Dark Ranger

When Sylvanas Windrunner, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken, regained her physical body, she realized that the natural world would never respond to her wishes again. Angered by this development, she turned to arts that were becoming more and more natural to her: necromancy. She then altered her elven ranger teachings into a new form. Thus the dark rangers were born. Dark rangers are similar to their elf cousins, but focus on shadowcraft more than nature. Dark rangers are silent and invisible stalkers of the shadows, felling unsuspecting opponents with a single arrow. Dark rangers still favor the bow as the ultimate weapon, using the same arts that Quel'Thalas taught for millennia. Their spells

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Dark rangers are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light and medium armor. They are also proficient in the use of arrows as melee weapons, and do not suffer the standard -4 penalty for using an arrow as a weapon in melee combat.

Spells: A dark ranger gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells per day, as shown on Table 3-3. To cast a spell, a dark ranger must have a Spirit score of at least 10 + the spell's level, so a dark ranger with a Spirit of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. She may prepare and cast any spell from the dark ranger spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Spirit score. When a dark ranger gets 0 spells of a given level, she gets only bonus spells available due to a high Spirit. A dark ranger prepares and casts spells under the same guidelines as a healer.

Archery Combat Style (Ex): At 1st level, the dark ranger receives Rapid Shot as a bonus feat. At 6th level, she gains Manyshot. At 10th level, she receives Improved Precise Shot. She can use these feats even if she does not meet the prerequisites, but she cannot use these feats cannot as prerequisites for other feats or abilities unless she meets their prerequisites. Th e dark ranger may make use of feats gained via the archery combat style only when wearing light or no armor .

Extended Range (Ex): Starting at 1st level, after all multipliers are applied, a dark ranger adds +10 feet to the range increment of bows she uses for each level she possesses in the dark ranger prestige class. Thus, an 8th- level dark ranger with a composite longbow and the Far Shot feat would have a range increment of ([110 feet x 1.5] + [8 x 10 feet] = 165 feet + 80 feet) 245 feet. Ra nged Backstab (Ex): At 1st level, a dark ranger may perform a backstab with any ranged weapon. This ability is like the rogue's backstab ability , but may only be used with ranged weapons up to 60 feet away . As you cannot flank with ranged weapons, this skill may be used only on opponents who are denied their Agility bonus to AC. A dark ranger's ranged backstab stacks with another class's backstab ability so long as the backstab is performed with a ranged weapon no farther than 30 feet away. See W oW RPG, Chapter 3: Classes for the rogue's backstab ability. At 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th levels, the dark ranger deals more damage with a ranged backstab.

Heightened Perception (Ex): At 2nd level, dark ranger's senses grow sharper than even those of other Forsaken. The dark ranger gains a bonus equal to half her levels in this class on Listen and Spot checks.

Shadowmeld (Ex): At 2nd level, the dark ranger learns how to fade into dark conditions, wrapping herself with shadows. At night or in low-light environments, the dark ranger gains a +10 circumstance bonus on Stealth checks to hide while stationary.

Keen Arrows (Ex): At 4th level, the dark ranger doubles the threat range of all arrows or bolts she fires. This feature does not stack with other threat range adjustments such as Improved Critical or the keen weapon property. Swift

T racker (Ex): A dark ranger of 5th level or higher can move at her normal speed while following tracks without taking the standard -5 penalty. She takes only a -10 penalty (instead of the standard -20) when moving at up to twice her normal speed while tracking. If a dark ranger already possesses swift tracker from another class, these penalties are adjusted to -2 and -5 respectively.

Bow Strike (Ex): At 6th level, a dark ranger may use her bow in melee combat without risk of damaging the bow. A longbow functions as a quarterstaff, and a shortbow functions as a club. The bow's enhancement bonuses and masterwork quality do not grant bonuses on melee attacks.

Anticipation (Ex): At 8th level, the dark ranger can notice the tiny movements of her enemies along with other visual and auditory cues that allow her to react more quickly in combat. She gains a +4 competence bonus on initiative checks. In addition, the dark ranger may select one creature each round on her turn. For 1 round, that creature may not make attacks of opportunity against her or count as flanking her.

Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): A dark ranger of 9th level or greater can use the Stealth skill to hide even when being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, she can hide from view without actually having anything to hide behind. She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow.

Arrow Cleave (Ex): A bow in the hands of a 10th- level dark ranger becomes a weapon capable of shots with incredible power and precision. If the dark ranger deals enough damage with a fired arrow to make a creature drop (typically by dropping it to below 0 hit points or killing it), the arrow continues in a straight line and targets the next creature in its path if it is within the same range increment as the original target. Make separate rolls to hit and damage the second target. The dark ranger can use this ability once per round. Dark Ranger Spell List Dark rangers draw their spells from the forces of darkness and death. The dark ranger's spell list Errata: Elven and Dark Ranger Abilities Dark rangers are elven rangers with a different focus. You may notice that some of the dark ranger's abilities have identical names to the elven ranger's abilities but are worded differently. This is intentional; the dark ranger's abilities include the official wording of those abilities. This errata changes the elven ranger's bow strike, keen arrows, and arrow cleave abilities to those described here. (The abilities function the same way, but the new wording creates clarity.) Table 3 -2: The Dark Ranger (Dkr) Base Class Attack Fort Ref Will Level Bonus Save Save Save Special 1st +1 +2 +2 +0 Spells, archery combat style (Rapid Shot), extended range, ranged backstab +1d6 2nd +2 +3 +3 +0 Heightened perception, shadowmeld 3rd +3 +3 +3 +1 Ranged backstab +2d6 4th +4 +4 +4 +1 Keen arrows 5th +5 +4 +4 +1 Swift tracker, ranged backstab +3d6 6th +6 +5 +5 +2 Bow strike, archery combat style (Manyshot) 7th +7 +5 +5 +2 Ranged backstab +4d6 8th +8 +6 +6 +2 Anticipation 9th +9 +6 +6 +3 Hide in plain sight, ranged backstab +5d6 10th +10 +7 +7 +3 Arrow cleave, archery combat style (Improved Precise Shot) features plenty of necromantic spells, as well as several curses that wrack the bodies and enslave the minds of their enemies. 1st Level - Cause fear, charm person, cure light wounds, doom, inflict light wounds, lesser shadow word pain, magic weapon, shadowmeld, summon undead I. 2nd Level - Black arrow*, cat's grace, cure moderate wounds, darkness, death knell, owl's wisdom, inflict moderate wounds, silence, summon undead II. 3r d Level - Banshee's curse*, contagion, cure serious wounds, d eeper darkness, inflict serious wounds, poison*, shadow word pain, suggestion, summon undead III. 4th Level - Bestow curse, cure critical wounds, drain life, dominate person, freedom of movement, inflict critical wounds, summon undead IV. * See Chapter 4: Magic and Faith. Table 3-3: Dark Ranger Spell Slots per Day Class Level 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 0 - - - 2nd 1 - - - 3rd 1 0 - - 4th 1 1 - - 5th 1 1 0 - 6th 1 1 1 - 7th 2 1 1 0 8th 2 1 1 1 9th 2 2 1 1 10th 2 2 2 1