Human Rogue Crossbow Sniper.... with Extras!

[Shadowdagger213]

Hey Playgrounders....

Back again with another idea, but I blame the twisted minds here! Yes, here! Among the optimizers and min/maxers, rulemongers, and chartmonkeys (me) I can't keep one idea and run with it.

Unless this one works...:belkar:

A Human Rogue Crossbow Sniper. Crossbow is his main weapon, deciding between Light Crossbow with Rapid Reload (simpler) or EWP: Repeating (for both, for the win) for style. Yes the Repeater will be spending every other round reloading, even with Rapid Reload, but it's about the coolness sometimes, right?

So for simplicity and less debate, let's say I go Light Crossbow with Rapid Reload and Rapid shot , weapon finesse (because obviously I'd be heavily front-loaded on DEX), agile athlete, weapon focus (Lt Crossbow) and Crossbow Sniper.

Numbers are 18, 17, 16, 16, 15, 14

Books: Core, Completes (Including Champion now!), MIC but don't see DM allowing heavy use on this so maybe 1 or 2 things from that, PHB2, BoED (Yes I'm thinking about Vow of Poverty on this one, crossbow is a simple weapon. Come to think of it, so is a dagger... and a dagger attached to a crossbow is a bayonet. Huh, huh?? Idea happening..)

GIPT'ers, don't let me down... I'm liking this one so far. Devote him to Olidammara, take a bunch of exalted feats( Take Zen Archery and Intuitive strike, boost his DEX and WIS with the upscaling VoP ability bonus, max his INT with the level granted ability bonus....he'd have insane WIS for melee and ranged.... add the Saint Template to add that insane WIS to his AC... St. Simon, Exalted Chosen thief of Olidammara! LOL) :haley:

Thoughts?

Can anyone help me run with this? Even

[Shadowdagger213]

Kinda forgot about the no magic item thing, and had such good ideas for the crossbow....

oh well.

So now just your standard 12th level rogue... let's bling him out.

weapon finesse so all that DEX won't go to waste, agile athlete and/or tactile trapsmith, telling blow and improved critical crossbow, definitely.

Thinking "Hideaway" on his now Heavy Repeating Crossbow (RotW I believe),
VoP is hard, cause I love me some magic items! LOL

so NOW... thoughts? :haley:

[Norin]

One thought:

If you focus on crossbow, why use a feat for weapon finesse?
Is it just for melee backup? Or what's the idea?

[Shadowdagger213]

That would be for backup only, main weapon would be the crossbow.

[silverwolfer]

Three things to consider from arms and equipiment and one of the other source books...


Gnome Crossbow sights, increase your range blocks by 2, but lowers your close range also by not allowing you to fire at things right in front of you.

Crossbow knife thingy, basically a gnome strapped to the end of your crossbow, you can stab things in front of you.

Wand chamber from Eberron , usualy for a hilt of a weapon, but am sure you could put on in a crossbow stock.

You can fire your bolts all day long, but if something comes at you at close range and you have to hit the oh crap button, Be it a wall of something, something that repels creatures away from you, or if a large cone of damage for attack do a sonic spell. Another option may be a low level teleport spell that a wand can do.


Either way you want a magical back up.

[Shadowdagger213]

I have always liked the idea of crafting magic weapons but don't want to take many levels away from my Rogue-Ness. How much would Arcane Trickster take away from skills, sneak attack, etc. ? And would it be worth it to be able to create my own personalized weapons?

[Flickerdart]

I have always liked the idea of crafting magic weapons but don't want to take many levels away from my Rogue-Ness. How much would Arcane Trickster take away from skills, sneak attack, etc. ? And would it be worth it to be able to create my own personalized weapons?
If you can get mage hand (say, with Magical Training feat), then Rogue 5/Assassin 5/Arcane Trickster 10 ends up with 11d6 Sneak Attack dice, but only 11 BAB, and loses 2 skill points per level as Assassin and 4 per level as Arcane Trickster. You could even replace Rogue 5 with pretty much anything, and still end up with 8d6 SA. Fighter levels for the extra feats and BAB might be a good pick. You could also use Unseen Seer, which gets fewer SA increases but I think better BAB and HP, and is easier to get into. If you want to be really sneaky, Artificer and Warlock let you craft stuff without casting spells at all, but doing this is a bit of an investment level-wise. Other classes like Spellwarp Sniper and Magelord progress both SA and arcane casting, too.

