I have a question regarding the loading property and the 17th level Scout feature "Sudden Strike." The feature states if one takes the attack action, they may use a bonus action to make another attack that may benefit from sneak attack (if target has not suffered from sneak attack already).
The question is if the loading restriction would affect this second attack, IE: would I need the Crossbow Expert feat in order to make this second attack, or would it be allowed, as my second attack is using a bonus action (different type of action) instead of a second attack from attack action?
I know for combat efficiency's sake, taking the Crossbow Expert feat is preferred if it is a long campaign that reaches high levels, I was just curious hypothetically (think high level one-shot).
Loading. Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.
This means that you can only fire 1 ammo from it in an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction; this only really restricts the Extra Attack feature, which allows a character to make more than one attack in an Attack Action. Since you'd be making the second attack with a separate Bonus Action, you're fine without Crossbow Expert, so long as you are capable of loading the weapon.
I have a question regarding the loading property and the 17th level Scout feature "Sudden Strike." The feature states if one takes the attack action, they may use a bonus action to make another attack that may benefit from sneak attack (if target has not suffered from sneak attack already).
The question is if the loading restriction would affect this second attack, IE: would I need the Crossbow Expert feat in order to make this second attack, or would it be allowed, as my second attack is using a bonus action (different type of action) instead of a second attack from attack action?
I know for combat efficiency's sake, taking the Crossbow Expert feat is preferred if it is a long campaign that reaches high levels, I was just curious hypothetically (think high level one-shot).
Well, here's the definition of the Loading weapon property:
This means that you can only fire 1 ammo from it in an Action, Bonus Action, or Reaction; this only really restricts the Extra Attack feature, which allows a character to make more than one attack in an Attack Action. Since you'd be making the second attack with a separate Bonus Action, you're fine without Crossbow Expert, so long as you are capable of loading the weapon.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
What naruhoodie said.
It is only limited per action. So stops extra attack, but bonus action or action surge, etc get around it.