Ok, so I got a player who is playing a Wookie with a bowcaster and wants to snipe with it. He bought the telescope that removes one difficulty when firing from long or extreme range. The range of a bowcaster is medium, so the question is can he even fire from long or extreme range with it? It seems like I remember reading somewhere that you can fire from greater distances but suffer a setback dice, but I can't find anywhere in the book that says that now. Any help with these noob GM questions would be appreciated

I know there are talents, Sniper Shot, that allows you to extend your maximum shooting range equal to ranks in Sniper Shot. Spend a maneuver, suffer strain, and increase difficulty by 1 per range increased. Found in the Assassin, Mercenary Soldier and Sharpshooter trees, maybe another from the career books.

The rule that you remember is from the Beta version. The released version just states a maximum range for a weapon, unless you mod the weapon, or have talents.

After watching that one TCW episode in which Embo is sniping with a modified bowcaster, I also tried to make that build out of curiosity. Lack of HP makes it pretty hard, and it will never be as good as a sniper dedicated modified Heavy Blaster Rifle, but it is somewhat doable. As Blackbird mentioned, you first need the talent Sniper Shot, and then you want the telescope attachment. That way, depending on your ranks in Sniper shot, you can shoot from long or extreme range. Since it takes a maneuver to activate the talent, you might want to grab that Bowcaster automatic re-cocker to reload automatically, and probably the Bowcaster accelerator enhancement for those extra damage and pierce points (you want a good sniper, after all), which means you'd need one rank of Tinkerer to add an HP for all that stuff.

It is harder to do than with a HBR, but as I said it's still doable: it just needs more dedication, which isn't a bad thing, since building the perfect sniper bowcaster can be a character goal or a side story altogether.

Thanks for all the quick replies guys, I really love this forum for how expedient everyone is to help each other. And Edgookin, I knew I had read it somewhere but couldn't find it or remember where so thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy. I'll work with him on the talent and making sure he has the things he needs to really get the most out of that build.

There's some gear that offers the sniper shot talent too in case he wants to spend credits instead of XP.

The talent Sniper Shot allows a PC to extend the range band at which his weapon can fire effectively. Without this talent or a mod granting this talent, the Bowcaster's range is limited to Medium and that scope isn't doing anything for him besides taking up a HP. But given the nature of a bowcaster (handmade and unique to each Wookie) and your place as GM to allow for it, you could potentially let him to modify his weapon to fire at long range. I would just ask for a Mechanics check and a HP.

You could build a "Bowcaster Only" attachment to enhance the range - possibly add accuracy

Bowcaster Augmented Phasic Spin Coupler:

Like the Accelerator Enhancement, this attachment is custom built for an individual bowcaster from scavenged parts. By imparting a spin on the bolt, a Spin Coupler increases the accuracy and effective range of a bowcaster it is attached to. Due to the hand crafted nature of bowcasters, this attachment can only be built by the original weaponsmith who built the bowcaster, or someone who has the bowcaster in their possession while crafting the attachment. An Average (DD) check will successfully craft the attachment - often using parts scavenged from droid motivators.

Models Include: Custom

Base Modifier: Increases the weapons range by 1 band.

Modification Options: 1 Innate Talent(Sniper Shot); 2X Weapon Quality (Accurate +1)

Hard Points Required: 2

Price: 500

It's essentially the Marksmen's barrel modded for the Bowcaster.

• Cost is lowered (Accelerator Enhancement vs Spin Barrel)
• Added a crafting check per the other Bowcaster attachments
• Didn't include the Cumbersome 2 quality - the bowcaster already is 3 and it doesn't actually but a 2M barrel on it.

This will fit on a stock bowcaster with no other attachments. With a good Intuitive Improvements roll you could add either the auto-recocker or the Accelerator Enhancement.

I don't have the Guardian book yet, so I haven't checked on the crafting stuff, but from what I've heard, crafting is going to let you add HP once we get tables for crafting weapons in whatever book that's going to be in.

How about long range quarrels with a limited ammo quality?

How about long range quarrels with a limited ammo quality?

I use the Correlian bow ammo to represent the various ammo types that are described in the fluff since they never bothered to include them. Seems to surprise people when the bowcaster actually blows things up instead of just punch holes in minions. So how about:

Long Range Bolt:

Specially crafted to be more stable in flight, these bolts extend the range of a bowcaster at the expense of hitting power.

Base Modifier: Increases the weapons range by 1 band. Decrease the Damage by 2.

Modification Options: None

Hard Points Required: 0

Price: ---

**Edit - no hard points required - it's a special ammo

How about long range quarrels with a limited ammo quality?

I use the Correlian bow ammo to represent the various ammo types that are described in the fluff since they never bothered to include them. Seems to surprise people when the bowcaster actually blows things up instead of just punch holes in minions. So how about:

Long Range Bolt:

Specially crafted to be more stable in flight, these bolts extend the range of a bowcaster at the expense of hitting power.

Base Modifier: Increases the weapons range by 1 band. Decrease the Damage by 2.

Modification Options: None

Hard Points Required: 0

Price: ---

**Edit - no hard points required - it's a special ammo

I think this would also be a solid solution.

I have been waiting for bowcaster special ammo since Edge first dropped. It's in the write up, and the cost benefit on the bowcaster is pretty bad if you look at just the stats. When I originally looked at it, I assumed that FFG would be filling the bowcaster with a handful of ammo choices. That would really shore up it's CBA weaknesses against other Ranged Heavy options. But somehow we ended up with the Corellian Bow instead because that's a really thematic Star Wars weapon...