Sniper (5e Class)

Sniper

Highly trained units specialized in taking out targets from extreme distances, snipers are the most dangerous of classes. As a sniper, not only are you trained to use a rifle, but you also become an expert in stealth, reconnaissance, and observation, allowing you to do what you do best, which is shoot your enemies when they're unaware and protect your allies. Snipers usually work in a team with a spotter and a flanker but they are prepared at all times to complete the mission on their own if necessary. Basically a mix between a soldier and a ranger. Be warned, your weakness is surviving close combat.

Creating a Sniper

Where did you learn to be a sniper? Were you self taught? Why did you choose to specialize in long distance shooting rather than becoming an all around soldier or choosing some other discipline? Are you cold-hearted and impersonal like the stereotype? Or are you able to separate your personality from your work?

Quick Build

You can make a Sniper quickly by following these suggestions. First, Dexterity should be your highest ability score, followed by Wisdom.

Class Features

As a Sniper you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per Sniper level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + Constitution modifier per Sniper level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: Light armor, medium armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons, firearms
Tools: Gunsmith’s Kit, Navigator’s Tools
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Constitution
Skills: Choose Five from Acrobatics, Animal Handling, Athletics, Deception, History, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a pair of commando fatigues (AC 13 + Dex, Advantage on stealth checks) and 100 bullets or (b) a ghillie suit (AC 15 + Dex (max 2, Advantage on stealth checks) and 50 bullets
• (a) a suppressed marksman rifle, a submachine gun, and 5 knives or (b) a sniper rifle, a bipod, a semiautomatic pistol, and 5 knives
• (a) an explorer’s pack, a gunsmith’s kit, and navigator’s tools or (b) a dungeoneer’s pack, a gunsmith’s kit, and navigator’s tools

Table: The Sniper

Level	Proficiency Bonus	Features	Spells Known	—Spell Slots per Spell Level—
				1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
1st	+2	Favored Enemy, Natural Explorer	—	—	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	Fighting Style, Spellcasting	2	2	—	—	—	—
3rd	+2	Primeval Awareness, Sniper Archetype, Weapon Craft	3	3	—	—	—	—
4th	+2	Ability Score Improvement, Faster Crafting	3	3	—	—	—	—
5th	+3	Archetype Feature, Efficient Crafting	4	4	2	—	—	—
6th	+3	Greater Favored Enemy	4	4	2	—	—	—
7th	+3	Archetype Feature	5	4	3	—	—	—
8th	+3	Ability Score Improvement, Fleet of Foot	5	4	3	—	—	—
9th	+4	—	6	4	3	2	—	—
10th	+4	Fighting Style, Hide in Plain Sight	6	4	3	2	—	—
11th	+4	Archetype Feature, Faster Crafting (2)	7	4	3	3	—	—
12th	+4	Ability Score Improvement, Efficient Crafting (2)	7	4	3	3	—	—
13th	+5	—	8	4	3	3	1	—
14th	+5	Vanish	8	4	3	3	1	—
15th	+5	Archetype Feature	9	4	3	3	2	—
16th	+5	Ability Score Improvement	9	4	3	3	2	—
17th	+6	—	10	4	3	3	3	1
18th	+6	Feral Senses	10	4	3	3	3	1
19th	+6	Ability Score Improvement	11	4	3	3	3	2
20th	+6	Archetype Feature, Faster Crafting (3), Efficient Crafting (3)	11	4	3	3	3	2

Favored Enemy

Beginning at 1st level, you have significant experience studying, tracking, hunting, and even talking to a certain type of enemy commonly encountered in the wilds. Choose a type of favored enemy: beasts, fey, humanoids, monstrosities, or undead. You gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with weapon attacks against creatures of the chosen type. Additionally, you have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on Intelligence checks to recall information about them. When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice, typically one spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it. However, you are free to pick any language you wish to learn.

Natural Explorer

You are a master of navigating the natural world, and you react with swift and decisive action when attacked. This grants you the following benefits:

• You ignore difficult terrain
• You have advantage on initiative rolls.
• On your first turn during combat, you have advantage on attack rolls against creatures that have not yet acted.

