A silent hunter is normally trained by the elders of their craft, older silent hunters who mentor him in the ways of silence and blood, shadow and steel. Trained in both wilderness lore and subterfuge, the silent hunter relies on his stealth to find and destroy his chosen foe. By employing secret methods, which include a variety of combat styles, even specialized poison strategies, the silent hunter can dog his prey until it either surrenders, or is defeated. Often the first sign that one is being tracked by a silent hunter is the strangled death cry of one of the foe’s comrades. (Origninal Concept by Browman) Primary Class: Ranger. Secondary Class: Ninja. Alignment: Any. Hit Dice: d10. Bonus Skills and Ranks: The silent hunter may select three ninja skills to add to his class skills in addition to the normal ranger class skills. The silent hunter gains a number of ranks at each level equal to 6 + Int modifier. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The silent hunter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, plus the kama, katana, kusarigama, nunchaku, sai, shuriken, siangham, and wakizashi. He is also proficient with light armor and light shields. Favored Enemy Strike (Ex): This is exactly like the ranger’s favored enemy ability, except that the silent hunter does not gain the normal +2 bonus to his attack and damage rolls against his favored enemies. Instead, he gains a +1 bonus to his attack rolls and deals 1d6 points of extra damage to the enemy. Bonus damage from favored enemy strike is precision damage. Should the silent hunter score a critical hit with a favored enemy strike attack, this precision damage is not multiplied. Ranged attacks count as favored enemy strike attacks only if the target is within 30 feet. With a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (such as a sap, whip, or unarmed strike), a silent hunter can make a favored enemy strike attack that deals nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. He cannot use a weapon that deals lethal damage to deal nonlethal damage in a favored enemy strike attack, even with the usual –4 penalty. The silent hunter must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot, and must be able to reach this spot. A silent hunter cannot make a favored enemy strike while striking a creature that has concealment. At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the silent hunter may select an additional favored enemy. In addition, at each such interval, the attack bonus and extra damage dealt against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +1 and 1d6 respectively (up to a maximum of +5 attack bonus and +5d6 precision damage with his 5th favored enemy). If a favored enemy is normally immune to sneak attack or precision damage, it is not immune to the silent hunter’s favored enemy strike damage. A silent hunter that has the sneak attack ability from another class, sneak attack damage from that class stack with his favored enemy strike damage, but only against his favored enemies. Enemies immune to sneak attack or precision damage are immune to sneak attack damage from other classes as normal. This ability otherwise functions as and replaces favored enemy. Poison Use: At 1st level, a silent hunter gains the ninja’s poison use ability. This ability replaces wild empathy. Combat Style Feats: This is exactly like the ranger ability of the same name, except that the silent hunter can also choose the poison master combat style, which is restricted to and complements the Silent Hunter archetype. If the silent hunter selects poison master combat, he can choose one ability from the following list whenever he gains a combat style feat.
Ninja Tricks: At 3rd level, a silent hunter gains the ninja’s ninja trick ability and gains one ninja trick. He gains one additional ninja trick for every five silent hunter levels attained after 3rd. This ability and master tricks replace favored terrain. Hunter’s Ki Pool (Su): At 4th level, a silent hunter gains a pool of ki points similar to a ninja’s ki pool that he can use to accomplish amazing feats. The number of points in the hunter’s ki pool is equal to 1/2 his silent hunter level + his Wisdom modifier. As long as he has at least 1 point in his hunter’s ki pool, he treats any Acrobatics any Acrobatics skill check made to jump as if she had a running start. At 10th level, she also reduces the DC of Acrobatics skill checks made to jump by 1/2 (although she still cannot move farther than her speed allows). By spending 1 point from his hunter’s ki pool, a silent hunter can make one additional favored enemy strike attack at his highest attack bonus against a single favored enemy, but he can do so only when making a full attack. In addition, he can spend 1 point to increase his speed by 20 feet for 1 round. Finally, a silent hunter can spend 1 point from his hunter’s ki pool to give him a +4 insight bonus on Stealth checks against his favored enemies for 1 round. Each of these powers is activated as a swift action. A silent hunter can gain additional powers that consume points from his hunter’s ki pool by selecting certain ninja tricks. The hunter’s ki pool is replenished each morning after 8 hours of rest or meditation; these hours do not need to be consecutive. If the silent hunter possesses levels in another class that grants points to a ki pool, silent hunter levels stack with the levels of that class to determine the total number of ki points in the combined pool, but only one ability score modifier is added to the total. The choice of which score to use is made when the second class ability is gained, and once made, the choice is set. The silent hunter can now use ki points from this pool to power the abilities of every class he possesses that grants a ki pool. This ability otherwise functions as the ninja’s ki pool and replaces hunter’s bond. Light Steps (Ex): At 7th level, a silent hunter gains the ninja’s light steps ability. This ability replaces woodland stride. Master Tricks: At 13th level, whenever a silent hunter could select a ninja trick, he can choose a master trick instead. Camouflage (Ex): This is exactly like the ranger ability of the same name, except that the silent hunter must be within an area of dim light, and can use the Stealth skill to hide himself within that area of dim light. He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow. Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): This is exactly like the ranger ability of the same name, except that the silent hunter can use the Stealth skill even while being observed, but only as long as he is within 10 feet of an area of dim light. He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow. Table: Silent Hunter
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