Full Auto

[jjpickar]

Full Auto A full auto crossbow is a crossbow enchanted with magical moving parts that allow it to fire at a greater rate than normal weapons. Each crossbow is given a special magazine that can be reloaded with full round action. Heavy crossbows can hold ten bolts, a light crossbow can hold 20 bolts and a hand crossbow can hold 30 bolts. A Full auto crossbow can fire at a rate equal to the amount of attacks allowed by a character's base attack bonus. Additionally, a character can go "rock and roll" and fire ten bolts in a 15 foot cone in front of him. This requires every creature in the line of fire to take a reflex save (DC 15+ character's dex) or take damage as if hit by 5 bolts. Moderate Conjuration; CL 5, Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Price: +1 bonus.

Too good? To Cheap? Too weak? To expensive? To silly? I humbly submit it to my fellow homebrewers' judgment.

[Ceiling009]

In modern they have strafe and burst fire, dunno about the cone thing.

[jindra34]

Too good? To Cheap? Too weak? To expensive? To silly? I humbly submit it to my fellow homebrewers' judgment.

Only worth a +1 as the other features are allowed by a type of non-magical crossbow.

[DracoDei]

See my comment here for a slightly different take on this including a different approach to expanded magazine size.

[jjpickar]

jindra34: I agree. +1 it is.

Ceiling009: It is modeled after the automatic weapons in the DMG.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Full Auto A full auto crossbow is a crossbow enchanted with magical moving parts that allow it to fire at a greater rate than normal weapons. Each crossbow is given a special magazine that can be reloaded with full round action. Heavy crossbows can hold ten bolts, a light crossbow can hold 20 bolts and a hand crossbow can hold 30 bolts. A Full auto crossbow can fire at a rate equal to the amount of attacks allowed by a character's base attack bonus. Additionally, a character can go "rock and roll" and fire ten bolts in a 15 foot cone in front of him. This requires every creature in the line of fire to take a reflex save (DC 10+Character's base attack bonus) or take damage as if hit by ten bolts. Moderate Conjuration; CL 5, Craft Magic Arms and Armor; Price: +1 bonus.

Too good? To Cheap? Too weak? To expensive? To silly? I humbly submit it to my fellow homebrewers' judgment.

You should probably include the character's Dex modifier in the Ref DC calculation; also, the damage for the save should be for only one bolt; taking damage for 10 bolts is overpowered.

[Nasrudith]

It seems weird that hand crossbows fire the most bolts of all.

[jindra34]

It seems weird that hand crossbows fire the most bolts of all.

And why should magic make sense?

[D Knight]

dude this is awesome. can not wait to play a crossbow fighter that has this type of c'bow. and a question say you have the split encht would that double the DC or add half the DC. and i also agree on add dex to DC.

[jjpickar]

Dex added, switched 10 to 5. Yes, 5 is unrealistic but maybe there's some magic help. They all fire the same number of bolts only their magazine capacity is different. Split enchantment doubles it.

[Flawless]

The save DC is far too high, at least at mid- to high-levels. Used by a character with full BAB the save DC increases by 1 every level which is too fast. I'c say 15+dex-mod is fine. This way the save DC is equal to that of a fifth level spell modified by dex instead of a casting stat.

Otherwise it seems okay to me. As a friend of crossbows, it's nice to see them get some love. Those munchkin comp. bows are to powerful already ;)

[DanielLC]

You do realize you made it possible for fifteen bolts to hit their mark, even though only ten left the crossbow. I'd make it so the probability of each bolt hitting a given target is 1/(a*2^(b+1)) where a is the number of squares at that distance and b is the number of people in front of the target, or some approximation thereof.

You could also find the mechanic D20 Modern uses.

I think that's pretty powerful, and would dramatically increase the damage a character who can afford it can deal, especially against hordes of weak enemies.

[jjpickar]

Flawless: I fixed the save.

DanielLC: This is a magic item. Emphasis on magic. While it only requires you to fire 10 bolts perhaps the magic provides some extra bolts to the mix . As far as being effective vs. mook hordes, It will be no more powerful than a wizards fireball, a necklace of fireballs or even a fighter with cleave.