Disciplines

Hunter

The Hunter Discipline is trained to hunt anything, from the smallest of animals to other Adepts to the strongest of magical beasts or Horrors. They are solitary by nature, but often work with other Adepts who can provide support on a tough hunt, as well as to gain insight into people in general, which is helpful on many of their hunts. There are many Hunters in the employ of the Therans, but for the most part, Hunters are an honorable Discipline.

Important Attributes: Dexterity, Perception, and Willpower

Racial Restrictions: Obsidiman, Troll

Karma Ritual: The Hunter envisions the current prey, fleeing in the distance, and the Hunter must track down the prey. Over the 30 minutes the ritual takes, the Hunter imagines struggling to overcome many difficulties presented by the wily prey. In the end, the capture is made, and the prey falls before the Hunter as the final stroke in the hunt is dealt.

Artisan Skills: Body Painting, Bone Carving, Wood Carving

First Circle

Talents
Avoid Blow (D)
Evidence Analysis (D)
Karma Ritual
Missile Weapons
Prey Link (D) - new Talent
Tracking (D)

Second Circle

Talents
Animal Bond
Durability (6/5)
Prey Presence (D) - new Talent

Third Circle

Talents
Animal Training (D)
Climbing

Fourth Circle

Karma The adept now gains the ability to use a karma die on Perception Tests.

Talents
Silent Walk (D)
Thread Weaving

Fifth Circle

Initiative The adept now receives a bonus of +1 Steps to all Initiative rolls.

Talents
Astral Sight (D)
Terror Stalk - new Talent

Sixth Circle

Prey Intuition. The Hunter can use this ability on any prey that the Adept has a Prey Link attached to. When stuck in any position or situation, the Hunter can use the knowledge of the prey's actions and abilities to predict what the prey would do in the same situation. This can be used when the Hunter is unable to locate the prey any other way. The player should suggest to the GM likely possibilities for the prey's action, which the GM can agree or disagree with, and can also make suggestions based on. There is no roll involved because the Hunter often doesn't know all of the abilities of the prey and this ability is not a divination. The GM should be helpful and base the suggestions on the Hunter's familiarity with the prey.

Talents Melee Weapons or Thrown Weapons (neither as discipline talents)
Surprise Strike (D)

Seventh Circle

Physical Defense The adept now receives a bonus of +1 to Physical Defense.

Talents
Lock Pick
Sprint

Eighth Circle

Spell Defense The adept now receives a bonus of +1 to Spell Defense.

Talents
Borrow Sense
Create Trap - new Talent

Ninth Circle

Karma The adept now gains the ability to use a karma die on Recovery Tests.

Talents
Great Leap
Safe Path
Taunt

Tenth Circle

Perception The adept now receives a bonus of +2 to all Perception Tests.

Talents
Astral Track (D) - new Talent
True Sight

New Talents

Astral Track

Step Number: Rank + Willpower
Action: Yes Skill Use: No
Requires Karma: No Strain: see below
Discipline Talent Use: Hunter

This Talent is the Hunter's most feared ability. Any creature, even if it exists solely in Astral Space, can be tracked using this ability. The Hunter uses Astral Sight and, if successful, uses Astral Track on prey that the Hunter has Prey Linked. A successful Astral Track Test against the Spell Defense of the prey means the Hunter can track the prey through Astral Space. This ability can last as long as the Astral Sight does.
By opening up the nuances of Astral Space, however, the Hunter suffers Strain depending on how corrupt the Astral Space is in the area, one point for each level of corruption, starting at one point in safe areas. Using this ability in corrupt areas results in four points of Strain. This Strain damage is incurred every round the Hunter uses Astral Track.

Create Trap

Step Number: Rank + Dexterity
Action: Yes Skill Use: Yes
Requires Karma: No Strain: No
Discipline Talent Use: none

This Talent allows the Hunter to design and build temporary traps in a rapid manner. Magical traps and traps that are permanent in nature can not be built using this spell. Traps that can be built include snares, dug-out pit traps, concealed spear traps, etc., basically anything in a wilderness setting. The exact type of trap and its construction time are left up to the GM and the player, and should take into account the materials available and the intended prey. A Create Trap Test is made and all the trap's attributes, including Detection Difficulty, Disarm Difficulty, and Initiative Step, are set to an initial value equal to the Test result. The Hunter can then alter these values on a one-for-one basis, raising one Attribute by a point for each drop in another Attribute. Damage Steps can be added this way as well. A skilled Hunter can design very powerful traps, and are highly sought after for just this purpose. The time required to build a trap depends upon its design. For instance, a pit trap might require days to dig out the dirt, but a snare trap would require about five minutes to set the spring, the rope, and to conceal the whole thing. If the Hunter has built a similar trap before, a +1 bonus is applied to the roll.

