Twilight Hunter

**Skill Points:** 8 + Int

## Requirements

* **Alignment**: Any non-good alignment

* **Skills**: Move Silently 8 ranks, Hide 8 ranks, Disguise 4 ranks

* **Special:** +2d6 Sneak Attack, Evasion, Penetrating Strike, Vampiric Heritage.

## Class Features

**Weapon and Armour Proficiency:** They are proficient with the crossbow (hand, light, or heavy), dagger (any type), dart, rapier, sap, shortbow (normal and composite), and short sword. Hunters are proficient with light armor but not with shields.

**Spells:** Beginning at 1st level, a Hunter gains the ability to cast a number of arcane spells. To cast a spell, he must have an Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a Hunter with an Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Hunter bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + spell level + the Hunter's Wisdom bonus.

A Hunter casts spells just as a bard does. He can draw spells from the Assassin's and the Telflammar Shadowlord's list.

Upon reaching 6th level, at every level after that, a Hunter can choose to learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. The new spell’s level must be the same as that of the spell being exchanged. A Hunter may swap only 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 that level.

He does not suffer from Arcane Spell Failure if wearing light armour.

**Sneak Attack:** This is exactly like the rogue ability of the same name. The extra damage dealt increases by +1d6 every other level (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th) and at 10th. If a Hunter gets a sneak attack bonus from another source the bonuses on damage stack.

**Death Attack:** A true Hunter needs no more than a single shot to down his prey. If a Hunter studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (Hunter’s choice). While studying the victim, he can undertake other actions so long as his attention stays focused on the target and the target does not detect the Hunter or recognize the Hunter as an enemy. If the victim of such an attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + the Hunter’s class level + the Hunter’s Wis modifier) against the kill effect, she dies. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per level of the Hunter. If the victim’s saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once the Hunter has completed the 3 rounds of study, he must make the death attack within the next 6 rounds.

If a death attack is attempted and fails (the victim makes her save) or if the Hunter does not launch the attack within 6 rounds of completing the study, 3 new rounds of study are required before he can attempt another death attack.

**Shadowsight (Ex)**: Gifted with a mystical connection to shadow and darkness, *he is the one who stalks*, the Hunter gains a superior form of darkvision with a 60-foot range. He can see through any form of normal or magical darkness without hindrance.

**Sacred Strike**: At first level, the Twilight Hunter learns how to better hurt one of the deadliest of nightstick predators: the Undead. He gains the Sacred Strike feat as bonus feat.

**Uncanny Dodge:** Being caught unawares and surrounded is a favorite tactic of many predators. Starting at 2nd level, a Hunter retains his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) regardless of being caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. (He still loses any Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.)

If a character gains uncanny dodge from a second class the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge.

**Shadow Blur (Su)**: At 2nd level, a Twilight Hunter gains an unusual defense—anytime he is not in daylight or the illuminated radius of a light source, the shadows cloak his every movement, conferring the benefits of a blur spell. The Hunter can choose to activate or end this effect as a free action.

**Darkstalker:** The art of hunting is, at its core, the art of stalking prey. In order to best the best the supernatural world can offer, the Twilight Hunter gains the Darkstalker feat at 3rd level, and a +4 bonus to Hide and Move Silently. That bonus becomes +8 at 5th level and +12 at 9th.

**Shadow Jump (Ex)**: A Twilight Hunter can travel between shadows as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some shadow or darkness. The Hunter can jump up to a total of 20 feet per class level per day in this way. This amount can be split up among many jumps, but each jump, no matter how small, counts as a 5-foot increment. He can choose to do this either as a move action or as a swift action.

**Shadow Walk (Sp)**: Once per day starting at 4rd level, a Twilight Hunter may use shadow walk as a caster whose level is equal to his Hunter class level. If he previously possessed the ability to use shadow walk as a spell-like ability, he gains a second daily use of that power. He can do it twice a day at level 8.

**Improved Uncanny Dodge:** Situation Awereness is key to keepin oneself alive, especially when one usually hunts game as dangerous as vampires and other nitghmarish monsters. At 5th level, a Hunter can no longer be flanked, since he can react to opponents on opposite sides of him as easily as he can react to a single attacker. This defense denies rogues the ability to use flank attacks to sneak attack the Hunter. The exception to this defense is that a rogue at least four levels higher may flank him (and thus sneak attack him).

If a character gains uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge, and the levels from those classes stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.

**Shadow Pounce (Ex)**: At 5th level, a Twilight Hunter learns how to attack swiftly from the shadows. Any time he uses an ability, spell, or effect with the teleportation descriptor (for example, his shadow jump ability), he may execute a full attack upon completion of the teleportation. The Hunter must have line of sight on his intended target from his original location, and the spot to which he teleports must be a place from which he can launch a melee attack at the intended target with whatever weapon he has in hand at the beginning of his action.

**Hide in Plain Sight (Ex)**: A Twilight Hunter is, by now, close to achieving perfection in his Art. He can use the Hide skill even while being observed (except in natural daylight, the area of a *daylight* spell, or a similar effect).

**Hide in Plain Sight (Su)**: At 10th level he truly becomes a Master Hunter, he can now use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an assassin can hide himself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind. He cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.