Base Class: Rogue
Not all rogues work against the law. Bounty Hunters use their skills to serve the law, often in the employ of nobles or in the pursuit of noble causes. In some cities cabals of bounty hunters work for rulers or bureaucracies, but often a bounty hunter is a free agent who pursues whatever mysteries come across their path. Of course, not all bounty huters serve the law. Crime lords and guild masters often have squads of bounty hunters serving their own nefarious purposes.
Investigator's Expertise
At the 3rd level, you gain proficiency in the Investigation skill, and your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check that uses this skill. If you already chose this skill for your Expertise feature, apply this to Insight instead.
Well-Connected
You know how to find many things. People, places or goods. At the 3rd level if you spend at least 1 hour carousing a populated area, you can find one of the following, if available:
- Lodgings equal to a modest lifestyle for up to five creatures.
- Information regarding the location of persons of interest.
- Access to rare/illegal goods and services
If the above are unavailable, you "know a guy" and can attempt a charisma check to arrange a meeting with an important criminal, such as a thieves’ guild leader, or ask for a favor in exchange for a later favor of your contact’s choice. The DM decides the DC based on the difficulty of the favor and the figure’s prominence.
Studied Strike
At 3rd level, you assess a foe's weaknesses in combat and formulate a plan of attack against your enemy. Once per round, choose a creature you can sneak attack and roll to attack before you actually attack. While studying the creature to find its weaknesses. Add your intelligence modifier to your attack roll and damage, provided you are using a finesse or ranged weapon. If you find a weakness by rolling higher than their AC, you can use the result of this roll for your attack to deliver a studied strike. If your roll did not beat their AC, roll to sneak attack again, but without your Intelligence modifier.
Bounty Hunter's Mark
At level 9, you've become adept at tracking your quarries. You may mark a creature you can see within 90 feet as a quarry. They are under the same effects of a hunter's mark spell, except these effects are non-magical, and you need not maintain concentration. At level 9, this effect lasts up to 4 hours. At level 13, it lasts up to 8 hours. At level 17, it lasts up to 24 hours.
While your quarry is restrained, or in a similar vulnerable predicament (as determined by the DM), you have advantage on Charisma checks against it. You must complete a long rest to use this part of the feature again.
Rapid Reasoning
Starting at 13th level, your mind works through clues at an unbelievable speed. You can instantly use a combination of up to five Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival checks as a bonus action, and use a free action to tell any creature within 30 feet what you uncovered, recalled, or noticed. You also gain advantage on all saving throws and checks against illusion spells, and on Intelligence checks to escape the maze spell.
Legendary Detective
At 17th level, by spending some time inspecting an object or scanning a room, you can determine detailed information about people and events related to them. If you spend at least 1 minute in quiet observation, you can deduce a timeline of events that took place. You can analyze information this way for a number of minutes equal to your Intelligence score. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or a long rest.
Object Analysis. Inspecting an object allows you to determine facts about the object’s previous owner and conditions. After observing an object for 1 minute, you learn where this object was created, how it found it’s way into your possession, and at least one significant personality trait about it’s previous owner. If the object was was owned by another creature within the past year, you can spend 1 additional minute for each owner to learn the same information about that creature.
Room Investigation. As you analyze the area in your immediate vicinity (a room, a street, tunnel, clearing, or the like, up to a 50-foot cube), you are able to determine the routine events that took place in this area, and the types of people that traveled through it, going back a number of weeks equal to your Intelligence score. For each minute you spend observing, you discover one significant pattern or break in behavior that occurred in this location. A pattern may include individuals who wore a particular type of clothing or a group who belonged to a certain ethnicity. A break in behavior may include a fight, a dalliance that occurred, or the presence of a stranger. They may include more mundane events that are nevertheless important in your current situation.