How Fast Can You Reload A Crossbow?

[Palanan]

Without cheese or shenanigans, how fast can a crossbow be reloaded?

I'm open to whatever crossbow-related feats are in the official 3.5 or Pathfinder sources. Assume an ordinary, nonmagical light or heavy crossbow. How fast can it be reloaded by a feat-rich but purely martial character?

[Swaoeaeieu]

i think the only non magic thing is just rapid reload.

[Flickerdart]

Rapid Reload [General]
Choose a type of crossbow (hand, light, or heavy).

Prerequisite
Weapon Proficiency (crossbow type chosen).

Benefit
The time required for you to reload your chosen type of crossbow is reduced to a free action (for a hand or light crossbow) or a move action (for a heavy crossbow). Reloading a crossbow still provokes an attack of opportunity.


(http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#rapidReload)

[Lateral]

Light Crossbow, all you need is Rapid Reload to reload as a free action. With a Heavy Crossbow, as far as I know, there's no nonmagical way to reload as a free action (aside from using a Repeating Heavy Crossbow), but the first-level Ghostly Reload spell does it for you.

[TheIronGolem]

Crossbow Mastery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/crossbow-mastery-combat)

Free action to reload any crossbow, period.

[Gildedragon]

The weapon itself can be enchanted to be rapid loading and store 100bolts. But with the feats already stated... Well you can't get much faster than free action.

[Lateral]

The weapon itself can be enchanted to be rapid loading and store 100bolts. But with the feats already stated... Well you can't get much faster than free action.
You don't need faster than a free action. There's no such thing as faster than a free action.

[Flickerdart]

You don't need faster than a free action. There's no such thing as faster than a free action.

Technically, an immediate action is faster than a free action, since it can interrupt any action (including a free action).

[Doctor Despair]

So if we can find a way to immediate-action reload, could someone technically fire two bolts in a pseudo-full round attack (at least until they would normally get their third iteration)?

[Flickerdart]

So if we can find a way to immediate-action reload, could someone technically fire two bolts in a pseudo-full round attack (at least until they would normally get their third iteration)?
You can use free actions between attacks in a full attack, just not during. Rapid Reload explicitly allows you to take iterative attacks with a crossbow, reloading in between shots.

[Lateral]

Technically, an immediate action is faster than a free action, since it can interrupt any action (including a free action).
Only 1/round, though.

[Bronk]

On the other hand, even without magic, you can avoid reloading for a while with a repeating crossbow...

[Psyren]

There's something faster than both free and immediate - the nonaction, e.g. a Halfling's Adaptable Luck.


Only 1/round, though.

And eats your swift. So even if it's "faster" than the free action, you'd have plenty of reason not to get it to that.

[Thurbane]

Crossbow Mastery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/crossbow-mastery-combat)

Free action to reload any crossbow, period.

There was also a 3.5 version of this feat in a PF adventure path. I'm quite fond of it.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Thurbane
There was also a 3.5 version of this feat in a PF adventure path. I'm quite fond of it.

Do you happen to remember which AP, and which book?

[5ColouredWalker]

Crossbow Mastery (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/crossbow-mastery-combat)

Free action to reload any crossbow, period.

And amusingly, Ballistas are explicitly crossbows... Unfortunately ones larger than light ballistas require extra time to aim.

[Thurbane]

Do you happen to remember which AP, and which book?

Curse of the Crimson Throne: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=7353144&postcount=9

[khadgar567]

from the steel forge we have Swiftshot’s Winder and Autoloader Magazine using both you get your heavy crossbow to free action with feat to spare

[eggynack]

Only 1/round, though.
Yeah, it's kinda weird that there's an action type that's simultaneously faster and slower than another. I mean, it's hard to think of a better way of looking at a free action's ability to not eat into other actions than it being faster, and it's similarly hard to think of a better way of looking at an immediate action's ability to interrupt stuff than it being faster. I guess the latter is, like, reflexive or instinctual or something, rather than faster. Or maybe it's just a different kinda fast. Looked at from an action, and thus time, consumption perspective, an immediate action takes as much time as a swift, which is less than a standard. Then again, we can't say the last thing for sure, given that swift actions cannot be natively converted into standard, or vice versa. Anyway, point is, it's weird. Maybe immediates and swifts secretly take a lot of time, but immediate actions just have this extra bonus ability that happens to read as "fast".

