Comments on: A Step Past “Sharpshooter”

By: Kyrinn S. Eis

Kyrinn S. Eis — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:33:55 +0000

What’s really in view here (no pun intended) is that a particular area (set of squares, or hexes, etc.) are what are on Overwatch. Simply having a target move into the ‘corridor’ of the Front Facing is not enough. When looking at the front sight of a long-arm (Rifle, etc.), everything closer than the targeted area becomes blurred to the point of near-invisibility. Only the Area of Focus is in view.

If your current write-up were to add that a specific Area were necessary, and only targets that were in, or near that Area were elective targets, then the Feat would be very solid, as well as ‘realistic’.

To provide more flexibility, squares or hexes (I’ll call them Zones from here on) that ring-outward from the Primary Zone would also be potential Areas of Focus (AoF), but each other Zone (whether further from the shooter, or nearer, left or right) that the shooter wants to engage should result in a Zone Penalty.
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Ex.:

A Mercenary sniper is atop a roof in Hospice City, and is covering the mouth of an alleyway some 110′ distant. In game terms, the mouth of the alleyway is 6-squares wide.

The GM asks the Sniper to designate their Primary Zone (PZ). Each adjacent square in a ‘ring’ around the PZ can be fired-into at a penalty of -2.

An Ogrun moves into the mouth of the alleyway, but is three ‘Zones’ away from the PZ. To fire on the Ogrun imposes a -6.
———-

However, a shooter can only cover an area in Overwatch which is relatively close to the PZ. Targets/threats which are *nearer* pose a much greater penalty than those that are further, as they are blocked from Line of Sight by the weapon itself.

In this case, the shooter should be required to test against an appropriate sense or what have you to even be aware of the threat. If the shooter becomes aware of the nearer target/threat, they must break their PZ to engage this threat, and should receive no less than a -2 Initiative Penalty per Range Increment from the original PZ.

———-
Ex.:

Our sniper drops the Ogrun at the mouth of the alleway, but this draws the attention of an allied captain who emerges from the building the sniper is atop.

This building is two range increments from the PZ of the mouth of the alleyway. With a -4 to Initiative, the sniper breaks the PZ and reacts to the nearby threat.
———-

Establishing a PZ should take one Full Action.

I hope that helps.

By: empryme

empryme — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:59:02 +0000

My recommendation is to add a Base Attack Requirement to this feat; especially if you want it to be “fairly high-level.” As is, a 6th level human fighter can snag with feat.

My only other two cents would be to limit the area of attack to half the ranged increment of the weapon being used or 30ft. Whatever you feel tones this feat into shape.

By: Jumbley

Jumbley — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:15:19 +0000

Your explanation of overwatch is a bit unclear. Overwatch is the act of using a well-covered defensive position with clear lanes of fire to provide covering fire for advancing allies; to that end, you might want to revamp your description.

My other grievance with this is that nearly the same effect can be gained just by using a ready action when you’re in an appropriate position. The feat is mostly pointless unless it provides some extra benefit (or even a limiting factor). As well, you should have a closer look at your writing; you say that you can make any number of Attacks of Opportunity, but later go on to say that you an make only a single attack against a single target. Are you saying that all the attacks must be limited on the one target, or that they must all be spread out to different targets?

By: alistairenix

alistairenix — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:39:05 +0000

You are correct, I was using this so that if you were the shooter in question and someone entered your Line-of-Sight and was in range, you could pop off a shot, interrupting their movement. I do agree, after looking at my initial write-up, that that explanation is WAY too powerful. I have made some edits to adjust. It now only allows firing at a target within the shooters front facing arc, rather than the 360-degree, “Shoot anyone you spot” implications of the original post.

Thanks for the feedback!

By: coffeeswiller

coffeeswiller — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:33:08 +0000

It’s an interesting idea for a feat, and I like it, but I do need to clarify about the range: since a character with a ranged weapon doesn’t actually threaten, does this mean anywhere within the character’s range? You did mention that range modifiers apply, so is this anywhere within 10X the range (max range of a ranged weapon)? If so, that may be excessive.

There was a feat I saw in Swashbuckling Adventures (AEG) that I think covers the spirit of what you want. Granted, I almost never recommend anything from that book due to balance reasons, the feat is reasonable and good. The feat is called Suppressive Fire, requires Combat Reflexes and PBS, IIRC, and allows a character with a firearm to designate a straight line. If a character moves to, through or within that line, the character may take an AoO. It may be within the first range increment, but may not be.

Just my thoughts. I do like the Sharpshooter feat, and would like a viable next step for it.