The People of the Black Blood,are lycanthropes united only by their reverence for evil lycanthropic deities. The basic credo of—survival of the fittest and winnowing of the weak—is evil in a dispassionate way, but the god grants exceptional power to those who supplement that bestial level of evil with torture, and other truly vile acts. Black blood hunters come from all classes, and both afflicted and natural lycanthropes are eligible for the prestige class. Rangers, druids, and barbarians are common among the hunters, but only because they are common among the People of the Black Blood. Clerics of lycanthropic deities often choose this path as well because they enjoy having the ability to cast spells in animal form.

Role: DPS

Characteristics: Those who supplement their bestial level of evil with truly vile acts.

Source: Player's Guide to Faerun

Game Rule Information

The Black Blood Hunter has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Strength for actually hitting people with your natural attacks, and Dexterity for avoiding the silvered weapons being swung at your skull.

Alignment: Any Evil

Hit Die: d8

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Black Blood Hunter's class skills are Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (nature)(Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Wilderness Lore (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Black Blood Hunter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Black Blood Hunter is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with.

Greater Curse of Lycanthropy Su: The DC of the Fortitude save required to avoid contracting lycanthropy from the character's bite attack increases by an amount equal to his black blood hunter level.

Lycanthropic Spell Ex: A black blood hunter with spellcasting ability can cast spells normally in his animal or hybrid form, as has though he were a druid in wild shape using the Natural Spell feat.

Wild Items Ex: A black blood hunter can use armor with the wild special ability, wilding clasp, or any similar item designed for a druid to use while in wild shape. For the purpose of using such items, all the black blood hunter's lycanthropic forms count as wild shapes.

Animal Aspect Su: Starting at 2nd level, a black blood hunter gains the ability to take on limited characteristics of his animal form while remaining in his humanoid form. Once per day, he can gain the Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution of his animal form without actually adopting that shape. In addition, his natural armor increases by +2. All these changes last for 1 minute per black blood hunter level. The black blood hunter can use this ability twice per day at 4th level, three times at 6th level, four times at 8th level, and five times at 10th level.

Wild Empathy Ex: A black blood hunter of 2nd level or higher can use body language, vocalizations, and demeanor to improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions like the druid class feature of the same name, except that the character adds his black blood hunter level to his 1d20 roll instead of his druid level. Furthermore, he gains a +8 racial bonus (rather than the normal +4) when using this ability with normal or dire animals of the same kind as his animal form.

If the black blood hunter also has the wild empathy ability from another class (such as druid or ranger), levels of that class stack with his black blood hunter levels for the purpose of determining the bonus on the wild empathy check.

Improved Hybrid Form Ex: At 3rd level, a black blood hunter gains the ability to use his animal form's special attacks while in hybrid form.

Improved Vile Natural Attack Su: At 4th level, a black blood hunter deals an additional 1d4 points of damage with each successful natural attack, rather than the 1 point that the Vile Natural Attack feat allows. Vile damage can be healed only by magic cast within the area of a consecrate or hallow spell.

When he reaches 8th level, the vile damage he deals with a natural attack increases to 1d6 points.

Improved Damage Reduction Su: When the black blood hunter reaches 5th level, his lycanthropic damage reduction improves by 5 points-to 10/silver if he is an afflicted lycanthrope, or to 15/silver if he is a natural lycanthrope. When he reaches 10th level, his damage reduction can be bypassed only by magic silver weapons.

Faster Change Ex: A black blood hunter of at least 6th level can change to or from animal or hybrid form as a move action rather than a standard action.

Quick Change Ex: A 9th-level or higher black blood hunter can change to or from animal or hybrid form as a free action.