[the_archduke]

A Bolt Ace Gunslinger can be faster at level 11

Inexplicable Reload (Ex): At 11th level, loading a crossbow becomes unthinking and automatic for a bolt ace. As long as she has at least 1 grit point, she always starts each round of combat (even a surprise round) with her crossbow loaded. Also the amount of time needed to reload a crossbow decreases by one step: a standard action becomes a move action, a move action becomes a swift action, a swift action becomes a free action, and a free action becomes not an action.

Which means you can literally always have your crossbow loaded provided you have a bolt.

[zergling.exe]

A Bolt Ace Gunslinger can be faster at level 11

Inexplicable Reload (Ex): At 11th level, loading a crossbow becomes unthinking and automatic for a bolt ace. As long as she has at least 1 grit point, she always starts each round of combat (even a surprise round) with her crossbow loaded. Also the amount of time needed to reload a crossbow decreases by one step: a standard action becomes a move action, a move action becomes a swift action, a swift action becomes a free action, and a free action becomes not an action.

Which means you can literally always have your crossbow loaded provided you have a bolt.

So they can reload their crossbow while paralysed? Seems poorly thought out. Reloading does not need to be faster than a free action anyway, since you can take the free action to reload right before you fire regardless.

[the_archduke]

I never thought about the paralyzed possibility, but it is inexplicable

[ekarney]

Well we've established that non-magically free action is as fast as we get.

That being said, despite being magical, aptitude shenanigans (take feats for hand/light crossbow, get Aptitude: Hand Crossbow on a Heavy Crossbow) can improve the reload speed of other crossbows, probably doable with Great Crossbows and so on so forth.

Now, being able to one handedly reload crossbows is what you want.

[frogglesmash]

You don't need faster than a free action. There's no such thing as faster than a free action.

Barbarians can rage as a non-action, though it is not identified as such.


Entering a rage takes no time itself, but a barbarian can do it only during his action.

[The Viscount]

If you take Hand Crossbow Focus, you reload hand crossbow for free and also gain +1 on attack rolls. It doesn't explicitly mention that this means you can full attack with it, but it should still allow it since it doesn't prevent it. This means if you're using hand crossbows this feat is simply better (and it counts as weapon focus).

[Elxir_Breauer]

Vis, add to that a weapon with the Aptitude enhancement (or the feat that does the same thing with 15 minutes of practice or whatever, from ToB) and you can use it with any Crossbow (up to and including Ballistae, apparently.) I'm seeing potential for some rather interesting Crossbow builds... Can anyone say Ballista Sniper?

[khadgar567]

Vis, add to that a weapon with the Aptitude enhancement (or the feat that does the same thing with 15 minutes of practice or whatever, from ToB) and you can use it with any Crossbow (up to and including Ballistae, apparently.) I'm seeing potential for some rather interesting Crossbow builds... Can anyone say Ballista Sniper?

You can check pimp my damocletes treat for hugely optimized balistae build personaly i advise you to use archforge mech as holder

[ericgrau]

And amusingly, Ballistas are explicitly crossbows... Unfortunately ones larger than light ballistas require extra time to aim.

Still, that's large enough to load giant bolts with portable hole-bag of holding detonating tips and thock-thock-thock-thock in epic level warfare.

[ekarney]

Vis, add to that a weapon with the Aptitude enhancement (or the feat that does the same thing with 15 minutes of practice or whatever, from ToB) and you can use it with any Crossbow (up to and including Ballistae, apparently.) I'm seeing potential for some rather interesting Crossbow builds... Can anyone say Ballista Sniper?

I'm not sure about it working with Ballista in 3.5 (PF maybe, since I've never looked at the rules), but I know Siege Weapons in 3.5 function differently. Like field guns require a full round to load them (Negated by Rapid Reload or similar), but ten they also require additional actions to aim and add powder, and whilst a ballista doesn't require gunpowder it does need to be aimed and cranked.

If there were ways past that, boy would I have some crazy builds.