CrossbowExpert/Sharpshooter

[pachipachio]

Making a character that's pretty much just a shoot em up type guy and am hoping to get another angle on damage optimization for a character that's got crossbow expert + sharpshooter with a hand crossbow. For flavor/fluff I'm rolling with one of those crossbows van helsing used: http://www.benkepple.com/Images/helsing.jpg


Deciding between fighter, some mix of fighter, or a flat 20 bard

Fighter's got archery and extra hp. EK gives it haste at lv13 and some small utility things: light(human so maybe valuable)/shield/blur/invisibility/etc. And there's BM.. not much more to say about that - the fear utility is nice, but precision attack is what's really enticing for me. I sort of consider it as some kind of "extra attack" since you can turn misses into hits

Bard is just a full spellcaster that would be a little behind in attacks-per round (3@lv6, 4@lv10 with concentration vs fighters' 3@lv5, 4@lv11, 5@lv13EK). Big boon would be foresight but again, that's pretty much too late to matter

There's an option of doing a 3 dip into warlock for devil's sight + darkness combos. I think I value that too much just because RPing that would be awesome. Get an imp familiar off it too and temp hp after kills. Plus another evocation

And rogue dipping to 3 too.. but I don't really value critical hits too much since sharpshooter is +10 and I'll have +5 from dex pretty soon. I think maximizing # of attacks gets much more damage out vs trying to add additional d6s

Barb dip lv1 is "ok" for extra AC (I'd only be pumping DEX/CON anyway)


With all the fighter-hate going around I feel weird thinking just straight EK is the way...

[Endarire]

Bowman the Bard (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14434.0)

This is someone's view on using Bard as a bow-wielding character. May also work for crossbows.

[sigfile]

Standard disclaimer on the warlock trick - your party may hate you for dropping big zones of blindness in the middle of a fight.

Fighters vs Bards - it really depends on what you want the end result to be. Fighters get more feats / ability score increases than Bards, so you'll reach DEX 20 faster and/or have more feat flexibility with a (primarily) Fighter build.

I suspect you want some extra fiddly bits (a-la Battle Master or Eldritch Knight), but this is a build where a Champion could shine. Multiattacking with advantage with an expanded crit range is beautiful, and the initiative bonus from Remarkable Athlete feature is sweet icing on the cake. Spend one of the feat slots on Magic Initiate to get Bless, which you'll be able to cast every fight assuming you get a short rest. By level 20 you're getting four attacks a turn (seven with Action Surge, which you can two twice per short rest), have at least a +8 initiative, have advantage on attacks in to the darkness, deal +10 damage on each attack from sharpshooter, and have a better than 25% chance to crit on each attack (better if you're a halfling). Fighter 17 | Warlock 3.

Is it the one true way? Of course not. But it's an option. I dig the concept of a hardcore Van Helsing halfling with a blessed repeating crossbow.

[pachipachio]

Is the critical range increase even noticeable with ranged weapons? Namely, the hand crossbow? an extra chance at a 1d6 is kinda crappy for a class feature

The Magic Initiate feat + warlock is neat for regaining that spell slot on short rest, though! I think that can work, anyway. Know bless, and can use bless with the 2 slot warlock pact magic which regains on short rest. Plus another slot that regains on long rest

[sigfile]

Is the critical range increase even noticeable with ranged weapons? Namely, the hand crossbow? an extra chance at a 1d6 is kinda crappy for a class feature
Eh, you're probably right. I'm looking at this through a historical 4E lens. Crits aren't as exciting in this edition, and I need to retrain my brain. The other Champion features are nice, but you can make up (and more) Remarkable Athlete's initiative bonus with Alert and the additional fighting style isn't a game-changer.

I have both an EK (retired/retrained to Bard) and a crossbow-wielding Battle Master. If your intention is damage, go Battle Master. You'll have a lot of fun flexibility within the maneuvers available and can reliably stack damage with useful effects. Disarm! Push! Trip! as an opening combo to make your party love you.

EK's good for personal defense, but you're ranged. It looks like it ought to have some neat utility out of combat, but I was outdone by the full spellcasters every time. As much as I wanted to be a fan, I'm not.