*magical* crossbow ideas?

[CyberThread]

So the usual mess of arrows and such is that you need to be uber good with a bunch of ranged feats to make bow and arrow worth it.


I would like to flip the usual argument to the side, and think of using a repeating crossbow and ask , in what ways can magic help a crossbow user?

[BWR]

There's one from the old Complete Thieves Handbook which really stuck with me. Crossbow of Angling. It could on command shoot a magical line of force that stuck in the target, allowing you to reel it in (or reel yourself to it, if it was heavier than you).
Don't know if it's been converted to d20, but I always wished my thief had one of those.
Probaly totally useless by modern standards, but when I read it it was the coolest crossbow ever.

[Garret Dorigan]

Like, a magic item? If that's the case, use Great Crossbow.

A +1 Aptitude (ToB), Collision (MIC), Splitting (CoR), Speed (SRD) Great Crossbow, to be exact.

Then, you take Point Blank and Precise Shot (only for Splitting to work) and Hand Crossbow Focus (so that Aptitude allows you to load the Great Crossbow as a free action) and there you go. Whole lot less feat tax then normal, and you can pepper it with other feats to make it better/more well rounded.

[thethird]

I would make sure to have a quick loading (MiC) self loading (A&EG) great crossbow. To make iteratives with it, without resorting to aptitude/hand crossbow focus...

[Garret Dorigan]

Taking away Aptitude with both of those makes it a +11 item, meaning you'd have to lose Collision. In that case, make it a +1 Quick Loading, Self-Loading, Psychokinetic, Splitting, Speed Great Crossbow.

Replace Hand Crossbow Focus with Crossbow Sniper to make up for the damage lost from Collision/HCF.

EDIT: I don't see why though, as that's not even cheesy use of the verbiage of Aptitude (like used with Kukri Lightning Mace critfishers).

Also, I believe there's the Triple Crossbow in an Eberron book (Forge of War?) that would be better for this. That's basically Manyshot multiple times on a Full Attack.

[thethird]

note: self loading is +10000 gp it is not a +1.

[Garret Dorigan]

Belay my last, then.