In addition, you are skilled at navigating the wilderness. You gain the following benefits when traveling for an hour or more:

• Difficult terrain doesn't slow your group's travel.
• Your group can't become lost except by magical means.
• Even when you are engaged in another activity while traveling (such as foraging, navigating, or tracking), you remain alert to danger.
• If you are traveling alone, you can move stealthily at a normal pace.
• When you forage, you find twice as much food as you normally would.
• While tracking other creatures, you also learn their exact number, their sizes, and how long ago they passed through the area.

Fighting Style

At 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting style option more than once, even if you later get to choose it again. You can choose a second option from the Fighting Style class feature at 10th level.

Burst Fire

The DC of Dexterity saving throws made against your burst fire attacks is 20 (not 15). When you roll damage for a burst fire attack and roll the highest number possible on any of the dice, choose one of those dice, roll it again and add that roll to the damage.

Combat Medic

When you use a healer's kit to stabilize a dying creature, that creature also regains 1 hit point. As an action, you can spend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature and restore 1d6+4 hit points to it, plus additional hit points equal to the creature's maximum number of Hit Dice. The creature can't regain hit points from this feature again until it finishes a long rest. The amount of hit points you restore increases by 1d6+4 at 10th level (2d6+8).

Critical Striking

Your weapon attacks and unarmed strikes score a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20. You score a critical hit on a roll of 18-20 once you reach 9th level.

Long Range Shooter

Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your attack rolls. The range of your ranged attacks is also doubled.

Marksmanship

You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls you make with ranged weapons. These bonuses each increase by 2 at 10th level (+4).

Mobility

You gain a +1 bonus to AC, and your walking speed increases by 10 feet. Your AC improves by 1 and your walking speed increases by 10 more feet at 10th level (+2/+20 feet).

Spellcasting

By the time you have reached 2nd level, you learn how to cast spells as a result of your sniper training.

Spell Slots

The Sniper table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

For example, if you know the 1st-level spell animal friendship and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast animal friendship using either slot.

Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher

You know two 1st-level spells of your choice from the ranger spell list.

The Spells Known column of the Sniper table shows when you learn more sniper spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.

Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the sniper spells you know and replace it with another spell from the ranger spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

Spellcasting Ability

Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for your sniper spells, since your magic draws on your attunement to nature. You use your Wisdom whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Wisdom modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a sniper spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier

Primeval Awareness

Beginning at 3rd level, your mastery of sniper lore allows you to establish a powerful link to beasts and to the land around you.
You have an innate ability to communicate with beasts, and they recognize you as a kindred spirit. Through sounds and gestures, you can communicate simple ideas to a beast as an action, and can read its basic mood and intent. You learn its emotional state, whether it is affected by magic of any sort, its short-term needs (such as food or safety), and actions you can take (if any) to persuade it to not attack.
You cannot use this ability against a creature that you have attacked within the past 10 minutes.
Additionally, you can attune your senses to determine if any of your favored enemies lurk nearby. By spending 1 uninterrupted minute in concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), you can sense whether any of your favored enemies are present within 5 miles of you. This feature reveals which of your favored enemies are present, their numbers, and the creatures’ general direction and distance (in miles) from you.
If there are multiple groups of your favored enemies within range, you learn this information for each group.

Sniper Archetype

At 3rd level, you choose an archetype that you strive to emulate in your combat styles and techniques. Choose Assault Team, Lone Wolf, or Marksman. Your choice of archetype gives you additional features at 5th, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 20th level.

Weapon Craft

You may craft more rifles, pistols, grenades, or ammo. You can also craft other weaponry such as LMGs, Sniper Rifle, or SMGs. All you need is the gun kit and spare metal, gun powder (or magic powder for magic ammo). These will take time to craft.

50 gp and 6h/1day to craft a pistol, SMG, or rifle.

100 gp and 8h to craft a LMG or Sniper Rifle.

