Constellations, scattered spots of filtered sunlight slid silently along copper scales, a dance of rainbow light. Her long chestnut hair swung smoothly as she spun her head, responding to a tiny crackle in the undergrowth. A slim brown arm, slowly and precisely, moved to her back, gripping the haft of a lever-action hunting rifle, unclipping it from its sling, slipping her hand into the trigger-guard. Another crack, no more than a whisper, but sounding deafening in the silence. Her eyes darted left and right, the brown showing quiet interest. She raised the gun to her face, putting her eye to the scope and scanning the forest. There. Something else. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
One gunshot. A groan. The sound of a body collapsing to the ground.
She clicked the lever, chambering another round, allowing a curl of smoke to wind up through the ferns. She flicked her tail and slid across the leaf litter in absolute silence, the gun held casually in one tanned hand. She came to her pursuer, writhing in silence on the leafy carpet, a bloom of blood on his right arm. He was young, human. What was he doing here? She raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat, speaking smoothly and emotionlessly ‘What are you doing in the forest?’
He jumped. He hadn’t heard or seen her coming. ‘Uh…,’ he stuttered in pain and fear ‘It’s not your forest.’ That was humans, defiant to the last.
‘Actually, yes, I do believe it is.’
‘O…kay. Well, I just came in here to hunt,’ he grinned. A change of tack.
‘Well, well. Just to hunt. Why, then, do you have no weapon?’ He hesitated.
‘I heard about you. What you do. I wanted to see if it was true.’
‘It’s true. Rob from the government. Give to people who need help. Now, you’ll probably survive if you start running right now. Can I risk that?’ She left the question hanging in the air.
‘Yes. I won’t tell anyone. I swear.’ He was stammering now.
‘I recommend you run…that way.’ She gestured with her spare hand.
He ran.

The wild places of the world are unforgiving, inhabited by fierce beasts and even fiercer environments. Whether the wilderness is the dark streets of Porttown, the deserts of T’Al-lafa, the jungles of the west or the blasted mountains of Southern Salenheim, there are those who are perfectly suited to survival in these wilds. Cunning stalkers who are no less at home in the desert as the forest or the city are the explorers. No-one knows more about the wild and the beasts that dwell within it.

Adventurers:

Most often, the explorer adventures as her patron tells her to, attempting to further the knowledge the various peoples have of the world. In many other cases, she could simply venture into the wild because it is a place she loves, or because she doesn’t feel quite right in civilisation. Other explorers could simply adventure for more mundane reasons – riches, fame or escape.

Characteristics:

An explorer is an extremely capable combatant with a wide range of weaponry. His skills also focus on allowing him to survive in whatever wilderness he finds himself in, finding and stalking prey silently and tirelessly. She gains detailed knowledge of the creatures of the wild, making it easier for him to defeat those foes.

Alignment:

Explorers can be of any alignment. Most explorers are good. Explorers who are good adventure for the good of everyone in the world, especially, the wild itself, whereas those who are evil will revel in nature’s uncaring cruelty, seeking to emulate her cold predators. Most explorers are also chaotic, preferring to the organic ebb and flow of nature and their own hearts, rather than some manufactured rules, though this is only a tendency.

Religion:

Explorers usually either worship Ynsertu, Sum, various tribal gods or simply nature itself, in much the same way as outcasts do. Some more conventional explorers will worship Tiagarath or the other legal gods. Kartik explorers usually worship Matis.

Background:

Most often, a young explorer will be taken into the fold of a pervious explorer, who will teach them as best he can before unleashing the new explorer onto the wild to learn for themselves. Nearly all Kartik explorers learn this way. Among the other races, the mentor is sometimes cut out of the process, and the explorer simply learns from nature themself. If an explorer returns to society, he usually finds that it doesn’t suit his lifestyle, but she also often finds that a patron will employ her to discover the world.

Races:

Kartika are the most common explorers by a significant margin – a fair percentage of their race are explorers. Humans, gargoyles, mutants and weres also often find a kinship with the wilderness and follow the path of the explorer. Labori and vampyres don’t often follow this path, but it is far from unknown.

Other Classes:

Explorers get along very passably with all the other classes. They sometimes find that an individual gunslinger or scientist’s distaste for nature is annoying, or that a battle-mage or necromancers powers are ‘unnatural’, but this is almost always on an individual basis and easily overcome. Explorers usually rely mostly on themselves, so they don’t often get bothered by other peoples’ differences.

