Rapid Shot and Multiple Attacks


Rules Questions


I'm the DM, and my level 6 Paladin PC has us both confused about the multiple attack rule.

Q1) Are we correct in saying that if he does not take a move action (AKA a full round attack), he may then make use of his second base attack bonus?

Q2) If a melee weapon in each hand, represents each attack when using both base attacks (the second being the crappy off hand), what does that mean for weapons that require two hands? Like a bow.

Q3) Does this mean that he may use Rapid shot, to "fire an additional arrow" on his first attack, and then use Rapid Shot to "Fire an additional arrow" on his second (crappy) attack?

Q4) THEN can he combine this with Many Shot, to fire a 3rd arrow per volley, with him dealing 6 arrows every turn?

Q5) And during an attack of opportunity, may he use both Base Attack Bonuses to point blank shoot two arrows using both attacks, then stack Rapid Shot and Many Shot to deal out 6 arrows on an attack of opportunity?


Mulet wrote:

I'm the DM, and my level 6 Paladin PC has us both confused about the multiple attack rule.

Q1) Are we correct in saying that if he does not take a move action (AKA a full round attack), he may then make use of his second base attack bonus?

A1: That's correct. His full attack pattern is +6/+1 (plus any bonus due to strength/dex, weapon enchantment and the like), giving him two attacks.

Mulet wrote:
Q2) If a melee weapon in each hand, represents each attack when using both base attacks (the second being the crappy off hand), what does that mean for weapons that require two hands? Like a bow.

A2: If he wields a melee weapon in each hand, he can distribute the +6/+1 pattern between both weapons as he sees fit.

If, however, he wants to eke out an additional attack due to wielding two weapons, he will be be counting as two-weapon fighting, netting him a +6/+1 attack pattern for his main hand, and a +6 attack for his off hand.

In this case, all attacks will be heavily penalized (-6 to all main hand attacks, -10 to the off hand attack), unless he has the two-weapon fighting feat, which will alleviate the penalties to -4 for all attacks.

Using a light weapon in his off hand will reduce all these penalties by another 2.

For getting more than one single off-hand attack, he will require to take the improved / greater two-weapon fighting feats.

Now, if he is using a two-handed weapon, he cannot make any off-hand attacks. So, using a bow pretty much locks him into the +6/+1 pattern.

Mulet wrote:
Q3) Does this mean that he may use Rapid shot, to "fire an additional arrow" on his first attack, and then use Rapid Shot to "Fire an additional arrow" on his second (crappy) attack?

A3: No. All that Rapid Shot does is to add one additional attack, at full bonus, to his regular full attack pattern, at the cost of a -2 penalty to all attacks.

Thus, his full attack pattern using Rapid Shot is +4/+4/-1.

Mulet wrote:
Q4) THEN can he combine this with Many Shot, to fire a 3rd arrow per volley, with him dealing 6 arrows every turn?

A4: Negative. Manyshot will let him fire two arrows on the initial attack of his full-attack pattern, adding a single arrow per round.

Mulet wrote:
Q5) And during an attack of opportunity, may he use both Base Attack Bonuses to point blank shoot two arrows using both attacks, then stack Rapid Shot and Many Shot to deal out 6 arrows on an attack of opportunity?

An attack of opportunity is just this, a single attack, doable once per round (unless you have Combat Reflexes, which will allow you to attack on multiple opportunities per round, but still only nce per opportunity). So: no, it's a single attack roll, for one hit.

Plus, unless you have special abilities like snapshot, you cannot make Attacks of Opportunity with a ranged weapon at all.


Midnight_Angel wrote:
Mulet wrote:

I'm the DM, and my level 6 Paladin PC has us both confused about the multiple attack rule.

Q1) Are we correct in saying that if he does not take a move action (AKA a full round attack), he may then make use of his second base attack bonus?

A1: That's correct. His full attack pattern is +6/+1 (plus any bonus due to strength/dex, weapon enchantment and the like), giving him two attacks.

Mulet wrote:
Q2) If a melee weapon in each hand, represents each attack when using both base attacks (the second being the crappy off hand), what does that mean for weapons that require two hands? Like a bow.

A2: If he wields a melee weapon in each hand, he can distribute the +6/+1 pattern between both weapons as he sees fit.

If, however, he wants to eke out an additional attack due to wielding two weapons, he will be be counting as two-weapon fighting, netting him a +6/+1 attack pattern for his main hand, and a +6 attack for his off hand.

In this case, all attacks will be heavily penalized (-6 to all main hand attacks, -10 to the off hand attack), unless he has the two-weapon fighting feat, which will alleviate the penalties to -4 for all attacks.

Using a light weapon in his off hand will reduce all these penalties by another 2.

For getting more than one single off-hand attack, he will require to take the improved / greater two-weapon fighting feats.

Now, if he is using a two-handed weapon, he cannot make any off-hand attacks. So, using a bow pretty much locks him into the +6/+1 pattern.

Mulet wrote:
Q3) Does this mean that he may use Rapid shot, to "fire an additional arrow" on his first attack, and then use Rapid Shot to "Fire an additional arrow" on his second (crappy) attack?

A3: No. All that Rapid Shot does is to add one additional attack, at full bonus, to his regular full attack pattern, at the cost of a -2 penalty to all attacks.

Thus, his full attack pattern using Rapid Shot is +4/+4/-1.

Mulet wrote:
Q4) THEN can he
...

Thankyou Midnight Angel. I did not understand the attack pattern concept.

So, if he uses Rapid Shot, he inserts an additional attack with penalties, getting him 3 attacks.

If he uses manyshot, then he is actually nocking two arrows on his bow during the first attack in the sequence, where either both hit or none hit. This is a total of 4 arrows, with the first 3 targeting one opponent.

And I'll stop allowing ranged attacks of opportunity.

:)

Sczarni

"This is a total of 4 arrows, with the first 3 targeting one opponent."

Except for the two arrows from Manyshot you can target your attacks at different opponents.

So you could Manyshot Goblin A with arrows #1 & #2, Rapid Shot Goblin B with arrow #3, and fire arrow #4 at Goblin C.

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