Horizon Walker

[GakToid]

The horizon walker is a very interesting prestige class. However, I've struggled to come up with a concept for it. The class begs to be taken by a ranger, but I can't seem to come up with something that has a nice juicy flavor to it.

Has anyone run a horizon walker? What is your experience with the prestige class?

-Gak Toid

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I've yet to play one, but I do as well think this class is really interesting. I'd say it's even more interesting in a low-magic setting, since it receives so many juicy skill bonuses and other cool abilities. You're right that this is a classe basically built for a ranger, but a wilderness rogue could also take it. Any kind of explorer really.

AR

 

[jgsugden]

It seems to be a 'Tarzan' type character to me. Somebody that is very well adjusted to the jungles, plains, etc ... of his native lands. The high level abilities don't fit this theme too closely, but you never know what would have happenned to Tarzan had he gone to the elemental plane of fire ...

 

[mikebr99]

Or a min/max'er Barbarian...

Desert: You resist effects that tire you. You are immune to fatigue, and anything that would cause you to become exhausted makes you fatigued instead.

Mike

 

[mhd]

The horizon walker is a very interesting prestige class. However, I've struggled to come up with a concept for it. The class begs to be taken by a ranger, but I can't seem to come up with something that has a nice juicy flavor to it.

I have no direct experience with this PrC, as I had no valid candidates since 3.5, but it looks to me quite flexible. It really looks like it's just written for a Ranger, but I see several other options.

First of all, we've got the multi-classing option. The first few ranger levels (before spells) work quite nicely with other classes. Sorcerer mixes nicely, preferably with a spell selection that encourages traveling (expeditious retreat, dimension door, spider climb etc.).

The bard has all knowledge skills as class skills, too. Take the endurance feat and you quickly qualify. There you've got a character who's equally at home in the wilderness and in urban environments. A very nice explorer-type character.

Wizards are nice, too. Select some useful spells, take horizon walker and you've got the adventuring scholar, learning about the creatures and histories of the lands he travels through.

The Forgottem Realms campaign setting has a feat called "Education" which gives you all knowledge skills as class skills. This way you'd have to burn two feats to get the prerequisites right, but for some concepts that's worthwile.

And a possible house rule would be giving Clerics with the Travel domain Knowledge(geography) in addition to Survival.

 

[Mac Callum]

Warning: Rant level 8.5

This is one of those PrCs I've been looking at, but I really can't get a handle on. I have a really hard time imagining why anyone would take more than 1 or 2 levels of this class (and they would only take it for min/max reasons or Darkvision).

Mainly, it doesn't have a lot of synergy with any other class. The various PrC in Complete Warrior (to take an example) allow you to grow as a character in new directions, but they built upon the abilities you already had. Horizon Walker is so random that it does not seem to do that. Spellcasters immediately cease progressing in any spellcasting ability, so that's out. Even Bards have a good enough spell progression that I wouldn't want to trade it in, let alone give up advancement in Bardic Knowledge and Bardic Song powers. Rogues loose their Sneak Attack progression, and they don't really need the Skill Points.

The only class I can really see taking this PrC is a Fighter whose decided to exchange fighting feats for Skill Ranks and some weird abilities at higher levels. I just can't see it. Why would a Ranger take this? He has to give up his spell progression, favored enemy progression, weapon style progression, good reflex saves and his special abilities (like Woodland Stride, Swift Tracker and Hide in Plain Sight) just for some skill boosts and +1 Att./Dmg. to terrain specific monsters? Dimension Door at will, once every 1d4 rounds is cool ... but would you give up 6 levels of Ranger just for that? You could get an item that allows you to do that 5/day and probably never know the difference.

The other problem I have with this is class - how often do you really use the special abilities? If you're in a volcano that Fire Resistance 20 is handy, but your +30 fly speed in weighless environments is pretty useless. Since most of your skills and abilities are terrain specific, and you can only be in one terrain at a time, most of your abilities are going to be pretty useless most of the time. They aren't flexible like Wildshape or a spell list.

Lastly, for a Horizon Walker with all kinds of Planar abilities, why can't you Plane Shift, or become Ethereal or even Teleport? You have NO travel abilities (except for Dimension Door). A Wizard or Cleric of same level is a much superior "Horizon Walker" than you are.

This PrC has just bugged me ever since I saw it. The Horizon Walker (IMHO) should be - I dunno, have some better abilities that really compliment another class, or are good enough to be their own class. This PrC just seems like something that would always leave me a bit dissappointed.

Sorry about the rant.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I have a really hard time imagining why anyone would take more than 1 or 2 levels of this class (and they would only take it for min/max reasons or Darkvision).

But that one level for Darkvision is nice

-Hyp.

 

[UltimaGabe]

From my experience, it's been a character thing more than anything else. The people I'm currently playing with changed it a while ago into two 5-level Prestige Classes- one Georgraphical, and the other Planar. The Planar Horizon Walker has higher Prerequisites, of course, but that way you can take one without the other, in case you wanted a character that was a Planar Explorer, for example.

 

[Shadowdweller]

Tremorsense isn't half bad either. Nor is the ability to ignore Blasphemy spells and abilities. Come to think of it, those skill bonuses are actually pretty potent too. I don't know, seems like a decent thing to add to a warrior-type class for variety/versatility.

 

[cidak]

Ranger/horzion walker build

I was looking at a build for an elite tracker. The options are to combine a Ranger/Rogue or a straight Ranger into a Horizon Walker. It looks good to me and I am thinking about playing it after my next PC death (which in our group are all too regular )

From a role playing point of view, I saw the character coming from an elite group. Maybe something attached to a Royal Academy (or if you are evil some sinister organisation) to get that extra training to match the special abilities that the PrC grants. That way there are some strong ties for the character and the reason for going down that path.

Min/maxing: Fire and cold resistance 20 with a rogue evasion is pretty cool as well