| HellHunter |
It's pretty much a known fact that crossbows are a terrible weapon choice, despite offering tons of flavor. They are feat-intensive, ineffective, and strictly speaking, under-used and under-performing weapons, especially when compared to bows. This mostly comes through the fact that there requires way too much of a feat investment to make them usable, and also comes from a lack of feats and early to mid-game builds which allow for some basic functionality in regards to damage potential.
There are a few options out there, such as the Bolt Ace, but these options are ultimately weaker and much more late-game-oriented. Needing to reach level 11 or hundreds of thousands of gold for enchantments (or a third arm - weird) to get basic character functionality is way too far. For historically the simplest and easiest ranged weapon to use at its inception, it makes no sense for it to be so difficult to use the weapon at all.
The ranger works, and can offset these problems given the benefits of the Crossbow Style and Favored Enemy, but I play with a group that generates the world after player-backstories are written as to create vast lands of diverse cultures and geographies. This creates huge conflicts with this mechanic early on, and the dependency here is too great.
I found that the Hunter offers a lot of flexibility in regards to stats, abilities, and flavor that I felt necessary for a crossbow-based build to work. I really like the idea of a Dual-wielding crossbowman, masterfully adept with his weapons and using magic to reload them. I initially tried a Reloading Hands concept, but it was ultimately too slow on the setup time, less-effective than any archer build I devised, and still struggled on the once-per-turn issues of reloading.
Thus, I created a Hunter Archetype that attempts to strike a balance between the Bolt Ace and the Ranger and Druid while not feeling inherently overpowered. Since the Divine Hunter drops teamwork feat potential, I didn't think this suggestion of using pets to draw aggro or distract things for him would be too far-fetched. It gives crossbow builds an early-game presence that is much-needed without detracting too much from any standard archer, while also giving them a bit of utility through limited and specialized magic at a druid-level progression of higher level spells.
Basically, it enables a TWF-crossbowman Dual-wielder who can build in a variety of specializations - from Sniper to Skirmisher - via feat choices and magic, things which are normally not attainable for crossbow-users.
So here we go:
Hunter Archetype – Imbued Splinterer
The Imbued Splinterer is an aggressive skirmisher which uses the crossbow as his weapon of choice to lead a devastating assault against his foes by funneling his innate magical capabilities into his weapons to create ammunition. With pinpoint accuracy, the Imbued Splinterer takes an opportunistic approach to combat from range, using allies from nature to distract his enemies for him.
Weapon Proficiency
The Imbued Splinterer is proficient with all crossbows and simple weapons and light armor. This modifies Weapon Proficiency.
Predator’s Prowess
The Imbued Splinterer loses access to the following Animal Foci: Bear, Monkey, Owl, Wolf. He instead gains access to the following Animal Aspects instead:
Shark: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus to track fleeing foes it has struck in combat. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Komodo Dragon: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus against Diplomacy checks made to convince it to go against its orders or convictions of its owner (players control ownership of their characters). This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Leech: The creature gains a +4 competence bonus to fly and ride checks. This bonus increases to +4 at 8th level and +6 at 15th level.
Mongoose: The creature gains a +1 competence bonus to CMD against the bull rush, trip, and grapple combat maneuvers. This bonus increases to +2 at 8th level and +3 at 15th level.
This ability modifies Animal Focus.
Imbued Shots
Imbued Splinterers devote themselves wholly to the crossbow, focusing their magic into manifesting ammunition automatically into their weapons. The Imbued Splinterer gains the ability to manifest magical bolts into his crossbow inheriting from the crossbow’s base damage. The speed of reloading a crossbow is reduced by one step and functions identically to the Bolt Ace’s Inexplicable Reload, except this occurs immediately after each shot. As a cost, the Imbued Splinterer knows four fewer 0th level spells (minimum 0) and cannot learn more spells of higher level than he knows 0th level spells, and does not gain additional spells known for having a high ability score. This penalty applies to all spells the Imbued Splinterer gains access to from any class he selects levels in.
This ability modifies Spell Casting.
Crossbow Style
At 3rd level and every three levels thereafter, an Imbued Splinterer gains a bonus feat from the following list in addition to those gained from normal advancement. He does not need to meet the prerequisites of the selected feat:
Deadly Aim, Rapid Shot, Point-blank Shot, Crossbow Mastery.
At 6th level, the Imbued Splinterer adds the following feats to the list:
Improved Initiative, Point-blank Master, Snap Shot, Far Shot.
At 9th level, the Imbued Splinterer adds the following feats to the list:
Improved Snap Shot, Shot on the Run, Pinpoint Targeting.
This ability replaces Hunter Tactics and Teamwork Feats.
Powerful Insight
At 4th level, an Imbued Splinterer may choose to add his WIS score as damage to attacks made using his Imbued Shots to foes within 30 feet. This may not be used simultaneously with any other effect which adds an ability score to his crossbow attacks.
This replaces Improved Empathic Link.
Blood for Blood
At 11th level, an Imbued Splinterer can channel his lifeblood into his Imbued Shots. He gains the ability to expend up to twice his character level in health per turn to infuse his next Imbued Shot with the ability to heal a single target struck by the bolt for half of the health sacrificed this way, dealing no damage, or deal half of the health expended as extra damage to his next attack made against a single enemy. The healing aspect of this ability cannot critically hit.
This ability replaces Speak with master.
Greater Powerful Insight
At 15th level, an Imbued Splinterer can concentrate his Imbued Shots into one extremely potent assault. As a full-round action, the Imbued Splinterer may choose to take a -5 penalty and make a single attack roll against an enemy at his highest Base Attack Bonus. Include all penalties normally associated with making attacks. If the attack hits, he deals damage as though making a full-round attack as well as an additional attack, and all damage is totaled before applying Damage Reduction.
This ability replaces Greater Empathic Link.
While I don't have very high hopes that this would ever get implemented, I'd like some feedback, and would love to see a bit of a push to get this concept moving. I heard the newly-released DTT bumped up sniping a bit, but I haven't gotten a look at it, so it's possible there may already be some buffs in this department I don't know of yet. I feel like this is a role that's really under-represented and really under-powered in the game, and there seems to be community demand for it every so often based around my google searching for help in trying to make a build like this work out.
Thanks for reading through this, and I'll gladly make alterations if deemed necessary!