D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 fire a crossbow from the back of an eagle.

[end of the world]

i'm a halfling rogue with crappy strength. i use a light crossbow. being a halfling, i also have a crappy movement rate, and i find it difficult to get into a good position to get my sneak attacks in. because i'm using a crossbow, i'm not able to move and fire every round.

so i'm thinking about getting myself permanently reduced in size, and getting a pet eagle to ride around on. is that something i'd be able to do hands free, thus letting me fire and move every round? are there rules for firing from flying mounts?

i've looked up the rules on mounted combat. here's what i found:

You can use ranged weapons while your mount is taking a double move, but at a -4 penalty on the attack roll. You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed), at a -8 penalty. In either case, you make the attack roll when your mount has completed half its movement. You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally

i'm unclear about the "double move" thing. does that mean i don't get any penalties if the eagle is moving normally?

any other details i'm missing?

thanks!

 

[Rampant]

A double move is when you move and then move again, burning your standard action.

Since 3e mounts and riders have separate actions (even if they generally act on the same initiative), a rider can attack while his mount is using advanced move actions. When a foot soldier would have to choose between a double (or quadruple) move and making an attack this turn. Ranged weapons are trickier to use this way and so take bigger penalties than a melee weapon.

My advice is to simply avoid making double moves with the eagle on turns you wanna attack (at least until you get some mounted archery feats or something).

Also there are things like giant eagles, dire eagles, thunder hawks, and generally plenty of strong medium sized birds you could ride on instead of fiddling around with reduce. In fact a basic riding dog will solve most of the same problems until you can afford a hardy flying mount.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yes, there is no penalty at all to fire a ranged weapon if your mount only takes a single move action and not a double move (or run or charge or whatever). If the mount isn't particularly good at attacking, it should probably just use total defense every turn.

A flying mount works just like a land-bound one, a ride check to "guide with knees" is enough to do it hands-free. Unless the mount is not an animal or has been trained for war, you're going to be wasting actions just to control it in combat w/ Ride, though.

I suggest you get Leadership at level 6 and use it to get a flying cohort for mount. Or befriend a druid and use his pet (or him).

 

[end of the world]

thanks for the replies.

i think i'm going to end up getting myself permanently reduced, and then go for rapid reload and rapid shot for my next two feats.

i like the idea of only being eight pounds and a foot and a half tall. that will help out with my stealth. with my strength of six, i'm never going to be one to run to the forefront of battle anyway.

i plan to get an eagle and have it trained to be ridden (a woodland variety that can fly freely about in dense forest) and get five ranks in ride and handle animal (even though they're both cross-class skills that will cost me a total of 20 skill points to get). with my dex as high as it is, i shouldn't need any ranks at all just to keep on the eagle while i shoot... but something feels wrong about that. so i'm going to self-impose the skill point cost. it will take me a few levels, because i also plan on keeping my hide and move silently skills maxed out.

so by the time i'm level 10 or so, i figure i'll be able to get three hefty sneak attacks off from wherever i want, as long as my foes are distracted by the rest of the party.

it's a long way to go, but i'm looking forward to it.

 

[Rampant]

I'd still suggest the larger mount so you can carry more swag.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I suggest a Ring of Feather Falling so when your ~4-8 hp mount bites it, it only hurts you emotionally...

 

[Greenfield]

Ranged sneak attacks work, when the opposition is flat-footed.

Once melee starts, your tactic begins to suck. Tiny crossbow bolts do tiny damage, and nobody's flat footed any more so there's no SA dice to add to that tiny damage. You're never in flank position aboard a mount that has to be in constant motion (Eagles can't hover), so you don't get SA that way either.

Plus, of course, any kind of indoor or underground operation grounds you.

A riding dog can give you the mobility you lack, indoors or out. So, for that matter, could a dip into Barbarian, or a pair of Boots of Striding and Springing (often referred to as "Boots of Standard Equipment" because everyone should get some as soon as possible.)

On the side of pure technicality, look at the Eagle. It can learn a maximum of 6 tricks, according the the Handle Animal rules. (SRD PP 52, 53)

Combat Riding can be one of those, but you need to train it. The Handle Animal check is a DC20, and a week's worth of work, so you'll need to pump your Handle Animal skill as well.

You might be able to buy one already trained (not easy in most games), but even then you'll need a DC10 Handle Animal check every time you want it to do that trick, with the caveat that you can't Take 10 on that, because, well, it's combat. And any damage to the animal increases the DC of that check by 2.

So there's another skill you'll need to pump points into.

Oh, and you'll need to replace the bird the first time someone targets it with a couple of Magic Missiles, or whenever an area effect spell comes along. Your PC has evasion, but your mount doesn't, and it has only 5 hit points.

I mean, it's a neat idea, and for scouting tasks it's first rate, but the reason you don't see it much is because the actual rules make the sparkle go away pretty quickly.

Oh, side note: Many DM's penalize Reflex Saves and things like Evasion for someone who's strapped into a saddle. It's not uncommon for DM's to rule that your PC is denied Dex to AC. And staying in the saddle of a flying mount without "tournament harness" (i.e. a seat belt) can be a challenge all its own.

 

[xigbar]

You should take Crossbow Sniper - Feat - D&D Toolshop as a feat as soon as possible. It's in Player's Handbook 2.

 

[Greenfield]

I'm going to back off, at least partially, from my last comments, and plead a bit of ignorance.

Just because I don't know of any good way for a character, operating in plain sight, to continually get ranged sneak attacks, doesn't mean there isn't one. There are a lot of people here far more knowledgable than I on this kind of tactic.

Can someone educate me a bit? Is there a way to get SA damage at range once combat has started?

Can it be done when opponents know where you are?

Note: IMO it's hard to justify a Hide check when on the back of a moving Eagle. You can't claim the Eagle itself for cover, and you can't claim intervening concealment like branches and greenery because they'd conceal your targets from you, and you can't SA at a concealed opponent.

 

[Rampant]

Those with the right abilities and truly epic hide checks can pull it off, blurring weapons give 10 rounds of auto-SA per day. However it is much more difficult to set up SA with ranged weapons since you can't flank. It is something that requires extra effort and expenditure to accomplish especially if you need to be able to do it consistently.

Honestly this whole thing smacks of being over-complicated, and I just don't see the pay-off.