Soren Bowman's page

Ability Score Racial Traits: Human characters gain a +2 racial bonus to one ability score of their choice at creation to represent their varied nature.
Size: Humans are Medium creatures and thus receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Base Speed: Humans have a base speed of 30 feet.
Languages: Humans begin play speaking Common. Humans with high Intelligence scores can choose any languages they want (except secret languages, such as Druidic). See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.
Bonus Feat: Humans select one extra feat at 1st level.
Skilled: Humans gain an additional skill rank at first level and one additional rank whenever they gain a level.

Loner (Drawback): You take a –1 penalty to AC and on attack rolls while adjacent to allies or when taking the aid another action.
Reactionary:You gain a +2 trait bonus on initiative checks.
Clever Wordplay:Choose one Charisma-based skill. You attempt checks with that skill using your Intelligence modifier instead of your Charisma modifier. (Use Magic Device)
Dangerously Curious:You gain a +1 bonus on Use Magic Device checks, and Use Magic Device is always a class skill for you.
Brigand (Campaign): You begin with an extra 100 gp in ill-gotten gains. You also gain a +1 trait bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive checks when dealing with brigands, thieves, bandits, and their ilk.

Studied Target:A slayer can study an opponent he can see as a move action. The slayer then gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against that opponent, and a +1 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against it. The DCs of slayer class abilities against that opponent increase by 1. A slayer can only maintain these bonuses against one opponent at a time; these bonuses remain in effect until either the opponent is dead or the slayer studies a new target.

If a slayer deals sneak attack damage to a target, he can study that target as an immediate action, allowing him to apply his studied target bonuses against that target (including to the normal weapon damage roll).

At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, the bonuses on weapon attack and damage rolls, as well as the bonus to slayer ability DCs against a studied, target increase by 1. In addition, at each such interval, the slayer is able to maintain these bonuses against an additional studied target at the same time. The slayer may discard this connection to a studied target as a free action, allowing him to study another target in its place.

At 7th level, a slayer can study an opponent as a move or swift action.

Track:A slayer adds 1/2 his level (minimum 1) to Survival skill checks made to follow tracks.

Sneak Attack: At 3rd level, if a slayer catches an opponent unable to defend itself effectively from his attack, he can strike a vital spot for extra damage. The slayer's attack deals extra damage anytime his target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the slayer flanks his target. This additional damage is 1d6 at 3rd level, and increases by 1d6 every 3 levels thereafter. Should the slayer score a critical hit with a sneak attack, this additional damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks can count as sneak attacks only if the target is within 30 feet.

With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (like a sap, whip, or unarmed strike), a slayer can make a sneak attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. He cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a sneak attack, not even with the usual –4 penalty.

The slayer must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. A slayer cannot use sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment.

Aura faint divination; CL 5th
Slot head; Price 3,500 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
This striking helmet is crafted to resemble the skull of a
mighty stag. Although made from bone, the antlers and
helm are as strong as metal. When worn, the helm greatly
enhances eyesight and hearing, granting a +2 competence
bonus on Perception checks. In addition, once per day the
helm may be called upon to enhance any ranged attack
made by the wearer to make an insightful shot. Activating
this ability is a free action, and once activated, your next
ranged attack against a target within 30 feet is made as if
that target were flat-footed against you—this allows a rogue
to gain the benefit of sneak attack with this shot. If you don’t
make a ranged attack within 1 round of activating this power,
the insight fades and is wasted for that day.
A worshiper of Erastil who wears this helm may utilize the
insightful shot ability up to 3 times per day.

Soren was born on the outskirts of Brevoy in a small farming village called Haam.

His father was a hunter by trade who did work for the village butcher and his mother was a seamstress. They never really had much in the way of money, but since Soren's father provided well enough in the way of food, so they never went hungry.

Soren never fit in with the other village children. He was always a loner, always exploring the woods instead of playing games, and more often than not this not only got him picked on by the other kids, but also got him in trouble with his mother on many the occasion.

As Soren got older he started to notice things. Things like how the village always seemed poor, even though they produced plenty in the way of crops and meat. Things like how all of the adults seemed terrified of a noble who would ride into town once a month on a huge white horse and demand his taxes. Things like how his father would never look him him the eye when he asked about the noble, and why everyone gave him everything they had. The answer was always the same:
That's just how it is Soren. He owns the land, so we have to pay him. It's the law...

Soren was never satisfied with that answer. However, every adult he spoke with would give him some variation of the same.

Eventually, Soren became old enough to be a hunter on his own, and with the training his father gave him throughout his life, he was a damn good one. He brought in just as much game as any of the adults, and for his first month, he thought he was rich. Never had he thought he would have as much coin as he did, and he relished in it. It only lasted so long though, because eventually the "noble" landowner came.

