[Chance] Weapon - Sharpshooter's Gallery

For master archers so confident in their own skills, from the scopeless arbalesters to the round-circle quickdraw bowman, this crossbow puts their purported exceptional skills to the test. The Scintella Faire archery booths invites participants of all ages!

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Sharpshooter's Gallery
Weapon (light crossbow), uncommon

Immediately before you make an attack roll with this magic weapon, you can declare a number of your choice from 1 through 20. If your declared number equals the d20 result, the attack becomes a critical hit. If your declared number fails or exceeds the d20 result by 3 or more, any damage you deal with the attack is halved (if you hit). 

If your declared number is 20 and you also roll a 20, you roll three additional damage dice instead of one for scoring a critical hit.

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DESIGN COMMENTARY

This was one of the few "games of chance" I could wrestle out of the fairground theme (since so many are actually games of skill), based on the archery/shooting gallery games. I actually struggled a while to figure out the declaration mechanism, testing ideas ranging from consecutive hit bonuses (an idea already used in the Nick of Time sword) and thresholds (this doesn't work since players would simply declare specific number thresholds for a relatively consistent benefit). In the end, I stuck with a bulls-eye mark where you do better the closer you are to your declared number.

It's important to note that though the stats really boils down to shifting the crit number around with added penalties, you can take advantage of it. Consider some of these examples:

• If you're fighting a high AC monster where you only hit on a roll of 16 or higher, declaring 18 ensures you're expanding your crit range with no drawback. If you're a Champion fighter, that number also changes.
• If you have the ability to re-roll the d20 and choose the result (such as Lucky), you have higher odds of hitting your declared number.
• You can set your declared number to match a Divination Wizard's portent even if it is low, i.e. you can declare a 5 and it is still considered a crit.
• If you have disadvantage on an attack and don't expect to roll high, you can declare a low crit number in hopes of hitting a low number critical.

Also remember that because this weapon doesn't require attunement, there's no cost to lugging this around and using it whenever you wish.

Also did you catch the 360 no scope reference