200 gp and 5h to craft 5 grenades (of any kind, but you need some sort of alchemy kit to make a smoke or gas grenade)

10 gp and 4h to craft 40 ammo

10 gp, specified plants, and 8h to craft 40 Tranquilizer Rounds

20 gp and 6h to craft 40 Stun Rounds

Ability Score Improvement

When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Faster Crafting

Starting at 4th level, you can craft weapons/ammo at a faster rate (4h/18h for pistol/rifle, 3h for 5 grenades, 3h to craft 40 ammo, 6h to craft Tranquilizer Rounds, 4h to craft 40 Stun Rounds.) It decreases again at 11th level, (3h/12h, 2h, 2h, 4h, 3h) and again at 20th level (2h/9h, 1h, 1h, 2h, 2h).

Efficient Crafting

Starting at 5th level, you can craft ammo for efficiently and waste less resources in doing so. You now craft 60 rounds instead of 40. It increases again to 80 rounds at 12th level, and to 100 rounds at 20th level. (This does not apply to Tranquilizer and Stun rounds.)

Greater Favored Enemy

At 6th level, you are ready to hunt even deadlier game. Choose a type of greater favored enemy: aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, elementals, fiends, or giants. You gain all the benefits against this chosen enemy that you normally gain against your favored enemy, including an additional language. Your bonus to damage rolls against all your favored enemies increases to +4. Additionally, you have advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities used by a greater favored enemy.

Fleet of Foot

Beginning at 8th level, you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn.

Hide in Plain Sight

Starting at 10th level, you can remain perfectly still for long periods of time to set up ambushes. When you attempt to hide on your turn, you can opt to not move on that turn. If you avoid moving, creatures that attempt to detect you take a −10 penalty to their Wisdom (Perception) checks until the start of your next turn. You lose this benefit if you move or fall prone, either voluntarily or because of some external effect. You are still automatically detected if any effect or action causes you to no longer be hidden. If you are still hidden on your next turn, you can continue to remain motionless and gain this benefit until you are detected.

Vanish

Starting at 14th level, you can use the Hide action as a bonus action on your turn. Also, you can’t be tracked by nonmagical means, unless you choose to leave a trail.

Feral Senses

At 18th level, you gain preternatural senses that help you fight creatures you can’t see. When you attack a creature you can’t see, your inability to see it doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it. You are also aware of the location of any invisible creature within 30 feet of you, provided that the creature isn’t hidden from you and you aren’t blinded or deafened.

Assault Team

You work best at a time, operating with a partner with whom you can coordinate your attacks.

Teammate

At 3rd level, you gain a teammate who fights alongside you on missions. You can find the stats for your teammate at the end of this page. Your teammate uses your proficiency bonus in place of its own, and can add your proficiency bonus to his or her AC and damage rolls (+2 proficiency bonus already included in statistics). Your teammate also grows stronger when you level up, gaining 1 hit die for every level beyond 3rd, and gaining an Ability Score Improvement at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level. Your teammate has the same alignment as you and will defend you to the death. Your teammate obeys your commands as best it can. They roll for initiative like any other creature, but you determine their actions, decisions, attitudes, and so on. If you are incapacitated or absent, your companion acts on its own. When using your Natural Explorer feature, you and your teammate can both move stealthily at a normal pace. If your teammate dies, you can get a replacement when you have downtime or earlier at the GM's discretion.

Coordinated Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you and teammate form a more potent fighting team. When you use the Attack action on your turn, if your teammate can see you, they can use their reaction to make a ranged attack.

Team Defense

At 7th level, while your teammate can see you, they have advantage on all saving throws.

Coordinated Volley

At 11th level, your teammate can use an action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures within 10 feet of a point they can see within their weapon's range. They must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and must make a separate attack roll for each target.

Superior Team Defense

At 15th level, whenever an attacker that your teammate can see hits them with an attack, they can use their reaction to halve the attack’s damage against them.

Superior Coordinated Attack

At 20th level, you can use your action to make a special ranged attack. You cannot make this attack roll with disadvantage, and you have advantage on your attack roll. On a hit, you deal double damage, bypassing all damage resistances. If your teammate can see you, they can use their reaction to make the same special attack. Once you have used this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Lone Wolf

The most badass of snipers, you work best alone, often working on a mission for days at a time without breaks.

