Making a good Crossbowman?

[John Q. Mayhem]

Except I'm not using AU, just the Unfettered from it. So there are, technically, no such things as agile exotic weapons in the game, and a character cannot take an Exotic Weapons Proficiency (Agile).

Sorry. I must have been confused by your saying that you were thinking of classing repeating crossbows as exotic(agile). I must be stupid or something, because I figured that meant that you were using exotic(agile) weapons and proficiency. Silly me!

 

[Noldor Elf]

Except I'm not using AU, just the Unfettered from it. So there are, technically, no such things as agile exotic weapons in the game, and a character cannot take an Exotic Weapons Proficiency (Agile).

Even if you are using AU, one possibility would be using the AU version of Rapid Reload, which allows the light crossbow to be fired as many times as the character has attacks.

The you could add Improved Rapid Reload, with BAB: +11, Rapid Reload, Weapon Focus and Craft: Bowery: 5 ranks as prerequisities and it would allow Heavy Crossbow to be loaded as a free action, but only fired twice in a round.

 

[Maldur]

There are some really nice feats for Xbow men in Three arrows for the king!

So you might want to ask Hellhound for some advice on this one!

 

[Al]

In the A&EG there are magical Auto-Reloading and Quick-Loading crossbows. The Auto-Reloaders magically reload the crossbows as soon as a bolt is fired IIRC so you can have full ROF even with a heavy crossbow. Quick-Loading crossbows reduce the reload time by one step (MEA to free, full to MEA), which, coupled with Rapid Reload, can also enable full ROF with a heavy crossbow.

But here's a neat trick. Crossbows can be fired with one hand, albeit at a penalty. If you've got good Dex (which, as a long-ranged fighter build, you should), you can greater two-weapon fight with Auto-Reloading crossbows. Coupled with Rapid Shot, this can equate to a massive ten attacks per round!

 

[Frostmarrow]

Some people (at least I've heard of some) rule that a crossbow shot is a ranged touch attack. That coupled with a precision based power attack feat could make the crossbow a more viable choice.

To me, it's not very crossbowman-like to fire rapidly but rather take the time and shoot well aimed shots that punches through armor with ease. Just my two cents.

 

[CCamfield]

Well, one of the characters in the d20 Warhammer game I've started up is a Tilean mercenary, using the Unfettered class as a base since he wants a kinda light fighter. Anyway, thing is, Tilean's are renowned for their skills with crossbows - but as is, in the D&D rules, there isn't really any reason to go heavy specialisation into xbows - bows are much better simply because they don't have to deal with the reload problem. Rapid Reload deals with this in part, but not entirely, since you only get 1 free action per round...

Ok... am I the only one here that thinks something was overlooked?

Rapid Reload specifically states "If you have selected this feat for a hand crossbow or light crossbow, you may fire that weapon as many times in a full attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow."

(BTW, the rules say that you get 1 "or more" free actions per round, subject to the DM's discretion.)

Now, this still means that specializing in heavy crossbow isn't necessarily the greatest idea (without the magical enhancements mentioned), but someone with a light crossbow and Rapid Reload is closer to being equal to someone with a longbow than they were in 3.0.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

If you're using some of AU, you could let him buy bodkin arrows. Or maybe say that all crossbows ignore 2 points of armor, like bodkin arrows.