Walker
Walkers are the ultimate wanderers, adept in any environment, at home wherever their feet take them. They have a deep and abiding curiosity about the world, and they crave the novelty of new sights and places. They show up unexpectedly, walking in and out of tales and adventures. They are in tune with nature, sometimes with a spiritual devotion, sometimes just to enjoy, explore, and learn.
Horizon walkers are masters of travel, always seeking to find safe ways through inhospitable terrain, and leading others safely as well. Master Walkers are known to travel the multiverse, blazing trails where people have never gone before, visiting realms that defy mortal experience. Those who travel with them may delight in or regret the experience, but either way, they do not return unchanged..
Role: Walkers are competent in combat, and more than competant in natural environments. They also have the skills and abilities to make excellent scouts, often taking the role of the first member of a group into danger and the last one out. They are themselves highly mobile, and they help their friends move adroitly as well.
Requirements: The Universal System tends to offer the Walker prestige class to characters who have had remarkable experiences ...
- You are worldly and have enjoyed new vistas.
- You have a deep and abiding love of nature.
- Your curiosity has prompted you to make remarkable discoveries -- and lead you into trouble!
- You look for short cuts, long cuts, and the path less traveled.
- You have experienced the worst of weathers and most treacherous of terrains.
- You have never settled in a single place, and you feel restless before long in the same spot.
- Your knowledge of nature and geography is keen, and you have good survival skills.
- Your class abilities have focused on exploration and travel.
Base Attack Bonus: +0.75 / level.
Caster Level: Similar to +0.5 / level, see below.
Will Save: +0.5 / level.
Fort Save: +0.75 / level.
Reflex Save: +0.5 / level.
Hit Die: d8.
Table: Walker Advancement Level Base Attack Bonus Caster Level Will Save Fort Save Refx Save Special 1st +1 +1 +0.5 +0.5 +0.5 Prestige Signature: Terrain Mastery 2nd +2 +1 +1.0 +1.0 +1.0 Hidden Campfire or Professional Wayfarer 3rd +3 +2 +1.5 +1.5 +1.5 Nature's Aid or Always Walking I 4th +4 +2 +2.0 +2.0 +2.0 Forced for All or Mean Man With a Map 5th +5 +3 +2.5 +2.5 +2.5 Prestige Tier Choice 6th +6 +3 +3.0 +3.0 +3.0 Master Signature: Planar Mastery 7th +7 +4 +3.0 +3.5 +3.5 Hunter II or Herder II 8th +8 +4 +3.0 +4.0 +4.0 Breakneck Dash or Hail of Missiles 9th +9 +5 +4.0 +4.5 +4.5 Portal Shot or Perfect Guide 10th +10 +5 +5.0 +5.0 +5.0 Master Tier Choice
Skill Proficiencies
The walker's proficient skills (and the ability scores used to boost each skill) are Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Chr), Handle Animal (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nature, Geography) (Int), Language (Int), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Str).
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies
You gain no new proficiency with weapons or armor.
Spells and Spell Casting
Prestige classes do not add the usual fractional increase to caster level each time you advance. Instead, at some levels you add a full caster level, and at other levels you add none. The spell level of walker spells varies from walker to walker -- see these rules on prestige class spell aquisition. When you cast spells gained through this prestige class, those spells are natural by type. The casting ability score for this prestige class is strength; use your even (column B) strength modifier for walker spell DCs, and, if it is your highest casting ability score, to set concentration checks and bonus spells per day.
KNOWN SPELLS LIST: When you add a caster level, the spells you add to your known spells list are pre-selected:
- At level 1, add Longstrider and Nap Stack.
- At level 3, add Water Walk and Shrink Item.
- At level 5, add Air Walk and Grove of Respite.
- At level 7, add Transport via Plants and Nature's Call.
- At level 9, add Wind Walk and Find the Path.
Class Abilities
PRESTIGE TIER
Level 1 Walker Prestige Tier Signature Ability: Terrain Mastery (Su): You can create missiles as a free action multiple times per round, so that you never lack for ammunition. Every such missile you fire becomes magical, gaining an enhancement bonus equal to your character level divided by 3 (round down). After being fired by you and after the attack is resolved, the missile vanishes. In addition, you can bind an area-affect spell to such a missile when you shoot it at a creature. If this spellbound missile hits, it inflicts normal damage and the spell takes effect at the creature's location. If the spell has directionality (such as a cone or line), it radiates out away from you. A spell cast in this way requires its standard casting time -- and you fire the spellbound missile as part of the casting. If the missile misses, the spell is not cast, and the spell slot is not used.
Level 2 Walker Prestige Tier Interaction Ability (pick one):
- Professional Wayfarer (Su): Domestic (ie, tame or trained) animals and magical beasts with Intelligence 1 or 2 have a default attitude of friendly towards you. You gain a bonus on handle animal checks with domestic animals equal to your odd (Column A) Wisdom modifier. If such a domesticated creature is ordered to attack you or is hostile toward you, it will instead cower and not attack.