Example: Elmer Fudd, a Hunter, wishes to design a trap to catch his nemesis, the Wabbit. He makes a Create Trap Test, which gives him an initial value of 11 for the trap attributes, the result of his roll. Since he knows the Wabbit has an uncanny ability to detect his traps, he raises the Detection Difficulty to 15, and drops both Trap Initiative and Disarm Difficulty to 9 each. Since he doesn't want to bruise the Wabbit, he leaves it causing no damage. This trap would likely be a snare trap, very well concealed. If Elmer had wanted to hurt the Wabbit at Step 6, he could have dropped the Trap Initiative and Disarm Difficulty down to 6 each.
The traps made by Create Trap are temporary by definition. In many cases, a strong wind or rainstorm will render them useless, as will several weeks of normal wear and tear. The GM should judge the results of a skilled Hunter attempting to make a more durable trap than the usual allowed.

Prey Link

Step Number: Rank + Willpower
Action: Yes Skill Use: No
Requires Karma: No Strain: No
Discipline Talent Use: Hunter

This ability of the Hunter is a special ability that allows the Hunter to select prey and to obtain an advantage over the prey using knowledge of its abilities. When a Hunter wishes to make something a prey item, a Prey Link Test is made against the Spell Defense of the prey. The prey does not need to be present for this ability to work. The Hunter can make this test against prey of which the Hunter possesses little knowledge, maybe only from legend, but the penalties incurred should be prohibitive (+20 to Spell Defense for "the Horror that destroyed the neighboring village" to +30 or higher to Spell Defense for "the evil beast of ancient Cara Fahd"). These prey items should be made very difficult to acquire, for a Hunter that has a Prey Link attached to prey obtains certain advantages over it, and can use certain special abilities against it (like Astral Track).

The attempt to link to a prey takes 2 hours, if this attempt fails another attempt on the same prey cannot be made for a week and a day.

The more information the Hunter has on the subject, the less the penalty should be, but there should never be a point where the Hunter actually gets a bonus to the Test, simply to preserve game balance. A typical penalty would be +5 to Spell Defense for the merchant the Hunter met and ate dinner with the other night, and whose family is familiar to the Hunter. A Hunter can have as many Prey Linked prey as Ranks in the Prey Link ability. The Prey Link lasts until the Hunter has captured the prey, at which point it disappears. However, establishing a Prey Link to previously Linked prey is much easier, the end Difficulty Number is halved for purposes of the Test and the Hunter generally knows the prey much better the second time around.

The ability works on the basis of being able to tap into the true pattern of a person or item. The Hunter can attempt to link to an inanimate object though these receive an increased spell defense due to their mundane nature (this doesn't apply to thread items). If the nature of the an object being linked to includes information which overlaps the pattern of someone else (which has been failed to link to in the last week and a day), the object either cannot be linked to or that information cannot be used to help link the item.
E.g. Elmer having just failed to link to the Wabbit tries to link to his every present carrot in order to Astral Track the varmint y proxy. The pattern of the carrot is mainly due to its connection to the Wabbit (it is carried by the Wabbit, didn't take a left at Alberkerky while with the Wabbit etc). Elmer can either wait for till the time has elapsed to link to the carrot (using this information) or link to the carrot without any inference to the Wabbit. The latter option will be quite difficult, when removing any reference to the Wabbit it is just a carrot is almost indistinguishable from any other carrot (i.e. wouldn't even get a roll).

In addition to being able to use additional Talents against the Linked prey, the Hunter gains advantages against the prey itself. Having a Prey Link active gives the Hunter a +1/2 bonus on all tests made that involve the Linked prey. For every week the Hunter actively tracks down the prey, this bonus increases by +1/2 to a maximum equal to half the Hunter's Rank in Prey Link. Obviously, Linking to prey is a first priority in many serious hunts the Hunter undertakes, and many will take on long journeys and adventures to obtain enough information to be successful in their Link Test. The prey does not know that they have been Prey Linked by the Hunter. All these halves are rounded up.

