| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So, one of my players is playing an Investigator. He is planning on going the good 'ol Archer->Eldritch Archer route with his Free Archetype feats. But that is going to take a while - they are still level 2 - and the combination is not that potent. He insta-killed a skeleton with a crit, but that is about the extent of his combat contribution. To help with that and for my own personal enjoyment, here is a weapon I'll throw on one of their upcoming enemies. I imagine this monster of a weapon as the bastard child of a wheellock gun and a crossbow. The description is most likely complete nonsense of course, but it sounds cool :D
~~~
Price 50 gp; - Damage 1d10 P; - Bulk 2
Hands 2; - Range 60ft; - Reload 1
Category Martial
Ammunition Bolts
Group Bow Traits deadly d10, capacity 2
A relatively new and therefore rare pattern of crossbow that feeds from an internal magazine just below the flight groove. It sports a complex system of springs, cogs and winches that can be engaged with a wheel-like device integrated into the stock. When used correctly, a new bolt is fed from the magazine and the string is spanned at the same time. Due to the limited space in the stock and the complexity of the reloading/self-spanning mechanism, the magazine only holds two bolts. Additionally, the correct operation and maintenance of this weapon requires significant training, which, when one includes the hefty price, makes it quite unsuitable for standard military adoption.
- Traits -
Capacity: A weapon with capacity can be fired the listed amount of times before it has to be reloaded. After it has been fired, you must spend a free Interact action to put the next piece of ammunition in a ready position to be able to fire the weapon again. This interact action is treated as an interact action to reload, but only for the purposes of feats (such as Crossbow Ace). If the weapon is not at full capacity, spending the number of interact actions to reload listed under the "reload" statistic returns the weapon to full capacity.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I would tweak a little the trait so that you can make a partial reload up to full capacity by spending the proper number of actions (one reload per piece of ammunition).
Also, the "after it has been fired" sentence should clarify that this only works if there is a next piece of ammunition, ie, not when the weapon is empty.
Actually, I think the trait's description is missing a word (like the magazine, or something else) to describe the "load" of ammunition pieces that is in the weapon at any given time. I feel we are a bit dancing around it in the description, and thus have to use more complicated wording.
Just my 2cp.
Hope you will have fun with this :-)
I would tweak a little the trait so that you can make a partial reload up to full capacity by spending the proper number of actions (one reload per piece of ammunition).
One reload per piece of ammo would mean this weapon would have to be buffed significantly, so I'm hesitant. It would also defeat the point of the weapon - this is supposed to allow you to shoot up to two times every turn, instead of the usual 2-1-2-1 sequence. The way it is now, you can do partial reloads or full reloads for the same number of actions and I think that is fine.
Also, the "after it has been fired" sentence should clarify that this only works if there is a next piece of ammunition, ie, not when the weapon is empty.
I don't think that is necessary, since you can't put ammo in a ready position when there is no ammo in the weapon.
Actually, I think the trait's description is missing a word (like the magazine, or something else) to describe the "load" of ammunition pieces that is in the weapon at any given time. I feel we are a bit dancing around it in the description, and thus have to use more complicated wording.
Not all weapons will have magazines. Revolver drums come to mind. The description is far from perfect, but I think it gets the point across, while also being applicable to all ranged weapons that are not self-loading.
Hope you will have fun with this :-)
Thanks ^^
After further consideration I have lowered the damage die to a d8 and increased the range to 80ft. Since it interacts with Crossbow Expert and Crossbow Terror, that should be fine, if maybe slightly underpowered. My player was happy enough, though ^^.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Really cool, but compared to a normal crossbow seems way better.
1) giving it 60 feet instead of 120 feet means imo nothing, since maps are not that large ( not to talk about the fact that given a map, there will be different encounters in different spots, so even 30/40 feet would be ok. with 60 or 120 there wouldn't be any difference ).
2) Better damage die ( 1d10 vs 1d8 )
3) Better traits ( Deadly 10 + Capacity vs No traits )
I think this would be too much even if it were an advanced weapon.
I'd give it 1d8 damage and remove the deadly trait.
I already have bumped it down to a d8, simply because we still have crossbow ace and crossbow terror in the game. But the rest is very much appropriate.
The regular crossbow is a simple weapon and a pretty terrible one at that. Even with feats it is not the equivalent of a martial weapon. Not even a proper martial reload weapon - see the halfling sling staff - which are all already considered poor choices in the first place and for good reason.
If I were to remove the deadly trait, I would have to bump it up to a d12 to be even remotely on-par with existing ranged martial weapons - i.e. bows - and that is not what I want.