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Lateral
2010-11-25, 04:33 PM
I wanna build a huge living construct (probably some kinda Warforged) who has repeating crossbows coming out his ears and kills people with storms of arrows- so many they blacken the sky. How would I go about doing this? I'm willing to use homebrewed prestiges, but not base classes. If I can't build what I'm looking for, no sweat, I'll just brew up a prestige class for it, but I'd like to see if it's doable already. Thanks!

The race is the least important. Classes, feats, et cetera.

Greenish
2010-11-25, 04:39 PM
Warforged Charger is a Large living construct. It does come with LA, RHD and nasty penalties to mental stats, though.

FMArthur
2010-11-25, 07:33 PM
If you want an endless storm of crossbow bolts when you attack, get Splitting Aptitude Hand Crossbows and take Lightning Mace, Roundabout Kick and Improved Critical for feats. It really is a sort of labrynthine combination, but quite cool to put together.

Let's break down what each of these things is for:
Hand Crossbows: This is the only kind of crossbow you can dual-wield without taking big penalties. Two Weapon Fighting is the easiest way to get a lot of attacks with manufactured weapons. To get the most out of this, you need Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Hand Crossbow (comes free with a Rogue level), Rapid Reload, and a Spare Hand (MIC; 12000gp but lets you reload your crossbows when your hands are occupied). Gloves of the Balanced Hand cost 8000gp but give you Improved Two Weapon Fighting at a price. That's cheaper than a feat. Possibly.
Splitting Enhancement (CoR): +3 ranged weapon enhancement. Every time you attack with that ranged weapon, the ammunition splits into two bolts that use two separate attack rolls.
Aptitude Enhancement (ToB): +1 weapon enhancement. Any feats you have that only apply to specific weapons also apply to this weapon. This is the cornerstone of the build. The Warblade Weapon Aptitude class feature technically does this as well, but a DM might argue otherwise while the weapon enhancement unambiguously allows this. If you can manage it, the Warblade class feature trims down your weapon costs enormously and has a number of useful maneuvers for this build, so it's better.
Lightning Mace (CW): Requires Combat Reflexes, Two Weapon Fighting and Weapon Focus (light mace). Yowch. Anyway, with this feat, whenever you score a threat on an attack roll when wielding two maces, you can make another attack at that same attack bonus. Notice that it says threat and not critical; that means you don't even need to confirm the crit, and that it works on things immune to crits.
Roundabout Kick (CW): Requires Str 15, Improved Unarmed Strike and Power Attack. That hurts. Anyway, this does the same thing for unarmed strikes that Lightning Mace does for light maces, but only triggers on confirmed criticals.
Improved Critical: Turning your Handcrossbows' critical threat range from 19-20 into 17-20. This is a big deal for those feats and likely pushes you over the threshold for making your full attack into a sustainable combo that lasts until you are out of bolts or your targets are dead. As hurting as you are for feats, you're probably hurting for gold more after buying two +5 (or +4) weapons and a Spare Hand, so I choose Improved Critical over the Keen weapon enhancement. They are identical.

What happens is, you make a full attack. Every attack in that routine is split into two attack rolls. If any of those rolls threaten a critical, you fire off another bolt that splits into two more attacks. If any of those rolls confirm a critical, you fire off another bolt that splits into two more attacks. So a short burst of reasonable luck makes it explode into more and more attacks.

So the feats you need... Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Hand Crossbow), Rapid Reload, Two Weapon Fighting, Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus (light mace), Lightning Mace, Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Roundabout Kick, Improved Critical. That's 10 feats... which is surprisingly doable. So let's look at a build...

2 flaws, 1st level feat, 3rd level feat, 6th level feat, 9th level feat. That's 6 feats already! A series of dips actually makes this go by rather fast. Fighter 2, Monk 1, Feat Rogue 2 actually takes care of 6 feats since Rogue gives you hand crossbow proficiency. After that, I'd take Warblade levels; even if Weapon Aptitude is prevented from working, things like Blood in the Water, Dancing/Raging Mongoose, and lots of White Raven/Diamond Mind maneuvers that don't need melee weapons make it an appealing class to stay in. You could probably continue the supercheese theme with Legacy Champion to get 1.5 Warblade progression, or improve your critical beyond what is reasonable by using Disciple of Dispater levels if you like. :smalltongue:

Psyren
2010-11-25, 07:49 PM
Hand Crossbows: This is the only kind of crossbow you can dual-wield without taking big penalties.

Can't you dual-wield armbow components? And they don't take a full-round action to reload ammo packs.

FMArthur
2010-11-25, 08:07 PM
Can't you dual-wield armbow components? And they don't take a full-round action to reload ammo packs.

I've never even heard of armbows. I am suddenly very interested in learning about them.

Urpriest
2010-11-25, 08:26 PM
Can't you dual-wield armbow components? And they don't take a full-round action to reload ammo packs.

The armbow in Eberron Campaign Setting says that it must be fired as a standard action, so no full attacks. Otherwise it would be perfect for this concept.

Hanuman
2010-11-25, 09:06 PM
01 Arbalester (MoE 152)
DC14 Sculpting/Carpentry
arcane eye, mending
1250gp 93xp
Comments: Basically a self-firing light crossbow (can be enhanced as such). Won't be that good at mid/high levels due to: lack of Attack bonus, HPs, and the damage they deal their creator when destroyed.

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=177.0

For living construct the 2 basic choices are:
Warforged
Exiled modron

Warforged are the physical statted ones, modrons are the mental statted ones.

Prime32
2010-11-25, 09:19 PM
A hail of arrows that thick would be more of an area effect. I'd take advantage of the thing's high Con and make a dragonfire adept. Refluff the breath weapons as being clouds of crossbow bolts. For overkill, give it multiple heads.

Thrice Dead Cat
2010-11-25, 09:26 PM
The Expansion power covers the size part of it. As for the "from the ears" bit, just say that's what it looks like as you rain down needley death.

JeminiZero
2010-11-25, 10:26 PM
1) Create a Warforged
2) Give him Armor Spikes
3) Enchant the Armor Spikes as Spellblades against Telekinesis (www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Telekinesis).
4) Give the Warforged levels in Psion (or other psionic class) and have him Solicit a Psicrystal.
5) Forge custom armor for the Psicrystal (Mithral Chainshirt for an ACP of 0 will negate any non-proficiency penalty), and similiarly give it armor spikes of Spellblade against Telekinesis.
6) Create a custom item that casts Telekinesis at will. Ideally you'd want to give this to the Psicrystal, so that he can cast it repeatedly, while the Warforged goes about his daily business
7) Every turn, the psicrystal casts telekinesis and opts to use Violent Thrust on his Warforge master. However, this will be absorbed by the Spellblade, and will build up a Spellblade Battery (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151109). The fact that both Warforged and Psicrystal do not need sleep means you can sustain a Spellblade charge overnight.
8) When an enemy is sighted, the Warforged can drop bolts on the ground as a free action
9) As free actions, he can then redirect Telekinesis Violent Thrust from his Spellblade at the Bolts on the ground (no save for inanimate objects) and hurl them at his enemies.

Note that this is on the Theoretical Optimization side of things, and will give you a Monster that can launch NI bolts in a single round limited only by how many he has on hand, and the charges in his Spellblade Battery.