Oh Wait. You want to go small.
CROSSBOW, HAND
- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK (3.0)
- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK I (3.5)
Exotic Ranged Weapon
Cost: 100 gp
Damage (s): 1d3
Damage (m): 1d4
Critical: 19-20/x2
Range: 30 ft
Weight: 2 lb
Type: P
Ammo: Bolt
This exotic weapon is common among rogues and others who favor stealth over power. You can draw a hand crossbow back by hand. Loading a hand crossbow is a move action that provokes attacks of opportunity. You can shoot, but not load, a hand crossbow with one hand at no penalty. You can shoot a hand crossbow with each hand, but you take a penalty on attack rolls as if attacking with two light weapons
Editor: So you get one of these and a light crossbow with Quick Loading. Then you get your best video game/hail of bullets maneuver going. Otherwise, waste of a feat.
Important feats
RAPID RELOAD [FIGHTER]
- EPIC LEVEL HANDBOOK (3.0)
- PLAYER’S HANDBOOK 1 (3.5)
- SWORD AND FIST (3.0)
Choose a type of crossbow (hand, light, or heavy). You can reload a crossbow of that type more quickly than normal.
Prerequisite: Weapon Proficiency (crossbow type chosen).
Benefit: The time required for you to reload your chosen type of crossbow is reduced to a free action (for a hand or light crossbow) or a move action (for a heavy crossbow). Reloading a crossbow still provokes an attack of opportunity. If you have selected this feat for hand crossbow or light crossbow, you may fire that weapon as many times in a full attack action as you could attack if you were using a bow.
Normal: A character without this feat needs a move action to reload a hand or light crossbow, or a full-round action to reload a heavy crossbow.
Special: You can gain Rapid Reload multiple times. Each time you take the feat, it applies to a new type of crossbow.
VERSATILE COMBATANT [FIGHTER]
- DROW OF THE UNDERDARK (3.5)
You have learned to combine attacks with the favored weapons of the drow.
Prerequisite: Dex 15, proficiency with rapier and hand crossbow.
Benefit: Whenever you are armed with a rapier in your primary hand and a hand crossbow in your offhand, you are treated as having the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for the purpose of calculating attack penalties. In addition, you do not provoke attacks of opportunity from adjacent opponents when you make ranged attacks with a hand crossbow.
DROW LEGACY [HERITAGE]
- DROW OF THE UNDERDARK (3.5)
The drow blood in your veins runs true and grants you some abilities from that heritage.
Prerequisite: Half-elf (drow).
Benefit: You have a +2 racial bonus on Will saves against spells and spell-like abilities. You have darkvision out to 60 feet. You receive Exotic Weapon Proficiency (hand crossbow), as well as, Undercommon and the drow dialect of Elven as automatic languages. If you have an Intelligence score of 13 or higher, you also gain the following spell-like abilities, each usable once per day: dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire. Your caster level equals your class level.
Special: Taking this feat also causes you to have light sensitivity: You are dazzled (–1 circumstance penalty on attack rolls, saves, and checks) in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.
Best way to get hand crossbow as a weapon prof. Because you get SO MUCH MORE. alas, must be half-elf. But still.
HAND CROSSBOW FOCUS [FIGHTER]
- DROW OF THE UNDERDARK (3.5)
Your hand crossbow attacks gain accuracy and speed.
Prerequisite: Proficiency with hand crossbow, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: You can reload a hand crossbow as a free action. You also gain a +1 bonus on attack rolls with a hand crossbow. This bonus does not stack with the bonus from Weapon Focus, but it is the equivalent of Weapon Focus for the purpose of qualifying for feats, prestige classes, and anything else that requires the feat.
The feat you are talking about. We'll get to this under the relevant WSAs.
Ballista
(Disrupting, Necromantic, Self-Loading, Starburst, Quick Loading)
Most siege weapons are catapults or the like, but for a PC, the Ballista is the sweet spot.
