Author Topic: Adding Ranged Weapons...  (Read 3880 times)

Offline SorO_Lost

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Adding Ranged Weapons...
« on: April 29, 2016, 01:15:26 PM »
I'm wanting to add a new section to my 2nd post in Class Boosters specifically listing Crossbow & Archery related Feats, Items, & Magical Locations (no class features) and I figured I'd hit everyone up for content. If you're unfamiliar with the thread, link!, it's essentially a list of non-Class methods to increase a particular trait or theme that I got around to adding.

I need name, source (in the case of the MiC, page number would be nice too), type (feat/item), brief descriptions are optional but preferred. You can of course skip the SRD, but I'll never know what I missed if I told you to skip anything else. I'll get around to recrunching things over the next week or two and add it. And yes, special weapons such as specific weapons or even alternative bows such as dragonbone (draco) would be nice to include as well.

Thanks.

Offline Garryl

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2016, 02:47:11 PM »
Races of the Wild has quite a few ranged weapon options. Here are just the equipment and spells. I'll take a look at feats and the like later.

Equipment (pg. 163-166):
- Blunt Arrow: Shorter range (approx. 1/2), x2 on crit instead of x3, but nonlethal damage and bludgeoning instead of piercing.
- Dragonsbreath Arrow: One size smaller damage die and more expensive (50 gp per 20 arrows), but adds +1 fire damage and Reflex DC 15 or catch on fire.
- Serpentstongue Arrow: 3 gp/20. Deals piercing and slashing, does full damage to objects with hardness 5 or less (instead of the normal 1/2 damage for ranged attacks).
- Swiftwing Arrow: 20 gp/20. One size smaller damage die. Half the normal penalty on attack rolls for range increments (-1/increment instead of -2).
- Footbow: Exotic composite longbow, stat-wise (martial for raptorans). Designed to be used with the feet as well, while flying (only usable on the ground while prone and at -4 on the attack roll). However, you're using your feet, but you only need one hand to shoot it, and if you use two hands, you add 1.5x the bow's Str rating.
- Skiprock: Exotic ammunition-like thrown weapon, like shuriken, except awesome instead of suck. 1d6 bludgeoning damage, 15 ft. range increment, and if you hit, you get another attack at -2 on the attack roll against someone else adjacent to the original target! Costs 3 gp per rock.
- War Sling: Exotic sling designed for skiprock ammunition. 1d8 bludgeoning damage, x4 crit, 50 ft. range increment, and if you're proficient with both the war sling and skiprocks, you get the ricochet bonus attack thing, too.

Weapon Modifications (pg. 166)
- Elvencraft Bow: Lets you combine a club (shortbow) or a quarterstaff (longbow) into the same weapon as the bow. The melee and ranged forms are enchanted separately, though. Still, lets you threaten and attack in melee while plinking away at range, and even lets you switch between attack in melee and at range in the middle of a full attack.

Specific Magic Weapons (pg. 171)
- Swordbow: Like an elvencraft bow, except as a rapier (shortbow), longsword (longbow), or greatsword (composite longbow) instead of a club/quarterstaff, and you can't split up the enchantment (both forms must be enchanted the same, and you still pay for both even if a property wouldn't apply to melee or ranged).

Spells (pg. 174-176)
- Raptor's Sight (druid 1, ranger 1, Sky 1): 1 hour/level of +5 competence on Spot. If you have +5 ranks in spot, also halves range increment attack roll penalties.
- Returning Weapon (assassin 2, sor/wiz 2): Gives a weapon the returning property for 1 round/level. Swift action to cast.

Powers (pg. 176)
- Living Arrow (psychic warrior 5): For 1 round/level, you can fire around any number of corners with the first projectile you fire each round (any projectile, not necessarily arrows). You still need to know where you're shooting at, though. Can augment to apply to more shots per round, and/or to give you a glimpse of the arrow's path and your target's location.
- Telekinetic Boomerang (kineticist 3, psychic warrior 3): Gives a weapon the souped up Bloodstorm Blade version of the returning property for 1 round/level, returning it immediately so you can make multiple attacks. Swift action to manifest.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2016, 03:53:47 PM »
The X Stat to Y Bonus has some ranged specific things in it.

