1 New Ranger Subclass - Bounty Hunter
1 NPC Statblock for a Bounty Hunter Ranger
Guidance Notes to Help DMs Integrate the Class into Their Game
5e D&D is a glorious game built around the central concept of combat. The non-combat pillars are routinely overshadowed in class features by the combat ones and a lot of players build their characters around way to kill their enemies faster. However, there is a lot of fun to be had catching foes instead of killing them. “Wanted - Dead or Alive” doesn’t have to give equal value to the two options.
Several existing classes and subclasses can effectively function as professional bounty hunters, but none of them truly captures the feeling of a character specializing in hunting down individuals. Leaving bounty hunter as a hollow background feature doesn’t cut it for us. We have built this ranger conclave to allow characters to truly embody the bounty hunter archetype and hone their skills as people catchers.
Where other rangers learn to combat broad categories of foes, the bounty hunter takes a more bespoke line. Following detailed research into, or close observation of, a particular individual, the bounty hunter develops tailored strategies and tactics to take them down. When this observational skill is married to the ranger’s tracking abilities, it allows them to effectively hunt down their contractual targets no matter where they may seek to hide. Some rangers of this type may act in a similar fashion to an assassin, killing their targets and returning to base with proof of their demise.
However, most act to catch and return live targets, priding themselves of the higher level of skill required by such an undertaking. Finding good contracts requires building a reputation so, given a choice or “dead of alive” the bounty hunter will usually opt for the higher payout - and often this is the live capture, rather than the kill.
- from the publisher's blurb