Ballista: A light ballista is essentially a Huge heavy crossbow. A heavy ballista is a Colossal Heavy crossbow fixed in place. Its size makes it hard for most creatures to aim it, as described. Unless the crew chief has the Ballista Proficiency feat, a Medium creature takes a –4 penalty on attack rolls when using a ballista, and a Small creature takes a –6 penalty. This applies to both light and heavy ballista. If the heavy ballista is not fixed to the ground, the penalty becomes -8 and -10 respectfully. Additional members of the crew can use the aid another action to grant the crew chief a +2 bonus on the attack roll by succeeding on a DC 10 Profession (siege engineer) check. The max crew size, including crew chief, is 2 and 4 respectfully. Unlike most other catapults, a ballista aims at either a creature or an object (such as a section of wall) rather than a square. Loading a light ballista requires two full-round actions. Loading a heavy ballista requires four full-round actions. The crew can share the action cost, thus a four man crew can load a heavy ballista in 1 full-round. A large crew member’s counts as two medium for purposes of calculating action cost. Huge size or greater can just pick up the thing and treat it as a normal crossbow. A ballista need not be re-aimed; each attack succeeds or fails independent of previous attack rolls. A light ballista takes up a 5-foot square, while a heavy ballista takes up a 15-foot-by-15-foot space.
Loading Speed: Self-loading does away with one full-round of loading time. Quick Loading, which works on crossbows, which a ballista is, reduces reload time to a move action, if you reduce the over all loading time down to 1 full-round. For example, four men are loading a quick loading heavy ballista. They can do it in a move action. One man is loading a self-loading, quick loading heavy ballista. The self-loading takes care of one full-round action. The man then spends his first and second round using a full-round action to load, then on the third round, he only needs to use a move action, then can fire. Self-loading and Quick loading are usually used only on a light ballista, which means one man can reload as a move action. It should be noted, that a light ballista only takes up one 5 foot square, so one could load it on a Tenser’s floating disk with little trouble. Since wizards usually have lousy BABs and don’t often get multiple attacks anyways… Can you see where I’m going with this?
Ammunition Modification: By the time you could afford disrupting, the undead you will be fighting will ignore this effect. Necromantic is disgustingly underpriced at +3,000 gp. Seriously. 20 HD of zombies for 10 rounds for shooting a bolt of wood within 60 feet of a pile of bodies? You can’t beat that with a stick. Now starburst, that’s the ticket. It takes your bolt and makes it an area effect explosion that does piercing and slashing damage equal to the damage rolled on a normal attack. The only downside is that it now comes with a DC 15 reflex save. So make sure you make the ballista with the ability to turn this weapon function on and off. Sometimes you’re just going to want to hit someone right in the face with a sharpened tree and it would suck if it instead exploded and the target used evasion to ignore it.
Important notes on if you go larger rather than smaller
Important WSAs
FLYING (3.0)
- MAGIC OF FAERUN (3.0)
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Any
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) transmutation
Activation: —
A flying weapon can fly at speed 30 feet and is treated as an animated object with hardness and hit points equal to a typical weapon of its kind. A flying weapon follows orders subject to the limits of its ability (it has no Intelligence) but can be ordered to guard a location just as an animated skeleton can.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, animate objects, fly, or telekinesis.
Synergy (Eager): Dropping a weapon is a free action. If it is flying, it can instead just float there at the ready. If it is eager, you can “draw” it as a free action. So if all your weapons were flying and eager, they just float around near you and you can pick and choose as you desire.
Synergy (Opposable): If you make a flying opposable weapon, it could, in theory, pick up things and carry them. Talk to your DM before doing this, as he may think it is silly and disallow it on principle.
Editor (Thrown): You can make any weapon flying, but thrown weapons cannot throw themselves. They have nothing to leverage themselves against. They are limited to 30 feet when attacking (which is a move action) and they then attack at a range of 0, so they have no range penalties.
