#hinterlander

(art by Chalvary on DeviantArt)

We’ve seen a few prestige classes this week that are (or at least profess to be) the defenders of civilization.

And that’s all fine and dandy for big cities that are the major targets for armies and big bads, but what about the small towns? The villages on the edge of the wilderness. Who comes to their aid when the wicked invite themselves over for dinner? For a lot of places, the answer may very well be a Hinterlander.

Patrolling the outskirts of remote villages  at the behest of their god: Erastil, hinterlanders live up to their name, surviving on the very edge of civilization, and watching for threats both natural and unnatural to protect the people from. They often hunt to provide fur and food for those they watch over, but their primary role it to keep an eye out for threats and take care of them before they become a problem. Oftentimes a village may not even realize there was ever any danger if they can handle the foe, but when they cannot, their first priority is to get the word out and get help.

You may have of course noticed that the hinterlander sounds an awful lot like a ranger, but while that’s no doubt one of the more common professions, the hinterlander does offer it’s own version of some ranger-like mainstays and plenty of tricks unique to them too, making it available to plenty of other classes too.

So let’s see what Erastil’s guardians have to offer!

In addition to being a worshipper of Erastil, these woodsmen must have training in survival and the natural world, skill with a longbow, good stamina, and the ability to cast at least basic magic. This does preclude fully martial or skill classes from taking it without further multiclassing, but it does open things up like divine hunter paladin, and even full spellcasters if you’d like an alternative to eldritch knight for a gish build.

Hinterlanders also continue to develop their magic in all but the first level making them quite competent casters overall.

They also gain a more narrow version of favored enemy, only able to choose creature types that are active threats to the natural world, but also giving them additional bonuses against such foes. They can resist the strange powers of aberrations, target the weak points of constructs, add minor blessings to their weapons to punish fiends, befriend magical beasts, resist the powers of monstrous humanoids, and strike down the ghostly undead with blessed arrows.

Unsurprisingly, these archers learn many tricks to improve their abilities and options with a bow and arrow.

With their athletic lifestyle, it should come as no surprise these scouts are quick on their feet.

While rangers focus on broad terrain types, hinterlanders instead make a point of analyzing all the terrain near any small settlements they come across, able to benefit when in such familiar territory.

They also have their own version of the woodland stride, though it also applies to difficult terrain within settlements as well as around them, allowing them to wade through hazards created by town life in addition to foliage.

By choosing to treat allies like kin, these foresters help guide them, providing useful tips on terrain traversal.

When a hinterlander chooses a particular small settlement to be their ward, their skill at defending it and patrolling it only increases further. What’s more, they can even tap into primal magic to sense nearby unnatural threats miles away.

Like arcane archers, these hunters also learn the secret of imbuing their arrows with magic, allowing them to deliver area effect spells at long range.

The most powerful among them ready themselves to be able to depart to a town in an instant either to rush to their aid or to flee to a friendly surrounding. They do this by leaving waymarkers linked to them by magic in various town and settlements, allowing them to teleport to them when needed.

This archetype is a fun idea, and almost feels like someone wanted to take the arcane archer, open it to more casting classes, and make it more focused on being a pseudo-ranger than magical Green Arrow. That being said, the prestige class does simultaneously do better and worse when it comes to situational terrain and favored enemy abilities. In the former case, the ability works in all terrain types, but only within certain proximity to smaller settlements. Too far into the wilderness, or near a larger settlement, and you’ve got nothing. In the latter case, you have a much smaller array of options for favored enemies, but you get a neat gimmick for the various creature types you can take that helps get around some of the more annoying aspects of dealing with them. If this class does appeal to you, feel free to experiment! The requirements are just loose enough to really open up most class combinations to you!

With their divine imperative to protect small communities, it can be difficult to imagine these warriors going off to save the world if doing so would separate them from those humble small towns. However, if the need is great enough, I imagine that Erastil or whatever god they worship in your setting sending them a sign to do so. Still it can be fun to explore that take on the idea of homesickness and the hero that only thinks of getting home soon after all is said and done.

A grand tournament is happening in the city, with many adventurers and other groups coming in to compete. None of that interests Tolban Leatherfoot, for he has come to find answers about why a bandit leader plaguing the lands under his care had a token of the royal guard hidden on his person.

The Tapir Man is a mysterious figure that watches over those that travel peacefully though the stretch of jungle that he considers his territory. In truth, he is in fact a yaddithian long ago stranded on this world. Falling in love with the rainforest around him, he became a magical guardian and archer, protecting those that live there.