Prey Presence

Step Number: Rank + Perception
Action: Yes Skill Use: No
Requires Karma: No Strain: No
Discipline Talent Use: Hunter

After concentrating and examining the area in question, the Hunter can determine if the prey has passed through this area. The Hunter must be Prey Linked to the prey in question for this ability to work. The Hunter makes a Prey Presence Test against the Spell Defense of the prey. A success indicates that the Hunter knows whether or not the prey passed through, and the general direction if was headed (e.g. north, into the cave, across the bridge). Failure means no information was gained. If the prey passed through more than 24 hours ago, a +1 penalty is added to the Spell Defense for the Test. This Talent works even if no evidence remains of the passing prey.

Terror Stalk

Step Number: Rank + Willpower
Action: see below Skill Use: Yes
Requires Karma: No Strain: No
Discipline Talent Use: none

Terror Stalk is often used by Hunters to weaken their prey, making for an easier catch. By making the prey subtly aware of the Hunter's presence, paranoia and gnawing fear begin to affect the prey. Time has an affect as well, allowing the prey to worry and become more fearful. The Hunter makes a Terror Stalk Test against the Social Defense of the prey once for every day Terror Stalk is used. Success drops all of the prey's Step Numbers by 1. This effect is cumulative over multiple successful days, up to the Hunter's Rank in Terror Stalk. Each failed day results in the loss of one day's worth of penalties on the prey, and two consecutive days with no attempt made to Terror Stalk the prey results in the prey being totally free of the effects. In order for this Talent to work, the Hunter must be able to get close enough to the prey to be noticed or to leave evidence that the prey will run across, which might be dangerous or undesirable. Affected characters can also make Willpower Tests against the result of the Hunter's Terror Stalk test to free themselves completely from its effects.

Philosophy

The mentality of the Hunter is something of a cross between the Archer's and the Scout's. They view the world in terms of "prey" and "potential prey." Many Hunters are solitary individuals, living in the wilds of the world honing their skills against creatures of the world. Many of them do not kill their prey, but hunt them simply to practice and learn about the world around them. However, the Hunter also has a more brutal side.

Because of their special abilities, the Hunters before the Scourge were a very honorable profession, guarding their abilities from those who might misuse them and passing on the most powerful of them (like Astral Track) to those who were worthy and had proven it. After the Scourge, however, corruption became a common thing and many Hunters have begun to work for less-than-honorable goals and employers. In addition, the years of seclusion under kaers and citadels during the Scourge resulted in the numbers of Hunters diminishing greatly, their use was minimal and usually non-existent. The combination of these two effects has turned the once very honorable profession of Hunter into a Discipline in disarray and turmoil. Many more young Adepts are becoming Hunters as experienced and honorable Hunters recruit to fill their ranks against their less honorable brethren. Thus, they are becoming a formidable force on the side against the Horrors and the corruption across Barsaive.

After the Scourge, Hunter's have taken on a very important, although small, role in the reclamation of Barsaive from the Horrors and the destruction they have wrought. With their special abilities, many Hunters track down and destroy Horrors and Horror constructs. As part of a powerful group of Adepts, Hunters have caused nightmares in many an evil ruler's dreams, who try to avoid their attentions.

In recent years, there has been something of an underground war going on between the honorable Hunters and their corrupted comrades. Although the corrupted Hunters have more resources available to them through their employers, the honorable Hunters are more likely to possess the Talents unique to their Discipline, like Prey Link, which are often only taught by Ghost Masters from a more honorable age. After suffering heavy initial losses, the honorable Hunters have been making heavy inroads against their corrupt half, and the reputation of Hunters in general has been increasing all over the Province.

Although many Hunters are obsessed with their prey, most of them are not too concerned with the prey when not on the hunt itself. They assume that the prey is "doomed" anyway, so why worry right now about them? This attitude changes remarkably, however, when the Hunter is actively hunting. Since the hunt is only engaged when the Hunter wants to catch the prey, the Hunter becomes very intense and driven, hoping to finish the hunt with a success.