If an "archer" is a bow specialist, what's a crossbow specialist?

[Klaus]

Arbalester (from "arbalest")

Bester (from "besta")

Light Crossbow + Rapid Reload + Crossbow Sniper (adds Dex to damage) =

 

[kenobi65]

Wizard who's out of spells.

Or, "Can't Afford a Good Longbow Yet."

 

[kenobi65]

Bester (from "besta")

Nah, I read that one, and all I can picture is Walter Koenig dressed in black and being slimy/creepy.

 

[Psion]

Wizard who's out of spells.

Dagnabbit! I would have had this up, too if it wasn't for my screwy cable...

 

[frankthedm]

Like many otherwise suboptimal weapons-of-choice, the crossbowman really needs a prestige class, perhaps balancing the slow rate of fire with the ability to inflict extra damage and ignore armor.

I say the weapon deserves those properties.

For medium and larger heavy crossbows, I've altered the damage and allow them to ignore some of the target's armor. The larger ones do a lot of damage, because when man meets heavy machine, machine makes man meat. Also a balista hit should be fatal to the average horse or other 3HD creature.

Medium heavy crossbow: Ignores 2 points of armor [1 point of natural armor if armor is not worn] 1d8+2 damage

Large heavy crossbow: Ignores 4 points of armor [2 points of natural armor if armor is not worn] 2d6+4 damage.

Huge heavy crossbow: Ignores 8 points of armor [4 points of natural armor if armor is not worn] 3d6+8 damage. This will drop a riding horse in one blow and puncture nonmagical fullplate like tinfoil, as a balista should.

Nasty, though It comes down to the question "What is an action in combat worth?"

I might suggest increasing the costs on these over the book prices.

 

[Deekin]

If you haveUntapped Potential; Crossbow specialist Marksman, or a Half-decent crossbow user.

 

[dcas]

Crossbowman.

 

[Sejs]

Crossbowman or Marksman.

Quarreler sounds like he gets into arguments a lot. And would that make a bow-user an 'arrower'?

 

[Thurbane]

Like many otherwise suboptimal weapons-of-choice, the crossbowman really needs a prestige class, perhaps balancing the slow rate of fire with the ability to inflict extra damage and ignore armor.

I've been working on an Arbalester PrC for my own campaign for a while. When I get it tidied up, I'll post it up for review.

 

[Tuzenbach]

Not trying to be a killjoy or anything but, from reading my not-so-handy 10 lb. Webster's Dictionary and perusing the not-always-accurate Wikipedia source, it appears that the term "arbalest" is most closely associated with *heavy* crossbows. Thus, any class termed an arbalest would not, by definition, be indicative of all things crossbow. I'm just sayin'.......