Role:

An explorer’s role in the party is nearly always as that of a scout and secondary combatant. Lacking the outcast or the warrior’s staying power, explorers can nonetheless hold their own in a pitched battle, and if they fight intelligently this will usually not present a problem. Their animal companion often assists them in this objective.

Game Rule Information:

Abilities: Dexterity is by far the most important ability for an explorer. It governs his accuracy with ranged weapons, benefits a lot of his skills and, perhaps most importantly, gives the lightly armoured explorer much-needed A.C. Several of the ranger’s skills are based around Wisdom, particularly his tracking, and this is important. Strength and Constitution are also both important as they assist with his usefulness in a battle situation.
Alignment: Any
Hit dice: d8
Class skills: The explorer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Demolitions (Int), Drive (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (any) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Navigate (Int), Pilot (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str) and Use Rope (Dex).
Skill at 1st: (6 + Int modifier) × 4
Skill at other levels: 6 + Int modifier

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort. Save	Ref. Save	Will Save	Special
1st	+1	+0	+2	+0	Track, Favoured Enemy I
2nd	+2	+0	+3	+0	Combat School I
3rd	+3	+1	+3	+1	Endurance
4th	+4	+1	+4	+1	Animal companion
5th	+5	+1	+4	+1	Favoured Enemy II
6th	+6/+1	+2	+5	+2	Combat School II
7th	+7/+2	+2	+5	+2
8th	+8/+3	+2	+6	+2
9th	+9/+4	+3	+6	+3
10th	+10/+5	+3	+7	+3	Favoured Enemy III
11th	+11/+6/+1	+3	+7	+3
12th	+12/+7/+2	+4	+8	+4
13th	+13/+8/+3	+4	+8	+4	Combat School III
14th	+14/+9/+4	+4	+9	+4
15th	+15/+10/+5	+5	+9	+5	Favoured Enemy IV
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+5	+10	+5
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+5	+10	+5
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+6	+11	+6	Combat School IV
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+6	+11	+6
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+6	+12	+6	Favoured Enemy V

Class Features:

All of the following are class features of the explorer:
Armour and Weapon Proficiency: An explorer is proficient with light and medium non-exotic firearms and all non-automatic rifles; light and medium non-exotic mêlée weapons; thrown weapons; shields and non-heavy armour, both archaic and modern.
Track: An explorer gains the Track feat as a bonus feat, allowing him to stalk his enemies.
Favoured Enemy: At 1st level, an explorer may select a type of creature from those in the table. Due to his extensive study into these creatures, he gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot and Survival checks when using these skills against creatures of the chosen type, as well as a +2 bonus on all damage rolls made against that creature. Every five levels thereafter, this bonus increases by +2 for each favoured enemy the explorer has, and the explorer may choose another favoured enemy.
Combat Schools: At 2nd, 6th, 13th and 18th level, an explorer chooses a school of combat in which to specialise, giving him or her bonuses as follows:

• Scout: The explorer has developed a focus on moving quickly and bringing maximum damage to as many enemies as possible. He gains the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for free, a +2 bonus to all attack rolls and a 2 metre bonus to his base speed, as well as not being slowed by any undergrowth.

• Sniper: The explorer leans towards long-range death and slow movement. He gains the proficiency for all non-exotic firearms, a +2 to all Move Silently checks and a +4 to attack rolls using non-automatic rifles.

Table x: Ranger favoured enemies:

Type (subtype)

Aberration

Animal

Construct

Dragon

Elemental

Fey

Giant

Humanoid (aquatic)

Humanoid (elf)

Humanoid (goblinoid)

Humanoid (gnoll)

Humanoid (gnome)

Humanoid (halfling)

Humanoid (human)

Humanoid (orc)

Humanoid (reptilian)

Magical beast

Monstrous humanoid

Ooze

Outsider (air)

Outsider (chaotic)

Outsider (earth)

Outsider (evil)

Outsider (fire)

Outsider (good)

Outsider (lawful)

Outsider (native)

Outsider (water)

Plant

Undead

Vermin

Endurance: An explorer gains Endurance as a bonus feat at 3rd level.
Animal companion: At fourth level, an explorer gets an animal companion, as described on page 48 of the Player’s Handbook.