So I feel as if there are tons of rules being broken in your game, which would be part of your trouble. I have a hard time seeing a wizard being better at ranged combat than any other class, ever. First of all, as mentioned before, you can't fire a heavy crossbow more than once per round so he's capped there at fairly miniscule damage compared to any melee class at that level. (You said he had two attacks, so the group must be decently high level). Even with a comparatively high dex, wizards still have horrible base attack bonuses, so his total attack bonus should still be less than other characters by a significant amount.
Another thing I noticed was when you described how he killed the group's rogue. His first roll was a critical failure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't one's turn end immediately upon critical failure? i.e. you don't get to try again for your second attack. (Which he shouldn't even have with the crossbow)
Next would be the feats. You didn't say what level he is, or race, I don't think. Assuming he's at least level 12 (from the two attacks), he should have about 5 or 6 feats depending on if he's human or not. So he probably has Point Blank Shot, (maybe) Far Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, and in the spirit of min-maxing Weapon Focus. This is fine I guess, but make sure he has all the prerequisites for his feats, and don't let him use wizard bonus feats for combat feats instead. As mentioned earlier, Rapid Reload is being used incorrectly. Normally a heavy crossbow takes a full round action to reload, and Rapid Reload reduces that to a move action--meaning you can't full attack with a heavy crossbow.
At this point, once the rules are all clarified for him, being a wizard sniper will have become completely useless. But if he remains:
His obvious weakness is close quarters combat vs melee opponents. At this point, an enemy should be able to drop him in one or two hits since he has a d4 hit die and no constitution. He may have point blank shot, but firing (or reloading) a melee weapon provokes an attack of opportunity and that's not really a risk a wizard can afford to take. The heavy crossbow also impedes him enough so that he can't really move and shoot at all, or else it'll take him forever to be able to shoot again. Note that ranged weapons are also incredibly easy to sunder, disarm, especially against those with low base attack and no strength.
He's susceptible to pretty much anything that requires a fortitude save.
I couldn't find any rules in the Pathfinder OGL for critical failures. It's pretty much always been an ad hoc thing that the DM decides what they want to do.
Gravity Bow should only be turning the d10 into like 2d6 or something. I'm not really certain where the breaking comes in. The two shots is a thing though.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
I am told that crit fails, what happens to the turn, and the consequences of rolling them were much better defined in 2nd ed, but for 3.0 they left it up to DMs. I have memories of a table you could roll, but that's all 2nd ed apparently.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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kaliyamaLeft to find less-moderated foraRegistered Userregular
Can I just ask the OP to keep us updated? D&D campaign narratives are one of my favorite things ever, because, having never actually managed to find a gaming group I liked that wasn't full, I have not had one of my own.
I am told that crit fails, what happens to the turn, and the consequences of rolling them were much better defined in 2nd ed, but for 3.0 they left it up to DMs. I have memories of a table you could roll, but that's all 2nd ed apparently.
They're not in core 2nd edition. For D&D they've always been variants and house rules, going back to at least 1st. For some very good design reasons they always punish players much more than they do monsters.
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Another thing I noticed was when you described how he killed the group's rogue. His first roll was a critical failure. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't one's turn end immediately upon critical failure? i.e. you don't get to try again for your second attack. (Which he shouldn't even have with the crossbow)
Next would be the feats. You didn't say what level he is, or race, I don't think. Assuming he's at least level 12 (from the two attacks), he should have about 5 or 6 feats depending on if he's human or not. So he probably has Point Blank Shot, (maybe) Far Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Reload, and in the spirit of min-maxing Weapon Focus. This is fine I guess, but make sure he has all the prerequisites for his feats, and don't let him use wizard bonus feats for combat feats instead. As mentioned earlier, Rapid Reload is being used incorrectly. Normally a heavy crossbow takes a full round action to reload, and Rapid Reload reduces that to a move action--meaning you can't full attack with a heavy crossbow.
At this point, once the rules are all clarified for him, being a wizard sniper will have become completely useless. But if he remains:
His obvious weakness is close quarters combat vs melee opponents. At this point, an enemy should be able to drop him in one or two hits since he has a d4 hit die and no constitution. He may have point blank shot, but firing (or reloading) a melee weapon provokes an attack of opportunity and that's not really a risk a wizard can afford to take. The heavy crossbow also impedes him enough so that he can't really move and shoot at all, or else it'll take him forever to be able to shoot again. Note that ranged weapons are also incredibly easy to sunder, disarm, especially against those with low base attack and no strength.
He's susceptible to pretty much anything that requires a fortitude save.
Gravity Bow should only be turning the d10 into like 2d6 or something. I'm not really certain where the breaking comes in. The two shots is a thing though.
They're not in core 2nd edition. For D&D they've always been variants and house rules, going back to at least 1st. For some very good design reasons they always punish players much more than they do monsters.