Sacred Huntresses

Relics & Rituals: Olympus

© 2004 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. Distributed for Sword and Sorcery Studios by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.

By W. Jason Peck, Aaron Rosenberg, Christina Stiles and Relics & Rituals: Olympus team

The devoted of Artemis are hunters as much as they are priestesses; they worship their virgin moon-goddess in the wild places, offering the prey they hunt as sacrifice on altars of uncarved stone. The most skillful of these hunter-priests are sometimes initiated into a loftier and more mystical circle, and are taught divine secrets of hunting that are known only to the goddess’ beloved. The sacred huntress lives her life in imitation of Artemis, giving herself over to the hunt.

Male sacred hunters do exist, though they are in the minority.

Artemis prefers female servants, but a man who is haste and who gives himself more to the sacred office of the hunt than to civilized life may earn her blessing. A sacred hunter does not earn any particular prejudice from his sisters, who generally agree that if Artemis approves, it is not their place to object.

Most sacred huntresses begin their careers as druids or rangers, and find the prestige class simply a tighter focus of the path they were already traveling. Some begin as clerics; these are generally the huntresses most

likely to get along well with more “civilized” people, as their priestly duties were more social.

As NPCs, sacred huntresses are often found as caretakers of sacred groves or other sites dear to the goddess; pools where Artemis is said to have stopped to bathe are considered especially holy (and guarded especially fiercely). Although powerful figures within the religion, sacred huntresses are rarely the heads of their cults, as they are more given to practicing their duties on the hunt than overseeing other priests of Artemis. Wild tribes of amazons are particularly given to the worship of the Great Huntress, and sacred huntresses hold great favor among their clans.

Hit Die: d8.

Requirements

To qualify to become a sacred huntress, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills: Craft (bowyer) 8 ranks, Handle Animal 4 ranks, Survival 8 ranks
Feats: Weapon Focus (any bow other than a crossbow).
Spells: Must be able to cast calm animals.
Special: The character must be sexually chaste. If the character willingly indulges in sexual activity, she loses all benefits of the sacred huntress prestige class.

Class Skills

The sacred huntress class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Strength), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Handle Animal (Wisdom), Heal (Wisdom), Hide (Dexterity), Knowledge (mythology) (Intelligence), Knowledge (nature) (Intelligence),Knowledge (religion) (Intelligence), Listen (Wisdom), Move Silently (Dexterity), Spot (Wisdom), Survival (Wisdom) and Swim (Strength).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Intelligence modifier.

The Sacred Huntress
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
1st	+0	+0	+2	+2	Deer’s swiftness, divine health, wild empathy	–
2nd	+1	+0	+3	+3	Silver arrows	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
3rd	+2	+1	+3	+3	Moon-sight, bonus feat	–
4th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Enhance arrow +1	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
5th	+3	+1	+4	+4	Hunt-wisdom	–
6th	+4	+2	+5	+5	–	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
7th	+5	+2	+5	+5	Bane arrow	–
8th	+6	+3	+6	+6	Enhance arrow +2	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class
9th	+6	+3	+6	+6	Bonus feat	–
10th	+7	+3	+7	+7	Arrow of change	+1 level of existing divine spellcasting class

Class Features

All of the following are features of the sacred huntress prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The sacred huntress is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light armor (but not with shields).

Spells per Day spells Known: At 2nd level, and at every other level thereafter, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in whatever spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained (increased ability to turn undead or wild shape, and so on). In effect, she adds one-half her level in sacred huntress to the level of whatever other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day and caster level accordingly.

If the character possessed levels in multiple spellcasting classes before becoming a sacred huntress, she must decide to which class she adds each alternate level of sacred huntress for the purpose of determining spells per day (and spells known, if applicable).

Deer’s Swiftness (Su): The sacred huntress is capable of temporary bursts of great speed. As a free action, the sacred huntress may double her movement for one round. This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to the character’s levels in sacred huntress.

Divine Health (Ex): The sacred huntress is immune to all diseases, both magical and natural.

Wild Empathy (Ex): The sacred huntress can improve the attitude of an animal, much like a ranger or druid can. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. The sacred archer rolls 1d20 and adds her sacred huntress level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. If the sacred huntress previously had any levels in druid or ranger, they stack with the sacred huntress class level for purposes of this check.

The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.

To use wild empathy, the sacred huntress and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.

A sacred huntress can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2, but she suffers a –4 penalty on the check.

Silver Arrows (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, the sacred huntress may imbue any arrow she fires with the spiritual energy of the moon. Every arrow the sacred huntress fires may, at the sacred huntress’ discretion, count as being made of silver for purposes of overcoming damage reduction. The arrowhead does not physically change, but shines with a silvery aura of moonlight until it strikes.

Moon-sight (Ex): At 3rd level, the sacred huntress is able to see as clearly by moonlight as by daylight. In other conditions of poor illumination where there is no moon (starlight, candlelight, and so on), she may see twice as far as a human in similar circumstances, and retains her ability to distinguish color and detail.

Bonus feat: At 3rd and 9th levels, the sacred huntress may select a bonus feat from the following list: Animal Affinity, Athletic, Far Shot, Improved
Precise Shot, Manyshot, Lightning Reflexes, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Self-Sufficient or Shot on the Run. The character must still meet any prerequisites for the feat she chooses.

Enhance Arrow (Su): At 4th level, every nonmagical arrow a sacred huntress nocks and lets fly becomes magical, gaining a +1 enhancement bonus. Unlike magic weapons created by normal means, the huntress need not spend experience points or gold pieces to accomplish this task. However, a huntress’ magic arrows only function for her. The magic arrows she creates gain +1 greater potency, moving up to a +2 bonus, at 8th level. This ability stacks with the silver arrows class ability; at 8th level, the sacred huntress can transform every nonmagical arrow she fires into the equivalent of a +2 silver arrow.

Hunt-wisdom (Ex): At 5th level, the sacred huntress gains a +2 divine bonus on all Handle Animal, Knowledge (nature) and Survival skill checks.

Bane Arrow (Sp): At 7th level, the sacred huntress can imbue one arrow per class level with the bane special quality, against the target of her choice. This takes an attack action, and all the arrows must be in her quiver. The arrows retain the bane quality only for the sacred huntress; if given to another person, they lose the bane quality. The arrows also lose the bane quality upon striking the targeted foe, or at the end of the encounter. The sacred huntress can use this power once per day; she may also use her bane arrow ability in conjunction with her enhance arrow and silver arrows class abilities.

Arrow of Change (Sp): At 10th level, a sacred huntress can create an arrow of change that forces the target, if damaged by the arrow’s attack, to make a DC 20 Fortitude save or be polymorphed into an animal of the huntress’ choosing, as per the baneful polymorph spell. It takes one day to make an arrow of change, and the arrow only functions for the sacred huntress who created it. The arrow of change lasts no longer than one lunar month, and the huntress can only have one such arrow in existence at a time. The arrow of change is treated as a +2 silver arrow, although it cannot be imbued with the bane quality by the sacred huntress’ bane arrow class ability.