Rapier and Hand Crossbow TWF

[Omegaxicor]

Ignoring the reloading aspect for a moment, if a Rogue wields a Hand Xbow and a Rapier How does TWF work

1) Is one weapon automatically Main Hand or can it be switched from round to round
2) Do I provoke an AoO for firing the Xbow or just loading it?

I might have more questions as I think of it

 

[Grogg of the North]

You pick one of your attacks to be the main hand and the other to be the off-hand. Chances are you'll designate the hand cross bow as the off hand since you'll have smaller penalties than if you try to use rapier in the off hand.

You provoke for loading and for firing the hand crossbow.

Versatile Combatant (Drow of the Underdark) lets you fire your crossbow without provoking attacks of opportunity.

 

[Wyvernhand]

^^ what he said.

You'll also probably want Hand Crossbow Focus. It is Rapid Reload AND Weapon Focus: Hand Crossbow all rolled into one feat. DotU for a source as well.

Also, there are a couple of magical properties you can get for crossbows. I think the MIC has one that is basically a 100 round Clip-of-Holding for all of your spray and pray needs.

 

[Omegaxicor]

Thanks I had forgotten about DotU I will look at those feats

 

[nijineko]

there is also a magical clip which can be added to a crossbow which can pre-load up to 50 bolts at a time. iirc, combined with rapid reload, you can reload the crossbow (not the clip) as a free action or something. maybe arms and equipment guide. afb, at the moment. i think there might be another item which is auto-reloading.

now if you can just come up with a small enough crossbow that shoots multiple bolts simultaneously per attack and combine it with the auto-reloading item, you could duplicate van-helsing.