Developing a rogue-sniper PrC

[Ferrix]

For one of my characters, I'm hoping to develop a 10 level sniper PrC. The deepwood sniper is too fighter-oriented, and I'm preferring something with a more roguish bent. I've got something half-worked up at home, but I'm in Seattle at the moment, so it'll wait.

Based slightly off of the assassin

Requirements:
Hide 8 ranks
Move Silently 8 ranks
Spot 4 ranks
Craft (poison) 8 ranks
Point Blank Shot
Prof w/Crossbow or Bow

Plethora of ideas:

HD: d4 or d6 (always trying to stay out of dangers reach)

BAB: rogue

Saves: as per rogue

Poison Use: no longer is at risk of poisoning oneself with poison

Ranged Sneak Attack: only at range, 1d6 at 1st level +1d6 every odd level
or
Precision Shot: sort of like OotBI, 1d8 at 1st level +1d8 every odd level, applicable only to a single attack per round

Extended Strike: extends point blank range allowing sneak attacks/precision shot to be inflicted over greater distances. Increases to first range increment or 60' whichever is longer, then two increments or 120', then any range.

Death Attack: as per assassin but only ranged

Camouflage: as per ranger but in any terrain

Adept Sniper: reduces the penalty to the hide check while sniping, -15, -10, -5.

Careful Aim: for every round spent aiming, gains a +2 to hit, max bonus equals level; can't move while gaining this bonus

Swift and Silent: the feat from Players Guide to Faerun

Anatomical Study: adds up to Int modifier to each die of sneak attack/precision damage, max int mod bonus of level/2.

Special Shot: can choose a type of shot from the shots below, all are full-round actions to perform, thus only one can be used at a time, some might have specific requirements to balance them to higher levels

Disabling Shot: inflicts half of sneak attack/precision damage against a construct or object

Fell Shot: ranged touch attack

Crippling Shot: switch out sneak attack/precision dice to inflict strength or dexterity damage

Tunneling Shot: shot penetrates target to strike a second target

Blinding Shot: blind a target with a successful sneak attack/precision, some sort of fortitude or reflex save involved

...more shot ideas

that's about all the ideas i have for now

 

[Eltern]

I really like the sound of those abilities, but I don't like the sound of a class having all or even 75% of them :-D

Adept Sniper, Extended Shot, Careful Aim, Roguetype sneak attack, camo are all absolutely necessary for the concept. Anatomical study sounds neat, until you realize HOW MUCH DAMAGE THAT IS! If I've got a 16 Int, 5 levels of rogue, and say four levels of this class, that's 15 extra damage. Sounds like a lot to me. Maybe 1/2 Int mod?

 

[Liquidsabre]

Have you seen the peerless archer in the FR-Silver Marches book? Ranged sneak attack, Power Shot, magic craft arrows, etc.

 

[Ferrix]

Have you seen the peerless archer in the FR-Silver Marches book? Ranged sneak attack, Power Shot, magic craft arrows, etc.

Yep, not what I'm looking for.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

Hmm. I suppose it depends on your conception of the sniper, somewhat.

As I understand it, the prototypical sniper spends an extended period of time perfectly setting up the kill shot. This would tend to reccomend stuff like death attack (which requires studying), the Order of the Bow's Precision Shot (which also requires time to line up), Camoflague and other things that allow you have a good chance one a single lethal shot, assuming you hide far away and use your concealed postion. Adept sniper would be a good one, as long as they couldn't use it to do multiple attacks (just shoot once and have them have no idea where it came from).

You could also do a "sharpshooter" with the various trick shots, but that seems less of the "one shot, one kill" from a long distance away thing that you're going for.

The last sort of thing is a "marksman," for lack of a better term, who would be able to do the whole sneak-attack thing at range, but not kill in one shot from a mile away. Instead, they would shoot a few arrows, dissapear, and repeat, from outside the normal small combat area (call it 60') but not from very, very far away.

As an aside, one ability of note from Star Wars d20 was called "Critical Strike," or somesuch. You took a full round action and doubled your critical range, automatically turned critical threats into hits and dealt maximum damage, which in a vitality/wounds system pretty much meant a [percent likelyhood of critical threat] chance of instantly dropping an opponent (you could achieve this at 16th level at the earliest). Even in a D&D like hitpoint system, having Sneak Attack dice maximized would hurt a lot.

 

[SteelDraco]

This is what I used a while ago when a rogue PC in my game wanted a sniper PrC.

Deepwood Sniper v3.5

Requirements: BAB +5, Hide 8 ranks, Move Silently 8 ranks, Spot 5 ranks, Far Shot, Point Blank Shot, Weapon Focus (any bow or crossbow).

