Changing the Hunter's at will 9-shot attack

[S'mon]

Just thinking about the Hunter Ranger's At Will Rapid Shot (effectively) burst-1 arrow attack. I was thinking about changing it to a selected number of targets in the burst area, rather than auto-target everybody - that would allow for more precision, at the cost of a reduced fire rate; it could be used in melee, and the Hunter wouldn't necessarily run out of arrows in 2 rounds firing!

Tier / Max #Targets
Heroic 4
Paragon 6
Epic 9

What do you think? A big benefit is that it avoids the silly-but-RAW tactic of centring the burst on yourself to target every adjacent foe, with the result that you have to shoot yourself too!

Edit: I'm limiting the MV Orc Archer to 3 targets, making him fractionally weaker than a PC Hunter.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION] If you decide to go with this house rule consider what benefit you'd give Rapid Shot at paragon...or is it simply the ability to target more monsters? And I'm assuming you're negating the -2 attack penalty?

When I was playing a hunter the most enemies I ever caught in a "burst" was 5; and really if there's a wizard in the group those compressed enemies have muuuch more to worry about from a fireball or chain lightning.

As for the targeting yourself tactic that's lightweight cheese! If you really want to get your DM to throw dice at you be in Aspect of the Cunning Fox Stance when you make the "burst" attack (really a bunch a ranged attacks); then gloat as you shift 2 squares for each attack, hit or miss.

The moral of the story is common sense trumps poking holes in RAW.

 

[S'mon]

[MENTION=463]S'mon[/MENTION] If you decide to go with this house rule consider what benefit you'd give Rapid Shot at paragon...or is it simply the ability to target more monsters? And I'm assuming you're negating the -2 attack penalty?

I'm keeping the -2 attack penalty. The benefit for reducing max #targets from everyone to 4 is that with the house rule you can now omit targets, you don't have to shoot your friends anymore so you could eg shoot down attackers surrounding your Fighter friend without having to shoot him too. The benefit at Paragon is the increase from 4 to 6 possible targets, and to 9 at Epic.

 

[S'mon]

As for the targeting yourself tactic that's lightweight cheese! If you really want to get your DM to throw dice at you be in Aspect of the Cunning Fox Stance when you make the "burst" attack (really a bunch a ranged attacks); then gloat as you shift 2 squares for each attack, hit or miss.

The moral of the story is common sense trumps poking holes in RAW.

I think as DM I'd have to count RF as a single attack, there.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm keeping the -2 attack penalty. The benefit for reducing max #targets from everyone to 4 is that with the house rule you can now omit targets, you don't have to shoot your friends anymore so you could eg shoot down attackers surrounding your Fighter friend without having to shoot him too. The benefit at Paragon is the increase from 4 to 6 possible targets, and to 9 at Epic.

Ah, I see. When we played we houseruled Rapid Shot didn't effect allies as we thought that was the intent. Both the descriptive text and the italicized flavor text refer to enemies and - as you point out - the idea of hitting allies in a burst doesn't really make sense for a hunter.

So with the Peerless Hunter PP are you keeping the improvement to Rapid Shot which removes the -2 attack penalty? Or are you tweaking the PP too?

 

[S'mon]

So with the Peerless Hunter PP are you keeping the improvement to Rapid Shot which removes the -2 attack penalty? Or are you tweaking the PP too?

I don't see any reason not to remove the penalty, as per the PP Superior Archery benefit. Would still cap at 6 targets until Epic level, as I said.