Editor (Projectile): Projectile weapons have a problem. They aren’t self loading (except for a crossbow, if you buy Quick Loading). You can get around this when you buy flying for your ammo. While an arrow can be used as a melee weapon, it is an improvised weapon. That is not a typical use for ammunition. the weapon is a “typical weapon of its kind.” Ergo, flying ammo cannot attack on it’s own. Flying ammo can load itself, however. So a cloud of flying arrows floating next to a flying greatbow could load itself and shoot you, as an animated object. The arrows cannot fly at you and poke you with 50 separate attacks. They don’t “know” how as this is not typical behavior for ammo.
Editor (Strength Bow): You can make a flying strength bow, but then it could not pull itself, because it only has a strength of 10.
Editor (Monk Abuse): Okay, considering that a monk’s body is an unarmed and armed strike, you can put this in an amulet of natural weapons or a BoS. You are now, technically, an animated object. For a monk this is just amazing. Not only can he have his body move him into position, allowing him to set up flurry with ease, but it gets a 40ft land speed due to having legs (if you have a need for speed, there's a maug graft that gives you wheels. Plus it can't be damaged, though it can be dispelled (or separated from him if the enchantment comes from an item). If you're about to die you can even order your corpse to run away and seek out a cleric!
Now, it definitely gives you 30 feet of flying, which should be independent of your normal movement. However, you do need to order your body to do the flying, so a silence field would stop this. The 40 feet of land movement is REALLY iffy, but by RAW, it works. As for your corpse continuing to be a “weapon” after you are dead, well, that is a DM call. The minute you are dead you are no longer a monk, but zombies get a slam attack, so I suppose a dead body would be considered a Slam attack.
Even if your DM has a grand mal seizure over this, you can focus on just getting flying 30 feet, but more importantly, set up conditional statements for your body. When you sleep, your body watches for assassins. When you die, seek out the nearest cleric. When you get incapacitated, fly away.
Now, if you die and your body starts doing things, that could be an issue. Once down to -10, you become a corpse. Going off the rules for zombies, your average human corpse has 2d12 hit points, or 13 hit points on average before you are “destroyed”. A kind DM will give your animated corpse down to -10 hit points again. Also, you would be immune to bleeding. When reduced to negatives, your body would fall down, helpless. If reduced to -10 hit points a second time, your body is destroyed entirely and raise dead is no longer an option.
Editor: Animated objects suck in combat. That said, maybe you want some animated objects hanging around while you sleep.
When it comes to crossbows, since projectile weapons cannot normally load themselves, flying is a sweetspot when combined with quickloading. However, you can buy flying ammo, so the ammo just flies into position and it loads itself and skip the quickloading. The animated ammo does the loading for you.
OPPOSABLE (3.0)
- MASTERS OF THE WILD (3.0)
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Any
Caster Level: 6th
Aura: Faint; (DC 17) transmutation
Activation: —
Even a creature that lacks the proper hands for weapon use can wield an opposable weapon. This enchantment creates one or more thumb-like projections on the weapon. These artificial “thumbs” fold around the appropriate limb of the wielder to allow proper use. To wield an opposable weapon, a creature must be corporeal, have limbs, have proficiency with the weapon, and be able to stand without the limb(s) that wield the opposable weapon.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, greater magic fang.
Editor (Projectiles): If you are using a crossbow with opposable, you have the problem of loading it, which you cannot. You can manipulate the weapon, no problem, but you cannot load the ammo (or if you can, why do you need opposable?) For a crossbow, you either need to pop for the Quick Loading WA, or your bolts must have opposable so you can manipulate them. For a sling or a bow, you need opposable arrows or sling stones or someone else has to load your weapon before every shot.
Editor (Metamagic Rods): So, it is possible to make a rod into a magic weapon. (see MIC). So, you make your metamagic rods into +1 Opposable Clubs, basically, and then put them on your knees and elbows. It’ll let a wizard hold more metamagic rods while keeping his hands free for other things. As a DM, I would just reflexively say NO, but that’s just me. By RAW, it should work.
