A Crossbow Six-Shooter

[Doughnut Master]

For a bit of that old (or in this case, futuristic) west style.

Basically, you have a cylinder mounted on the gun frame that holds crossbow bolts. Every time you pull the trigger, the mechanism causes the cylinder to rotate by one notch. Along with that, enchant it with a Launch Bolt spell to be use activated whenever you pull the trigger.

The bolts could either be loaded one at a time, or you could even have a system where the cylinder is replaceable and you just swap out for faster reloading time.

It'd be like having a repeating crossbow that doesn't require an exotic weapon proficiency. It's just point and shoot. Granted, it'd cost a few grand, but that's the price for style.

So, my questions are:

1. Would this work?

2. How would one go around building it?

3. Even assuming yes to the first two questions, is it a sound idea?

[The Glyphstone]

Why would it not require Exotic Weapon Proficiency? That's an exotic weapon if I've ever heard of one - certainly more exotic than a bastard sword. Repeating crossbows or hand crossbows are also 'point-and-shoot', and they don't get a pass on the EWP.

A 'six-shooting' crossbow with six bolts to a clip instead of five I would have no problem with, but this just seems like an overly complicated way to cheese a free feat slot.

[Flickerdart]

Activating an item that casts a spell isn't an attack action, or else everyone would cast 3-4 spells a round. You're still limited to one shot per round.

There are easier ways of getting automatic reloads for your crossbow - a spell in RotD does it for you, for instance, and there's a +1 enchantment that gives the thing a magazine with a capacity of something like a hundred bolts.

[Rixx]

So you're proposing some kind of special crossbow that repeats fire?

Like.. like some kind of..

Repeating crossbow?

[Doughnut Master]

Why would it not require Exotic Weapon Proficiency? That's an exotic weapon if I've ever heard of one - certainly more exotic than a bastard sword. Repeating crossbows or hand crossbows are also 'point-and-shoot', and they don't get a pass on the EWP.

A 'six-shooting' crossbow with six bolts to a clip instead of five I would have no problem with, but this just seems like an overly complicated way to cheese a free feat slot.

I always thought EWPs were so because of their difficulty of use. In terms of the bastard sword, you have to know how to fight effectively both two-handed and one handed. The repeating and hand crossbows each have delicate components that allow them to work, and it takes skill not to screw it up.

The mechanics of the revolver are simple and rugged, and magic handles the tricky part of actually firing the weapon.

And it's not like magic hasn't been used before to substitute for feats. Quick Loading, Mobility, Keen, Arrow Deflection, Sundering, Disarming, Precise, etc.

[Black_Zawisza]

Why would it not require Exotic Weapon Proficiency? That's an exotic weapon if I've ever heard of one - certainly more exotic than a bastard sword. Repeating crossbows or hand crossbows are also 'point-and-shoot', and they don't get a pass on the EWP.

A 'six-shooting' crossbow with six bolts to a clip instead of five I would have no problem with, but this just seems like an overly complicated way to cheese a free feat slot.
Cheese? I doubt I'd ever make one of my players waste a feat slot on EWP, especially if it wasn't a Spiked Chain or similarly optimal weapon.

There's tons of more optimal stuff out there. If a player wants to forgo those in order to fulfill an interesting character concept, I ain't going to punish them for it.

[Crow]

Talk to your DM. I would just call it a repeating crossbow and be done with it, but that's just me. Ask your DM if he'd be willing to waive the feat cost. Tell him you're character invented this particular weapon, so you are intimately familiar with it.

Maybe a more reasonable way to waive the feat cost is to trade one of your existing proficiencies for proficiency in repeating crossbows.

[Doughnut Master]

It's not so much for a specific character right at this moment, but more of a possibility. I have the image of some mad magical tinkerer creating and upgrading these weapons. Revolvers. Pepperbox guns. Maybe even Gatling-type siege weapons.

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

EWP are supposed to be for weapons that are uncommon, i.e. ones that people would not train with regularly: hence the feat cost. its not that they are particularly hard to use. Perfect example: Drow Long Knife. its basically a shortsword you can throw, or a big knife. nothing special, nothing weird, just uncommon.

...which a six shooter crossbow would be.

[Greenish]

Dart Thruster (Underdark) has three shot clip, and it's martial.

[B!shop]

If you need to use magic for this revolver crossbow, why don't use a custom made magic missile/magic arrow wand?

You'll have the same result.

[The Glyphstone]

Cheese? I doubt I'd ever make one of my players waste a feat slot on EWP, especially if it wasn't a Spiked Chain or similarly optimal weapon.

There's tons of more optimal stuff out there. If a player wants to forgo those in order to fulfill an interesting character concept, I ain't going to punish them for it.

I'm not against the concept, mind you - if a player came outright to be and said 'Can I use a repeating crossbow without a EWP slot', I'd probably say yes. The 'cheese' isn't based off of an overpowering result, but the incredibly roundabout method of trying to do it 'legally'.

[Cieyrin]

I'm not against the concept, mind you - if a player came outright to be and said 'Can I use a repeating crossbow without a EWP slot', I'd probably say yes. The 'cheese' isn't based off of an overpowering result, but the incredibly roundabout method of trying to do it 'legally'.

An easier method, as was mentioned earlier, is Ghostly Reload from Races of the Dragon. Put an Oil Chamber (Dungeonscape) in a Heavy Crossbow, put a CL 10 Oil of Ghostly Reload and it'll do the same thing. A more cost efficient method would be to make a CL 10 wand of Ghostly Reload or a custom made an Eternal Wand of Ghostly Reload with CL 10, put a Wand Chamber (Dungeonscape) in the Crossbow and you have a faster reload speed that way. All of this works by RAW (maybe not the custom Eternal Wand but the formula isn't hard to figure out once you realize the MIC version still has a 100 gp dragonshard in it that the designers forgot to remove when they brought it from the ECS) and without feat expenditure or fighting with your DM for a clever solution.