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Sniper Rifles (Snipers in general)
- Thread starter dvvega
- Start date
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad
dvvega said:
The sniper guns do a lot of damage and have good range increments, combined with the surprise rules denying dex bonus and the Massive Damage rule, and I think it pretty much is handled. There are also some feats that help with it, like giving you a bonus if you have time to line the shot up.
dvvega
Explorer
Thanx guys ... I was all set to make up rules for snipers ... they get a coup de grace only if they have time to line up their target and the target is 100% unaware of them.
Thought it was a bit over the top ... almost every player would buy a sniper rifle and stake out every target's place.
Thought it was a bit over the top ... almost every player would buy a sniper rifle and stake out every target's place.
kreynolds
First Post
dvvega said:
Well, you have to spend an attack action to aquire your target when using a scope in order to gain the benefits from it. So, while you get greater range, it slows down your rate of fire.
Also, Ultramodern Firearms has a couple of interesting feats that help with sniping. Improved Dead Aim increases your Dead Aim bonus from +2 to +3. The Bull's Eye feat lets you spend an action point to automatically confirm a critical hit when you threaten one.
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Prince Atom
Explorer
How do scopes work in D20M?
Everybody seems to want to have them grant an attack bonus, which is a complication when all you have to do is take the magnification and divide the range by it.
So do scopes make something larger in D20M or do they just provide a bonus to hit?
TWK
Everybody seems to want to have them grant an attack bonus, which is a complication when all you have to do is take the magnification and divide the range by it.
So do scopes make something larger in D20M or do they just provide a bonus to hit?
TWK
The Whiner Knight said:
Standard scopes require an attack action to acquire the target, then increase the weapon's range by 1.5 (which stacks with Far Shot). Electro-Optical does the same during daylight, otherwise it provides Darkvision as do night vision goggles. Effectively they reduce the range penalties rather than giving a bonus to hit.
dvvega, if it's of any use to you, here's a feat that I threw together that I've been using for sniper type characters...
One Shot, One Kill
Prerequisites: Base attack bonus +4, Wisdom 13, Far Shot, Dead Aim
Benefit: As a full round action the character may carefully line up a single shot, taking –2 to hit, but gaining +1 die of damage on a successful hit.
Special: This feat has no effect on creatures immune to criticals. If the weapon is equipped with a Scope, the use of the scope is subsumed into the full round action to use this feat.
Frankly, if I've got a sniper rifle with a decent range, Far shot, and a scope, I'm pretty set. As a rule of thumb, take the following feats:
Double Tap, to do an extra die of damage
Heroic Surge, to get an extra shot
Use the following classes:
Strong Hero (for the BAB progresion), even if your highest score is Dex
Soldier (for the Weapon Focus and Specialization, Tactical Aid, Improved Critical, and automatic Critical Confirmation)
Right there, a 13th level character can fire a sniper rifle and get:
A +1 to hit from Weapon Focus
A +1 (at least) competence bonus from using Tactical Aid
A +4 on damage.
A threat range of 19-20, automatically confirmed.
Now, on TOP of that, you get your Intel guy to work with you. Get a Smart guy with some Occupational ranks in Hide and Move Silently. He gets you into position and tells you the best time to get off your shot based on the target's personal habits, which routes the guy takes, when he stops to talk to folks, etc. The end result of this is that your assistant uses the Plan Talent of the Smart Hero, which can give you a Circumstance bonus on your attacks. Unfortunately, he can't use Aid Another, since that's only for melee, but he CAN give you the world's best plan, which equates to up to a +3 circumstance bonus to hit, which stacks with the (Int bonus) bonus that you got from Tactical aid. Let's say that he's darned good at what he does, and you've got a high intelligence -- after all, they wanted you to be the best sniper, right? +3 from his advice, +3 from your tactical aid. Along with Weapon Focus, you're looking at a +7 to hit. At this point, heck yes, double-tap, and then use your heroic surge and do a double-tap again! Two shots that have an automatically successful crit range of 19-20, do +4 damage anyway, and do an extra die of damage? Based on the average sniper rifle, which does 2d10?
+5 to hit (after double-tapping on each attack), damage of 3d10 + 4, 19-20/x2 (auto).
