Identity
Marksmen are the Rangers who chose the long answer. They are the Aurelion solar-archers initiated on the Spire's outer parapets, the Halcyion long-rifle Rangers who patrol the frontier ridgelines, the Zyrrak ancestral hunters who still carry composite bows alongside their coil-rifles because both wear the same shoulder. They differ from the Gunslinger Sharpshooter the way a meditation differs from a science: where the Sharpshooter calculates, the Marksman listens. Their shot is part of a longer breath that began the morning of the hunt and ends only when the quarry is down. They are quiet people. They do not boast — the shot speaks.
Features
- L3 Hawk's Eye
When you wield a ranged weapon with the **two-handed** property — a bow, a crossbow, a coil-rifle, or a sniper-rated firearm — its effective range bands extend one step (Near becomes Far, Far becomes Extreme, all at normal accuracy). Additionally, you ignore half cover with such weapons, and you have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to see at a distance, whether by naked eye, scope, or other optical aid. You suffer no penalty from dim light at any range.
- L7 Killing Quiet
Your shot does not announce itself. When you hit a creature with a ranged weapon attack and you are Hidden from that creature at the moment of the attack, your stealth is not automatically broken by the shot — make a Stealth check (with advantage) against the passive Perception of any creature within Near range of you; on a success, you remain Hidden. If the attack reduces the target to 0 HP, your shot makes no sound audible beyond 10 ft (mundane suppression, breath-discipline, and an old Marksman trick that does not have a name in any language). Allied creatures within 5 ft of the target may still see the body fall.
- L11 Marksman's Vow
As a bonus action, you can mark one creature you can see within Far range as your **Vowed Quarry**, expending one Ranger channel slot. Until the Quarry is reduced to 0 HP, you finish a long rest, or you take a Vowed Quarry on another creature: the Quarry has disadvantage on all attack rolls against creatures other than you (your stillness draws their fire); your ranged attacks against the Quarry deal an additional 1d8 damage; and if the Quarry uses a Dash, Disengage, or movement-channel effect to break line of sight from you, you may use your reaction to make one ranged weapon attack against the Quarry before line of sight breaks. The Vow is a quiet commitment; the target rarely knows it has been made until the second shot.
- L15 Wind-Reader
You suffer no disadvantage on ranged weapon attacks from adverse environmental conditions — wind, rain, fog, dust, low-pressure atmosphere, partial obscurement up to and including light obscurement, recoil-disturbing terrain — short of total cover, total obscurement (darkness against which your other senses fail), or being personally Blinded. Additionally, your ranged weapon attacks ignore three-quarters cover, and you can spend 1 minute observing a target before making a single attack against it to add your WIS modifier to the attack roll and to the damage roll of that one shot.
- L18 Apex Marksman
Your bow, your rifle, and your breath have become one instrument. Once on each of your turns, when you make a ranged weapon attack, you may declare it your **Apex Shot**: the attack is made with advantage, scores a critical hit on a roll of 18–20, and on a hit deals an additional 4d10 damage of the weapon's type. You may use Apex Shot a number of times equal to your WIS modifier per long rest. Additionally, you may now use your Vowed Quarry feature without expending a channel slot once per long rest, and you can sustain two Vowed Quarries simultaneously (one tracks; one is the active target — you choose at the start of each of your turns which is which).