the source. If the source of the cover or concealment isn't magical effect (such as a tower shield or fog), he ignores it outright.
AC Bonus: Starting at 2nd level, a Sagitteer adds his Wisdom modifier to his AC as long as he wears light or no armor. If he wears no armor he adds an additional +1 bonus per 4 class levels. These bonuses to AC apply to his touch and flat-footed AC, but do not apply while he is Helpless, Stunned, or Unconscious.
Spatial Awareness (Su): At 2nd level a Sagitteer gains the benefits of the Quick Reconnoiter (CAdv), Dodge, and Elusive Target (CW) feats without needing to meet their prerequisites. He loses these benefits if he has fewer Sagitteer levels than levels of any other class.
Greater Finesse (Ex): Starting at 3rd level, a Sagitteer adds his Dexterity modifier to damage rolls with any thrown, ranged, or finesseable melee weapon. In the case of thrown and finesseable melee weapons his Dexterity modifier is added
in place of his Strength modifier, not in addition to.
Stargazer (Su): Starting at 4th level, while Psionically Focused a Sagitteer cannot be Blinded, and is immune to all Gaze attacks.
Whenever he makes a Concentration check to gain his Psionic Focus, he may also cast
Anticipate Teleportation if the check is successful, except that he is always made aware of teleportation within the area regardless of the recipient and it's duration is based on how long he maintains his Psionic Focus. If he has a means of gaining Psionic Focus without a Concentration check, this ability can be used as part of that ability.
Furthermore, he may expend his Psionic Focus to gain, for 1 round and within 60ft, the ability to perceive and interact with (see: attack) creatures on a coexisting plane (such as the Ethereal Plane or the Plane of Shadow) and/or creatures within an extradimensional space.
Star's Grace (Su): Starting at 4th level, a Sagitteer's attacks gain a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls and are considered magical. His weapons also benefit from the Ghost Touch property. This enhancement bonus improves by +1 every four levels thereafter.
Cometfall (Ex): At 5th level a Sagitteer gains Far Shot as a bonus feat without needing to meet the prerequisites. Furthermore, as a standard action he may make a "Cometfall" attack making a single ranged attack. As part of this attack he may make a DC 15 Spot check. If the check succeeds he ignores the penalties for attacking up to 1 range increment past his weapon's normal range (as increased by the Far Shot feat). For every 5 points he beats the check he ignores the penalties of an additional range increment.
Making a Cometfall attack always provokes attacks of opportunity and deals extra damage equal to +1d6 for every 10ft from which the attack "falls" above its target (maximum 20d6), and +1d6 per range increment of the attack (maximum 1d6/two class levels).
A Cometfall attack made at least one range increment beyond the first is incredibly difficult to deflect or otherwise turn aside. Cometfall is considered a siege weapon attack for the purposes of attacking through
wind effects (attacking through even Severe Wind at no penalty).
A creature may not use Deflect Arrows, Block Arrow or similar abilities to deflect a Cometfall unless it succeeds on an opposed attack roll.
The extra damage added by Cometfall is not precision based in nature, but rather is added as a result of calculated momentum. All creatures, including ones immune to critical hits and sneak attack, are vulnerable to the extra damage from Cometfall.
Counter Charge (Ex): Starting at 6th level, as an immediate action when a creature charges the Sagitteer he may initiate an opposed Dexterity check with the charging creature. If you are smaller than the charging creature your Dexterity check gets a +2 bonus for each size category you are smaller.
If your check fails the creature gets an additional +2 bonus to its attack rolls against you and deals +2d6 damage with its first attack.
If your check succeeds the creature's attacks fail and you may either move the creature up to 10ft away from you in any non-vertical direction or knock it prone. For every 5 points by which you beat the charging creature's check you may move the creature 5 additional feet (even if you knocked it prone). Unless the creature's charge doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, this movement provokes attacks of opportunity but not from you.
Saturnine Sway (Su): Starting at 7th level, a Sagitteer is able to delay his action (see
Delay, PHB 160) in one round without changing his Initiative in the next round. When he takes his action, by expending his Psionic Focus he may interrupt another creature's actions as though he had readied an action to do so (though he need not specify the intention to do so beforehand).
Ace in the Hole (Ex): Starting at 8th level, a Sagitteer takes no penalty to Hide checks while sniping (see
Hide, PHB 76).
Astrological Answers (Su): Starting at 9th level, while Psionically Focused a Sagitteer gains the benefits of a
Trace Teleport effect as the power. He may expend his Psionic Focus as a standard action to mimic the effects of a
Contact Other Plane spell. In effect he looks to the stars, reading horoscopes to glean what information he can. He does not necessarily hold a conversation with anyone or anything.
Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): Starting at 10th level a Sagitteer is able to seemingly vanish into thin air, and while in
any sort of terrain can use the Hide skill even while being observed.
Coronal Strike (Ex): Starting at 11th level, as long as he is Psionically Focused, whenever the Sagitteer successfully hits a creature with a ranged attack he may designate it as marked. He may only have one marked creature at a time and designating a new marked creature removes that designation from any other creatures. He effectively threatens marked creatures for the purposes of making attacks of opportunity but he may
not make attacks of opportunity for movement. Attacks of opportunity made in this way can be made out to his weapon's maximum range (including Far Shot and all range increments).