Editor: Very useful for shapechangers. I’d go with Sizing Mouthpick, myself, but that’s just me. More alternate forms have mouths instead of free limbs. Snakes for instance. However, I personally think this would work just fine on your head. Oh course, if a DM allows that, only a two-headed creature could wield a two handed sword with his head. (I just typed that, and I suddenly realize how silly that is.)
Now something I didn't consider, is a problem with hand Crossbow focus is while you can load your crossbow as a free action, you cannot do it one handed. This is what you need Quickloading for. However, if you had opposable, you can "hold" the hand crossbow in a non-standard slot. Like feet, knees, elbows, or forehead. (you know there are only 9 "held" weapon locations on a humanoid, right?) So you could have the crossbow on your forehead with opposable, and load it with one hand, while freeing up your other hand for holding a rapier or something.
QUICK LOADING
- MAGIC ITEM COMPENDIUM (3.5)
- MAGIC OF FAERUN (3.0)
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 9th
Aura: Moderate; (DC 19) conjuration
Activation: Free (manipulation) or move (manipulation); see text
Description: Volleys of soaring bolts are engraved upon this loaded crossbow.
A quick loading crossbow accesses an extra-dimensional space that can hold up to 100 bolts, allowing you to reload the crossbow more rapidly than normal. Reloading a quick loading hand or light crossbow is a free action (allowing a character with multiple attacks to use his full attack rate), and reloading a quick loading heavy crossbow is a move action. Different types of bolts can be held in the extra-dimensional space, and you can select freely from these when reloading the crossbow. Adding or removing a bolt by hand from an extra-dimensional space requires a move (manipulation) action.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Leomund’s secret chest, shrink item.
Editor: This is awesome for crossbows. A must have for anyone who is a casual projectile weapon user. The best part is that you can select your bolts as you need them with the self-sorting extra-dimensional space.
Honestly, if you can afford the WBL, you take quickloading if you are going the Hand Crossbow route. Why? It loads with no hands, so you can dual wield and go all Rambo.
And remember, when increasing the size of a crossbow, the penalty isn't in to hit, but in time it takes to load.
Free - Move - Full - 2 rounds - 3 rounds -4 rounds. etc
And you get to up the base damage as you increase it. But oddly enough, no penalty for firing an oversized crossbow if you cal lift it. (hence why you need flying.) You can take your hand crossbow and increase the size, thus increasing the damage, but only increasing the time it takes to fire. Which makes it no longer "hand sized", of course. Not sure if that's an option, but it's to be considered.
SELF-LOADING
- HEROES OF BATTLE (3.5)
Price: +2 bonus
Property: Siege
Caster Level: 11th
Aura: Strong; (DC 21) transmutation
Activation: —
A self-loading siege weapon automatically winches the throwing arm back into firing position and loads the next projectile in line. This replaces the Strength check and Profession (siege engineer) check required to reload a weapon and reduces the time needed to load a siege weapon by one full-round action (to a minimum of one full-round action).
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor; telekinesis
Editor: Expensive, but speed kills.
Technically siege only, but also, technically, all crossbows are just really small ballistia.
Now onto extrapolated WSAs:
DEATHWAND
- ARMS AND EQUIPMENT GUIDE (3.0)
[DEATHWAND CROSSBOW]
Price: 2,000 gp
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 11th
Aura: Moderate (DC 22) evocation
Activation: Standard
The crossbow can have up to two wands loaded into the crossbow on either side of the main stock. The wielder of a deathwand crossbow is considered to be holding either of the wands when she wields the crossbow, and she can use either wand normally without letting go of the crossbow. Removing or stowing a wand in the crossbow takes a move equivalent action. If the crossbow is destroyed, any wands it holds are also destroyed.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Leomund’s secret chest
Editor: Now consider adding this to a double crossbow instead. The price for a double light crossbow is 70 gp. Plus 300 gp for each bow, then +1 to each would be another 4,000 gp. But then you can buy deathwand twice for four total. That would make a +1/+1 double deathwand crossbow 8,670 gp. Say hello to my little friend. I only wish there was a way to trigger them both at the same time.
