A good question came in today on my SW5e Weapon Properties video:

Hello I have a question, so my party made it so that every ranged weapon can use in 1 action a specific amount of up to the reload X (Example the weapon has Reload 6 and they use 4 shots in 1 action), it felt uncanny and not really right so I’m asking if that is actually true or not?

The short answer? Not really, but with the right scenario and weapon, you might.

I have always interpreted the rules that in normal situations, a single ranged attack consumes a single ‘ammo’ from your ranged weapon. The power cell is pretty clear that it says it “fuels a number of attacks equal to the weapon’s reload number”.

“Weapons with this property are fueled by power cells, which must be loaded in order to fire the weapon. A power cell fuels a number of attacks equal to the weapon’s reload number.”

SW5e Adventuring Gear – Power cell

So if you have a Blaster pistol with “reload 16” that means it would (usually) take 16 attacks to deplete the power cell. It is not that on each turn there are 16 shots fired, each one an attack dealing damage. You could fire everything in the cell if you had the ability to make 16 attacks.

Not all ranged weapons follow this general rule. Some weapons also have a Burst property. This means that the weapon will consume multiple ammunition at once, essentially doing an Area of Effect attack.

“When you would make a ranged weapon attack with a weapon with this property, you can instead spray a 10-foot-cube area within range with shots, consuming ammunition equal to the burst number. Each creature in the area must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + your bonus to attacks with the weapon) or take the weapon’s normal damage. Before you use this property, you can declare one creature that would be affected by it. If the creature fails its save, in addition to the weapon’s normal damage, it is subjected to any additional effects that would occur on a hit. If you would have advantage on your attack roll, the creature instead has disadvantage on their saving throw, and if you would have disadvantage on your attack roll, the creature instead has advantage on their saving throw.

SW5e “Burst” property definition

Some weapons also have the Rapid property, which allows you to to unload a number of ammo uses up to the “Rapid” number to do double the damage (on a failed save).

“When you would make a ranged weapon attack with a weapon with this property, you can instead unload on a single target, consuming ammunition equal to the rapid number. The target must make a Dexterity saving throw (DC = 8 + your bonus to attacks with the weapon). On a failed save, roll the weapon’s damage dice twice and add them together, adding relevant modifiers as normal and subjecting the target to any additional effects that would occur on a hit. If you would have advantage on your attack roll, the creature instead has disadvantage on their saving throw, and if you would have disadvantage on your attack roll, the creature instead has advantage on their saving throw.”

SW5e “Rapid” property definition

Example 1: Blaster with Rapid property

I interpret the rules here to mean that with a single attack, you could use up 3 of your ammo in your power cell instead of one (using 3 of your 12). If the targets failed the save, you could then do double-damage from that single powered-up attack. But it’s still only a single ranged attack usage, it just uses up more ammo and will force you to reload more often. If you did 4 of those rapid attacks in a single turn, you would deplete your power cell.

Example 2: Blaster with Burst property

If you used a Heavy bowcaster, this has Burst 2, Reload 4. When you fire this bowcaster it will use up 2 charges from your power cell, and needs to be reloaded after 4 charges. That means you can do 2 burst attacks (an AoE 10-foot cube) and then you have to reload. Each burst is still just one attack.

That, at least, is how I’ve always interpreted the rules. Of course, any given table might have house rules that alters this and goes in a different way. I think it’s important to understand that Reload isn’t “number of attacks” but “number of shots” and a single attack could potentially use up multiple ‘shots’.

Using multiple attacks to deplete a power cell in one turn

There are also multiple ways to get multiple ranged attacks in a single turn. You could have extra attacks as a Fighter, or opportunity attacks triggered by other creatures, or a character with a ‘commanding’ bonus action could instruct you to make an attack. There’s also the “Return Fire” maneuver that could allow you to make an attack as a reaction, and some specialist feats and builds that can give you other ways to attack.

Happy gaming!