Observer

Starting at 3rd level, you are proficient in the Stealth and Perception skills, if you aren't proficient in them already. You add double your proficiency bonus to Stealth and Perception checks, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level.

Iron Will

At 15th level, your will to survive gives you proficiency with all saving throws.

Headshot

Beginning at 20th level, when you attack a creature that has at least one head with a ranged weapon and roll a 20 on the attack roll, you blow off one of the creature's heads. The creature dies if it can't survive without the lost head. A creature is immune to this effect if it is immune to piercing damage, doesn't have or need a head, has legendary actions, or the GM decides that the creature is too big for its head to be blown off with your weapon. Such a creature instead takes an extra 6d8 piercing damage from the hit.

Marksman

You have decided to hone your rifle skills until you can shoot even farther and more accurately than before, hitting a target from unusual distances.

One Shot, One Kill

Beginning when you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you can add your Wisdom modifier to damage rolls with ranged attacks.

Extra Attack

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. The number of attacks increases to three when you reach 11th level.

Aimed Shot

Starting at 15th level, you can aim your shots directly at the target. The first attack you make each round automatically hits.

True Marksman

When you reach 20th level, your Dexterity and Wisdom scores increases by 4. Your maximum for those scores is now 24. In addition, you may never have disadvantage on attack rolls with ranged weapons and your ranged attacks bypass creature's resistance to piercing damage.

Multiclassing

Prerequisites. To qualify for multiclassing into the Sniper class, you must meet these prerequisites: dexterity 13, wisdom 13.

Proficiencies. When you multiclass into the soldier class, you gain the following proficiencies: Light armor, medium armor, simple weapons, martial weapons, firearms, and 1 skill from the class skill list

Teammate

Medium humanoid (any race), any alignment Armor Class 17 (commando fatigues) Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 12 (+1) 11 (+0) 13 (+1) 11 (+0) Saving Throws Dexterity + 2, Wisdom + 3 Skills Nature +4, Perception +5, Stealth +6, Survival +5 Senses passive Perception 15 Languages any one language (usually Common) Challenge 1/2 (100 XP) Keen Hearing and Sight. The teammate has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or sight. ACTIONS Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage. Submachine Gun. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 45/90 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (3d6 + 4) piercing damage. Suppressed Marksman Rifle. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) piercing damage.

Scouts are skilled hunters and trackers who offer their services for a fee. Most hunt wild game, but a few work as bounty hunters, serve as guides, or provide military reconnaissance.

Weapons

(use dexterity modifier when shooting guns)

(Suppressed weaponry have advantage on stealth and attacks of opportunity)

• Semiautomatic Pistol: 2d6 Piercing (30/60 range)
• Automatic Rifle : 2d8 Piercing (180/600 range)
• Marksman Rifle: 2d10 piercing (270/900 range)
• SMG: 3d6 Piercing (45/90 range)
• Sniper Rifle: 3d12 Piercing (600/ 6000 range)
• LMG: 3d8 Piercing (240/600 range)
• Suppressed Pistol: 1d6 Piercing (25/50 range)
• Suppressed Rifle: 2d8 Piercing (120/450 range)
• Suppressed SMG: 3d6 Piercing (40/80 range)
• Suppressed Marksman Rifle: 2d10 piercing (180/625 range)
• Suppressed Sniper Rifle: 3d12 Piercing (570/ 4000 range)
• Fragmentation Grenade: 3d6 Force and 2d6 Piercing in a 20 foot cube area. Thrown (15/30)
• Smoke Grenade: Heavy obscuration 10 foot radius light obscuration for an additional ten feet, the smoke fades after 1 minute or after 2 rounds in powerful wind. Thrown (20-40) [is eligible for a wood elf's "mask of the wild" trait]
• Gas Grenade: 3d8 poison [ten foot radius] and if you end your turn in that 10 foot radius you take that damage at the end of your turn, the gas fades after 1 minute or after 2 rounds in powerful wind. Thrown, Range (20-40)

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