MotW: Deepwood Sniper.

[Ysgarran]

Just got Masters of the Wild today and was looking at some of the Prestige Classes...

What strikes me as particular dangerous or perhaps unbalancing is the 'Improved Critical' of 2 at 7th level Deepwood Sniper. A fifth level Ranger/seventh level deepwood sniper would have
19-20 crit range with x5 damage multiplier with a long bow.

Throw in the 'Hunters Mercy' Ranger spell (which allows the next bow shot to automatically threaten a crit) and you have a dangerous combination.

Also, does anyone know what
"keen edge" does at the 6th level deepwood sniper?

 

[Xarlen]

Is the book worth grabbing?

 

[Crothian]

I don't have the book. Is this a permanent change for the character or is it limited somehow like x/day or only with a weapon he carved from hand?

I agree 19-20/x5 does seem a little too much......

 

[Ysgarran]

Is the book worth grabbing?

I'm still reading it but my first impression is that it is on par with the other splat books and that if you liked the others, you will like this one.

Quick impressions:
1. An Urban Ranger Variant...I like it and wish that they went farther down this path of providing more varients. a positive.
2. Quote from the book:
"Dividing a human ranger's initial skill points between Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot and Wilderness Lore gives the ranger a +5 bonus on those checks against favored enemies". This is a pet peeve of mine on a couple of different accounts. Sense Motive and Bluff are not Ranger class skills so the +5 statement is incorrect. I've always thought that the ranger bonus to these skills were a bit useless at high levels since a good Rogue would always be able to out bluff a Ranger regardless of his bonuses. The fact that I saw this error five minutes into my reading makes me worry about the other errors that might pop up in the book.
3. The fluff (needless commentary) seems to be less in this book as compared to others. The majority of the book does seem to dedicated to Prestige classes (~36 pages), Spells (~15 pages), feats (~5 pages). I don't like the comentary that is reminiscent of 'Hero Builders Guidebook', that part of the book takes up about 15 pages.


Hope this helped...I'm sure others on the board will have different opinions...

 

[Crothian]

Hey, thanks for the thoughts. I'm sure there will be many errors, as all d20 products seem to be riddled with them.

 

[Ysgarran]

I don't have the book. Is this a permanent change for the character or is it limited somehow like x/day or only with a weapon he carved from hand?

Always active with any 'projectile weapon'. It is an extraordinary ability to boot.

Projectile Improved Critical
When the Deepwood Sniper reaches 2nd level the critical damage multipliers of all her projectile weapons increase by +1. Thus, an arrow that normally deals damage x3 on a critical hit instead does x4 in her hands. When she reaches 7th level, these critical multipliers increase by an additional +1

 

[Crothian]

Wow, that is just begging for abuse!! All projectile weapons. Wow!!

 

[Rackhir]

I hope this isn't just another person yanking our chain on MotW. Sounds interesting if it isn't, but this does seem suspiciously troll like.

 

[Crothian]

Could be, but few trolls reply and even if not, it keeps me busy

 

[Fade]

Even better with a (repeating) crossbow. 17-20 x4