Dark Archer - Ranger Subclass (Premium Supplement)

🏹🍂🖤 The Dark Archers 🏹🍂🖤

In the haunting recesses of the ancient forests and forgotten battlegrounds, a new kind of ranger emerges. They are the Dark Archers, merging the art of the bow with shadowy necromantic arts.

History whispers of archers who, in moments of great desperation, sought power from realms beyond life. To protect their homelands from unstoppable threats, they formed pacts with the spirits of fallen archers, calling upon their knowledge and skills.

Once, these rangers suffered immense losses, their comrades felled in battle, leaving them in solitude. Refusing to let those memories fade, they found a way to keep their allies close, shaping them into skeletal companions. Their purpose? To ensure that no ranger would ever stand alone in battle again.

With each arrow loosed, a Dark Archer bridges the gap between life and the spectral realm, ensuring that every shot carries with it the weight of history and the spirits of those long passed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where many rangers stalk the wilds in pursuit of natural threats and attune themselves with the rhythms of the forest, the Dark Archer bends the shadowy arts of necromancy to their bow, releasing arrows infused with deathly magic. This unique bond with the dead allows them to raise skeletal archers from the remains of those they slay.

Dark Archery

Starting at 3rd level, you gain the ability to enchant your ammunition with necromantic energy. When you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack, you can expend a spell slot to deal additional damage equal to 1d4 necrotic damage per level of the spell slot expended. At 7th level, this damage increases to 1d6 necrotic damage.

Skeleton Summoner

At 3rd level, when you reduce a humanoid creature to 0 hit points using an arrow that has been infused with your Dark Archery feature, you can use a bonus action to raise the creature as a Skeleton Archer under your control. The skeleton uses the Skeleton stats but is equipped with a shortbow and has a ranged weapon attack. The skeleton follows your commands and acts on your initiative.

• You can only have one Skeleton Archer active at a time. Raising a new one will cause the previous skeleton to crumble to dust.
• The Skeleton Archer remains for 1 hour, until it is reduced to 0 hit points, or until you dismiss it as a bonus action.
• Their shortbow attacks deal additional necrotic damage equal to the level of the spell slot you expended from your Dark Archery feature.

At 11th level, you can have two Skeleton Archers active simultaneously and at 15th level, you can have three Skeleton Archers active simultaneously.

Boneshield Arrows

At 7th level, whenever any of your Skeleton Archers hits a creature with its shortbow attack, it creates a barrier of bone shards around you. Until the start of your next turn, you gain a +2 bonus to AC.

Spectral Snipe

Starting at 11th level, your ties to necromancy allow you to harness the souls of the departed. When you make a ranged weapon attack, you can invoke the spirit of a

long-dead archer to guide your arrow for a precise shot. For this attack:

• Your arrow becomes translucent and spectral, dealing necrotic damage instead of its original type.
• The target does not benefit from half or three-quarters cover.
• If the attack hits, the arrow pierces through the target, dealing an additional 1d6 necrotic damage and potentially hitting a second target directly behind it. Make an additional attack roll against the second target. If this roll succeeds, the secondary target takes the attack's damage.

Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.

Master of the Dead

By 15th level, your Skeleton Archers now gain a bonus to their attack and damage rolls equal to your Wisdom modifier.