Vampire Hunter

Not all beings who stalk the night hunt mortal prey. Out of honor, desperation, or tragic need, a vampire hunter pits his abilities not just against the creatures of the night, but also their terrifying undead overlords: vampires. Most vampire hunters do not survive their first encounters with vampirekind, as no amount of study or training can truly prepare one to face the Nobles of the night. Those few who survive and force themselves to carry on grow more and more like their terrible quarry, becoming dark-garbed bringers of death, feared by the dead and the living alike. Vampire hunters approach their duties with a grim but ironclad resolve so strong it resembles ecclesiastical faith, and it is from this mysterious, selfless dedication that their divine power wells.

Role: Vampire hunters obsessively stalk their quarry— not just vampirekind, but all those supernatural beasts and undead terrors that serve the Nobility. These champions of the living track their blasphemous prey, learn their weaknesses, and bring them low. Doing so requires more than training and guile, though. To stand against the darkness, vampire hunters adopt a measure of their foes’ unnatural power, turning vampirekind’s sinister might back against them. Vampire hunters are the vanguard in the battle against evil, but know to value the perspective, support, and magic of other expert adventurers.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Points: 8 per level

Starting Wealth: 5d6 × 10 gp (average 175 gp).

Class Skills

The vampire hunter receives 1 rank in the following; Acrobatics, Artisan, Awareness, Bluff, Handle Animal, Heal, Intimidate, Knowledge (Arcana, Geography, Local, and Religion), Ride, Spellcraft, Stealth, and Survival.

Skill Ranks per Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Class Features

The following are the class features of the vampire hunter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A vampire hunter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as light armor, medium armor, and shields (except tower shields).

Detect Undead (Sp)

At will, a vampire hunter can use detect undead, as the spell. A vampire hunter can, as a move action, concentrate on a single item or individual within 60 feet and determine if it is undead, learning the strength of its aura as if he had studied it for 3 rounds. While focusing on one individual or object, the vampire hunter does not detect undead in any other object or individual within range.

At 7th level the usage of this ability is reduced to a swift action, and doing so automatically reveals if the undead detected is a vampire.

Technique Feat

Due to the inherent deadliness of hunting vampires, the methods and traditions of vampire hunters are rare and little understood. This often makes vampire hunters just as feared as the undead they hunt. As vampire hunters study and train, they develop their skills, mastering ancient fighting techniques and drawing upon mystical arts feared by both the living and the dead.

At 1st level, a vampire hunter gains a bonus feat. This new feat can be selected from either those listed as combat feats or as vampire hunting technique feats. A vampire hunter must meet the prerequisites for these feats to select them. The vampire hunter gains an additional bonus feat at 3rd level and every three levels thereafter.

Upon reaching 6th level, and every six levels thereafter (12th and 18th), a vampire hunter can choose to learn a new combat or technique feat in place of a combat or technique feat he has already learned. In effect, the vampire hunter loses the old feat in exchange for the new one. The old feat cannot be one that was used as a prerequisite for another feat, prestige class, or another ability the vampire hunter knows. A vampire hunter can exchange only one feat at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the feat at the time he gains a new bonus feat for the level.

Technique feats include: Blessed Waters, Death’s Nightmare, Extended Vampiric Focus, Know Master, Liberating Critical, Locked Will, Resolute Steed, Revealing Waters, Soured Soul, and Vampire Scholar.

For a full list of Technique Feats (and other Feats from this source), click here.

Track (Ex)

A vampire hunter adds half his level (minimum 1) to Survival skill checks to follow tracks.

Vampiric Focus (Su)

A vampire hunter knows the sinister power of the undead. Through discipline and precision, he can temporarily turn the unholy powers of the undead against them.

At 1st level, the vampire hunter must select one common vampiric power to mimic from the vampiric foci listed below. Each vampiric focus grants the vampire hunter a bonus or special ability. Once this decision is made, the vampire hunter cannot change which vampiric focus he knows. At 8th and 16th level, the vampire hunter learns an additional vampiric focus.

As a swift action, the vampire hunter can activate his vampiric focus. Ending the vampiric focus is a free action.

He can use each vampiric focus for a number of minutes per day equal to his level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-minute increments.

