Playing a Bolt Ace through Wrath of the Righteous with a great group of players and GM, so I've actually got the luxury of looking ahead to higher levels. I'm looking to maximize the number of attacks I can get with heavy crossbow, and I've got two builds in mind.
Details of build so far HERE, inclusive of campaign bonuses and Mythic so far. Hammer The Gap may be a placeholder for now until I can take Improved Crit. Tentative plan for Mythic is to continue with Tactical Genius and add a greater 'pool' of Teamwork feats.
More attacks = more chances to crit with that sweet x4 multiplier, on top of regularly-supplied Gravity Bow and/or Enlarge (separate quiver of bolts), so here's my two options so far:
Going full TFW, with a two-level dip into Juggler Bard. This gets an additional 3 attacks in a full-attack, and synergizes with Hammer The Gap as well. However, I'm aware I'm going to have to swallow some big cumulative penalties (-4/-4 for one-handing Heavy Crossbow, -4/-4 for two one-handed weapons). Those will be mitigated for the most part once I get to 11th level and can snag Signature Deed and always be targeting touch AC.
Losses for this option are 19th level deeds, 1 point of BAB, and True Grit (with retraining Signature Deed, this allows me to target touch and inflict bleed with every attack, and only pay one Grit point to inflict ability bleed damage).
The other option is Snap Shot, with the following progression: Snap Shot > Improved Snap Shot > Combat Reflexes > Dodge > Mobility > Combat Patrol. Sacrifices no BAB or levels of Gunslinger, and ultimately lets me threaten a 35' radius area. I plan on being in the thick of things already, due to great defensive support from our party's barbarian, and the plan with Tactical Genius.
Thoughts on which is the better option, or possibly a blend of the two? Thanks!
Personaly, i think nothing of TWF with crossbows. Perhaps hand-crossbows, everything else seems ridiculous to me. I would not want that in my games, for reasons.
1. You get DEX to damage on a full BAB. Yes it´s not a touch attack anymore, but still enough damage. Also your crit chance and modifier are higher as a bow, so that already does for that one missed attack with manyshot.
2. Snap shot and Improved snap shot with combat reflexes are a really mighty thing. You threaten 15 feet and have 6-7 AoO´s. Go greater Snap shot later and it gets insane.
3. Instead of doing weird shenanigans with two weapons, why not take deadly aim? Pretty sure you´ll hit good enough for that.
4. Deadly aim also opens up the ranged maneuver feats from ranged tactics toolbox, those are quite funny.
5. If you really need a lot more damage, ask your GM if Bolt Ace Levels can count as fighter levels for weapon specialization. That brings you a flat +2 on every shot, but would be a houserule. In my eyes still better than strange and very complicated builds like TWF with crossbows.
There is no reason for a bolt ace to not take deadly aim. After 11th level all attacks will be against touch AC, so there is no reason to not have deadly aim active all the time.
Deadly Aim is going to be taken after Improved Crit. This is mostly looking at feat progression from 11th level onwards.
The Targeting Feats from RTT aren't really needed on this build because the Bolt Ace still gets the benefit of the Targeting deed. I know there are some trade-offs (grit usage and not being able to use them on creatures immune to sneak attack), but I can't see myself spending a feat on them.
dual weilding heavy crossbows is not going to be a big damage improvement, the -10 to hit when dual weilding (-6 to hit for one handing heavy crossbows and the -4 to hit for TWF with non-light off-hand weapon) is going to kill damage output. You are better off TWFing with a pair of light crossbows which are -2 to hit for one handing light crossbows and -2 to hit for TWFing with a light off-hand weapon. Fortunately for you crossbow mastery reloading speed does not confine itself to one type of crossbow, so your build as it is only loses the crossbow focus feat bonus and the no AoOs on reloading when using light crossbows. You could pick-up a light crossbow for the offhand which result in a total -8 to hit with the heavy crossbow in main hand and a -4 to hit with the light crossbow in off-hand, but there is still a hefty reduction in hit chance. Throw on the penalties from rapid shot and deadly aim and even signature deed: sharp shoot isn't going to keep the hit rate up.
note on signature deed, it takes 11 levels of the gunslinger class, not 11 character levels and 1 level of gunslinger. With 1 level of marshall and 2 levels of juggler (2 levels of alchemist grenadier archetype and the extra edit: change to vestigial arm discovery would probably work better with this build) this will mean character level 14 before you can get touch AC to all attacks at first range increment.
note on equipment: the monkey belt might be a good idea, it gives 5 minutes of a tail and a +2 dexterity. admittedly it peaks at +2 dexterity, the greater version peaks adds +2 to strength, but the tail can fulfill your reloading needs without a 2 level dip unless you think you are going to be in more than 50 rounds of combat per day (and you can still choose not to TWF in other rounds of combat). Alternatively consider a glove of storing instead of a 2 level dip, although it requires quit a bit of fiddling and changing weapons between hands to make work which I think is scarce worth the bother.
One-handing Heavy crossbows is only -4, as I stated earlier.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/weapons/weapon-descriptions/cross bow-heavy
Marshal does not use up character levels, as mythic paths are based on 'tiers'. I am a 7th level PC currently, with 7 levels of Bolt Ace Gunslinger, 1st-tier Marshal. I don't plan on dipping anything until I've gotten Signature Deed.
Monkey Belt does seem good. Is there an existing rule for modifying magic items that have enhancement bonuses? I'm going to want to keep increasing my Dex as I level, and the Greater MB still only has a +2.
That's what I get for reading quickly, I read marshal as grand marshal (the prestige class not the mythic class) - not used to the mythic rules.
Right -4, brain thinking of the difference between using heavy crossbows versus light, which is a -6 difference to hit. I'd still look at at least one light crossbow for the off-hand, considering that DEX is currently +5 to damage on a hit, deadly aim would be +4 (+8 at level 12), and a light crossbow does an average of 1 point less damage, then a +2 to hit with the heavy crossbow if using a light crossbow in the off-hand should usually result in more damage delivered even when targeting touch AC, and that doesn't even count the light crossbow in the off-hand having an effective +3 to hit. Not playing in your game, I don't know if the light crossbow is a good choice. The light crossbow isn't so good if you are in AoO range a lot, or range is often 85'-120' (165'-240' with distance enchant) where the light crossbow isn't in the first range increment.
As for the monkey belt, I think the standard upgrading magic items rules from magic item creation would apply. Since a belt is a slotted item there is no need to hassle with the +50% multiple similar abilities surcharge, and the price should be based on the price for similar items. A belt of incredible dexterity +2 is 4,ooo gold while a monkey belt which also grants +2 dexterity is 9,4oo gold so the tail and climbing bonuses are 5,4oo gold of the price and the +2 dexterity is 4,ooo gold of the price. A monkey belt which grants +4 dexterity should cost 21,4oo, 16,ooo from the +4 dexterity and 5,4oo from the tail and climbing bonuses. The might be confusion with the greater monkey belt costing 18,ooo while a belt of physical perfection granting +2 strength and dexterity is 10,ooo meaning the tail and climbing abilities of the greater monkey belt are 3,6oo gold more for the greater monkey belt - but the greater monkey belt provides an addition climb bonus above that provided by the monkey belt. Upgrading items is subject to GM approval, however, and a GM is free to change the price or prohibit certain changes as they feel appropriate.
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