(3.5) Worst Idea Ever: The XBow Slinger

[AtwasAwamps]

Okay, okay, okay...most terrible idea I've ever had. Ever. BUT SO FANTASTIC.

I have absolutely no idea what class this guy would be, really, but I love the idea of a feat-rogue for the skills. But the basic idea is a crazy acrobatic fighter using dual handbows. Clearly he would need to be psionic so that I could do crazy matrix-style shennanigans. Shot on the run is an obvious necessity. And...other stuff...

OR EVEN BETTER. He starts out with a heavy repeating crossbow, empties the clip, drops it, and then CLEARLY draws two hand xbows in a single motion out of his black leather trench coat. Because. Badass.

Come on. Who's with me? Help me out here with my world's most terrible idea ever.

...1d4 bolts for the win!

[SurlySeraph]

We had a thread discussing this at one point. Synopsis: get two hand crossbows with the Quick Loading enchantment from the Magic Item Compendium, get two items that can cast Unseen Servant, go to town.

[Mongoose87]

I thought he was gonna use crossbows as sling ammunition.

[AtwasAwamps]

I thought he was gonna use crossbows as sling ammunition.

My mind is blown.

[Grumman]

How about a Thri-Kreen Ranger/Warblade dual-wielding Splitting, Exit Wound, Speed light crossbows? Once you hit Time Stands Still just start machine gunning people.

Oh, and for the acrobatic side, you have a 40 foot base speed, a racial +30 bonus to jump checks and access to Tiger Claw maneuvers. Use Blood in the Water for massive piles of +1 bonuses to hit and wound.

[golentan]

It's not that terrible.

I did such a build once. What you need, is a dozen hand bows, minimum, or 4 with the reloading property. Get quickdraw. Now, own a cape. Get as much sneak attack as you can, and buy the augment crystals that let you Sneak Attack undead, and ask if you can get one for constructs. Grab a belt of battle for the extra actions you'll be using.

First round: Sneak attack, using mosquito's bite. The enemy doesn't know you're here yet, but you've got a hefty start (up to 10d6+20) Reload.

Second round: Sneak attack full attack.

Third round: Draw your weapons with Flick of the Wrist (I recall there being a feat that does the same), enemy is flatfooted. Sneak attack full attack.

4th round: Shrouded dance skill trick. Enemy is denied their dex bonus if you're doing this right (concealment into all kinds of nastiness) but I leave the specifics to you. Sneak attack full attack.

Throw in sneak attack feats and modifiers as necessary. Throw in movement skill tricks for the full matrix experience. By the end of this, if you've done it right, you should have dealt hundreds of damage. In addition, if you take persistent attacker you can keep throwing SA after SA round after round, without the matrix feel or the dual wielding goodness.

[Another_Poet]

I did something even more fun against my PCs in my Iron Kingdoms campaign.

Crossbowman: has a collection of six crossbows of varying sorts. And Rapid Shot.

Bard: Kneels next to the crossbowman with two crates of 120 bolts each. Has Rapid Reload

All crossbows start loaded. Each round the crossbowman fires and drops. Bard hands a loaded crossbow to crossbowman (free action, readied for when he sees the Xbowman drop the first Xbow), and the crossbowman fires again. Bard starts singing and handles all the reloading.

I made a little 6 crossbow list so I could track the status of each crossbow each round. I think it was after something like 5 rounds that reload lag finally caught up and they were down to 1 shot/turn.

While this approach is no more effective than having a single character using Quick Loading and the like, but it can be done at lower levels and costs less. Most important: the effect on the PCs was priceless. They hated that bard. Not the crossbowman, the bard. The guy wasn't fighting. He was just there to dutifully reload crossbows and provide a bonus to the crossbowman. Who does that? Doesn't he want the glory? Why does the little bastard stay hidden behind that crate? COWARD!!

I think it just chaffed a bit because it was an efficient way of getting off a bunch of volleys and they had never thought of hiring a servant to do the same.

[oxybe]

you know, this reminds me of my roommate joking around:

so if i have quickdraw and bag of holding full of crossbows, all rigged to fire if dropped... FWWWOMPH.

essentially draw > drop > draw > drop > ect... all as free actions. it made us giggle to have a bag of holding full of crossbows just appear and blot out the sun.

[Grifthin]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134236

There's the thread I created.

Eventually I went with a single level of Bard combined with all fighter build. Unseen servant does the loading for me. I use 2 Repeating light crossbows now, also did a craft check (DC 20) to modify my crossbows. I now have the standard 5 bolt clips, also have 10, 15 and 20 and 25 capacity clips. If I just plan on wading into a room and killing everything that moves I use the 25's. In cities and other places where I need to conceal them I have the smaller clip sizes.

With no weapon enhancements at all it's possible for a fighter to get 9 shots off a round. If you start adding things like fast etc it gets silly.

[erikun]

There is this thread which specifically deals with Psychic Warrior, but has a number of suggestions for general crossbow users.

[Grumman]

I did something even more fun against my PCs in my Iron Kingdoms campaign.

I had planned to do something similar with a pair of Dvati, but the game was stillborn. As well as their normal equipment they were going to use a single Great Crossbow between them. They could sit up in the crow's nest and snipe from 17 range increments away, one loading, the other firing.

[Cieyrin]

I homebrewed a PRC for this a couple months ago to deal with all the inherent issues of dual crossbow slinging (needing a free hand to reload, can't Rapid Shot with more than one crossbow at a time, etc.). Just be clicking on the link in my sig and go from there. [/selfadvertisement]