Offline Kerrus

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2016, 09:52:37 PM »
I don't have any weapon suggestions, but I didn't see a discussion thread for your class boost one that non-handbook writers can post in.

DL:LotT page 10 has a trait (not a feat) called 'Quick' which gives you +10 ft speed at the cost of -1 HP per level. Might be a substantial and worthy boost for any high con character who could benefit from extra speed.

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2016, 10:26:49 PM »
The gnome calculus lets you throw alchemical splash weapons with a range increment of 50 feet (IIRC... it might have been 100). I forget where it was from. A&EG, I think.
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Offline ksbsnowowl

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2016, 11:31:22 PM »
One RotW thing I didn't see in Garryl's list is the Woodland Archer tactical feat.  It has a nifty little interaction with Rapid Shot to get you a higher attack bonus than you could normally get, on your second shot.

Example:
Normal BAB: +11/+6/+1
Rapid Shot: +9/+9/+4/-1
Rapid Shot + Woodland Archer (when missing the first shot): +9/+13/+8/+3

Not amazingly game breaking, but I really appreciated having that feat for my archer character that played through RHoD in 2007, A LOT.

Offline Garryl

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #6 on: April 30, 2016, 03:01:41 AM »
RotW feats and stuff.

Feats:
- Able Sniper (pg. 148): +2 on ranged attack rolls against flat-footed foes >= 30 ft. away, and +4 on Hide checks to re-hide after sniping.
- Defensive Archery (pg. 150): +4 dodge to AC against AoOs for making ranged attacks.
- Plunging Shot (pg. 152): +1d6 damage against someone 30+ feet below you.
- Woodland Archer (pg. 154): Tactical feat with some nice benefits. +4 on attack if you missed with a previous attack this round. Ignore miss chance if you hit despite it in the previous round. Move after sniping if you sniped successfully and weren't detected last round.

Substitution levels:
- Elf Paladin (pg. 155): Ranged Smite Evil changes your smite to only work with bows and only within 30 feet.
- Halfling Rogue (pg. 160): Ranged Sneak Attack takes away 1d6 SA damage in melee in exchange for an extra 1d6 SA damage with thrown weapons and slings (so you get +2d6 damage at level 1, for example). Sniping Mastery at level 10 lets you hide while sniping as a free action at -10 instead of a move action at -20, so you can, for example, make a full attack while sniping. I'm not sure how if combines with Woodland Archer's Moving Sniper option. Also, not an archery thing, but Thief's Luck at level 3 replaces the ever-useless Trap Sense with daily rerolls of Reflex saves, which is much nicer.

The gnome calculus lets you throw alchemical splash weapons with a range increment of 50 feet (IIRC... it might have been 100). I forget where it was from. A&EG, I think.

IIRC, there are a few nice things in A&EG. The one I always remember is a modification for crossbows (a scope, I think) that lets you add Int to damage.

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #7 on: April 30, 2016, 10:47:03 AM »
I don't have any weapon suggestions, but I didn't see a discussion thread for your class boost one that non-handbook writers can post in.
Hmm, that's odd.

Well, I'm going to have to reorganize the thread soon anyway. - Up to 46,255 characters in the main post and the limit is 50,000. - So I planned on getting a mod to move the discussion related posts out of it so I have the first five or so posts in a row. I'll see if they can fix the discussion thread or if I need to make it somewhere else.

Offline awaken_D_M_golem

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #8 on: April 30, 2016, 03:21:36 PM »
Psi feats in the SRD:

- Psionic Shot :  expend focus, if hit +2d6 damage
- Greater Psionic Shot : upgrades Psionic shot to +4d6
- Fell Shot : expend focus, turns ranged attack into ranged touch attack.
- Return Shot : expend focus for 1 deflect arrow effect ; stacks with Deflect Arrow feat

(edit for details)

« Last Edit: May 08, 2016, 03:04:59 PM by awaken_D_M_golem »
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Offline Garryl

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2016, 04:48:53 PM »
Races of Destiny has nothing for archers. Well, there is one feat for Illumians that gives up to +2 damage at range if your target is flat-footed, but I don't think that's really worth mentioning.