Seriously, can you have too many wands at the ready?
DWARVEN MAULER
- ARMS AND EQUIPMENT GUIDE (3.0)
[DWARVEN MAULER CROSSBOW]
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 7th
Aura: Moderate (DC 18) evocation
Activation: —
The weapon can be increased one size class without penalty. Load time does not increase. Furthermore, against all giants and goblinoids, the dwarven mauler’s critical multiplier is increased to x4.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, creator must be a dwarf
Editor: A rather specific type of WSA, and not a bad one, it just doesn’t sing to me, you know?
If you don't mind supersizing your hand crossbow to do more damage while still being able to claim all your hand crossbow perks.
RELOADING
- MINIATURES HANDBOOK (3.5)
[CROSSBOW OF RELOADING]
Price: 4,000 gp
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 7th
Aura: Moderate (DC 18) evocation
Activation: —
Reloading this weapon is a free action instead of a move action. If the crossbow takes less than, or more then a move action to reload, this WSA becomes dormant. It only changes move action to free action for the purpose of reloading.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, haste
Editor: Different then quick loading or self-loading, I’m not entirely sure if it was replaced by either of those or if it should be considered it’s own WSA. That said, I think I would err on the side of including it and allow a DM to disallow it, then to make the choice for them.
Another way to upsize your hand crossbow then off set the time to fire penalty.
SORCERER HAND
- ARMS AND EQUIPMENT GUIDE (3.0)
[SORCERER’S HAND]
Price: +1 Bonus
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 11th
Aura: Moderate (DC 20) evocation
Activation: —
This crossbow is a potent tool for casting ray spells. If held and used as an additional arcane focus when casting a ray spell, the spell’s effective caster level is increased by 1. This increase affects all aspects of the spell, including damage, range, and duration. Furthermore, the sorcerer’s hand grants it’s enhancement bonus and weapon special abilities on attack rolls for rays.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, any ray spell
Editor: So, you are telling me for a +1 WSA, I can increase my ray spell’s Caster Level and add a +2 enhance bonus? Or it it adding the enhancement bonus from the weapon? If the weapon was +1, would I only have a +1 enhance bonus on my ray spell? What if I put other WSA in the crossbow? If I made it an acidic crossbow, would all my ray spells do an extra +1d6 acid damage? I hate to say it, Oh yes it does appear that way. But before you drool over this, let me point out the implications to those DMs out there.
Editor (Rules Abuse): First of all I’m spending 2,000 gp to make this a deathwand crossbow. Two wands with ray spells should make sure I never run out of ammo. Next I’m reducing this to +1 to save on money. Then I’m adding exit wound. Note, exit wound says it affects the missile, not arrow, so it should apply to the ray spell. True, it is a +3 WSA, but for the ability to hit someone, go through them to the next target behind them and roll again at +4 difficulty? Worth. Every. Copper. Next WSA is splitting. Another +3 WSA, but it doubles every missile. Even a scorching ray becomes a blizzard of death. Tack on other WSAs as you wish that might help a specific ray spell, if you wish to specialize in a given spell. Oh. And it still shoots bolts. So, while it appears to add the whole package, you might want to limit it to enhancement bonus only.
Cast ray spells? Or loading wands that cast ray spells into your deathwand crossbow? GET THIS.
Technically, there is a way of using poison, assassination WSAs, and an oil chamber to poison your ray attacks.
SPEED LOADING
- ARMS AND EQUIPMENT GUIDE (3.0)
[SELF-LOADING CROSSBOW]
Price: 10,000 gp
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 10th
Aura: Moderate (DC 21) evocation
Activation: Wielded
After firing, the crossbow’s string is magically reset to the cocked position, requiring the wielder to simply place a bolt in the weapon to load it. Loading a Speed loading crossbow requires only a move equivalent action.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Animate Objects
Editor: I’m not sure if it was replaced by speed loading, converted to siege only, or replaced by quick loading. As it stands, it should be it’s own WSA.