Once the vampire hunter ends a focus, it cannot be reactivated for 1 minute. The vampire hunter can have only one vampiric focus active at a time. Benefits from different vampiric foci do not stack with one another, including temporary hit points from multiple foci.

Spellcasting

Vampire Hunters learn to cast a small amount of divine spells which are drawn from the inquisitor spell list. He can cast any spell he knows at any time without preparing it ahead of time, assuming he has not yet used up his allotment of spells per day for the spell’s level.

To learn or cast a spell, a vampire hunter must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a vampire hunter’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the vampire hunter’s Wisdom modifier.

A vampire hunter can cast can a certain number of spells of each spell level each day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table 1–1: Vampire Hunter. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. When Table 1–1: Vampire Hunter indicates that vampire hunter can cast 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he can cast the number of bonus spells per day he would be entitled to based on his Wisdom score for that spell level.

A vampire hunter’s selection of spells is limited. At 4th level, a vampire hunter knows two 1st-level spells of the vampire hunter’s choice. At each new vampire hunter level, he gains one or more new spells as indicated on Table 1–2: Vampire Hunter Spells Known. (Unlike spells per day, the number of spells a vampire hunter knows is not affected by his Wisdom score. The numbers on Table 1–2 are fixed.) Upon reaching 7th level, and at every third vampire hunter level thereafter (7th and 13th), a vampire hunter can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. In effect, the vampire hunter “loses” the old spell in exchange for the new one. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged, and it must be at least one level lower than the highest-level spell he can cast.

The vampire hunter can swap out a single spell at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the spell at the same time that he gains new spells known for the level.

Relentless (Ex)

At 2nd level, a vampire hunter can travel for an extended period of time without rest. The vampire hunter (and his mount, if he has one) can walk 16 hours in a day of travel without it being considered a forced march, but at the end of that day, he must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. If he fails, he can travel for 8 hours the following day, and he (as well as his mount, if he has one) is fatigued for the following 24 hours. If he succeeds at the saving throw, he can use this ability again the following day. The DC of the Fortitude saving throw increases by 2 for every additional day the vampire hunter has been traveling for more than 8 hours. The vampire hunter does not need to attempt a separate saving throw for his mount. After the vampire hunter rests for 24 hours, the saving throw DC resets to 15.

Stake (Su)

At 4th level, any piercing weapon or sharp tool (such as a piton) a vampire hunter drives through a vampire’s heart is treated as a wooden stake for purposes of creatures who are vulnerable to them. If this improvised stake is removed, the vampire returns to life as normal.

Relentless Band (Ex)

At 5th level, a vampire hunter’s resolve infects his traveling companions, increasing how many hours the group can spend traveling in a day. Every day the vampire hunter can allow a number of companions equal to half his level (plus their mounts) to also benefit from his relentless ability. The vampire hunter rolls saving throws to determine whether the group can carry on in its extended travels.

Vampire Tracker (Ex)

At 7th level, the vampire hunter can track gaseous creatures – such as vampires flying or moving in gaseous form—as though they were leaving physical tracks. The base DC of Survival checks to track gaseous creatures is 20. The modifiers for surfaces don’t apply (as a gaseous creature leaves no impressions during its passage) but other conditions do.

Swift Tracker (Ex)

At 10th level, a vampire hunter can move at his normal speed while using Survival to follow tracks without penalties and they only take a -5 penalty when moving double their move speed.

Vampire Bane (Su)

At 11th level, a vampire hunter can intensify a vampire’s revulsion to strongly presented holy symbols. When a vampire hunter uses a standard action to confront a vampire with a presented holy symbol, the vampire must attempt a Will saving throw (DC = 15 + the vampire hunter’s class level + the vampire hunter’s Wisdom modifier). On a failed save, the vampire is repulsed and must stay a number of feet from the vampire hunter equal to 5 times the vampire hunter’s Wisdom modifier. Additionally, a vampire repulsed in this way cannot touch or make melee attacks against the vampire hunter (although the vampire can still touch and make melee attacks against the vampire hunter’s allies as normal). A vampire continues to be repulsed for every round the vampire hunter spends presenting a holy symbol (a standard action), though it can attempt a new Will save every round to overcome its revulsion and act normally.

