Piercing Shot

Not to be confused with Arcane Shot: Piercing Arrow

Piercing Shot is a weapon action available to characters proficient in and wielding a hand crossbow, heavy crossbow, or light crossbow in their main hand.

Description

Deal regular damage and possibly inflict  Gaping Wounds which cause extra damage on attacks.

Undead and constructs can't receive Gaping Wounds.

Properties

Cost

 Action

Damage

Normal weapon damage

Details

 Ranged Weapon Attack Roll

 CON Save (Weapon action DC + 2)

 Range: Normal weapon range

 Recharge: Short rest

Must be proficient with weapon

Technical details

UID

Projectile_PiercingShot

Spell flags

HasHighGroundRangeExtension, IsDefaultWeaponAction, IsHarmful, RangeIgnoreVerticalThreshold

Condition: Gaping Wounds

 Gaping Wounds

Duration: 2 turns

 CON Save (Weapon action DC + 2)

• Successful attacks against the creature deal an additional 2⁠⁠Piercing damage.
• Removed by healing.

How to learn

Granted by wielding the following weapon types with proficiency:

•  Hand Crossbows
•  Heavy Crossbows
•  Light Crossbows

Notes

• Two saving throw rolls are displayed in the combat log upon hitting a target, with only one being relevant depending on if the attacker has  Crossbow Expert: Wounding or not.^{[See: Bugs]}
  • The first saving throw only matters without Crossbow Expert: Wounding; targets that fail it are inflicted with the  Gaping Wounds condition for 2 turns.
  • The second saving throw only matters with Crossbow Expert: Wounding; targets that fail it are inflicted with the Gaping Wounds condition for 4 turns.

Bugs

• Due to a bug in reaction processing, if the target's failure on this ability's saving throws is caused by a reaction such as  Bend Luck,  Cosmic Omen of Woe: Saving Throw,  Cutting Words, or  Portent, the normal restrictions around the  Crossbow Expert: Wounding passive are bypassed, resulting in two chances to apply  Gaping Wounds.
  • For an attacker without the passive, a reaction-forced failure on the second saving throw applies the 4-turn Gaping Wounds effect.
  • For an attacker with the passive, a reaction-forced failure on the first saving throw applies the 2-turn Gaping Wounds effect, which can still become a 4-turn effect if the target also fails the second saving throw.
  • When the prompt to alter the saving throw is offered, there is no indication of whether it is the first or the second saving throw.