[Shadowdagger213]

If you can get mage hand (say, with Magical Training feat), then Rogue 5/Assassin 5/Arcane Trickster 10 ends up with 11d6 Sneak Attack dice, but only 11 BAB, and loses 2 skill points per level as Assassin and 4 per level as Arcane Trickster. You could even replace Rogue 5 with pretty much anything, and still end up with 8d6 SA. Fighter levels for the extra feats and BAB might be a good pick. You could also use Unseen Seer, which gets fewer SA increases but I think better BAB and HP, and is easier to get into. If you want to be really sneaky, Artificer and Warlock let you craft stuff without casting spells at all, but doing this is a bit of an investment level-wise. Other classes like Spellwarp Sniper and Magelord progress both SA and arcane casting, too.

Unfortunately I don't have access to any of the Faerun books for this game, so it would have to be Rogue for the base class, so I'd be looking at Rogue 4/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster 3 for this build. This would only net 3d6 of sneak attack, and a caster level of 8. But I would be able to create up to +2 enhancement bonus on a magic weapon (level has to be 3 times the enhancement bonus IIRC), but I could cast the all important "keen edge" spell for the "deadly precision" special ability I want on all my weapons. Not so much for attack bonus, but the can be made up for with magic, since I would be sniping most of the time anyway.

Sounds good so far, am I missing anything?

:haley:

[silverwolfer]

Umm...

buy the wand..and use your Rog natural UMD skill or have a party member make it. Also a caster that can caste something to enhance your bolts, can be a money saver. I forgot what spell is it that can bless 50 or so ranged weapons with anywhere from +1 to +5 ?

[Shadowdagger213]

Umm...

buy the wand..and use your Rog natural UMD skill or have a party member make it. Also a caster that can caste something to enhance your bolts, can be a money saver. I forgot what spell is it that can bless 50 or so ranged weapons with anywhere from +1 to +5 ?


Can you use a wand for the magical portion of crafting?? What about the enhancement bonus?

:durkon:

[silverwolfer]

Not sure what spell it is honestly, am sure someone here will say what I am thinking.


Umm you are a rogue, can you go steal something...sell it....then hire someone with the skills to make said items you want?

[Mephit]

Take a Crossbow with the Quick-Loading property from MIC. It's a +1 enhancement that lets you load your crossbow as a free action.
Complete Scoundrel (or adventurer?) has stats for crossbow bayonets.

Feats: Weapon Focus (Crossbow), Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Crossbow Sniper are more or less mandatory for crossbow archers. You then have 2 feats to spare. Given that your stats are absolutely ridiculous, feats like Agile Athlete and Weapon Finesse aren't really worth it - your Str score will be adequate.

Ranged Pin (CW) offers some interesting tactical play. Rapid Shot is worth it if you have good to-hit.

[Shadowdagger213]

Last reply here, then off to work....

I think this would achieve my goal with the Arcane trickster route...

AT retains all the skills of the rogue, plus Spellcraft and all Knowledges as well.

I could enhance weapons up to +3 (9th level caster, but would practiced spellcaster take that up to 12th??? Please, please please! LOL)

I could cast Keen Edge to get the Deadly Precision, giving me 6d6 on all weapons created with it.

I'd be more caster than rogue for abilities, but skills (which is more what I want) would be maxed out, AND I'd have a familiar...


too cool...

:vaarsuvius:

[Flickerdart]

Remember that there are other ways to get a caster level than levels in a casting class. For instance, any character with spell-like abilities has a caster level. It won't help you with magic weapon enchantments, but you could still craft ones with flat bonuses.

Remember also that multiple people can collaborate on crafting an item. If you had the CL and the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat, all you'd need to to is find a caster that knows the spell and pay them for a casting of it, and then do the rest of the worl.

[Shadowdagger213]

Just downloaded MIC, didn't know it was just an updated list of enchantments, although some have been rewritten and gimped lime deadly precision (only 1d6 now).

Gonna petition for this one,