Hunters are skilled killers from afar. They prefer the high ground: partially as it gives them a great vantage point for sniping, and partially because it more easily allows their feathered familiar friends to divebomb into battle and annihilate Enemies.

Bunkers & Badasses PHB, Hunter Class, by Nerdvana

While you can play the hunter a few ways, my favourite was always taking on the role of a sniper. With a favoured gun of Sniper Rifle or Pistol, and a melee die at only 1d4, you are going to be focusing on using that weapon a lot, preferably from far away!

No surprise that this class gets most of the stat mod bonus on Accuracy (+2) with some on Damage (+1) and Mastery (+1). But you also have a little friend!

Special note on Speed: This class does not get a natural bonus to speed, and one of the things I learned early on was that if you ignore mobility, you cannot get to a sniping position. You need Traverse checks and Speed to have a high initiative and be able to climb up or cross over to where you need to be. Consider that during your build, or focus on sneaking around a lot and hiding so you don’t have to be fast, you just have to be invisible.

Action Skill: Wings of Blood

Bloodwing, your familiar, is able to do a special dive-bomb attack that not only deals 2d8 damage, but also taunts the target and all adjacent enemies. They are then all focused on the hunter. As a squishie, not a great plan to be the focus of attention, but hopefully you are staying very, very, very, far away and causing enemies to chase you around and not focus on hitting your friends. Hopefully your friends will return the favour by taking them out before they squish you!

In addition to the special attack, Bloodwing can also attack as a companion every turn. It’s a small damage output, but every little bit helps!

Backgrounds

Like all classes, there are some backgrounds to pick from. There are a few options here for adding a bonus to stats, but the negative side of them is what you want to pay attention too. A lot of -2 options here.

• Prize Shot: Bonus accuracy (+1) which is great for this class, but -2 Insight Checks means you will need somebody else to figure out what’s going on around you.
• Tracker: I like this one from a role-playing perspective, but the bonuses are weak. +2 on Search, -1 on Talk checks. You’ll have to get a feel from your game master if this is even going to come up as a thing you need a bonus in.
• Partner in Crime: If you plan on leaning into Mastery to do more action skill attacks, this is a good one with the +2 Wing Damage. -2 on Interact Checks does mean you should not be the one checking for traps or opening things.
• Silence, Schmilence: The +1 Damage is nice, but the offset of -2 on Sneak Checks seems like you should only do this if the rest of your party is never going to sneak in anywhere.
• Money isn’t everything: The -2 on Search checks is probably not too big a deal if somebody else is finding the loot. I made the mistake of undervaluing Speed when I rolled up my character and the +1 Speed here could be helpful.

Skill Tree

The Sharp Shooter tree obviously has a lot of options for building up damage and crits, but there are also ways to build out for a pistol option or to focus on your Wings of Blood. Many of the skills also give you a bonus to Search or Sneak, which could be helpful if you are trying to build up as a ‘rogue-like’ sniper.

Archetypes

I personally chose the Deadeye archetype to maximize accuracy and damage at range, and I think it’s the most natural fit for a sniper character. However, another player in our group paired the Scout with a Guardian archetype and more of a pistol build and that has actually been a decent pairing.

Image credits:

• Cover image artwork copyright Gearbox, sourced from https://www.gameosity.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BB-Hunter-Tina-Doodle.png