Whether tasked with bringing in wanted criminals or paid to drag debtors back to their loan sharks, bounty hunters are valued for their ability to capture targets alive.
The bounty hunter is an archetype of the thief class.
Archetype Main Ability Scores:
The bounty hunter mainly focuses on DEX for martial combat, INT for their class features, and DEX, WIS, and CHA for optional class features.
Archetype Feature Replacements:
1st – Weapon and Armor Proficiency. 2nd – Thief Talent. 6th – Thief Talent. 12th – Thief Advanced Talent.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency
A bounty hunter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons plus the aklys, bolas, dan bong, lasso, and net. bounty hunters are proficient with light armor, light shields, and bucklers, but not heavy shields or tower shields.
This ability replaces the thief’s weapon and armor proficiencies.
Dirty Trick (Ex)
At 2nd level, anytime a bounty hunter is able to deal sneak attack damage to a target, he can instead attempt to hamper the target. The bounty hunter must declare that he’s using this ability before the attack roll is made. If the attack hits, it deals damage normally, but instead of rolling sneak attack damage, the bounty hunter can attempt a dirty trick combat maneuver against the target as a free action, adding 1 to the combat maneuver check for each die of the bounty hunter’s sneak attack damage. This combat maneuver does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
This ability replaces the thief talent gained at 2nd level.
Submission Hold (Ex)
At 6th level, when a bounty hunter attempts a grapple combat maneuver check to deal damage, he can choose to add his sneak attack damage to the grapple damage for that attack. He takes a –5 penalty on the combat maneuver check if he does this. This sneak attack damage is nonlethal damage, unless the bounty hunter is able to deal normal damage with a grapple and chooses to do so.
This ability replaces the thief talent gained at 6th level.
Incapacitate (Ex)
At 12th level, a bounty hunter can incapacitate a target. This functions like the assassinate ninja trick, except instead of killing the target, the bounty hunter’s successful attack knocks the target unconscious for 1d6 rounds unless it succeeds at its saving throw. If the target does succeed at its saving throw, it still takes the sneak attack damage as normal, but the damage is nonlethal, and the target is immune to that bounty hunter’s incapacitate ability for 24 hours.
This ability replaces the advanced thief talent gained at 12th level.
Thief Talents
The following thief talents complement the bounty hunter archetype: camouflage, fast stealth, hard to fool, slowing strike*, snap shot, surprise attack, and terrain mastery.
Advanced Thief Talents
The following advanced thief talents complement the bounty hunter archetype: bounty hunter’s surprise, knock-out blow, master of disguise, and woodland stride*.