A Sagitteer with Coronal Strike still threatens with a melee weapon as normal and may take attacks of opportunity when a creature he threatens provokes one, including attacks of opportunity provoked because of movement, as normal.
Starseeker (Su): Starting at 12th level, as an immediate action, a Sagitteer may mimic an aberration of starlight by suffusing a ranged attack with subspace energy allowing it to follow foes through dimensions. Up to 1 round after an enemy used a teleportation effect you may make a ranged attack attempting to hit them through time and space.
You roll an attack against your target's AC normally, and aim for the space in which they used their teleportation effect. If your attack roll meets or beats the target's AC and if, when you make your attack, your weapon's range is enough to reach the space in which they used the teleportation effect and the distance the target is currently away from the destination of said effect, you hit the enemy normally and deal damage accordingly.
Because of the refraction of trajectory Cometfall cannot be used in conjunction with Starseeker.
Improved Stargazer (Su): Starting at 13th level, while the Sagitteer is Psionically Focused, he gains the benefits of
True Seeing out to his line of sight. Further, when he gains Psionic Focus his
Anticipate Teleportation effect becomes a
Greater Anticipate Teleportation effect if he desires. Finally, while Psionically Focused, he no longer needs to expend his focus to perceive and interact with creatures on a coexisting plane and/or creatures within an extradimensional space.
Celestial Phase (Su): Starting at 14th level, as an immediate action, a Sagitteer may remove the material from her ranged attack and replace it with pure subspace energy allowing it to pass through all obstacles on its way to a target. His ranged attack travels to the target in a direct path, passing through any nonmagical barrier or wall in its way. This ability negates cover, concealment, and even manufactured and natural armor bonuses, but otherwise the attack is rolled normally.
A Sagitteer doesn't need line of sight to a target when using Celestial Phase he need only know the creature he wishes to attack. If the target is beyond the Sagitteer's normal range the attack will pursue the target through as many range increments as possible, accruing attack penalties as normal, before fading harmlessly into nothing.
Celestial Phase can be used with Cometfall to fire through low ceilings and obstacles as well as ignore increment penalties and deal extra damage.
Astrological Revelation (Su): Starting at 15th level, a Sagitteer may expend his Psionic Focus as a standard action to mimic the effects of a
Greater Scrying spell. If he later becomes Psionically Focused again his
True Seeing effect from Improved Stargazer functions through this effect. The duration of the effect is shorter than normal lasting only 1 minute per two class levels but the Sagitteer needs neither material components or a focus of any kind.
Mercurial Haste (Su): Starting at 16th level, while a Sagitteer is Psionically Focused and uses his Saturnine Sway feature he may always interrupt another creature's actions as though he had readied an action to do so without needing to expend his Focus.
Furthermore, as an immediate action, the Sagitteer may expend his Focus and take his turn rather than waiting for it to come up in the initiative sequence. When he does his place in the initiative sequence in subsequent rounds is altered to match.
Meteor Shower (Su): Starting at 17th level, after a Sagitteer makes a Cometfall attack, he may expend his Psionic Focus to convert the attack into four spheres of celestial fire to produce an effect similar to the
Meteor Swarm spell. The effect's range is that of your Cometfall attack and the ranged touch attacks of each sphere may suffer penalties to their attack roll for distance depending on the Spot check you made when using Cometfall.
You may designate a single target for each sphere or a separate one, or even no targets at all to simply bomb an area. The spheres created by this effect
do not benefit from the damage bonus of a normal Cometfall attack.
Damage dealt by the spheres bypasses an amount of damage reduction, regeneration, and fire resistance equal to your Sagitteer level. Immunity to Fire instead becomes fire resistance 50 and is then reduced accordingly.
Greater Stargazer (Su): Starting at 18th level, when a Sagitteer gains Psionic Focus he may ward a radius around himself out to 60ft as
Dimensional Lock and may also produce a
Find the Path effect as the spell except that the destination may also be a specific known creature as
Locate Creature. These effects last as long as he has Psionic Focus.
Finally, he may expend his Psionic Focus as a standard action to mimic the effects of a
Discern Location spell.
Cosmic Awareness (Su): Starting at 19th level, while the Sagitteer is Psionically Focused he gains the benefits of a
Foresight effect as the spell.
Furthermore, when a Sagitteer gains his Psionic Focus he may weave threads of his very soul with strands of subspace energy, planting a Fine-sized seed, within which resides his cosmic imprint, in a secret location on the Astral Plane. He may have only one seed in existence at any one time. Until such time as he perishes, the astral seed is totally inert. Upon dying, his body is transported to the location of the astral seed, where he spends a day growing a new body at which point the old one crumbles to a fine cosmic dust to be scattered to the astral winds. Resurrecting in this manner will cost a level. If the seed is destroyed, before he perishes nothing happens to his body upon dying. If the seed is destroyed after he has perished but before a new body is grown his body does not crumble into dust, but remains secreted away within the Astral Plane.
Seraphic Gate (Su): Starting at 20th level, a Sagitteer may spend 10 minutes concentrating (which may be interrupted as normal) and expend his focus at the end of that time to mimic the effects of a
Gate spell. He must pay triple the XP cost associated with the spell if he intends to call creatures through the
Gate.