Precision Sharpshooter feat

[KarlMarx]

So, I've been wanting a way to let players effectively use crossbows in a 3.x (3.5 specifically) context for reason of historical accuracy (I run a lot of pseudohistorical adventures and campaigns) , while retaining the historical accuracy of how long crossbows took to reload. Is this feat balanced to allow players damage options with crossbows and other long-time-reload weapons?

Precision Sharpshooter
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Prerequisites: Dex 13, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, BAB +6

Benefit: As a full-round action, when you make an attack with a ranged weapon, you may take a penalty on your attack to deal extra damage. For every -5 you take on your attack, you deal an extra die of damage on a hit of the same type as your weapon. You may not take a penalty greater than your BAB when using this feat, nor may you take a penalty greater than -15. Precision damage, such as that from a sneak attack, and magical damage, such as that from the flaming weapon quality, only apply once.

Special: A fighter may take Precision Sharpshooter as one of their bonus feats.

[Morphic tide]

So, I've been wanting a way to let players effectively use crossbows in a 3.x (3.5 specifically) context for reason of historical accuracy (I run a lot of pseudohistorical adventures and campaigns) , while retaining the historical accuracy of how long crossbows took to reload. Is this feat balanced to allow players damage options with crossbows and other long-time-reload weapons?

Precision Sharpshooter
--------------------------
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, BAB +6

Benefit: As a full-round action, when you make an attack with a ranged weapon, you may take a penalty on your attack to deal extra damage. For every -5 you take on your attack, you deal an extra die of damage on a hit of the same type as your weapon. You may not take a penalty greater than your BAB when using this feat, nor may you take a penalty greater than -15. Precision damage, such as that from a sneak attack, and magical damage, such as that from the flaming weapon quality, only apply once.

Special: A fighter may take Precision Sharpshooter as one of their bonus feats.

It's bad. Really bad. Full round action hurts a lot because it forces you to alternate attack and reload, which makes Rapid Reload useless for the light crossbow and the penalty doesn't match the strength. A ranged version of Power Attack would work considerably better due to getting +5 damage for -5 attack roll, while only Heavy Crossbows make an extra damage die average out to better.

Also, Precise Shot already has Point Blank Shot as a prerequisite, you don't need to mention both.

Of more importance is the low-level usefulness. In accordance with this, I'd have the feat be as follows:

Precision Sharpshooter [General]
Prerequisites: Dex 13, BAB +1, Precise Shot

Benefit: Whenever you make a single attack with a ranged or thrown weapon as part of an action or effect, you may reduce the attack roll by up to your BAB. For each point you reduce the attack roll by, increase the damage by one. For every five points the attack roll is reduced by, you may add one extra damage die of the type the weapon uses and increase the range increment by ten feet.

Special: A Fighter can take Precision Sharpshooter as one of their bonus feats.

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Hell of a lot stronger than most of the things you can get for mundane characters, but it eats three feats to get. "As part of an action or effect" means that any action that involves making an attack can get the benefit of the feat, including Manoeuvres and spells. The single attack means that anything that would make you attack multiple times wouldn't allow you to use this feat.

Having it be any effect or action which has you use a single attack means that mobility is allowed to go quite far. Swift action reload on a Light Crossbow from Rapid Reload allows you to get +5 +1d8 damage for -5 to attack roll, with a range increment of 90 ft, on top of your regular move speed, every turn. Melee monsters will have quite the problem keeping up with you due to you being able to run and shoot.

[KarlMarx]

Thanks for the input. To clarify--should the restriction on precision damage/magic damage still apply?

[Morphic tide]

Thanks for the input. To clarify--should the restriction on precision damage/magic damage still apply?

It doesn't need mentioned, because it's not a multiplier of damage, like critical hits. Simply having the feat mention that it's adding dice of the weapon's damage prevents any of that from being a potential issue.

[JaneStop]

Thanks for the info. I've been thinking about this for my game too.