Fiend Hunter- Inspired slightly by the diablo 3 demon hunter, this class would be based around the idea of exiled templars who istead of using holy might to combat their vampiric or other enemies, ingest small amount of vampiric blood to gain temporary powers and traits of their enemies to use, this comes at a price of slowly tainting them closer to becoming the realy thing if they fall pray to it's call.
Weapons- dual wielded crossbows or swords most likely, lightly armored and similar to a ranger type of look
I've been trying to do something vaguely similar, except I'm looking at making the Diablo 3 Demon Hunter into a full-blown 20-level class. I'm currently basing it off the lurk from
Complete Psionic, with a few minor changes to class features (psionic sneak attack and the additional sneak attack lurk augment are being replaced with more a skirmish ability, similar to the
Complete Adventurer's Scout class, and an additional skirmish lurk augment).
My main difference at this point are probably going to be the powers -- lurk has six levels for psionic powers, but I'm pulling from lists that range up to level 8 psionic powers (the most notable level 8 being a variant of
dark despair from the Darkness Mantle in
Complete Psionic, that instead works against evil outsiders and undead -- that's about the closest I think I can come to the Demon Hunter's Marked for Death Discipline power).
Otherwise... the only ways I felt like I could emulate it would be to a) make a Ranger/Scout hybrid with ranger-type spellcasting, and that was proving a real pain; or b) an
Unearthed Arcana variant gestalt character: Ranger-Scout / Psion.
The other major sticking point for me (and even the lurk option isn't really helping me there) is trying to figure out how to dual-wield hand crossbows. To make it really worth it (especially with
hustle and
inconstant location to make your move action a swift action to give you skirmish damage/AC bonuses during a full-attack action), you seem to need TWF, Improved TWF and Greater TWF, as well as some of the ranged feats to really make it work (Crossbow Sniper, definitely).
If I thought I could get away with a ten-level prestige class that focused on the dual-wielding hand crossbows while also carrying on some of the lurk capacity (probably just in additional power points per day and +1 manifester level), I'd actually consider expanding the five-level Tempest prestige class from
Complete Adventurer, except for ranged combat. Instead of having a two-weapon Spring Attack, though, it would be a two-weapon Shot on the Run (because the feat is basically the same as Spring Attack), and then do a ranged-themed Shot on the Run progression with benefits equivalent to the benefits provided by Bounding Assault and Rapid Blitz from the
Player's Handbook II.
Regardless, I suspect you'll find it will be a difficult road ahead of you with your Fiend Hunter prestige class. But I hope the above helps give you some ideas, at least.
