Archer
by Craig AntounHere is my take on the archer character class, which I put together based on the following: a variant of the fighter class introduced in one of the Hollow World supplements, from my own original version from the early 80's based of the Archer class presented in Dragon Magazine by Len Lakofka, and the awesome version created by Havard (I hope you don't mind my variation on your design).
Prime Requisite: Dexterity.
Other Requirements: Must have 9 in both STR and DEX.
Experience Bonus: DEX score of 13-15 gives +5% XP Bonus, DEX score of 16-18 gives +10% XP Bonus.
Hit Dice: 1d8 per level up to 9th level. Starting with 10th level, +2 hit points per level, and Constitution adjustments no longer apply.
Saving Throws: As a Fighter of equal level.
Maximum Level: 36th. Progresses as a Fighter of equal level.
Alignment: Any
Armor: Restricted to chain mail or worse. May use a shield.
Weapons: May use any weapon.
Special Abilities: Archery Ability, STR Bonus Damage, Aim, Archer Combat Options
Weapon Mastery: Same as a Thief.
Skills: Required to take Bowyer and Fletching.
Archery Ability: At 1st level archers gain +2 to Hit and Damage when using longbows, short bows, and crossbows. This ability is lost when wearing armor better than chain mail.
STR Bonus Damage: At 1st level archers may add their Strength bonus to damage when using the longbow.
Aim: At 6th level the archer can take careful aim at a target for an additional +2 to hit. When aiming the archer automatically loses Initiative, may not move at all, and loses any DEX bonus to his armor class for the duration of the combat round. If the archer takes any damage before he can fire his bow/crossbow in that combat round, his shot is ruined. This maneuver cannot be combined with the Mighty Shot maneuver (see below).
Archer Combat Options: At 9th level the archer gains Ranged Disarm, Ranged Pin, and Mighty Shot.
• Ranged Disarm: Same as a normal disarm, but at range.
• Ranged Pin: The archer may perform a ranged wrestling pin against an opponent by pinning a bit of its clothing to a nearby surface. The target must be within 5’ of a wall, tree, or other surface in which a projectile can be stuck and must be wearing some sort of clothing, armor, or other accoutrement. The archer must succeed on a normal ranged attack, and then win a Wrestling Rating roll based on his/her current WR score. To break free, the victim must make an opposed Wrestling Rating roll.
• Mighty Shot: The same as the Smash maneuver, but at range and can only be performed with a longbow or short bow. The archer automatically loses Initiative and takes a -5 penalty to the attack roll (he still gets his Dexterity and magic adjustments to his attack roll).
Sure Shot: This ability is earned at 10th level. Ranged targets of the archer gain no bonus from cover except when behind full cover.
Multiple Attacks: At 12th level the archer may make Multiple Attacks with longbows and short bows only. He may not apply Multiple Attacks to light or heavy crossbows, nor any form of hand-to-hand or thrown weapon.
Design Notes: The Mighty Shot ability was Havard's brilliant idea, while I created the Aim ability as form of concentration targeting. Some of the other abilities were lifted from TETSNBN, but I think they fit pretty well with the concept I was going for. As this is a variant of the fighter class, I took away all the regular fighter special abilities (Set Spear vs. Charge, Lance Attack) and modified some of the Fighter Combat Maneuvers in similar fashion to what Havard did with the Mighty Shot ability. As I recall, the fighter's Multiple Attack option was limited to hand-to-hand attacks, thrown weapons, lance attacks, and disarms. I just altered it for the archer to be usable for longbows and short bows only, but not crossbows as it seems unlikely that even a trained high level archer could fire a lt. crossbow two, three, or even four times in a single combat round as opposed to knocking and firing several arrows from a bow in the same amount of time.