Why take a Crossbow?

[Dr. Zoom]

It was, however, the only weapon outlawed by the Pope for being unfair.

You've been watching the History Channel.

 

[Caliber]

Don't forget there are some feats to speed crossbows up.

I don't think you can get a full attack with them until Epic Levels, but you can manage two per round with Rapid Reload. I think.

 

[LokiDR]

You've been watching the History Channel.

Only a little. Other factoids include the last known use of a crosbow in war was during world war I trench warfare. It was only made obsolete by the black powerder musket. England hated the crossbow because they made sure their whole populece could fire the long bow.

 

[DM_Matt]

Repeating Xbows help a lot. They are only a little more expensive than regular masterwork xbows. Hopefully your DM will allow all Xbows to be made that way rather than just light ones.

A character who takes an xbow for style should seriously consider taking the +2 equivalent ability in MOF that lets you fire your xbow at its full rate and has a 100-bolt extradimensional magazine. and you can choose what kind of bolt out of the ones within the space you want to load. you could seriously use that to keep all kinds of special arrows with various sorts of poison, exploding tips, etc.

 

[Vaxalon]

Only a little. Other factoids include the last known use of a crosbow in war was during world war I trench warfare.

I thought I remember hearing that Viet Cong guerillas used Cho-no-ku crossbows sometimes during the Viet Nam conflict...

Of course, that could just be hype, there was a lot of that kind of thing circulated about Viet Nam.

 

[CCamfield]

Don't forget there are some feats to speed crossbows up.

I don't think you can get a full attack with them until Epic Levels, but you can manage two per round with Rapid Reload. I think.

AEG's Mercenaries has a feat chain that lets you get up to 3 shots/round if a light crossbow is loaded at the start of the round, with one of the shots at -3. That only requires 2 feats, so I rather think, unfortunately, that it's overpowered.

 

[Darklone]

Don't tell it to your players....

Evil kobold ambush tactic: Kobolds are somewhere (Across a chasm) where the players can not easily enter.

Now use some kobolds with Shot on the Run to hop from full cover, shoot and get away again.

Readied attacks might help... but NOT much if 10 crossbow archers at once hop from cover

 

[Apok]

AEG's Mercenaries has a feat chain that lets you get up to 3 shots/round if a light crossbow is loaded at the start of the round, with one of the shots at -3. That only requires 2 feats, so I rather think, unfortunately, that it's overpowered.

Overpowered? Really? The Rapid Reload feat allows you to get off 2 shots in a round if the light crossbow is loaded at the start of the round with neither shot taking a penalty. That's one feat and the only feat which we really have to measure other xbow feats by. Getting off 3 shots in a round with a penalty for the cost of 2 feats doesn't seem overpowered at all to me. It makes Crossbow using fighters more viable (but still inferior to Bow users) and keeps it within reach of non-fighters who only get 7 or 8 feats in 20 levels. Think about it; if you only have 8 feats to play with, spending 2 of them to improve your ability with a single weapon (and not a great weapon to specialize in either) is a serious cost. That's 1/4 of your feats, there, buddy.

 

[CCamfield]

Well, you make some good points there. But both of the feats are available to anyone with a BAB of +1 and Dex 13. So a first level fighter could potentially be getting those three shots off in one round. Comments?

 

[Apok]

Well, you make some good points there. But both of the feats are available to anyone with a BAB of +1 and Dex 13. So a first level fighter could potentially be getting those three shots off in one round. Comments?

No, he would only be able to get off two in one round. With an arrow already in the crossbow (assuming light or hand) then he fires it, uses the Rapid Reload or Quick Load feat (they are essentialy the same feat just different prereqs) to load another bolt and use Quick Shot (the other Mercenaries feat in question) to fire the second bolt at the -3 with double range penalties if any apply. I've read the special addendum at the end of Quick Shot and it doesn't make sense, since you can only use Quick Shot once per round so I'd suggest ignoring that last part. The only way it would make sense is if the character in question had a BAB of at least +6/+1. If the prerequesites bother you then you can change them but really all this combo does is allow a 1st level fighter to use a weak version of Rapid Shot with a crossbow.

So, 1st round with a bolt loaded. Fighter has a BAB +1 and a Dex mod of, say, +4 for a total of +5.

He fires his first shot at +5, then Rapid Reloads and takes his Quick Shot at +2. He still has a move-equivalent left so he can either reload his crossbow or move.

Now, lets look at the same fighter using Point Blank Shot & Rapid Shot with a bow;

BAB +1, +4 Dex, and we'll assume a target within 30' so +1 from PBS for a total of +6.

Fires his first shot at +6 and Rapid Shots a second at +4. Since he isn't concerned about reloading, he can move or perform any other move equivalent action.

After careful consideration (and taking into account the fact that the Special under Quick Shot is somehow bogus) I see nothing wrong with these two feats as written.

Edit; damn typos