Sounds like a pretty decent sniper to me.
-Tacky
Edit: Duh, me. Dead Aim, too -- for an extra +2 to hit on top of all that.
Edit 2: Heck, if you wanted to be really goofy, you could have ANOTHER buddy lurking over your shoulder murmuring, "That's right, who da man? YOU da man. You gonna shoot him good, buddy. You gonna shoot him, you gonna shoot him. Who's gonna shoot him? You are. Darn right. A-hoo-yeah!" (Greater Inspiration from the Charismatic Hero, which gives you a +3 morale bonus to attacks and damage.) On the other hand, while I can see a sniper and an Intel guy, I have trouble with imagining the team cheerleader. But if you played it as the Charismatic commander telling him, "Go for it, Hawkeye. I know you can do it," and then music swells as our sniper suddenly realizes that the power to blow the heads off bad guys was within him all along, and he nods, purses his lips, and goes to work... maybe then it'd work.
PPPS: Also, on a one-shot deal like a sniping shot, I'd sure as heck use an action point.
PPPPS: Burst Fire. Why the heck not? You've got all these bonuses. A whole mess of slugs at a whole mess of bonuses, doing a whole mess of damage.
MAN, guns are nasty.
-Tacky, again.
Double Tap, to do an extra die of damage
Heroic Surge, to get an extra shot
Use the following classes:
Strong Hero (for the BAB progresion), even if your highest score is Dex
Soldier (for the Weapon Focus and Specialization, Tactical Aid, Improved Critical, and automatic Critical Confirmation)
Right there, a 13th level character can fire a sniper rifle and get:
A +1 to hit from Weapon Focus
A +1 (at least) competence bonus from using Tactical Aid
A +4 on damage.
A threat range of 19-20, automatically confirmed.
Now, on TOP of that, you get your Intel guy to work with you. Get a Smart guy with some Occupational ranks in Hide and Move Silently. He gets you into position and tells you the best time to get off your shot based on the target's personal habits, which routes the guy takes, when he stops to talk to folks, etc. The end result of this is that your assistant uses the Plan Talent of the Smart Hero, which can give you a Circumstance bonus on your attacks. Unfortunately, he can't use Aid Another, since that's only for melee, but he CAN give you the world's best plan, which equates to up to a +3 circumstance bonus to hit, which stacks with the (Int bonus) bonus that you got from Tactical aid. Let's say that he's darned good at what he does, and you've got a high intelligence -- after all, they wanted you to be the best sniper, right? +3 from his advice, +3 from your tactical aid. Along with Weapon Focus, you're looking at a +7 to hit. At this point, heck yes, double-tap, and then use your heroic surge and do a double-tap again! Two shots that have an automatically successful crit range of 19-20, do +4 damage anyway, and do an extra die of damage? Based on the average sniper rifle, which does 2d10?
+5 to hit (after double-tapping on each attack), damage of 3d10 + 4, 19-20/x2 (auto).
Sounds like a pretty decent sniper to me.
-Tacky
Edit: Duh, me. Dead Aim, too -- for an extra +2 to hit on top of all that.
Edit 2: Heck, if you wanted to be really goofy, you could have ANOTHER buddy lurking over your shoulder murmuring, "That's right, who da man? YOU da man. You gonna shoot him good, buddy. You gonna shoot him, you gonna shoot him. Who's gonna shoot him? You are. Darn right. A-hoo-yeah!" (Greater Inspiration from the Charismatic Hero, which gives you a +3 morale bonus to attacks and damage.) On the other hand, while I can see a sniper and an Intel guy, I have trouble with imagining the team cheerleader. But if you played it as the Charismatic commander telling him, "Go for it, Hawkeye. I know you can do it," and then music swells as our sniper suddenly realizes that the power to blow the heads off bad guys was within him all along, and he nods, purses his lips, and goes to work... maybe then it'd work.
PPPS: Also, on a one-shot deal like a sniping shot, I'd sure as heck use an action point.
PPPPS: Burst Fire. Why the heck not? You've got all these bonuses. A whole mess of slugs at a whole mess of bonuses, doing a whole mess of damage.
MAN, guns are nasty.
-Tacky, again.
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