Level 3 Walker Prestige Tier Combat Ability (pick one):
- Nature's Aid (Ex): You gain the abilities of the Shot on the Run feat. If you already have the feat itself, or if you gain it later, then, as a full-round action, you can move up to your twice your speed and make a single ranged attack at any point during your movement; or you may move up to your speed and use your Spellbound Shooting ability to cast a spell and fire the spellbound missile at any point during your movement, so long as the spell has a casting time of one standard action or less.
- Always Walking I (Ex): You do not provoke attacks of opportunity when making ranged attacks with a missile weapon.
Level 4 Walker Prestige Tier Exploration Ability (pick one):
- Forced for All (Ex): Your penalty on Spot and Search checks for distance is reduced from -1 per 10 ft distance to -1 per 50 ft distance. You can see details as if you were five times closer. You can judge line of sight distances with perfect accuracy. You are immune to snow blindness and the dazzled condition. You can see twice as far when vision is restricted by weather.
- Mean Man With a Map (Sp): If you take one minute to concentrate on an object, and then you toss a missile into the air and let it fall, it will point the direction to the desired object (or roll in the correct direction, for a sling bullet). This at-will ability is otherwise like the spell Locate Object.
Level 5 Walker Prestige Tier Choice: Select a Walker Prestige Tier Interaction, Combat, or Exploration ability that you have not yet chosen, or choose a feat from the Runner or Stepper Feat Trees for which you qualify, treating your own tier as if it were one step higher..
MASTER TIER
Level 6 Walker Master Tier Signature Ability: Planar Mastery (Su) As a standard action, a missile you create with your Spellbound Shooting ability homes in on your target, veering around creatures, passing through obstacles, ignoring benefits for cover and reducing the miss chance for concealment by 25 percent. A trick shot requires line of effect or line of sight, but not both (if you are shooting into mist, you might have line of effect but not line of sight; if you are shooting through a wall at a target you see with a ring of x-ray vision, you have line of sight but not line of effect). A trick shot strikes incorporeal and ethereal foes as if the missile had the ghost touch ability. In addition, when you use a trick shot, you may choose one of the following combat maneuvers or actions (instead of attacking to inflict damage): disarm, snooker, sunder, or trip; add half your character level to your CMB to make one of these special attacks. You can bind a spell to a Trick Shot if the casting time is a standard action or less, but the combined Spellbound Trick Shot requires a full round action to execute. You can make a Trick Shot a number of times per day equal to your character level.
Level 7 Walker Master Tier Interaction Ability (pick one):
- Hunter II (Sp): You can cast Locate Creature as a spell-like ablity at will. If you know the creature well, having interacted with it for hours at a time, the range is 100 miles per walker level. If you have a drop of blood, fur, or hair, the range is 10 miles per level. If you have a possession of the creature, the range is 1 mile per level. Otherwise, the range is as the spell.
- Herder II (Su): When you are guarding other creatures or standing watch over them, you gain a bonus to your Spot and Search checks equal to your odd (Column A) Constitution modifier. On watch, you are immune to all sleep effects, and you ignore the need for normal sleep as well as any active fatigue or exhaustion effects for the duration of your watch. When your watch is over, you gain the benefits of resting as if you had slept instead of standing watch.
Level 8 Walker Master Tier Combat Ability (pick one):
- Breakneck Dash (Ex): In combat, your base land speed increases by 20, and all other modes of movement increase by 10. If you are attacked while you are moving, as with an attack of opportunity or a readied attack, you gain a +4 competence bonus on armor class and reflex saving throws. Finally, you can make a single missile attack as part of a run action; you can use your Spellbound Shooting ability to create the missile for this attack, but you may not bind a spell to it.
- Hail of Missiles (Su): Once per day as a full round action, you can fire a missile at each and every target within range. Each attack uses your primary attack bonus, and each enemy may only be targeted by a single missile. You can use your Spellbound Shooting ability to create the missiles for this action, but you may not bind any spells to them.
Level 9 Walker Master Tier Exploration Ability (pick one):
- Portal Shot (Sp): As a standard action, you shoot a spellbound missile onto an unoccupied space, and a 5 ft x 5 ft dimensional portal opens directly in front of you, such that any creature or object that passes through the portal is teleported without error to the space in which the missile landed. You must bind a spell slot to the missile; to correctly target the unoccupied square, you must roll a to-hit against AC25-X, where X is the level of the bound spell slot. If you miss the shot, the attempt fails but the slot and the use per day is NOT wasted. The portal lasts until the start of your next turn, and any creature or object may pass through. Travel is one-way only and requires one square of movement as part of a move action or a five-ft step. You may make a portal shot a number of times per day equal to 3 + your odd (Column A) Dexterity modifier.
- Perfect Guide (Ex): You gain 5 ranks in Profession (Guide). You are never surprised or lost. When you are exploring a place that is new to you, you and your allies within 50 ft gain a +2 competence bonus on initiative, Spot, Search, and Survival skill checks, as well as to create and use maps with the Scrivening skill.
Level 10 Walker Master Tier Choice: Select a walker Master or Prestige Tier Interaction, Combat, or Exploration ability that you have not yet chosen, or choose a feat from the Intuition or Dash Feat Trees for which you qualify, treating your own tier as if it were one step higher.