darkmage0707077's page

It's important to note that using called is not a free aciton. It's a swift action.

A slotless continuous item of reduce person would be a custom item that would need to be approved by your GM. And beyond that if you're really set on using a crossbow, I would highly suggest you use a light crossbow instead of a heavy crossbow, because it will allow you to make iterative attacks. Which will be more effective in the long run than a single high damage dice attack which you can only make once a round.

Sure, eventually you could reload the heavy crossbow as a free action with crossbow mastery. But it's an extra feat to spend, and the damage difference for the base weapons is 1d8 vs 1d10. When enlarged it's 2d6 vs 2d8. A difference of two points of damage but requires the expenditure of a feat, a feat which can probably be spent on something more advantageous.

If you're playing a ranged attacker who is doing something other full attacking versus a standard action attack you're setting yourself up for failure.

Yeah, you're right. Still haven't used a swift action, so that's fine.

And yes, you're right, I would need GM approval. It's not hard to get in my group, but it does make this iffy. That, and the fact that it would take a move action to retrieve the reduce person effect makes me think it's just not possible to do.

Then again, while writing this, I just realized I may have been on the right track previously and simply overthought it a bit - Since the Juggernaught's Pauldrons allow me to Enlarge myself on command infinitely, there's nothing saying I can't simply *be* enlarged all the time I'm adventuring and shrink myself back when we reach town. Then, as part of our preparations as we set off, I put down the Large Crossbow and bolts, Enlarge, pick them back up, and head off. Sure, it means that I wouldn't be able to use the thing immediately if we were caught off guard in town, but at that point they've either engaged us in melee already making the point moot or I'll scramble for cover the first round if they're still at range, and my initial idea (drop crossbow as Free, enlarge as Standard, call as Swift) still leaves the move action to use to run behind a wall with so I can move up from cover to cover. I'd lose an action to "scrambled preparation", but then, who doesn't in off-guard ambushes?

I also agree with your assessment that Light Crossbow may be better here because it would allow reloading as a free action with 1 feat instead of 4 (Point Blank, Rapid Shot and Rapid Reload are pre-reqs to Crossbow Mastery), which allows me to still move and fire each turn like I want.

In most instances, I'd agree with you on the full-round and iterative attacks points, but not in this one (otherwise, why even bother asking about the crossbows in the first place, just get a composite longbow and stand there while they come to you or die). I'm trying to build more of a mobile fighter this time, someone who can run all over the battlefield when needed, which means I want to try and keep my move action available as much as possible yet still do large amounts of damage each turn when I hit with my standard. Vital Strike would let me do this since it only requires a standard attack action to activate, so I could run around the battlefield and still potentially hit things really hard when I get there. True, it means I have one die roll to hit with...but if I pump up my attack as much as I can (opening volley if they're too far to move up to yet, Fighter BAB, Weapon Focus, etc), the likelihood of a normal miss will be low for all but the most heavily defended opponents.

I'd already planned to have a decent ranged weapon due to having Opening Volley at early levels, shooting them as I move up so I could hopefully move in and hit with a +4 bonus next round, but when I realized I could combine Vital Strike with ranged attacks, the question then became which weapon is better with a single attack action per round. Composite Longbows are still great, but due to a higher threat range (taking Improved Crit to make it 17-20) which works well with the Crit Focus tree I'm already following, I decided to go with crossbows. I started with Heavy because of higher damage, but Light will probably be good enough while still letting me move.

Anyway, thanks for the help, everyone!

OK, so I'd have a slotless item that gives a continuous Reduce Person effect on me for as long as desired, right? And then I could remove the "Reducing Rock" from my pouch as a move, drop it as a free, call my crossbow as a free, and fire as a standard. That might work.

One problem: Called is only for weapons, where-as this will be a wonderous item. Is there a spell that would allow me to recall the item to my person when desired?

OK, cool. Thought I'd ask since I keep find conflicting info out there suggesting there might be a way to get heavy crossbows up three size categories somehow. Haven't checked out the warpriest, I'll do so later.

If I don't want Enlarge Person to be permanent, would the following work:

(Downtime) Give the large crossbow Called and Endless Ammunition

1) Drop the crossbow (free action)

2) Use Juggernaut's Pauldrons to Enlarge Person "on command" (Swift action? Free action...?)

3) Call the crossbow to hand (free action)

4) Fire the crossbow (Standard action)

I know this is really expensive, but I just want to know if it makes sense from a rules/thematic standpoint.

Depends on what your players and you want. Some keys I use for deadly games are 1) If this is the first "salty men" game they've played in, make sure the players know ahead of time what they're in for as much as possible and 2) Always be sure whatever you're doing makes sense in the context of the situation.

Also, realize that the more dangerous your campaign is, the more "gritty" your campaign becomes and the fewer risks players will take on their own, at least until they get used to it. On the plus side, this really helps players learn to think strategically and take in all the details or ask good questions and learn the rules, which can thus enhance their ability to come up with off-the-walls solutions later, so it's not too bad in the long-term. It's a trade off, really.

For me, I'm partial to the "harsh world for great reward" motif, myself: if you're going to put them through the ringer, then give them awesome rewards at the end (massively increased treasure counts, expensive equipment they actually want to keep and use, permanent stat increases that stack with everything else, etc). I cannot begin to describe how frustrated I was playing in a game where I was put through a meat grinder that killed more then half the party, only to have our reward at the end be something we could have bought back in town with a month's effort and no story reason other then "you're adventurers; go adventure!".

Hello,

I wanted to know if there are any other stackable methods to increase a heavy crossbow's size category besides Gravity Bow. I know Enlarge Person doesn't work for ranged, I can't wield a heavy crossbow larger then my character, and Impact Weapon is for melee weapons only. Is there anything else that would work?