Races of Stone has a few options.
- Cragtop Archer PrC (pg. 101-102): For all your ultra-long-range needs. Gets you 15 range increments instead of 10, and you can ignore range penalties by making a single attack as a full-round action. Also, you get to halve the penalties on Spot checks for distance, and you get a small damage bonus when attacking enemies at a lower elevation.
- Great Crossbow weapon (pg. 153): Exotic heavy crossbow (full-round action to reload), but 2d8 damage and 18-20/x2 crit range.
- Perfect Archery power (pg. 164, Psychic Warrior 3): Swift action, 1 round/level, don't provoke AoOs for firing ranged weapons.

Offline PlzBreakMyCampaign

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Re: Adding Ranged Weapons...
« Reply #10 on: May 12, 2016, 12:53:06 PM »
Have you ever wanted to 1 shot anything that isn't a non-magical swarm or one of those rare aberrations without discernable anatomy? Then look no further. Yes siree with just one RAI reading, I've got the build for you!

Quote
Step 0) Client gives you a mark description, time and place. Having the client teleport you a decent distance away is a bonus if you don't feel like doing it yourself with an item or spell (Having a spellcaster level of 11 or 13 gets things done).

Step 1) Fly high for a clear shot. Feathered wings works well.

Step 2) Pump your spot checks so you can see further than the enemy. Cragtop Archer 1 [RoS101] + Dragonsight [SpC73] means you resolve creatures twice as far as your opponent. Add items & buffs to taste. Sample spot distance can exceed the horizon due to flight:
(click to show/hide)

Step 3) Stay hidden. Persistent Greater Invisibility is unnecessary due to the distance. You can weigh whether or not additional countermeasures are worth while to cancel out certain mindsight builds.

Step 4) Get a really nice long range artillery setup. Let me know if I missed a range increment boosters:
(click to show/hide)

Step 5) What about to hit penalties? Surge of Fortune [CD128] laughs at such petty details. Minor schemas are your friend.

Step 6) This is where people add damage, right? Sniper's Shot [SpC194] trades a swift action to sneak attack at range.

Step 7) Forcing sneak attack is hard but one of the surest ways to do it = Telling Blow feat [PHBIIp83] + prebuffed Dolorous Blow [SpC70] or Hunter's Mercy [SpC117] & Surge of Fortune [CC128] (I'd say discharging SoF treats your attack roll as a natural 20 but is not an effect related to your weapons' criticals. If your DM disagrees use Hunter's mercy)

Step 8) Get rid of SA immunities that are due to magic: Arcane Archer 2 to standard action fire an arrow with an AMF where it hits will do nicely. Technically you can action economy abuse (like the Heroic Surge feat & Belt of Battle item) to get around casters who might have blocking persistent spells, but that's a very edge case.

Step 9) Get rid of SA immunities due to type: Deathstrike Bracers [MIC93] also requires a swift action so see the above belt of battle.

Step 10) Ignore cover & concealment which is the last thing that can prevent SA: Ghost touch for incorporeals and a seeking ranged weapon. A morphing Rapier of Unerring Direction [MIC55] would work too thanks to being NE.

Step 11) But sneak attack isn't enough to a 1shot of those high HP character so we add Death Attack via Assassin 1

*Step 12) In order to Death Attack at range we have Sniper's Eye [SpC193].
(click to show/hide)

Step 13) Spend 3 rounds studying your target and buffing yourself  (Deathsight [CM102] isn't necessary)

Step 14) Fire your standard action bow shot (flaming and acidic weapon properties are recommended for regenerating creatures [RC74]) with an AMF ready to balloon.

Step 15) Watch that DC100+ Fort save make your target go pop, RAI never to be raised again (see below)
(click to show/hide)

Final remarks: the fact that an assassin's Death Attack is not a [Death] effect (referenced in the special abilities section as "Death Attacks"), seems odd to me. Many DMs may rule otherwise as players often suspect this be be an oversight in core. This would prevent raise dead. If so, Deathstrike Bracers should also pierce [Death] effect immunity for the purpose of rider effects on sneak attack or crits (like vorpal). You know that bow that counts as a melee weapon too? Use that weapon and then stick vorpal on it. Now you have a melee decapitating build. It trades being detected for having no save. Certain templates, races, and items hard counter it though.