Yes, repeating crossbows are crossbows.
What was the question?
Repeating hand crossbows are not especially powerful weapons in most circumstances, so unless your bolt ace is hanging around court all the time or something he's screwing himself over by making that his starting weapon. They're expensive out of realism, not for balance.
Just don't try starting with a 1100 gp mwk repeating hand crossbow, immediately selling it for 550 gp, buying a mwk light crossbow for 335 and profiting 215 gp from your 1st-level class ability. The GM will/should thwack you hard.
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Bolt Aces get Rapid Reload at first level, so a Light Crossbow will fire at least as fast for you as a repeating crossbow. So your choice is really between aFuzzy-Wuzzy: selling it did cross my mind :)
Just found it strange that one of the weapons was so much more expensive than the other options, but the argument that it's realisme, not balance makes sense.What is the "best" starting weapon for a Bolt Ace? Light? Heavy? Repeating? It's for a low level campaign, will probably never reach lvl 4.
- Light Crossbow with free action reloading, or
- Heavy Crossbow with move action reloading
Finally, don't expect your Bolt Ace to be too impressive in combat: At low levels, they won't do a lot of damage (no 'dex to damage' until 5th level), nor are they particularly accurate (no attacks against touch AC without spending Grit). I'm sure they'll do okay, but don't be surprised when you can't actually hit because your melee allies are in your way (-8 to hit, or -4 if you took Precise Shot)
Edit: Apparently, Bolt Ace's don't get rapid reload. Weird, I could have sworn they did.
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Bolt Aces get Rapid Reload at first level
Bolt Aces do NOT get Rapid Reload at first level. You must take it as a normal feat.
The safest option is Light crossbow and Rapid Reload feat to reload it as a free action and take advantage of the Rapid Shot feat.
However, at 4th level you will have at most 4 feats (if you go human), which then will necessarily be: Rapid Reload, PBS, Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim.
If you don't want to go human, or you need another feat (namely Precise Shot), you might consider going with a Heavy-repeating one. Not only it scores 1 more point of damage (which is not negligible at low levels, when you deal ~7.5 dmg per shot), it also saves you from taking Rapid Reload, effectively giving you a bonus feat. However it will cost you a full-round reloading every 2/3 rounds after you take Rapid Shot (before then, you'll need to reload once every 5 rounds, which is the average length of an encounter, so you won't mind). For fast battles, this won't be a problem, and generally you won't reload your crossbow more than once during an average battle.
I suggest going with Heavy-repeating, while carrying also a Light one for the first levels, before you get Rapid Shot.
Problem with not taking Crossbow Mastery is that when you want to take feats like Point-Blank Master for not provoking while firing in melee is you'll still provoke for reloading your crossbow.
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Problem with not taking Crossbow Mastery is that when you want to take feats like Point-Blank Master for not provoking while firing in melee is you'll still provoke for reloading your crossbow.
Vigilant Loading (Ex): At 1st level, as long as a bolt ace has at least 1 grit point, she does not provoke attacks of opportunity when loading a crossbow. This deed replaces quick clear.
Problem with not taking Crossbow Mastery is that when you want to take feats like Point-Blank Master for not provoking while firing in melee is you'll still provoke for reloading your crossbow.Vigilant Loading (Ex): At 1st level, as long as a bolt ace has at least 1 grit point, she does not provoke attacks of opportunity when loading a crossbow. This deed replaces quick clear.
Which requires you to pick it at 1st level, which a lot of characters would rather have Dead Shot at 1st level, because targeting Touch AC while at full BAB is pretty powerful.
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Problem with not taking Crossbow Mastery is that when you want to take feats like Point-Blank Master for not provoking while firing in melee is you'll still provoke for reloading your crossbow.Vigilant Loading (Ex): At 1st level, as long as a bolt ace has at least 1 grit point, she does not provoke attacks of opportunity when loading a crossbow. This deed replaces quick clear.
Also, talking about Crossbow Mastery, and even more Point-Blank Master, is futile in this context.
Which requires you to pick it at 1st level, which a lot of characters would rather have Dead Shot at 1st level, because targeting Touch AC while at full BAB is pretty powerful.
It's a class feature you get automatically. You don't choose it.
Try for Crossbow Mastery with a Gastraphetes for true absurdity.
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If you (probably) won't get past 4th level, I, for one, would go with a heavy crossbow, since you won't get high enough to develop a second attack per round, and a move action to reload is worth it if that's your central spiel. That extra damage potential, while admittedly not huge, can make a big difference in a low-level adventure.
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Which requires you to pick it at 1st level, which a lot of characters would rather have Dead Shot at 1st level, because targeting Touch AC while at full BAB is pretty powerful.Problem with not taking Crossbow Mastery is that when you want to take feats like Point-Blank Master for not provoking while firing in melee is you'll still provoke for reloading your crossbow.Vigilant Loading (Ex): At 1st level, as long as a bolt ace has at least 1 grit point, she does not provoke attacks of opportunity when loading a crossbow. This deed replaces quick clear.
I'm about to blow your mind:
You get *ALL* the deeds, and can use any deed for which you meet the minimum required level.
There's nothing to pick.