Prestige Class (3.5e): Order of the Silver Bow
Archers work diligently to perfect their aim; artisan fletchers and bowyers spend a lifetime honing their craft. The Order of the Silver Bow does both—creating a harmonious, symbiotic blend of art and archery. Wielding their bespoke signature weapons, these archers are known far and wide for the meticulous perfection they exhibit in their crafted bows as well as their deadly accuracy when using them.
Hit Die: d8
REQUIREMENTS: To qualify to join the Order of the Silver Bow, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Base Attack Bonus: +4.
Skills: Craft (bowmaking) 8 ranks.
Feats: Weapon Focus (any bow).
CLASS SKILLS: The Silver Bow’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (local), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis). See Chapter 4 of the Player’s Handbook for skill descriptions.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
CLASS FEATURES: All of the following are class features of the Order of the Silver Bow prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Order of the Silver Bows gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.
Bespoke Weapon (Ex): Order of the Silver Bows can craft a weapon that is custom tailored to their hand. When crafting a masterwork bow for which they have the Weapon Focus feat, they can choose to make it their signature weapon. They may only have one such weapon of this type at a time. When wielding the bow, they gain a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls. These bonuses increase by 1 at each class level, to a maximum of +5 at 5th level.
These bonuses act as a penalty for anyone other than the crafter, even for other Order of the Silver Bow members.
Elemental Arrows (Sp): Beginning at 1st level, when crafting a masterwork arrow, an Order of the Silver Bow can choose to imbue them with elemental energy. At the time the arrow is finished, he can choose either fire, cold, electricity, or acid. The elemental arrows deal an additional +1d6 damage of the type selected. This damage increases to +2d6 at 3rd level and +3d6 at 5th level. At 3rd level he adds sonic damage to the types of bonus damage he choose. At 5th level, he can choose to make the arrows deal bonus force damage, but the bonus damage die changes to d4s instead of d6.
Eos and Nix (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, when crafting a masterwork arrow, an Order of the Silver Bow can choose to imbue it with light or darkness. When fired, these arrows radiate either light or darkness, as the spell, but with a duration of 1 minute per class level and a caster level of 1 per class level.
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
Ooooh, I like this. And you could do something similar for other weapon specialists groups. These kinds of Prestige classes that you can unlock around level 5 are a great addition for Players who really like customized characters and don't want to wait until mid/late levels to start getting unique abilities.
Reading through something this fleshed out and interesting makes me miss 3.5 SO much! I miss the crunch of something like this. Definitely would be a class I would have run my ranged PCs through. Solid stuff.
The idea of others getting the bespoke bonus as a negative is interesting, and something that could be really fun to apply slowly in cases where the PCs come across a bespoke bow without knowing what it is. At first it feels solid, but over a number of uses it gets worse and worse. Sort of like wearing someone else's shoes once they've taken on the individualized characteristics of the owner.
- Kallak