Crossbow User

[daTim]

I'm tired of seeing everyone using bows on ranged attack characters, so I've decided to try and use the Crossbow in a high level character and make it useable. The idea I have for this guy, is he carries around a huge crossbow that he fires once a round, possibly move and fire or reload and fire, but still be able to compete in damage. He would be a human around level 13, and we are genearaly low on magic items even though it is FR.

The only ideas I had for this were to use the Order of the Bow Initiate with its "Ranged Precision", or through some creative use of the Many Shot feat. The Many Shot idea seemed the best to me because I can stay fighter up to level 12 and get the nice Greater Weapon Specialization feat. I like the OotBI but cant fathom why they get that useless feat instead of Improved Precise Shot at 7th (?) level.

In regards to Many Shot, instead of loading up 3 or 4 bolts, he would just use the standard action to load one big bolt in his crossbow and fire it at the one guy. The problem is, you have to roll seperatly for damage reduction, can only Crit once; which takes away the only benefit of the crossbow - its greater crit range; and the fact that you are using tripple the ammuntion but only firing one shot.

I'm sure alot of that could be worked out with the DM, but is there any other legal way to do this? Or any other suggestions I can present him with if he doesnt like mine? Thanks for the help.

 

[Enkhidu]

If you're going to be playing high level, why not simply make a magical repeating crossbow with the equivelent of an Ehlonna's Quiver as the hopper? That gives you multiple shot capabilites with less worry about loading...

 

[Argent]

Give him a light crossbow and rapid reload feat and he can fire multiple times in one round. If your dm is generous, get a quick-loading heavy crossbow and the rapid reload feat to have the same effect. (I would not allow the effects to stack but a geneous dm might. )

 

[Darklone]

Hmm. Get a heavy crossbow with auto-reload enchantment, learn how to craft special alchemical and magical bolts (bolt of screaming, bolt of fireball, whatever).

To increase the damage, use a large heavy crossbow at -2 to hit. Perhaps your DM lets you use a huge one with appropriate feats. Cast Enlarge Person on yourself as well .

Shot on the Run and high mobility is a good bet for hit and run tactics into full cover. Your buddies won't like it, but you won't get hit

The bard in Destans storyhour had special bolts as well IIRC... or get an arbaleste that shoots stones or other bomb like devices.

 

[Eccles]

I had an NPC 'hitman' in my game make good use of a crossbow and some feat that reduces the enemy's movement (at the cost of some of his sneak attack dice). He'd just shoot 'em in the legs a couple of times and then make life miserable for them.

And the ability to shadowjump was really useful for when his first shot missed!

 

[hong]

A bunch of feats that might be useful:

Called Shot
Improved Aimed Shot
Crossbow Expert

Also, I'd bump up the OotBI (never thought you'd see anyone say that, did you?); it's a bit weak as given in the CW. What I'd do:
- Change to 4 skill pts/level and more class skills
- Ranged precision works out to 1st range increment
- Improved Precise Shot instead of Sharp-Shooting at 6th
- Ranged precision out to 2nd range increment at 10th

 

[daTim]

Thanks for the suggestions, I may end up just making my own Crossbow user prestige class, since I couldnt get in OotBI technically anyway.