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Gopalkrishna
2010-01-20, 12:50 PM
So, I whipped up a Rogue 1/Fighter 2 halfling the other day with two weapon fighting, rapid reload, point blank shot and rapid shot feats. With a hand crossbow in each hand, that gives him four attacks per full round action. My question is, if that his foe is flat-footed or flanked, does he get sneak attack damage to all those attacks? Just want to make sure that I'm reading the PHB correctly. Thanks!

Tavar
2010-01-20, 12:53 PM
If the attack qualifies for Sneak attack, then it gets it. There's no limit to the number of attacks that can qualify for this per round.

BRC
2010-01-20, 12:53 PM
So, I whipped up a Rogue 1/Fighter 2 halfling the other day with two weapon fighting, rapid reload, point blank shot and rapid shot feats. With a hand crossbow in each hand, that gives him four attacks per full round action. My question is, if that his foe is flat-footed or flanked, does he get sneak attack damage to all those attacks? Just want to make sure that I'm reading the PHB correctly. Thanks!

Yup, every hit against a dex-deprived foe deals Sneak Attack damage, but I don't think your trick works, you need a hand free to reload your hand crossbows.

drengnikrafe
2010-01-20, 12:54 PM
Assuming all the conditions are met, yes. Although, I think you can't flank with a ranged weapon.

EDIT: Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-NINJA!

alisbin
2010-01-20, 01:00 PM
i think that if you are shooting from a flanking direction and someone else is providing you a flank you can, but you can't give someone else a flank bonus with ranged weapons (actually isn't there a feat somewhere that does that?)

Project_Mayhem
2010-01-20, 01:02 PM
Nope. Although it sounds like reasonable house rule.

wormwood
2010-01-20, 01:03 PM
To those who mention flanking, you can also sneak attack someone who is flat-footed. He could easily do that with a crossbow. The problem is that with both hands full, he'll still only get 2 attacks before his crossbows are empty and he can't reload.

Gopalkrishna
2010-01-20, 01:04 PM
Yup, every hit against a dex-deprived foe deals Sneak Attack damage, but I don't think your trick works, you need a hand free to reload your hand crossbows.

I think you're right - so I suppose the difference between having a hand cross bow in each hand and a light crossbow that you attack with rapid shot is one extra feat, more damage and less the attack penalty. I imagined that the hand crossbows could be reloaded with your thumbs;

http://media.photobucket.com/image/hand%20crossbow/asaffin/Crossbows_Belgian_Crossbow_Pistol.jpg

...but I don't think that's the case.

Douglas
2010-01-20, 01:11 PM
Ranged sneak attacking is hard to pull off because it is not possible to flank someone with a ranged weapon and you have to deny dex bonus for your target instead.

taltamir
2010-01-20, 01:13 PM
use repeater crossbows (semi auto crossbows). A regular crossbow requires a move action to reload and BOTH hands.
For a crossbowman a round is "use move action to reload, use standard action to shoot, 5 foot step"

You will be unable to use the combo as written because crossbows are pure suck (despite being awesomer then regular bows IRL).

KurtKatze
2010-01-20, 01:27 PM
comes kinda you know maybe you won't like it ^^

But for a ranged sneak attack built and you are MOST concerned with the sneak attack not with the true awesome skill-monkey-ness, why don't you play a ninja from Comploete Adventurer?

Suddenstrike is only inferior to Sneak Attack cause you dont get it when u flank, u won't flank. And you get the nice invis stuff to pull off your ranged sneak attack very often.

Yuki Akuma
2010-01-20, 01:29 PM
This is why a lot of Rogues, and other classes that get bonus damage, tend to take Two-Weapon Fighting a lot. It's a pretty good way to deal lots of damage.

(Also you can't Rapid Reload two crossbows at once. Unless you have three hands. So you're going to have to drop your off-hand crossbow after your first off-hand attack.)

The best ranged rogue would probably have Rapid Shot, Quick Draw, and a whole bunch of daggers.

And even better, you can even flank with your daggers, because they're also melee weapons.

PhoenixRivers
2010-01-20, 01:33 PM
Well, so long as you don't mind provoking AoO's when you throw in melee.

That said, if you have prehensile tail (serpent kingdoms), you could use that to reload.

Rixx
2010-01-20, 01:54 PM
Well, so long as you don't mind provoking AoO's when you throw in melee.

If you're right next to a hostile target and you have a dagger in your hand, I sure hope you're not trying to throw it.

Irreverent Fool
2010-01-20, 02:00 PM
There are ways to threaten with ranged attacks and to avoid attacks of opportunity with ranged attacks. I was going to suggest sniping but since hiding after a snipe is a move action, it doesn't help much.

As far as the problem of reloading with no hands free goes, it might be effective to take quick draw and carry a few extra loaded bows around.

obnoxious
sig

Dusk Eclipse
2010-01-20, 02:04 PM
IIRC there is an enchanment in the MiC that aotmaticalloy reloads crosbows, you night want to check that.

Person_Man
2010-01-20, 03:21 PM
Instead of Rapid Reload, consider Quickdraw.

Every weapon with a range increment counts as a Ranged Weapon (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Ranged_Weapon), and Sneak Attack is limited to 30 ft. Thus you could throw nets, spears, javalins, daggers, etc, with TWF and Rapid Shot, instead of crossbows. The advantage is that if you need to fight in melee, you can. And you can add your Str bonus to damage. And you don't have to worry about needing a free hand to reload.