The vampire hunter can use any holy symbol to repulse a vampire, but for the purposes of this ability, the vampire hunter treats his Wisdom modifier as being 2 higher when he employs the symbol of the deity he worships.

Remove Vampirism (Su)

At 13th level, the vampire hunter can prevent a creature killed by a vampire from returning to life as a vampire itself. By spending 10 minutes and dousing a body with a vial of holy water, the vampire hunter removes the infection of vampirism from a creature slain by a vampire’s blood drain or energy drain ability, preventing it from rising as a vampire spawn via a vampire’s create spawn ability. This effect cannot be undone with any magic weaker than a miracle or wish. If the corpse is returned to life and subsequently killed by a vampire again might it become a vampire spawn.

Quarry (Ex)

At 14th level, as a standard action a vampire hunter can denote one target within his line of sight that he knows is undead as his quarry. Whenever he is following the tracks of his quarry, a vampire hunter can take 10 on his Survival skill checks while moving at normal speed, without penalty. In addition, he gains a +2 insight bonus on attack rolls against his quarry, and all critical threats against his quarry are automatically confirmed. A vampire hunter can have no more than one quarry at a time. He can dismiss this effect at any time as a free action, but he cannot select a new quarry for 24 hours. If the vampire hunter sees proof that his quarry is dead or (somehow) was not actually undead, he can select a new quarry after 1 hour.

Critical Reflexes (Su)

At 17th level, upon confirming a critical hit against an undead creature, the vampire hunter can attempt a special combat maneuver check to produce an item and immediately use it upon that foe. The vampire hunter decides whether or not to use this ability after dealing additional damage for his critical hit. At that point, he can attempt a combat maneuver check against the target’s CMD (the target is denied its Dexterity modifier to resist this attack). If the vampire hunter succeeds, he produces a piece of equipment he has on his person and immediately uses that item upon the target creature. This ability does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Items used in this manner are typically alchemical items, such as acid or holy water. Items that require attacks against the target automatically hit and deal damage as normal (potentially to the vampire hunter, as well, if the item affects an area). Items that would have no direct effect against the target (such as a fishing hook or a lantern) or that require another combat maneuver to use (such as a rope or manacles) cannot be used as part of this ability. Other melee and ranged weapons cannot be used with this ability (with the exception of using a stake against a vampire; see below).

This ability can be used against incorporeal creatures.

If the target creature is a vampire and the vampire hunter has a wooden stake in his possession (or a similar item affected by his stake ability), he can drive the stake through the vampire’s heart as though it were helpless, slaying it immediately. If the creature is not a vampire, this attempt fails at the last moment; the vampire hunter realizes that the target is not a vampire. A vampire hunter cannot drive a stake through the heart of a non-vampire using this ability.

Improved Quarry (Ex)

At 19th level, the vampire hunter’s ability to hunt his undead quarry improves. He can now select a quarry as a free action, and can now take 20 while using Survival to track his quarry while moving at normal speed, without penalty. His insight bonus to attack his quarry increases to +4. If his quarry is killed or dismissed, he can select a new one after 10 minutes have passed.

Master Vampire Hunter (Ex)

At 20th level, the vampire hunter becomes the bane of the undead. As a standard action, he can make a single attack against his undead quarry at his full attack bonus while choosing one of the following effects: destroy, stake, or paralyze for 2d6 rounds.

If the attack hits, the target takes damage normally and must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw or suffer the additional effect. The DC for this save is 10 + 1/2 the vampire hunter’s level + the vampire hunter’s Wisdom modifier. Whether or not the attack succeeds, the creature cannot be targeted by this ability again (by any vampire hunter) for 24 hours.

If the vampire hunter chooses to destroy the target, the target is killed. If the target is a vampire, it does not assume gaseous form, and its healing powers do not come into effect; it is destroyed outright. If the vampire hunter chooses to stake his target, the target is killed if it’s a non-vampire. If it’s a vampire (or similar creature affected by having a stake driven through its heart) it is killed, but returns to life if the stake is removed. The vampire hunter can use his 4th-level stake ability to employ any piercing weapon or sharp tool as though it were a wooden stake.

Additionally, at 20th level, each day when the vampire hunter regains his spells per day, he chooses one vampiric focus to be active on himself for the entire day. This focus is in addition to uses of his vampiric focus class ability.