Could this work? I want to make a gnomish inquisitor who rides a giant beetle companion (animal domain). I was thinking of giving the guy full plate proficiency, a nice beefy shield and a repeating hand crossbow.
I know the thinking is that crossbows are worse than bows, but could it work if you were making up for the lack of damage with some sweet AC?
Clearly, the optimum build for this is a Dwarf Antipaladin with two hand crossbows and a tower shield.
As long as it is a buckler or a light shield, it would work. If it is heavy or a tower, you haven't got a hand free to work the lever, or to reload.
Or, you can just set a tower shield up on the beetle and stick close, like a pavise.
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^ This.
Just stick tower shields all around you, build a real turret on top of your beetle, so that you get improved cover from all sides. Use a heavy crossbow or a siege weapon to turn it into a real tank.
Bonus points if you give your beetle armor proficiency and coat it with spiked plate armor.
Wait... I can put a siege weapon on my beetles' back? How would that work?
Well...
There's probably no rule for it, and you'd probably need a beetle that's some size categories larger, but in theory...
Go with a buckler shield and a repeating heavy crossbow. Also, take the alternate racial trait Master Tinker (automatic proficiency with any weapon you craft yourself) and use Obesession for +2 on Craft (Weapons); then you can make yourself a falcata, as well.
You may want to think about a level of cleric for abundant ammunition, although you may just want to have the party wizard learn it (to make magic bolt cases that never run out of non-magical ammunition; 4,000 gp market price).
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So! Let's make aspects of this work, rather than giving up. I would say no to the shield because of the inability to even use the lever while holding a heavy one.
Animal domain gives you an AC at druid level -3, so we can fit in one level of fighter to shore up those feats and grab the heaviest armour possible. That's gonna be the shield.
Fighter 1 Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Fighter 2 Rapid Reload
Inquisi 3 Deadly Aim
Inquisi 4
Inquisi 5 Rapid Shot
Inquisi 6
Inquisi 7 Boon Companion
Inquisi 8
Inquisi 9 Weapon FocusWith a 15 point-buy I would say to go
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 15, Cha 10 (Switch Int and Cha if you want the spell-like abilities)
You'll never get the full benefit of something like full plate, so I would be eventually aiming for a mithral breastplate, which would let you go up to a +5 Dex to AC.