Bounty Hunter

A bounty hunter is a professional person who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. 

Crime and Punishment
Author Keith Baker
Series Campaign Style
Publisher Atlas Games
Publish date 2003

Abilities: Claiming bounties is a dangerous job, and Strength and Dexterity will help a hunter see the end of another day. Intelligence is also important to bounty hunters; a hunter needs to possess as many tricks as possible, and every new skill gives him another tool to work with.

Alignment: Bounty hunters can be of any alignment. Most hunters lean towards neutrality; their job is to capture fugitives, not to be concerned about the details of the situation. It’s also often useful for a bounty hunter to work outside the strict confines of the law. A lawful good bounty hunter would have to deal with many ethical issues that a neutral hunter could ignore — on the other hand, a lawful hunter would make an excellent vigilante, bringing a little justice to lawless territories.

Hit Die: d10

CLASS SKILLS

The bounty hunter’s class skills are Bluff (Charisma), Craft (Intelligence), Disguise (Charisma), Gather Information (Charisma), Hide (Dexterity), Intimidate (Charisma), Knowledge (local) (Intelligence), Listen (Wisdom), Move Silently (Dexterity), Open Lock (Dexterity), Profession (Wisdom), Ride (Dexterity), Sense Motive (Wisdom), Spot (Wisdom), Survival (Wisdom), and Use Rope (Dexterity).

Skill points at 1st Level: (4 + Intelligence modifier) x 4

Skill points at each level: 4 + Intelligence modifier

THE BOUNTY HUNTER
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special Abilities
1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Track, Poison Use, Improved Unarmed Strike
2	+2	+3	+0	+0	Painful Blow +1d6, Hunter Bonus +1
3	+3	+3	+1	+1	Improved Grapple, Evaluate Injuries
4	+4	+4	+1	+1	Bonus Feat
5	+5	+4	+1	+1	Painful Blow +2d6, Hunter Bonus +2
6	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Special Ability
7	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2
8	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2	Bonus Feat
9	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Painful Blow +3d6, Hunter Bonus +3
10	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	Special Ability
11	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3
12	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Bonus Feat
13	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4	Painful Blow +4d6, Hunter Bonus +4
14	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4	Special Ability
15	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5 +5
16	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5	Bonus Feat
17	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5	Painful Blow +5d6, Hunter Bonus +5
18	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Special Ability
19	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6
20	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Bonus Feat

CLASS FEATURES

All of the following are class features of the bounty hunter:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A bounty hunter is proficient with light and medium armor, shields, the hand crossbow, the net, and all simple and martial weapons. Bounty hunters are trained to take opponents alive; when using a quarterstaff or a club a bounty hunter can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead of normal damage, without the usual –4 penalty.

Track: A bounty hunter gains Track as a bonus feat.

Poison Use: Bounty hunters often use poison when dealing with enemies too powerful to face in a fair fight. A bounty hunter never risks accidentally poisoning himself when applying poison to a blade.

Improved Unarmed Strike: A bounty hunter gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

Painful Blow: Similar to the Sneak Attack of the rogue, Painful Blow represents a bounty hunter’s skill at hitting nerves and pressure points to cause
maximum pain and to render an opponent unconscious. Any time the bounty hunter’s target is denied her Dexterity bonus to AC (whether or not she has a Dexterity bonus), the hunter’s attack deals an additional +1d6 points of nonlethal damage (regardless of whether the base attack inflicts normal or nonlethal damage).

This bonus increases by +1d6 at 5th level and every four levels after that (9th, 13th, and 17th level). Should the bounty hunter score a critical hit, this extra damage is not multiplied. Like a Sneak Attack, Painful Blow damage can only be added to a ranged attack if the target is within 30 ft. A Painful Blow only affects living creatures with a discernable anatomy — of course, creatures like skeletons and golems ignore nonlethal damage.

Hunter Bonus: Bounty hunters are trained to hunt and capture humanoids of all types. A bounty hunter may add this bonus to Survival or Gather Information checks made in conjunction with the Track feat, as long as he is tracking a humanoid opponent. He adds this bonus to any Rope
Use checks made to secure a prisoner with rope. He may also add this bonus to any grapple check that he makes against a humanoid opponent. Finally, he may add this bonus to his attack rolls when he is using a net. The Hunter Bonus begins at +1 and increases by one every four levels, to a maximum bonus of +5.

Improved Grapple: At third level, the hunter gains the Improved Grapple feat, even if he does not have the prerequisite Dexterity score.

Evaluate Injuries: Nonlethal damage is the stock in trade of the bounty hunter, and a good hunter needs to know when an unconscious captive might suddenly wake up. By taking a standard action and making a Heal check (DC 15), a bounty hunter can determine how many hours it will take for an unconscious humanoid to regain consciousness (assuming no further damage or healing occurs).

Note that this can be a simple Wisdom check if the hunter does not possess ranks in the Heal skill. If the hunter fails the roll he receives no information, but he can retry the check as many times as he wishes. This ability can only be used at extremely close range; in order to use Evaluate Injuries, the hunter must be able to touch and carefully examine his target.

Bonus Feat: At 4th level and every four levels thereafter, a bounty hunter may pick a bonus feat from the following list: Alertness, Careful Listener, Bondsman, Combat Expertise, Group Tactics, Hard to Fool, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Net Master, Stealthy, Stunning Fist, Twist the Knife.

A bounty hunter must meet the prerequisites of any feat that he selects.

Special Ability: At 6th level and every four levels thereafter, a bounty hunter gets a special ability of his choice from the following list:

Choke Hold: The bounty hunter is an expert at nonlethal combat. If he successfully pins a humanoid opponent, he inflicts his Painful Blow nonlethal damage in additional to immobilizing his target for the round. This ability can only be taken once.

Crippling Strike: The bounty hunter can inflict lasting injuries that weaken and handicap his foes. When the bounty hunter damages an opponent with a Painful Blow, the victim also takes 2 points of temporary Strength damage. This ability can only be taken once.

Improved Hunter Bonus: Each time the bounty hunter takes this ability, his Hunter Bonus increases by 1.

Opportunist: Once per round, the bounty hunter can make an attack of opportunity against an opponent who has just been damaged in melee by another character. This counts as the hunter’s attack of opportunity for that round, and it can only be used once per round, even if the bounty hunter possesses the Combat Reflexes feat. This ability can only be taken once.

Precise Strike: Each time a bounty hunter takes this ability, he adds +1d6 to his Painful Blow damage.

Stunning Surprise: If the bounty hunter makes a critical hit against a humanoid target, he may add his Painful Blow bonus to the amount of damage inflicted. If he is attacking an opponent who has lost her Dexterity bonus to her Armor Class and thus would already suffer Painful Blow damage — he inflicts double the usual Painful Blow damage. This ability can only be taken once.