Eldritch Hunter (Apath)
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Fearsome warriors and spellcasters, eldritch hunters are rare among magic-users in their ability to wade into battle alongside fighters, barbarians, and other martial classes. Those who must face eldritch hunters in combat fear them greatly, for their versatility on the battlefield is tremendous; against heavily armed and armored opponents they may level crippling spells, while opposing spellcasters meet their ends on an eldritch hunter's blade.
Class Information
This is a merged prestige class.
Prestige Class: eldritch knight .
Build Classes: ranger, sorcerer.
Role: Eldritch hunters are masters of the wild, alpha predators using both might and magic to establish their dominance.
Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8.
Class Abilities
Class Skills
The eldritch hunter's class skills are Appraise (Int), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), and Swim (Str).
Skill Ranks Per Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
An eldritch hunter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with all armor (heavy, light, and medium) and shields (including tower shields). Armor interferes with an eldritch hunter's movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.
Spells
An eldritch hunter casts arcane spells drawn from the sorcerer/wizard spell list. An eldritch hunter must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time.
To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the eldritch hunter must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an eldritch hunter's spell is 10 + the spell level + the eldritch hunter's Intelligence modifier.
An eldritch hunter can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Eldritch hunter. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).
An eldritch hunter may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the eldritch hunter decides which spells to prepare.
Starting Spells: An eldritch hunter begins play with a spellbook containing all 0-level wizard spells (except those from his opposed schools, if any; see Arcane Schools) plus three 1st-level spells of his choice. The eldritch hunter also selects a number of additional 1st-level spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the spellbook. At any time, an eldritch hunter can also add spells found in other spellbooks to his own (see Magic).
Spells Gained at a New Level: Eldritch hunters perform a certain amount of spell research between adventures. Each time a character attains a new eldritch hunter level, he gains two spells of his choice to add to his spellbook. The two free spells must be of spell levels he can cast. If he has chosen to specialize in a school of magic, one of the two free spells must be from his specialty school.
Bonus Languages
An eldritch hunter may substitute Draconic for one of the bonus languages available to the character because of his race.
Cantrips
Eldritch hunters can prepare a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Eldritch hunter under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again. An eldritch hunter can prepare a cantrip from an opposition school, but it uses up two of his available slots (see below).
Diverse Training
An eldritch hunter counts as a fighter and wizard for the purpose of meeting the prerequisites for feats. His character level for this purpose is not changed.
Eldritch Ties
At 1st level, eldritch hunters develop a bond with magic similar to a wizards. The eldritch hunter chooses between an arcane bond and an arcane school. Whichever option is chosen, it works just like the corresponding wizard class ability, counting eldritch hunter levels as wizard levels.
Scribe Scroll
At 1st level, an eldritch hunter gains Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat.
Bonus Feats
At 4th level, and every four levels thereafter, an eldritch hunter gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal. These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as Combat Feats.
Spell Critical (Su)
At 10th level, whenever an eldritch hunter successfully confirms a critical hit, he can cast a spell as a swift action. The spell must include the target of the attack as one of its targets or in its area of effect. Casting this spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The caster must still meet all of the spell's components and must roll for arcane spell failure if necessary.
Table: Eldritch hunter
| Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | Spells per Day | |||||||||
| 0 | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | ||||||
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Cantrips, diverse training, eldritch ties, Scribe Scroll. | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +0 | +3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +1 | +3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Bonus feat | 4 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5th | +3 | +4 | +1 | +4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 6th | +4 | +5 | +2 | +5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 7th | +5 | +5 | +2 | +5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 8th | +6/+1 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Bonus feat | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9th | +6/+1 | +6 | +3 | +6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 10th | +7/+2 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Spell critical | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 11th | +8/+3 | +7 | +3 | +7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — | |
| 12th | +9/+4 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Bonus feat | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 13th | +9/+4 | +8 | +4 | +8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | |
| 14th | +10/+5 | +9 | +4 | +9 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | |
| 15th | +11/+6/+1 | +9 | +5 | +9 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | |
| 16th | +12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Bonus feat | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 17th | +12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +10 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | |
| 18th | +13/+8/+3 | +11 | +6 | +11 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | |
| 19th | +14/+9/+4 | +11 | +6 | +11 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| 20th | +15/+10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Bonus feat | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Notes
The eldritch hunter is different from the magus in that magic and swordplay are still two different things, two different approaches instead of a unified whole as it is for the magus.
Overcoming Arcane Spell Failure
The bane of the eldritch hunter is the chance of arcane spell failure suffered by all spells with somatic components. Here are some tips on overcoming this situation.
First, there are some spells that lack somatic components. These are few and far between, but might get you through the first levels if you want to gear up like a warrior.
Like all spellcasters, an eldritch hunter can use armor that has no or very low chance of arcane spell failure. The armored kilt, and if eastern armor is allowed the haramaki is a good place to start, but once you can afford special materials, darkleaf and mithral armor become highly desirable. There is also mage armor the old stand-by.
For shields, the same general rules apply, but remember that you can remove the shield for noncombat spellcasting. You can use many buffs and divinations regardless of what shield you wear. Perhaps the best trick of all is to not use a shield at lower levels, but go with a two-handed weapon instead. You need one hand free for somatic components, and that is easily accomplished with a two-handed weapon (it is a free action to shift grip from one to two hands and back). Once special materials become available shields become more attractive, but considering the free hand requirement only bucklers really work out. Or might give up your move actions for the weapon cord and use your weapon hand.
There are also feats for combining arcane spells and armor, Arcane Armor Training and Arcane Armor Mastery.
With a mitral buckler, mithral breaatplate, and both arcane armor feats you can get an armor bonus of +7 with no arcane spell failure and an armor check penalty of only -2.
Finally, there is Still Spell. But it makes your spells more difficult to cast, and there is no metamagic rod for this.