I have a great NPC in mind. He’s a gnomish artificer (Unearthed arcana playtest class. Artificers are where master tinkerer meets adventurer in D&D they craft magic items, and are a half caster. They are intelligence based and are pretty much made for the gnome race) he has a home brew magic item for a weapon (That he crafted himself).
So basically in 5e the loading property restricts you to one attack per round. I’m pretty sure the 3.5 rule requires to you physically load the weapon? But in 5e all it does is prevents a multi attack (So that a level 20 fighter can’t shoot 4 heavy crossbow bolts in 6 seconds) but there is a crossbow feat. Crossbow expert. Crossbow expert allows you to ignore the loading property, not have disadvantage on attacks within 5 feet, and use a bonus action to fire a hand crossbow.
So basically you CAN fire 4 shots in 6 seconds using a heavy crossbow. I told my dad this and he said that shouldn’t be possible because that basically is equivalent to a semi auto rifle in D&D.
So then I came up with the idea for a grenadier in D&D. It’s a gnomish artificer (with the subclass of alchemist) if you read the alchemist it has essentially two types of grenades and one other option. For the other option I chose smoke stick. (Which is basically fog cloud but on command with a slightly smaller radius) The artificer also carries what essentially is an semi automatic pistol. It’s a magic hand crossbow that can shoot four bolts per round. It’s hooked up to a machine (it looks like those weird things that the ghostbusters wear on their backs.) that basically feeds the bolts into the bolt chamber, that spins around like a revolver. Then there is a mechanism that pulls back the crossbow string super fast.
Rolling a natural 1 while operating the crossbow results in it getting jammed for 1d6 rounds. And the machine on your back can only hold 40 bolts, meaning every 10 rounds (or one minute) you have to reload the machine with more bolts. Every 20 bolts you reload takes one round, so it takes 2 rounds to fully reload the machine.
I put these in so that it didn’t seem super Over Powered, considering you are dealing out a potential of 4d6+4*dex mod
So if you land every shot with a dex mod of plus 3 then the minimum damage you dish out is 16. Is that too OP? Potential of 36 damage.
As a DM I use a crit rule where on a critical hit the first dice automatically deal some max damage.
So if they score a crit using a battle axe (1d12 damage) then the damage is 12+1d12+strength mod.
Lol what if you scored 4 critical hits with a plus 5 dex mod. 24+4d6+40 maximum 88 damage.
You can also make a heavy crossbow and light crossbow version of this Weapon.
Originally I was going to make him like riot policeman, with a shield in one hand and his pistol in the other, but it doesn’t work to well with a caster.
So the gnome essentially fights by throwing a smoke stick into the room and then charging in guns blazing right behind the tankiest person in the party.
Honestly I don’t know what I’ve done with my life.
Give me some feedback, whether it’s a good idea or a bad one. Also if I got any rules wrong you can tell me.
It sounds like a really fun build to play, especially if it is as an NPC, whether he’s an ally or an enemy. If I were DMing, I don’t think I would let a player use something like the automatic crossbow unless it was a high level character. It seems like it could be very OP in the hands of certain players, but as something the DM is utilizing, it could be very exciting.
Maybe a scenario where it seems that certain doom is inevitable for the party, until the Gnome with the full auto crossbow saves the day (only to lead them into another, different dangerous encounter where his crossbow isn’t effective). Or, just as the party feels victory within their grasp, the room fills with smoke and there’s bolts coming is waves. As long as it’s strictly in an NPC’s hands, the DM can assure it isn’t OP.
I love the idea though. I’m currently trying to turn my Half-Avariel into a dual hand crossbow wielding John Woo character. If I could fire more bolts a round, it would be sick!
Wow. The gnome is a friendly npc. He was rejected from wizard school so he himself famous through his incredible inventions instead. Eventually he takes up s life of adventuring, once all of his friends become all powerful wizards. Being incredibly weak (he has a strength of 7) with average constitution he invented his crossbow to help aid him in his struggles. He also invented his alchemy bag which he uses to his advantage.
My players have to cross over an ocean, but it’s much to treacherous for any normal boat. So instead they have to travel by airship. In my campaign airships are very magical. They require a special gnomish motor to fly. The last one to be made was taken by the enemy. So the players have to break into a dungeon (with the help of the artificer) The artificer was actually inspired by Maz Kanata from Star Wars. It’s the one scene in the last Jedi where Finn and Rose contact her, but she’s in the middle of a fight blasting away and dodging bullets.
Do the artificer wears night vision goggles (increases his already great dark vision to 120 feet).
So he basically turned himself from a magic reject to a badass gnome commando. Also he can move like 70 feet per round. In the alchemist bag there’s a speed draught that increases your speed by 20 feet for 1 minute. But he also has expeditious retreat, longstrider, and jump as artificer spells.
so 25 base speed + 10 feet longstrider + dash every bonus action for 1 minute + triple jump distance
I actually have a legitimate problem though... what if my artificer outshines the rest of the party. The artificer is such an awesome concept that it might outshine the rest of the party. (I’m a much more expereinced player compared to my players)
send me your thoughts.
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I have a great NPC in mind. He’s a gnomish artificer (Unearthed arcana playtest class. Artificers are where master tinkerer meets adventurer in D&D they craft magic items, and are a half caster. They are intelligence based and are pretty much made for the gnome race) he has a home brew magic item for a weapon (That he crafted himself).
It sounds like a really fun build to play, especially if it is as an NPC, whether he’s an ally or an enemy. If I were DMing, I don’t think I would let a player use something like the automatic crossbow unless it was a high level character. It seems like it could be very OP in the hands of certain players, but as something the DM is utilizing, it could be very exciting.
Maybe a scenario where it seems that certain doom is inevitable for the party, until the Gnome with the full auto crossbow saves the day (only to lead them into another, different dangerous encounter where his crossbow isn’t effective). Or, just as the party feels victory within their grasp, the room fills with smoke and there’s bolts coming is waves. As long as it’s strictly in an NPC’s hands, the DM can assure it isn’t OP.
I love the idea though. I’m currently trying to turn my Half-Avariel into a dual hand crossbow wielding John Woo character. If I could fire more bolts a round, it would be sick!
Wow. The gnome is a friendly npc. He was rejected from wizard school so he himself famous through his incredible inventions instead. Eventually he takes up s life of adventuring, once all of his friends become all powerful wizards. Being incredibly weak (he has a strength of 7) with average constitution he invented his crossbow to help aid him in his struggles. He also invented his alchemy bag which he uses to his advantage.
My players have to cross over an ocean, but it’s much to treacherous for any normal boat. So instead they have to travel by airship. In my campaign airships are very magical. They require a special gnomish motor to fly. The last one to be made was taken by the enemy. So the players have to break into a dungeon (with the help of the artificer) The artificer was actually inspired by Maz Kanata from Star Wars. It’s the one scene in the last Jedi where Finn and Rose contact her, but she’s in the middle of a fight blasting away and dodging bullets.
Do the artificer wears night vision goggles (increases his already great dark vision to 120 feet).
So he basically turned himself from a magic reject to a badass gnome commando. Also he can move like 70 feet per round. In the alchemist bag there’s a speed draught that increases your speed by 20 feet for 1 minute. But he also has expeditious retreat, longstrider, and jump as artificer spells.
so 25 base speed + 10 feet longstrider + dash every bonus action for 1 minute + triple jump distance
I actually have a legitimate problem though... what if my artificer outshines the rest of the party. The artificer is such an awesome concept that it might outshine the rest of the party. (I’m a much more expereinced player compared to my players)
send me your thoughts.