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Mage Hunter PrC (new)

Axelos

First Post
This is new prestige class I designed, and I'm looking for a little help getting the bugs out.

MAGE HUNTER

Mage hunters are experienced “wizard killers” who are also perfectly capable of dealing with other spellcasting opponents. Often found among cultures that fear or despise magic, mage hunters may also appear among highly magical cultures that often find themselves at war with other highly magical cultures. The job of the mage hunter in such situations is to neutralize enemy spell casters in order to tip the balance of magical power in favor of his own spell casting allies. However, the abilities of the mage hunter also make him a formidable adventurer as well, as he is particularly helpful when exploring dungeons or assaulting towers where dangerous spellcasters or magical creatures lurk.

Some mage hunters are wary of spellcasters; others work together with spellcasters quite contentedly. The attitude of the mage hunter is not as important as his abilities.

Most mage hunters come from the martial classes, with fighters more common than others. Monks can also make excellent mage hunters, as they can approach dangerous wizards in a seemingly benign manner—unarmed and unarmored—only to reveal their own lethal abilities at the right moment. Rogues and bards also make good mage hunters, albeit less combat-oriented one; rogue/mage hunters often sneak into the lairs of dangerous spellcasters using their stealthy abilities, while bard/mage hunters use their knowledge and social skills to discover spellcasters’ habits, attitudes, and weaknesses. Characters whose primary roles are as spellcasters, however, rarely become mage hunters because doing so would interrupt their own progression of spellcasting ability.

Hit Die: d8

Requirements

To become a mage hunter, a character must fulfill all of the following criteria:

Base Attack Bonus: +6
Skills: Knowledge (Arcana) 4 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 4 ranks
Special: The character must have no saving throw below +6. This can be achieved through high base saves, high ability scores, feats, or class features, but not magic items.

Class Skills

The mage hunter’s class skills are Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Gather Information, Handle Animals, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Perform, Profession, Ride, Search, Spot, and Swim.

Skill points at each level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the mage hunter prestige class.

Find and Disarm Magical Traps: Like a rogue, the mage hunter can locate and disarm magical traps by using the appropriate skills.

Spell Resistance: At 4th level, the mage hunter gains spell resistance equal to 10 + his mage hunter class level + his Charisma bonus.

Bane of Spellcasters: Starting at 2nd level, the mage hunter gains this ability. Whenever the mage hunter hits an arcane spellcaster with an a melee weapon, or a ranged weapon within 30 feet, he inflicts an additional +1d6 damage. If the mage hunter has the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, or if he is a monk (or any other class with a class ability that duplicates the Improved Unarmed Strike feat), this bonus damage also applies to unarmed attacks. Beginning at 4th level, this ability extends to fighting divine spellcasters. Starting at 8th level, the mage hunter can also use this ability against creatures with spell-like abilities. Note that creatures with spellcasting ability (i.e., that cast spells as a character, rather than having spell-like abilities) qualify as either arcane spellcasters or divine spellcasters and may therefore be affected by this ability at the appropriate lower mage hunter levels. Bonus damage from Bane of Spellcasters increases to +2d6 at 7th level.

Saving Throw Bonus: At 3rd level, the mage hunter gains a bonus to all saving throws equal to his Charisma modifier. However, this bonus does not stack with any other ability that allows a character to add his Charisma modifier to his saving throws, such as a paladin’s divine grace class feature. In other words, for any character with such an ability, the Charisma bonus is not applied twice.

Dispel Magic: Beginning at 4th level, the mage hunter gains the ability to cast dispel magic once a day with an effective caster level of his mage hunter level + his Cha bonus. At 8th level, he can do this twice a day.

Magic Seeking Strike: At 5th level, the mage hunter gains a +1 bonus to attack rolls against any target that his Bane of Spellcasters ability will affect. At 10th level, this bonus increases to +2. This bonus will stack with any other type of bonus.

Threat to Casters: At 6th level, the mage hunter’s critical hit threat range doubles when attacking any opponent that his Bane of Spellcasters ability will affect. This doubling follows the normal D&D doubling rules; i.e., doubling twice equals tripling. For example, a character with a weapon that normally threatens on 19-20 will instead threaten on 17-20 with this ability, 15-20 if he also has the Improved Critical feat with that weapon or if the weapon is keen, and 13-20 if all of the above are true. A 6th level mage hunter with Improved Critical (scimitar) and a keen scimitar is a frightening opponent to spellcasters, as he will threaten a critical hit on 9-20.


Rather than reproduce the class table here, I can simply tell you that the mage hunter has all good saves and his attack bonus increases as a cleric.
 
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Axelos said:
Or maybe you can point me to where something similar, but more balanced, has already been done?

Magic of Faerun includes a mage-killer PrC, but it takes an almost entirely different approach (it's geared towards spellcasters, and has full spell progression).

