Bounty Hunter class for Mystara

06 Mar, 2025

Dragon Magazine #52¹ contains three versions of the Bounty Hunter class. I've found that the third one from the "He's on your trail" article best fits the BECMI/RC ruleset. Here are the main changes of the conversion:

1. Hit Dice: Same as fighters, so d8 HD instead of the AD&D's d10.
2. Ability Requirements: Keeping the tradition of not having more than two, I've kept Intelligence and Dexterity (minimum of 12 for both).
3. Questioning: The original's "+2 bonus to effective Charisma" means +10% on AD&D's d100 reaction rolls, so I've changed it to a direct +1 bonus to D&D's 2d6 reaction rolls.
4. Knockout: Merged with the "Pulling Punches" ability for simplicity. The duration time of d10 one-minute rounds is kept as is.
5. Thief Abilities: Keeping the same progression, I've also added Hiding in Shadows and Sneak Attacks with capture weapons only. Bounty Hunters must not wear armor heavier than chain mail to perform all of these.

Other aspects are kept as-is.

Bounty Hunter Class

📝 NOTE: This character class is designed to be used with BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia² or its free clone Dark Dungeons³, but could be quite easily ported to any other edition of your choice.

The bounty hunters are adept in tracking and capturing fugitives from justice.

Class Ability Requirements:

Alignment Restrictions: Neutral only.

Equipment Restrictions: As a Figter. To use Thief Abilities, a hunter must wear chain mail or worse armor.

Experience Progression: As a Magic-User.

Hit Points: As a Fighter.

Attack Rolls: As a Fighter.

Saving Throws: As a Fighter.

General Skills: As a Fighter.

Weapon Mastery: As a Fighter, at least one must be a capture weapon: blowgun, bolas, net, etc.

Magical Items: All allowed to Fighters and Thieves.

Special Abilities:

• Tracking:

  • Outdoors: There is a base 70% chance of a Bounty Hunter being able to follow a creature, modified as follows:

    • +2% for each creature above one in the party being tracked;
    • –15% for every 24 hours since the trail was made;
    • –30% for each hour of precipitation (rain, snow, etc).

  • Underground: A Bounty Hunter must have observed the creature to be tracked within 2 turns of the commencement of tracking, and the hunter must begin tracking at a place where the creature was observed:

• Questioning: A Bounty Hunter gains a bonus of +1 to reaction rolls when questioning purposes at taverns, inns, or other large gatherings of people in an atmosphere that provides the opportunity for conversation. There is a 10% base chance that a member of the party being questioned will know the hunter or know of his reputation, adjusted by +2% for each member of the party beyond the first; i.e., there is an 18% chance that one person in a five-member party will know the hunter. A reaction roll is made for that person without counting the hunter’s usual bonus to reaction rolls.

• Knockout: During melee combat, hunters can pull their blows so that only half of the actual damage (round down) is assessed against the victim, the other half being temporary. When a victim is reduced to zero hit points by such a blow, the victim falls unconscious for 1d10 minutes.

• Thief Abilities:

  • Sneak Attack with capture weapons only.
  • Starting at the second level, a Bounty Hunter can Open Locks and Pick Pockets as a 1st level Thief. Advancement is one level of thieving ability for every two levels of the hunter (½ of the hunter’s level, rounded down).
  • Starting at the second level, a Bounty Hunter can Move Silently, Hide in Shadows, and Climb Walls as a Thief one level lower.

The first character of the Bounty Hunter class — Jundy of Koralgesh, turned back from stone decades after the fall of his majestic city.⁴

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