Creating bolts in the field for Mechanics

[SickCat]

Arcane Archers can conjure a stack of 100% returning arrows. Artificers can conjure a stack of 1000 bolts. Mechanics can get a bunch of House D favor and buy more 75% returning bolts when their stock runs dry. That's not AWFUL...but an improvement could be made. I suggest letting mechanics use the trap parts they gather to create ammunition for their crossbows in the field. Perhaps combining mechanical, fire, and magic trap parts could create a stack of fiery bolts that return 50% of the time, or do an exceptional +1 damage, or both.

How about letting mechanics combine these trap parts to create cartridges with 100% returning ammo, or 75%, or something.

How about a red slot weapon upgrade that gives whatever ammo you have loaded a stacking/exceptional chance or returning? You could use trap parts to MAKE an upgrade!

I've put 6 levels of Arti on my mechanic and it was pretty fun. I even had an 18/2 rog/arti split for a while, but I really much prefer a pure rogue, and mechanics are currently the only ranged group that can't make their own ammo. Maybe because mechanics are just a PrE enabled subset of rogues this doesn't look as important...

Anyway. That's my suggestion.

[ssgcmwatson]

I think it's an idea worth pursuing.

[Waaye]

... That's my suggestion.

It is a good idea but I feel by the endgame the player should not have to bother with ammunition at all. A self-filling self-selecting quiver would be what I want.

[Cleanincubus]

This is a brilliant idea! This has always been a major issue for my mechanic (especially since I built him so gimped). After one to three long quests, certainly soloing, I have to refill my 5+ quivers. It's also impossible to get the 75% returning bolts, while being F2P, so you have to purchase at least one of the 2 House Deneith Adventure Packs. IMO, even releasing the Artificer class, was a slap in the face of Rogue Mechanics. Giving Artificers the ability to create magical bolts, and Mechanics to mechanically create their own bolts, would help even the balance of classes/Prestiges a decent amount.

[droid327]

A 19/1 Rogue/Arti gets everything that a pure rogue does - there's no current capstone for 20 rogue, and the PrE itself of course caps out at Rogue 12. Although in the EP, a +1d6 to stats and +2d6 to damage for 1 min out of 3 is kinda worthwhile...

That being said, you're a Rogue, UMD is a class skill and you're going to have plenty of INT=skill points since you eventually get INT-to-dmg as a Mechanic. Conjure Bolts is a L1 spell, and they sell the scrolls at the Arti vendor. A stack of 100 Scrolls is worth 100,000 rounds of ammo, unless there's something about CB scrolls I don't know...Also, you can scroll Flame Arrow for Flaming bolts even, though that's a little pricier since its a higher-level scroll and only yields 50, not 1000.

I'd much rather go that route even if I could craft bolts from trap parts - you'll exhaust your trap parts way faster than you could replenish them by disabling Traps, if that was your main source of ammo.

All that aside - I really like the idea of a red augment for Returning 25%/50%/75% a lot. I wouldn't make it stacking with Returning on arrows, but maybe introduce a named endgame-level quiver with Exceptional Returning 25%, so you could get to 100%. I just think getting 100% Returning on Shards of Light/+5 Screaming Amethyst Arrows is a little much, especially for a TR who would have a stack of powerful and infinite arrows at very low level.

But I do like the idea of up to 75% returning stretching out your Xoriat or Flame or DR-breaker arrows, it'd make arrow swapping more viable since it'd involve a lot less shopping and restocking downtime, and make AA summoned arrows less ubiquitous simply because they're so much more readily available

[SickCat]

A 19/1 Rogue/Arti gets everything that a pure rogue does - there's no current capstone for 20 rogue

That being said, you're a Rogue, UMD is a class skill...Conjure Bolts is a L1 spell...you can scroll Flame Arrow for Flaming bolts

you'll exhaust your trap parts way faster than you could replenish them by disabling Traps

Huh??? 19/1 loses 5d6 sneak damage and +2dex (lvl 20 gives +1d6 sneak, capstone, which absolutely exists...one of two capstones actually...gives an additional 4 with 2 points to dex). Now, I'm an outspoken sneak damage junky and want that number as high as it can get. That said, I had 6 lvls of Arti on this build for a while and loved making bolts and Fusillading (that's a word now!!!) monsters' faces off with sneak damage. I even went 18/2 for a time, kept runearms and ammo casting...but in the end, I'm happier as a pure rogue.

I've tried SO hard to make the flaming bolt scroll thing work, really, I have. You MUST have basic bolts as a component of the spell...which is actually a really cool part of that spell, imo...the problem is...I always missed the message that said "you reload 100 basic bolts into your xbow" and completely depleted my stock of components/bolts. Could I simply pay more attention? Sure. Could the scroll pull those bolts from a non-equipped quiver or (currently non-existant) components bag? Uhhhhh, yea...well...it could if it were coded thus...but it isn't...so I remain sad.

The stack of conjure bolts scrolls is also a fantastic idea...if it worked. I even went back, just a bit ago after reading your response, and tried using that scroll again...to no avail. I equip the scroll, I use it from a hotbar, I get a successful UMD message...and nothing happens. No bolts in my bags, quiver, or inventory...nor is it in the bolt slot. I probably wouldn't have made this post if those functioned. But as of this writing, buying those scrolls is one of the better ways I can think of to make platinum pieces disappear.

Addressing the exhaustion of your trap parts is, in my opinion, moot. There is no mechanism in place to create bolts from trap parts, so saying they'd get used up would be a completely baseless observation, as there's no proof that that is what would happen.

Thanks for chiming in everyone