Laith Amekir
2013-10-25, 01:17 AM
Alright, so we have all thought about it, how awesome would it be to dual-wield hand crossbows! but you must have a third hand to reload them with or else its not plausible they say. I disagree with this statement!
After much tinkering and a long thought out process, I crafted a quick hand crossbow re-loader. How would this work you ask? Well first you take leather and you make the harness for the quick re-load device. One strap over your left shoulder and back attached to a belt around your waist that is tight and snug around your shoulder and the belt at your waist is also tight and snug. You have another leather strap running down your thigh right to above your knee and you make this connect to other strap that goes around your leg. So now you have three brace points Shoulder to waist, Waist to waist and Thigh to thigh/waist. The belt/waist strap has a metal hook that catches a the quick reload bar on the hand crossbow as a cool action star would make it look like he is holstering his gun, you are actually cocking your hand crossbow!
Now for the bolt loader. The Bolt loader has a metal box (You can use mithril to make it lighter and harder.) inside this device is a spring much like a clip on the a gun it will push the next bolt into place ready to be loaded. When you push the hand crossbow down and **** the string, the bolt side of the hand crossbow facing you, its actually going down the metal portion of the box (Also protects your leg from bad loading form on a natural 1 roll for a dex check). When pushing the hand crossbow down the bolt is actually following the string into the groove and the pin that holds the bolt in place when us bring the crossbow off the hook, holds the bolt in place as it comes free of the quick reload box. Thus your hand crossbow is reloaded!
Game stat wise I made it a better sell for my DM, first I had to have a strength of 12 to be able to **** the hand crossbow this way alone. Second I had to have the feat rapid reload and improved fast reload. But I also had to actually craft it in game (Also crafted in real life to show it is possible). Also I had to have a Dex of 16 to have the coordination to do this. Also each time I reloaded this way I had to make a Dexterity check DC 10 to successfully reload. If I rolled a 1 I would have to take a move action to unjam the bolt before i could re-use it. However being able to dual wield hand crossbows was worth it. Not only that but aesthetic value to visualize it was amazing. The last requirement or stipulation i had on it was you could only hold 5 bolts per box so you could get a total of 10 shots off before you needed to reload the quick reload.
As I grew as a player and realized magic was ultimately a good thing in the world I also used this to my advantage. I made a mithril shafted adamantine tipped bolt, and enchanted it with +1 of returning. The return spot... the reload box. I made 10 bolts total. By sixth level I was doing 5 attacks in a single round. (Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Rapid Shot) Twelfth level I was doing 7 attacks, and 16th level 9 attacks. As I increased in levels and gold, I started tinkering with the bolts and made an artifice archer/imitation arcane archer. I would attach beads of fireball to the tips from necklace of fireballs and other things of the sort as an idea of what i was doing. If I successfully rolled an attack against the enemy there would be no room for a reflex save due to it going off in this body. I called this "My anti-rogue ability"
My GM gave me a props for being creative and thinking outside the box. Now all of this is ultimately up to your GM but if you can base it on some realistic aspects most GM's will allow it.
I hope this helps to give you idea's to dual wield hand crossbows and how to do it. Not sure if anyone else has come up with other idea's.
Laith Amekir
After much tinkering and a long thought out process, I crafted a quick hand crossbow re-loader. How would this work you ask? Well first you take leather and you make the harness for the quick re-load device. One strap over your left shoulder and back attached to a belt around your waist that is tight and snug around your shoulder and the belt at your waist is also tight and snug. You have another leather strap running down your thigh right to above your knee and you make this connect to other strap that goes around your leg. So now you have three brace points Shoulder to waist, Waist to waist and Thigh to thigh/waist. The belt/waist strap has a metal hook that catches a the quick reload bar on the hand crossbow as a cool action star would make it look like he is holstering his gun, you are actually cocking your hand crossbow!
Now for the bolt loader. The Bolt loader has a metal box (You can use mithril to make it lighter and harder.) inside this device is a spring much like a clip on the a gun it will push the next bolt into place ready to be loaded. When you push the hand crossbow down and **** the string, the bolt side of the hand crossbow facing you, its actually going down the metal portion of the box (Also protects your leg from bad loading form on a natural 1 roll for a dex check). When pushing the hand crossbow down the bolt is actually following the string into the groove and the pin that holds the bolt in place when us bring the crossbow off the hook, holds the bolt in place as it comes free of the quick reload box. Thus your hand crossbow is reloaded!
Game stat wise I made it a better sell for my DM, first I had to have a strength of 12 to be able to **** the hand crossbow this way alone. Second I had to have the feat rapid reload and improved fast reload. But I also had to actually craft it in game (Also crafted in real life to show it is possible). Also I had to have a Dex of 16 to have the coordination to do this. Also each time I reloaded this way I had to make a Dexterity check DC 10 to successfully reload. If I rolled a 1 I would have to take a move action to unjam the bolt before i could re-use it. However being able to dual wield hand crossbows was worth it. Not only that but aesthetic value to visualize it was amazing. The last requirement or stipulation i had on it was you could only hold 5 bolts per box so you could get a total of 10 shots off before you needed to reload the quick reload.
As I grew as a player and realized magic was ultimately a good thing in the world I also used this to my advantage. I made a mithril shafted adamantine tipped bolt, and enchanted it with +1 of returning. The return spot... the reload box. I made 10 bolts total. By sixth level I was doing 5 attacks in a single round. (Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Rapid Shot) Twelfth level I was doing 7 attacks, and 16th level 9 attacks. As I increased in levels and gold, I started tinkering with the bolts and made an artifice archer/imitation arcane archer. I would attach beads of fireball to the tips from necklace of fireballs and other things of the sort as an idea of what i was doing. If I successfully rolled an attack against the enemy there would be no room for a reflex save due to it going off in this body. I called this "My anti-rogue ability"
My GM gave me a props for being creative and thinking outside the box. Now all of this is ultimately up to your GM but if you can base it on some realistic aspects most GM's will allow it.
I hope this helps to give you idea's to dual wield hand crossbows and how to do it. Not sure if anyone else has come up with other idea's.
Laith Amekir