Although fiends prize the souls of mortals tempted to evil, sometimes a mortal must simply be slain. Such a mortal, often an obstacle to a powerful fiend’s evil schemes, finds herself the target of a mortal hunter.

Mortal hunters are fiends that specialize in killing mortals. For purposes of this prestige class, “mortal” is a term meaning any creature not of the outsider, undead, construct, or fey types. To practice their hunting skills, fiends capture mortals and drag them to their infernal realms where they are freed, then tracked and killed. A mortal hunters is not only good at tracking and killing mortals, but it learns to use mortal skins to form disguises so that it can infiltrate mortal societies and trick individuals, drawing them into traps.

If a mortal hunter has a character class, it is often ranger or fighter. Mortal hunters usually work alone, but sometimes have lesser fiends to use as shock troops or to help spring ambushes and traps. They occasionally use hounds—howlers, displacer beasts, hell hounds, or similar creatures—in their hunt.

Role: DPS

Characteristics: Outsiders hellbent on ending the lives of creatures unlike themselves

Source: Book of Vile Darkness

Game Rule Information

The Mortal Hunter has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma for your auxiliary abilities and determining numbers of spells, Constitution for making you harder to take down.

Alignment: Any Evil

Hit Die: d10

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Mortal Hunter's class skills are Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Dis�guise (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intuit Direction (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), 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 Mortal Hunter.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Mortal Hunter is proficient with whatever they were already proficient with prior to taking levels in this class.

Spells: A mortal hunter gains the ability to cast a small number of arcane spells. To cast a spell, the mortal hunter must have a Charisma score of at least 10 + the spell's level, so a mortal hunter with a Charisma of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells. Mortal hunter bonus spells are based on Charisma, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 +1/2 Character Level. When the table shows0 spells of a given level, such as 0 1st-level spells at 1st level, the mortal hunter gets only bonus spells. A mortal hunter without a bonus spell for that level cannot yet cast a spell of that level. The mortal hunter's spell list appears below; it has access to any spell on the list and need not prepare those spells ahead of time, just as a sorcerer. A mortal hunter casts spells just as a sorcerer does.

Mortal Hunting Ex: A mortal hunter gains a bonus against mortals due to its extensive study of them and train- ing in the proper combat techniques. The mortal hunter gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls against mortals and the same bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Wilderness Lore checks when using these skills against mortals. The damage bonus applies to ranged weapons only against targets within 30 feet (the mortal hunter cannot strike with deadly accuracy beyond that range). The bonus does not apply to damage against creatures that are immune to critical hits. At 3rd, 6th, and 9th level, the mortal hunter's bonus associated with mortals goes up by +1. This bonus stacks with a ranger's favored enemy bonus.

Mortal Skin Su: By magically grafting bits of mortal flesh to its own body, a mortal hunter gains the ability at 1st level to transform (as the Polymorph Self spell) into any humanoid mortal form. At 5th level, a mortal hunter can polymorph into any mortal form except that of a dragon. At 8th level, any mortal form can be adopted. If the flesh used is from the exact individual being imitated, the duration is permanent. If the flesh is from a being of the same type as the form adopted, the duration is 1 hour. If the flesh is not the same type as the form adopted, the duration is 10 minutes. In all cases, the mortal hunter can dismiss the ability as a standard action. Otherwise, this ability works as the Polymorph Self spell, and the mortal hunter can call upon it once per day.

Detect Mortals Su: A 2nd-level mortal hunter can use detect mortals at will. This ability duplicates the effect of detect undead cast by a 15th-level caster, except that mortals are detected.

Boost Spell Like Ability: At 2nd level, a mortal hunter gains this feat as a bonus feat.

Smite Mortals Su: Once per day, a mortal hunter of 4th level or higher may attempt to smite mortals with one normal melee attack. It adds its Wisdom modifier (if positive) to its attack roll and deals 2 extra points of damage per class level; for example, an 8th-level mortal hunter armed with a longsword would deal 1d8+16 points of damage, plus 3 points of damage for its mortal hunting ability, plus any additional bonuses for high Strength or magical effects. If the mortal hunter accidentally smites a creature that is not a mortal, the smite has no effect but is still used up for that day.

Spurn Mortal Magic Su: A 5th-level mortal hunter applies its Wisdom modifier (if positive) as an additional bonus on all saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities used by mortals. Will saving throws thus add double the normal Wisdom modifier.

Claws of the Overfiend Ex: At 7th level, the damage dealt by all of the mortal hunter's natural attacks increases by one step. Use the table in the Size Increases section in the introduction of the Monster Manual to determine the proper die increase. For example, a bite that deals 1d6+2 points of damage now deals 1d8+2 points of damage.

Mortalbane Shout Su: An 8th-level mortal hunter can, once per day, give a shout that stuns for 1 round all mortals within 50 feet who fail a Fortitude save (DC 10 + Charisma bonus + class levels).

Slay Mortal Su: A 10th-level mortal hunter can attempt to slay a mortal with its touch once per day. If the mortal hunter succeeds at a melee touch attack, the mortal must make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + class level + mortal hunter's Cha modifier) or die instantly.