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chiefwaha
2005-10-21, 02:29 PM
My first attempt at a PrC. Thoughts and comments please.

Requirements
Race: Dwarf
BAB: +5
Feats: Rapid Reload, Weapon Focus(Light or Heavy Crossbow), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot

Class Skills: Climb, Craft, Intimidate, Jump, Profession, Spot, Listen, Swim
2 + Int per level

Base Attack Progression, Good (As Fighter)
Fort Progression: Fast
Ref Progression: Fast
Will Progression: Slow

Careful Shot: The sharpshooter gains their level to their attack if they spend the entire round aiming. They also get 1d8 extra precision damage if the target is within 60 feet(Not multiplied by critical hit). This damage increases by 1d8 every odd level.

Snap-fire: At 2nd level, gets the benefit of the quickdraw feat with the crossbow, and allows one additional shot for that round at the highest attack bonus. All attacks take a -2 penalty in the round.

At 4th level, the sharpshooter gets Greater Weapon Focus(Heavy or Light Crossbow)

Improved Rapid Reload: At 6th level, reloading a heavy crossbow is a free action. A light crossbow can get another shot off at their highest attack bonus at -2 penalty to all attacks in the round.

At 8th level, the sharpshooter gets Weapon Specialization or Greater Weapon Specialization(Light or Heavy Crossbow) if they already have Weapon Specialization

At 10th level, Hail of Bolts, once per day, the sharpshooter can shoot one bolt at their highest attack bonus at each target in range, max of 10 targets.

Colin_Archibald
2005-10-21, 03:24 PM
what about hand crossbows? quick draw one of those would be cool.

chiefwaha
2005-10-21, 03:31 PM
It would be, but I don't think dwarves would use that really.

Bizwacky
2005-10-22, 01:07 AM
I'm don't really have any active knowledge of balancing, so I'm not sure how balanced/unbalanced that is, it looks pretty cool, but you do realize alot of those class features are epic level feats? The free action reload, and hail of bolts, specifically. Also it has a fighter's attack progression, with better saves, + what's essentially a higher powered sneak attack with less limitations. Ohh and you didn't list the hit die, I'd say d6, but again, I'm not good at balancing.

Cromm10k
2005-10-22, 06:32 AM
Which HD are you using? D10 I guess...

edit: and why the good REF save? But I'm not realy good at this balancing stuff, so never mind.

Dannick
2005-10-22, 10:43 AM
Couple questions first off:
Hit Die?
Careful shot - does it take a full round action to aim, and you shoot the following round, or is the shot part of the full-round action?
Improved Rapid Reload - What about Lt Crossbow users?
Hail of Bolts - What is defined as "in range", one range incremement?

It seems to me Careful shot is by far the best ability in the class, given a character spends at least a little time in the class. And its the first lvl ability. Scaling back the attack and damage bonuses to 1/2 and every third level after 1st respectively would make sense to me. That leaves +5 to hit, and + 4d8 damage at 10th lvl. Thats hefty.
It being useable only every other round is somewhat of a balancing factor, but makes it useable, not just broken. You might want to specify it only applies to the next shot also.

The two good saves seem a bit much also, you could easily argue for either one, but both seems a bit much, especially if theres a good hit die.

The Glyphstone
2005-10-22, 10:52 AM
Neat. Seems sorta like a crossbow variant of the Order of the Bow Initiate (CWar).

chiefwaha
2005-10-24, 10:31 AM
I used a bit of things from Arcane archers, and order of the bow.

HD would probably 8 to balance off the two good saves, like Arcane Archers.

Arcane archers get a hail at 8th level, I based it off that, and they only get 1 a day. Range would be one range increment.

Careful shot is a full round action, meaning one shot a round for light, and every other for heavy(Until you get improved rapid reload). Scaling back the + to hit sounds like a good idea. +5 to hit at 10th level. The damage progression is taken from the order of the bow initiatiate so I think that's good. I believe the order of the bow can use a +5d8 and still get the rest of their attacks.

Good reflex is because any missile based class seems to have good reflex saves.

The free action reload lets you get a full attack with a heavy crossbow at 11th level. I feel that crossbows get gypped big time, especially heavy crossbows. Heavy crossbows you can only get 1 attack per round with until epic levels? Why would anyone choose to use that? I decided that having one PrC to do that wouldn't unbalance the game terribly. They still provoke the AoO until epic levels.

Improved Rapid reload gets light crossbow users another shot at -2, like rapid shot.

I think that addresses all the questions.