Yeah, I've ran the numbers and played a bit with testing module, it looks like crossbow sniper tops out at around 56..60 damage per multishot even with maxed desterity. The damage can crit into 100..120 territorry, though and it gets 50 AB or so.Comments Only wrote:Levels 1-11, Fighter Crossbower is the easiest character to play here.NegInfinity wrote:How viable is a non-hipsing crossbowman/archer, exactly? Figther 30 can reach 37 dexterity, but they don't get any good skill, and will be incredibly vulnerable to anything they can't kill before it gets close. (No evasion, athough AC can be very high. It is possible to have finesseable weapon as a backup, but the damage will be very low).
As for Fighter 30;
20 (Base Dexterity at character creation)
+ 7 (Stock ability increases)
+ 4 (Cat's Grace potion/item ability enchantment bonus)
+ 7 (Great Dexterity Feats, you could have 3 more but those might be better spent on Epic Weapon feats and Blinding Speed.)
= 38 (or 40 if you just want Blinding Speed.)
As for melee alternative, pre-epic fighter will have those 11 Fighter bonus feats to spare. You can afford to get Greater Weapon Specialization and some appropriate Melee Weapon Mastery feat to go alongside it. Then you might even consider getting Combat Insight with some of your epic feats. Deadly Defense can net you extra 1d4 melee damage too. All these things add up to reasonably high melee damage...
But as a fighter based Crossbow Sniper, you are not limited to just ranged sneak attack range. You can very easily just pick up single enemies from afar and pelt them full of bolts before they even reach you.
Still, it is kinda squishy if something gets close to it, even with its impressive 52 AC. Also, skills are not that great, and it doesn't get tumble.
Either way, in the end, I've made a copy of my original merc and rearranged levels a bit to get more skillpoints and better rogue skills. Since Free RCR is over, I think I'll stick with it.