Two things that particularly concern me: the Spell Slayer ability I designed for 10th level (probably too powerful, but also maybe too clunky) and the BAB and saving throw progressions. Any suggested changes to these would be particularly helpful.

Fighter BAB, fighter HD and monk saves is a bit too frisky, IMO. Although most of the special abilities will only be useful in some (often fairly specific) situations, SR and save bonuses will always come in handy. Altogether, I think that makes the PrC too powerful.
 

Friskiness?

I am with haiiro on this one...too strong.

But a lot of it is really cool. I like that final ability, which at minimum would be gained at 16th level. Some thoughts on balancing,

-Switch the BAB down to Cleric progression. That should allow the mage hunter to hit often with their first attack

-Not sure about this but maybe lower the bane of spellcasters to 1d6. You could also scale this ability with levels, so at 7th level or what ever it goes up to 2d6.

-An ability that you might want to add in, perhaps at the expense of the SR, is the ability dispel magic x/day at caster level=mage hunter lvl + Cha Bonus

-In the skills section, the hunters have disable device but most classes entering into this PrC will not be able to find magical traps...you might want to consider adding that in.

Some thoughts...so disregard if you think they are stupid
 

Originally posted by hairro
Fighter BAB, fighter HD and monk saves is a bit too frisky, IMO. Although most of the special abilities will only be useful in some (often fairly specific) situations, SR and save bonuses will always come in handy.

Hmm...yeah, I was thinking that too, but my buddy (and player) thought it was okay. I suspected he wanted me to leave it as is so he could take the PrC himself and kick ass!

So, now I've lowered the Hit Die down to a d8, changed the BAB progression to the cleric's, and delayed SR until 4th level. This help?

Originally posted by Gideon
Not sure about this but maybe lower the bane of spellcasters to 1d6. You could also scale this ability with levels, so at 7th level or what ever it goes up to 2d6.

We'll try it that way, see how it works.

Originally posted by Gideon
An ability that you might want to add in, perhaps at the expense of the SR, is the ability dispel magic x/day at caster level=mage hunter lvl + Cha Bonus

Well, I left the SR in (though I delayed it until lvl 4 now), but I liked this idea enough that I put it in there too. I don't know now if I've "paid" enough for it yet; lowering the Hit Die and BAB and reducing the Bane of Spellcasters damage, along with delaying the SR, is significant, but the PrC was already (as we all seem to agree) overpowered. I also ditched the Spell Slayer ability that was giving me worries (but which you guys curiously did not mention), but as that is a 10th level ability, it still doesn't even out since the dispel magic ability comes at a much lower level than that.

Any thoughts? Do I need to "pay" a little more for the dispel magic, or have the changes I've already made brought the PrC down enough that the dispel is okay?

Originally posted by Gideon
In the skills section, the hunters have disable device but most classes entering into this PrC will not be able to find magical traps...you might want to consider adding that in.

Well...okay, we'll try that. I actually originally thought that, since this PrC was not exactly designed for rogues, a little bonus for rogues who did decide to take this path would be that they would be the only mage hunters who could deal with magical traps. For now, though, I'll follow your suggestion. I can always take it back out!

All these changes are now reflected in the PrC description in the first post. All comments are welcome!
 
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Hunting da mages

I think we might have nuetered the class now...you might want to keep d10 hit dice. Otherwise, i like it!

Couple more suggestions:
-On the disable device skills thing, once you said that it was a special things for rogues i kinda agree...could go either way.

-On the dispel check, maybe a bonus when used on a single person instead of an area dispel?...not really sure

-I might have missed it but, the mage hunter can't actually detect magic, can they? you might want to through that in x/day

Hope this helps...it looks like a really fun PrC.
 

I like the "high saves" entry requirement, but I do NOT think it should take magic items into consideration. Otherwise you'll get into silly situations with your PCs -- "Hey Bob can I borrow your Cloak of Resistance +3 for a couple of days? I gotta qualify for this PrC, see..."

-- Nifft
 

Nifft said:
I like the "high saves" entry requirement, but I do NOT think it should take magic items into consideration. Otherwise you'll get into silly situations with your PCs -- "Hey Bob can I borrow your Cloak of Resistance +3 for a couple of days? I gotta qualify for this PrC, see..."

-- Nifft

Hmm...good idea. I'll think about it!
 

I think Nifft is right about the save-based entry requirement -- it's a cool idea, but it shouldn't allow magical bonuses to said saves to count.

I might be in the minority, but I don't think Disable Device and "find traps as a rogue" should be part of the package. If you want to keep DD, I'd leave out the rogue ability -- rogue/mage hunters will already have it, and non-rogue/mage hunters shouldn't get it with this class, IMO.
 

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