Class Features[edit]

All of the following are class features of the Hunter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Hunters are proficient with the following weapons: club, dagger, dart, quarterstaff, scimitar, sickle, shortspear, sling, spear, long sword, all types of bows, and elven thin blade.

Hunters are proficient with light and medium armor but are prohibited from wearing metal armor; thus, they may wear only padded, leather, or hide armor. (A Hunter may also wear wooden armor that has been altered by the ironwood spell so that it functions as though it were steel. See the ironwood spell description) Hunters are proficient with shields (except tower shields) but must use only wooden ones.

A Hunter who wears prohibited armor or carries a prohibited shield is unable to cast Hunter spells or use any of her supernatural or spell-like class abilities while doing so and for 24 hours thereafter.

Spells: A Hunter casts divine spells, which are drawn from the Druid spell list. Her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. A Hunter must choose and prepare her spells in advance (see below).

To prepare or cast a spell, the Hunter must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Hunter’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Hunter’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a Hunter can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Hunter. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score. She does not have access to any domain spells or granted powers, as a cleric does.

A Hunter prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though she cannot lose a prepared spell to cast a cure spell in its place (but see Spontaneous Casting, below). A Hunter may prepare and cast any spell on the Hunter spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.

Spontaneous Casting: A Hunter can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that she hasn’t prepared ahead of time. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast any summon nature’s ally spell of the same level or lower.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A Hunter can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own. Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Bonus Languages: A Hunter’s bonus language options include Sylvan, the language of woodland creatures. This choice is in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.

A Hunter also knows druidic, a secret language known only to Hunters and Druids, which she learns upon becoming a 1st-level Hunter. druidic is a free language for a Hunter; that is, she knows it in addition to her regular allotment of languages and it doesn’t take up a language slot. Hunters are forbidden to teach this language to non-hunters or druids.

druidic has its own alphabet.

Animal Companion (Ex): A Hunter may begin play with an animal companion selected from the following list: badger, camel, dire rat, dog, riding dog, eagle, hawk, horse (light or heavy), owl, pony, snake (Small or Medium viper), or wolf. If the campaign takes place wholly or partly in an aquatic environment, the following creatures are also available: crocodile, porpoise, Medium shark, and squid. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the Hunter on her adventures as appropriate for its kind.

Animal Companion (Ex)

At 1st level, a hunter forms a bond with an animal companion. A hunter may begin play with any of the animals available to a druid. This animal is a loyal companion that accompanies the hunter on her adventures. This ability functions like the druid animal companion ability (which is part of the nature bond class feature). The hunter's effective druid level is equal to her hunter level. If a character receives an animal companion from more than one source, her effective druid levels stack for the purposes of determining the companion's statistics and abilities. A hunter may teach her companion hunter's tricks from the skirmisher ranger archetype instead of standard tricks.

If a hunter releases her companion from service or her animal companion perishes, she may gain a new one by performing a ceremony requiring 24 uninterrupted hours of prayer in the environment where the new companion typically lives. While the hunter's animal companion is dead, any animal she summons with a summon nature's ally spell remains for 1 minute per level instead of 1 round per level. A hunter cannot have more than one summon nature's ally spell active in this way at one time. If this ability is used again, any existing summon nature's ally immediately ends.

Nature Training (Ex)

A hunter counts her total hunter level as both druid levels and ranger levels for the purpose of qualifying for feats, traits, and options that modify or improve an animal companion.

Track (Ex)

At 2nd level, a hunter adds 1/2 her level to Survival skill checks made to follow tracks. Hunter Tactics (Ex)

At 3rd level, the hunter automatically grants her teamwork feats to her animal companion. The companion doesn't need to meet the prerequisites of these teamwork feats.

Track: A Hunter gains Track as a bonus feat.

Nature Sense (Ex): A Hunter gains a +2 bonus on Knowledge (nature) and Survival checks.

Wild Empathy (Ex): A Hunter can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The Hunter rolls 1d20 and adds her Hunter level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result.

The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.

To use wild empathy, the Hunter and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A Hunter can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.