I have found a lot of threads, but nobody is asking about this:
If we are talking about wording, the feat says, that "you can reload light crossbow as a free action", but repeating crossbow (light or heavy) has a full-round action reloading time. So, can I reload my heavy repeater with move action or light repeater with standart?
Because rapid reload says nothing about it, and even more intresting: it reduces one-handed firearm from standart to move AND heavy crossbow from full-round to move.
If it reduces only to standart (like they say in most threads) - what is the reason to buy repeater at all?
Thanks!
I don't really think there is a reason for a repeater. the advantage of a repeater is that it saves having to get rapid reload, however rapid reload is a prerequisite for a lot of other cool feats later on so you might as well get it anyway. then theres also the fact that the repeating crossbow is an exotic weapon so you're not really saving a feat and as far as I know the only class that class thats proficient with repeaters right off the bat is the bolt ace, gunslinger archetype.
I personally think that a good house rule to make the repeaters actually worth it is to remove the need of a free hand to pull the lever that lodes the next bolt. but yeah, as it stands I can't really see a reason to get a repeater.
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I don't consider it a stretch to allow Rapid Reload to apply to a repeating crossbow clip. Unless you are an Inquisitor, you will have to spend a feat on it to use the weapon anyway. It is your game (unless you're playing PFS), you decide. There is no reason to rule against it just because it isn't mentioned in the feat.
Reloading a repeating crossbow is a free action, changing the ammunition case is a full round action. Rapid reload can not make reloading any faster than a free action. There is no feat that makes changing the ammunition case faster.
Building off this conclusion, is the Crossbow Mastery feat similarly not applicable to a repeating crossbow? I'm playing a gnome ranger who grabbed exotic weapon proficiency (repeating light crossbow) at 1st level after our GM awarded the weapon to him as part of his starting gear. He's 3rd level now and I'm feeling the bottleneck created by changing the ammunition case.
Crossbow Mastery doesn't help.
Most crossbows are, actually. The original d20 system developers hated them with a passion, but unfortunately paizo continued to defend the tradition.
Well, I vaguely think it is grandfathering of a grandfathering, going back to the fabled days where people actually really cared about damage dice, since they all had crap stats due to rolling. Thus, a 1d12 weapon that did not suffer as a result of strength penalties actually seemed attractive at the time, even with the reload.
And ones that didn't need that reload immediately seemed like they might be priceless. Maybe have multiple so you just have to draw a weapon isntead of reloading- it isn't like you would care about the item itself in ye olde days where you could rely on magic crafting to get that +5 crossbow.
Anyway, bolt ace makes them better in this system, at least.
Not the repeaters. Those remain trash, like most exotic weapons. But regular crossbows, or at least light crossbows, eventually turn into long ranged falcata in their hands (1d8, 19-20/x3), along with the dex to damage. So that is nice. 5 levels of bolt ace make them one of the best ranged options.
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As it was already said, reloading a repeating crossbow is a free action already. The clip does not count as ammunition, as it is a container that contains ammunition, therefore it qualifies for Abundant Ammunition, which indeed targets
a container such as a quiver or a pouch that contains nonmagical ammunition
At higher levels, this can be done with a Shadowcraft repeating crossbow, without the need for casting the spell, as reloading it is still a free action, but there is no ammunition being actually used from the clip (and does not mess with weapon enhancements, unlike Endless Ammunition), making it mechanically identical to a bow in terms of action economy.
Therefore, I would say that, with Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot and Rapid Shot, repeating crossbows represent a valid alternative to bows for low-str characters who want to have a reliable ranged option (while not wanting to be as specialised as a Manyshot build) and who can cast Abundant Ammunition (which is on pretty much all spell lists and makes a nice wand) or who can afford a Shadowcraft weapon, as it removes the need for Rapid Reload and the worry of spending a full-round every 5 attacks to change the clip. Proficiency is hardly a limitation, as even if your race (human, half-elf, gnome) or class (inquisitor) does not give it already, a 1500gp ioun stone can make it count as martial, putting it in the same spot of a bow.
This would allow you to explore more ranged builds with more varied race-class combinations, rather than relying on the ever present Elf for racial bow proficiencies. For example, you could play a Gnome Archaeologist Bard, who crafted his own repeating crossbow based on some unearthed projects of an ancient Chines- Tian Xia weapon called [i]Chu Ko Nu[\i]. The crossbow plays particularly well with this build on multiple accounts: Gnomes have a str penalty, and are quite happy to have a negative str that does not reflect on a penalty to damage; Gnomes are small, so they well enjoy the highes base damage die, especially compared to what the Bard class has to offer (Small sized shortbow? Yuck!); also, Bards qualify fairly late for Manyshot (not before level 9 without retraining), making its inapplicability to the crossbow less cumbersome.