What prevents eternal crossbow attacks in the rules?

[catsclaw]

Had the following situation come up in game, and I was wondering what in the rules prevented it. A player was wielding a crossbow, and was frustrated because it was taking up his minor actions. He proceeded to buy a half dozen of them and strap them about his person. From then on, if he wanted his minor action for something he'd simply drop the crossbow, and Quick Draw a fresh, loaded one when he wanted to attack.

Now, it's easy to just rule against the tactic. But I'm not looking for advice in stopping him, I'm looking for any real hard-and-fast rules in 4e about it. Does anything explicitly say you can't wander around with a loaded crossbow?

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

Well, if you think this isn't an apropriate tactic, there are a number of things that make this somewhat pointless.
1. Cost of crossbows. Eventually, the character may want to buy a +1 or better crossbow. If he or she doesn't, they probably can't hit their target very easily. Having a single +5 crossbow and 20 normal ones is useless, since the normal ones can't hit.
2. Walking around with a loaded crossbow is a good idea for an adventurer, but probably would be discouraged in urban areas. (Laws prohibiting it perhaps?)
3. Crossbows are not terribly overpowering. Consider the player's character concept. If fighting with a crossbow is a combat style of choice, perhaps allowing quick draw to allow free loading of the crossbow. I do not believe it does normally (I could be wrong) but I don't think your DM's screen would burst into flames if you made a concession like that. (Or is their some cross-bow doomsday exploit I don't know about yet?) It may be a powerful weapon for a rogue, but unless you think the ability to attack at a range is worth a whole lot to a rogue vs a warlock or a ranger, the crossbow probably isn't worth the minor action.

 

[Ipissimus]

The only thing I can think of in the rules that would stop him is encumbrance.

But then, the rules can't cover everything and you have to moderate the rules with a dose of common sense. For starters, crossbows are rather big, bulky and awkward. Strapping six of them to your person would make life difficult.

In the real world, most of the crossbows that I've ever seen have the bolt sit loose in the groove, there isn't anything holding it there if you tip it forward so it'll fall out. The exception, of course, is the repeating crossbow that actually has a clip.

Anyway, isn't there an enchantment or feat somewhere that lets you reload the crossbow as a free action? If not, and this guy's really dead set on speed loading crossbows, make one up and throw it into the dungeon for him somewhere. The extra damage really isn't significant enough to unbalance the game and it'll save suspension of disbelief headaches.

 

[Mad Hamish]

Had the following situation come up in game, and I was wondering what in the rules prevented it. A player was wielding a crossbow, and was frustrated because it was taking up his minor actions. He proceeded to buy a half dozen of them and strap them about his person. From then on, if he wanted his minor action for something he'd simply drop the crossbow, and Quick Draw a fresh, loaded one when he wanted to attack.

Now, it's easy to just rule against the tactic. But I'm not looking for advice in stopping him, I'm looking for any real hard-and-fast rules in 4e about it. Does anything explicitly say you can't wander around with a loaded crossbow?

Nothing I can think of.
But just let him get the Repeating Crossbow from Adventurer's vault which has a clip of 10 bolts.

 

[Negflar2099]

If I had a player walk around with loaded crossbows the bolts would either drop out or one would go off (+2 vs. AC) against the PC to see if it shoots him.

Of course I'm a little bit of a wuss when it comes to doing this kind of stuff to players so I would give him ample warning first.

If he ignores the warning... well that's his problem

 

[themilkman]

I think common sense has a place at the table, and wearing a suit of crossbows kinda violates that idea. That said, some options:

As other peeps have said, a Repeating Crossbow (AV 10) is cool.

Paragon Class: Cloaked Sniper (MP 88)
Requirements: Rogue, trained in stealth
Path Features: Crossbow Savant, 11th level. Add to range of crossbows, treat weapons with load minor as having load free.

Heroic Feat: Two-fisted Shooter (MP 104)
Requirements: Rogue
Treat hand crossbow as an off-hand weapon. You can reload hand crossbows one-handed as a free action. When you score a crit, and have a hand crossbow in your off-hand, you can make a ranged basic attack.

Make up your own rapid-reload feat.

 

[Skallgrim]

Nope. But also note that there is nothing in the rules preventing you from wandering around with ten halberds, or a dozen quivers of arrows either. The encumbrance rules are pretty vague, and only cover simple weight. I think you'd either have to use common sense or accept treating each character as if they had a magic equipment locker.

Common sense would say that:

One crossbow might be slung on each side of the body, and perhaps two across the back. And honestly, that's really pushing it for a normal crossbow. After that, they would get in your way when walking, and tangle up against each other. Also, most crossbows are not designed to hold a quarrel in any position other than a loaded firing position.

 

[DracoSuave]

Plus: Most crossbow users are rogues--what are you doing with your turns that you need to save so many minor actions?

 

[Agamon]

I like that 4e encourages DMs to say "yes". This kinda thing doesn't bother me, I'd let a player do it. People might look at him strangely if he walked around like that all the time (maybe a -2 to social skills...or +2 in some cases) and urban law might prohibit walking around with loaded weapons as already mentioned, but if this is the kinda thing the player considers cool, let him do it. He's getting his minor action (not that big of a deal) to fire a crossbow (not that great of a weapon).

 

[Danceofmasks]

Normally I don't care for houserules much, but if someone wanted to spend a feat to be able to load crossbows as a free action, then ...
Sure, why not?

Seriously, the feat would be weak compared to quickdraw, and crossbows are still weak compared to longbows.

Plus, the probability of such a feat turning up sometime is quite high anyhow.