Bounty-Hunter
From ThreadsOfTime
The Bounty Hunter is a ruthless mercenary, worshipping little besides the price on his target's head, recognizing few laws save the contractual distinction between "kill" and "capture." He may be found serving the state, capturing criminals and bringing them to justice; or he may serve the shadowy lords of the underworld, avenging the twisted honor found among thieves and criminals. Pursuit of his quarry may take him through a thousand hostile environments, to foreign lands, even to alien planes. He is a hunter of men.
The Bounty Hunter's vocation is rigorous and demanding at every level: physical, psychological, even moral. It requires a sure hand and a stable mind. To be a Bounty Hunter, a thief must have minimum scores of 11 in every ability except Charisma. One thing that doesn't really matter to a tough, independent thief like this is whether or not people like him.
It is important to draw a distinction between the Bounty Hunter and the Assassin, for their vocations are similar.
The Assassin is most often part of a larger network or organization—either a society of Assassins for hire, or a guild or crime family, or even a government. The Assassin is retained by that organization to discreetly eliminate its enemies; he is strictly a killer. The Assassin also is a predominantly urban figure, though his missions may take him out of that setting on occasion. Most organizations that have Assassins would deny their existence, because of the highly illegal and unpopular nature of their activities.
The Bounty Hunter, by contrast, is a loner. He may be solicited directly by an employer, but more often he simply learns of a price offered for the body (living or dead) of some person and goes after him.
While the Assassin requires secrecy and anonymity, the Bounty Hunter thrives on infamy. Fear leads his prey to make mistakes, and each such mistake brings the Bounty Hunter one step closer to success. While an Assassin is often hired to kill relatively normal, often unsuspecting people, the Bounty Hunter is tracking fugitives—people who know who's after them, and are therefore exceptionally desperate and dangerous.
Pursuit of such people may lead the Bounty Hunter to literally any place, even to other planes of existence (if the prospective reward will make the venture worthwhile), and so the Bounty Hunter becomes adept at survival and tracking in all manner of hostile environments.
Bounty Hunters do not track only fugitives. They may be hired to perform such tasks as kidnapping, freeing kidnapped persons, or (especially at lower levels, when they are still developing their skills) recovering stolen property.
The law and authorities do not always look kindly upon Bounty Hunters, though they will permit their existence so that they, too, may benefit from the manhunters' expertise. For the same reason, thieves' guilds tolerate the Bounty Hunters, despite the fact that almost no Hunter would ever join their ranks.