SPEED LOADING
- ARMS AND EQUIPMENT GUIDE (3.0)
[SELF-LOADING CROSSBOW]
Price: 10,000 gp
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 10th
Aura: Moderate (DC 21) evocation
Activation: Wielded
After firing, the crossbow’s string is magically reset to the cocked position, requiring the wielder to simply place a bolt in the weapon to load it. Loading a Speed loading crossbow requires only a move equivalent action. It can only be used on a heavy crossbow, or a crossbow that requires a full round action to load.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Animate Objects
Editor: I’m not sure if it was replaced by speed loading, converted to siege only, or replaced by quick loading. As it stands, it should be it’s own WSA.
SPINNERET
- UNDERDARK (3.5)
[HAND SPINNERET]
Price: 18,000 gp
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 8th
Aura: Moderate (DC 19) conjuration
Activation: Standard (command)
Range: 180 ft.
Effect: Webs in a 20-ft. radius spread
Duration: 80 minutes.
Saving Throw: Reflex negates; see text
Spell Resistance: No
The wielder can use web (caster level 8th) as a standard action three times per day.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, web
Editor (web): Web creates a many-layered mass of strong, sticky strands. These strands trap those caught in them. The strands are similar to spider webs but far larger and tougher. These masses must be anchored to two or more solid and diametrically opposed points—floor and ceiling, opposite walls, or the like—or else the web collapses upon itself and disappears. Creatures caught within a web become entangled among the gluey fibers. Attacking a creature in a web won’t cause you to become entangled. Anyone in the effect’s area when the spell is cast must make a Reflex save. If this save succeeds, the creature is entangled, but not prevented from moving, though moving is more difficult than normal for being entangled (see below).
If the save fails, the creature is entangled and can’t move from its space, but can break loose by spending 1 round and making a DC 20 Strength check or a DC 25 Escape Artist check. Once loose (either by making the initial Reflex save or a later Strength check or Escape Artist check), a creature remains entangled, but may move through the web very slowly. Each round devoted to moving allows the creature to make a new Strength check or Escape Artist check. The creature moves 5 feet for each full 5 points by which the check result exceeds 10. If you have at least 5 feet of web between you and an opponent, it provides cover. If you have at least 20 feet of web between you, it provides total cover.
The strands of a web spell are flammable. A magic flaming sword can slash them away as easily as a hand brushes away cobwebs. Any fire—a torch, burning oil, a flaming sword, and so forth—can set the webs alight and burn away 5 square feet in 1 round. All creatures within flaming webs take 2d4 points of fire damage from the flames.
Editor: Math-wise, this would normally cost 28,800 gp, so this one is a bargain. Web is an awesome spell. First you cast it to hold the enemy still, then you roll your flaming sphere right through them. They burn for the sphere, they burn for the webs, and you get to pick them off one at a time. A wonderful low level combination every wizard should apply against mass groupings of enemies.
Originally a hand crossbow, so starting with a hand spinneret is a good idea.
And since you are expecting to fire many many bolts.
TRAILING FLAME
- ARMS AND EQUIPMENT GUIDE (3.0)
[CROSSBOW OF TRAILING FLAME]
Price: +1 bonus
Property: Crossbow
Caster Level: 13th
Aura: Strong (DC 22) evocation
Activation: —
Prerequisite: Flaming
This WSA retains the qualities of its prerequisite. Anytime a WSA of trailing flame is fired more than once in the same round, its additional property is activated. Each shot after the first in the round deals a cumulative +1 point of fire damage. For example, the second shot in a round deals 1d8+1 normal damage and 1d6+1 fire damage, and the third shot in the same round deals 1d8+1 normal damage and 1d6+2 fire damage.
Construction: Craft Magic Arms and Armor, flame blade, flame strike, or fireball
Editor: This, at first blush, seems to suck. However, what about Arrow Storm? What about splitting WSA? You need to run this by your DM, but I can see how this could quickly scale up out of control.
That's about everything that applies you tor request for info on Hand Crossbow firing rates and a few suggestions for improvement.