BAB: Good
Saves: Fort poor, Ref good, Will poor
Hit Die: d8
Class skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skill Points per level: 4 + Int modifier

Special Abilities
1st: Sniper shot +1, take aim +2
2nd: Projectile Improved Critical +1, ranged precision
3rd: Poison Use
4th: Take aim +4
5th: Consistent aim 1/day, sniper shot +2
6th: Improved Precise Shot
7th: Projectile Improved Critical +2, take aim +6,
8th: Improved ranged precision
9th: Consistent aim 2/day
10th: Sniper shot +3, take aim +8

Take Aim (Ex): You can gain a +2 bonus to attack on a stationary target by aiming carefully. Taking aim is a full-round action, and if the target moves more than 5’ during that period, the bonus is lost. No additional bonus is gained by spending more than one round aiming. This bonus increases to +4 at 4th level, +6 at 7th level, and +8 at 10th level. This bonus applies to your first ranged attack in the next round, provided that the conditions for taking aim are still met. You can only use this ability with a weapon that you have taken the Weapon Focus feat with.

Sniper Shot (Ex): Your attacks are particularly deadly after you’ve taken the time to aim them properly. You gain the listed to your weapon’s threat range on shots on which you used the Take Aim ability. In addition, you gain the benefit of any sneak attack damage you may possess against the target, regardless of whether or not they’re flat-footed.

Projectile Improved Critical (Ex): Your critical damage multiplier for any ranged weapons that you have the Weapon Focus feat in are increased by +1. Thus, an arrow that normally deals x3 damage on a critical hit would deal x4 damage in your hands. This bonus increases to +2 at 7th level.

Ranged Precision (Ex): Your shots are almost unnaturally precise. You may use precision-based effects, such as sneak attack damage and weapon specialization, up to 60’ away. At 8th level, this distance increases an additional 30’.

Poison Use (Ex): You are trained in applying poison to your weapons, and don’t risk accidentally poisoning yourself.

Consistent Aim (Su): Once per day, you can reroll a single attack roll with a projectile weapon. You must accept the results of the new roll, even if they are worse than the original roll. You may use this ability twice per day at 9th level.

Improved Precise Shot (Ex): As the feat of the same name.

Feel free to criticize or adapt.

 

[Ferrix]

the deepwood sniper is definately not the style I'm looking for, it just focuses on bumping up the threat and critical multiplier. I'd rather ranged sneak attack which makes more sense for a rogue style sniper.

 

[rangerjohn]

the deepwood sniper is definately not the style I'm looking for, it just focuses on bumping up the threat and critical multiplier. I'd rather ranged sneak attack which makes more sense for a rogue style sniper.

Sniper Shot (Ex): Your attacks are particularly deadly after you’ve taken the time to aim them properly. You gain the listed to your weapon’s threat range on shots on which you used the Take Aim ability. In addition, you gain the benefit of any sneak attack damage you may possess against the target, regardless of whether or not they’re flat-footed.


Ranged Precision (Ex): Your shots are almost unnaturally precise. You may use precision-based effects, such as sneak attack damage and weapon specialization, up to 60’ away. At 8th level, this distance increases an additional 30’.

Did I miss something, or are you saying you want to improve the sneak attack progression?

 

[SteelDraco]

The problem with ranged weapons in combat is that once the fight has started, there's really no way to get sneak attack damage again. Extra sneak attack dice (even if they're specific to ranged combat) don't really do anything to alleviate that problem. You'll get a single devastating shot at the beginning of combat, and then you'll just have to rely on your normal capabilities after that. I set that class up so that it can do a single devastating shot, and also be useful in a normal fight, albiet not quite as good.

A single shot that kills is, IMO, the essence of the sniper. You can do that in D&D with either sneak attack dice or improving critical hits. I fiddled with both in that class; ranged sneak attack works too. Then you've got to figure out how to make it at least a bit useful in normal combat, or the character will be a one-trick pony, not useful in the kind of combats that usually show up.

 

[drunkmoogle]

Most DMs forget to add the penalty for distance penalty for spot checks. Or ad-hoc it the wrong way; much lower.

Do you know what it is?

-1 per ten feet.

A sniper, at 165' away, gets an effective +16/-20 to his hide check while sniping. A -4 to hide is great for the sniper, who probably gets the benefit of preparing beforehand for battle.

I suggest not granting a bonus to sniping, as I see it as unbalancing. A ranged death attack also seems unfair... imagine if the PCs had to storm a castle and there were two snipers on Sniper Towers. An extended precision range per level may work; like 10' a level to gain the bonuses of PBS, SA, and PS (for splashers of OotBI).

All those ability score damage options seem out-of-place... isn't the sniper aiming to kill?

Craftoison doesn't seem necessary for the concept of the class. Far Shot/Weapon Focus [any bow/crossbow] does.

My two cents.