Soren went to the town square with the rest of the adults, his bow on his back and his arms crossed, a look of defiance on his face. He watched the noble and his assistant read off of a list, of each person in the village who owed the noble for their "right" to practice their trade. His defiant smirk faded, though, when his name was called, and the amount owed was read. A full three quarters of his earnings. He strode forward, ready to argue at the unfairness of it, when he noticed the guards the noble had. Two fully armored warriors, with massive swords on their backs stood on either side of the fop, their gaze masked by the slits in their black full plate. The noble grinned at Soren, as the youth faltered, and spoke in the most condescending tone the boy had ever heard.
You were going to defy me, weren't you? Be glad you didn't, boy. My taxes are the law. Breaking it will only earn you a beating and time in the jail. I own this land. I own these houses. I own you. And don't ever forget it.

And so went Soren's experience with the corrupt system he came to distrust. For the next year it was the same. Once a month the fop would come, take three quarters of everyone's earnings, and leave. He eventually got tired of it.

On his eighteenth birthday, the fop came again. This time, though, Soren tracked him through the woods, and waited until the group made camp for the night. He watched as they dined on fine meat and wine, and laughed at the village people, and how they didn't even have a proper inn. An anger took hold of the boy, and before he himself even knew what he was doing, an arrow from his own hand struck the noble in the back, right between the shoulder blades.

He stayed in that spot just long enough to watch the noble fall forward into the dirt, and then he ran. He knew the forest like the back of his hand, so the two knights who came looking for him never had a chance at finding him.

Thinking he could never go back home without endangering his family, he doubled back to the noble's camp, stole the money the fop had taken from the village, and made his way into the city. He got a room in a tavern, and debated on what to do next. For the next two days, he wandered around, taking in the sights of this new place, and the wonders of it all. On the second night, in the tavern, he heard people speaking of the murder of a son of a major noble who was collecting taxes, and smiled inwardly. The hunt was on for a youth from the village, but no one from his home would give him up, so the authorities had nothing to go on, not even a description. His smile left, though, when he heard what the "law" had allowed the noble's family to do.

The village had been burned, each house in turn as the families watched, even as they tried to give the boy up, but at that point it was too late. The fields had been trashed by men on horses, the shops and stalls in the square ransacked and bashed to pieces. A cadre of mercenary guards had been placed there, to watch for the return of the murderer and to ensure the villagers wouldn't step out of line again.

His anger seethed, and boiled, but it had to wait. He was quickly running out of the stolen coins, and needed income. It came in the form of a missive, hammered to the notice board in the tavern, for the capture of a fugitive who had fled into the woods after a daring prison escape. Soren tracked the man for three days, and finally caught him. He put an arrow in the man's knee, stopping his escape. So began a career as a bounty hunter. Soren would take any kind of job that involved the woods, and nature, eventually building up a repertoire of skills that were sought after by the guard time and time again. Not all of the men he brought back were alive, but to Soren, if they were worth just as much dead, then it was of no consequence.

It was an ill fated day, then, when he was dragging the corpse of a murderer wanted by the guard into the barracks when he heard a cry.
You! Boy! Stop there!

He recognized it, and turned slowly to see an older man striding quickly toward him. It was the assistant of the noble he had slain two years prior.
I recognize you! It was your face I saw fleeing into the night after Lord Kubrik was slain by an arrow! Guards! Stop him! Stop the murderer!

The guards started for Soren, but he was too quick. He fled the city that night, and made his way into the woods. For several weeks he wandered, hunting and evading anyone he saw on the roads. He spent his nights debating on what to do, as he had no village to return to, and his identity known to the guards as the murderer of Lord Kubrik.

Eventually, fate provided him with an answer. As he made his way on a road heading out of Brevoy, he happened across a carriage raid being carried out by a well known clan of bandits. After the deed was done, he approached them, and offered his skills to their group.

For the next year, he became quite the bandit. His tracking skills provided many opportunities for attacks on merchants and other folk staying off the roads to avoid attention, and his bow and sharp perception prevented many from reaching the bandit's camps and carrying out raids in the name of the law. Eventually, however, the clan fell to infighting as bandits usually do, and Soren was once again on his own. With a bow he took from a caravan guard he slew in a battle a few days prior, he made his way toward a trading post to resupply and make his way to a new place, where he could start again, and perhaps not constantly be on the run anymore.

1:Point Blank Shot, Deadly Aim
2:Ranger Combat Style-Rapid Shot
3:Precise Shot
4:Ability Score Inc.-Dex, Bleeding Attack
5:?
6:Ranger Combat Style-Manyshot
7:Hammer the Gap
8:Ability Score Inc.-Con, ?
9:Iron Will
10:Ranger Combat Style-Point Blank Master, Assassinate
11:Improved Critical-Longbow
12:Ability Score Inc.-Dex, ?
13:Improved Iron Will
14:Deadly Sneak
15:?