D&D General Crossbow and Bow House Rules

[Horwath]

IMO they should have the same stats, so that players can pick whatever flavor they prefer without worrying about mechanics. Sort of like longsword vs. battleaxe vs. warhammer.

I could care less about historical realism.

I would like some difference and some realism, but not too much detrimental to gameplay.

I.E: crossbows are simple weapons(ALL of them), bows are ALL martial.

crossbows have loading cost(action/bonus action/whatever), can be shot prone without penalty(maybe even with a bonus to attack while you are proned).
can have bayonets fixed on them for d4 or d6 damage.

heavier crossbows(balistas) can only be used while mounted on a bipod/tripod or a hinge. The medieval version of "riding shotgun" in a caravan.

 

[Horwath]

Check out the videos on the Chinese or Korean repeating crossbows. They shoot with less power and range, but you can shoot 10 bolts a round. Didn't 3e have a repeating crossbow where the top 'magazine' would be swapped out every couple rounds.

View attachment 385914

yeah, these had horrible ranged and power.

maybe in 5e it could be

1 damage
range 15/45ft

when you take Attack action, you can make 2(or 3) attacks with this weapon instead of one. So with Extra attack that is 4(or 6) attacks as an Attack action.



now this mad lad has a point:

 

[Willie the Duck]

This is a 5e/6e flub. Good catch. I don't see a good game design reason for a few weapons to be so significantly worse than all other weapons in the game - re: unable to make multiple attacks per round.

3e and onward. Note that, even though AD&D did have crossbows scale up with fighter level (but stay behind bows), a crossbow was still a weapon you would never use if you were class-allowed to use a bow. That was just part and parcel for AD&D where there was clear and obvious winners on the weapons table.

Troof. People change. Characters change. There's no requirement to stick with the same loadout for 20 levels. For a set of characters to all make a similar change at a similar point, however, is kind of weird.

It would just be the people with extra attack, but overall yeah. It's the jankiness that I dislike, rather than changing at all in the first place.

yeah, these had horrible ranged and power.

maybe in 5e it could be

1 damage
range 15/45ft

when you take Attack action, you can make 2(or 3) attacks with this weapon instead of one. So with Extra attack that is 4(or 6) attacks as an Attack action.

What I dislike about something like this is that it will then only get used by someone trying to build a gimmick combo build with some major damage-per-attack add-on (such as Conjure Minor Elemental). If we are going to give a weapon special rules to represent the weapon's IRL realism, it would kinda suck if it only ever got used in unrealistic ways.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I would like some difference and some realism, but not too much detrimental to gameplay.

I.E: crossbows are simple weapons(ALL of them), bows are ALL martial.

crossbows have loading cost(action/bonus action/whatever), can be shot prone without penalty(maybe even with a bonus to attack while you are proned).
can have bayonets fixed on them for d4 or d6 damage.

heavier crossbows(balistas) can only be used while mounted on a bipod/tripod or a hinge. The medieval version of "riding shotgun" in a caravan.

All of those rules are logical, but I would never play an RPG that got as detailed as defining which ranged weapons can be fired from prone.

Crossbows as simple weapons and bows as martial weapons is a clean distinction, as long as bows are strictly better. Maybe make loading take a full turn?

 

[GMMichael]

All of those rules are logical, but I would never play an RPG that got as detailed as defining which ranged weapons can be fired from prone.

Digressing a bit, but 6e imposes disadvantage on all prone attacks. Which is dumb for crossbows. What's also dumb is that the goblin attacking you with a spear while you're prone gets Advantage, but the goblin attacking with a glaive does not.

Crossbows as simple weapons and bows as martial weapons is a clean distinction, as long as bows are strictly better. Maybe make loading take a full turn?

I'll do that one better: loading costs a reaction.

 

[Xeviat]

IMO they should have the same stats, so that players can pick whatever flavor they prefer without worrying about mechanics. Sort of like longsword vs. battleaxe vs. warhammer.

I could care less about historical realism.

You know, that's a nice solution.

 

[Xeviat]

All of those rules are logical, but I would never play an RPG that got as detailed as defining which ranged weapons can be fired from prone.

Crossbows as simple weapons and bows as martial weapons is a clean distinction, as long as bows are strictly better. Maybe make loading take a full turn?

But right now, shortbow and light crossbow are simple and longbow, hand crossbow, and heavy crossbow are martial. If they were the same damage, crossbow had loading, and crossbows were simple and bows were martial, then things would be fine.

 

[Xeviat]

Unless there's one of those weird, mid-edition errors going on, it looks to me like bows get 50% more range than crossbows. At low level, being farther away from the enemy can be a HUGE advantage (for survivability). Also, bows are much lighter than crossbows. But yes, the x-bows deal a smidge more damage.

My 2014 PHB has simple shortbow and light crossbow with 80/320 ranges for each. Heavy Crossbow is 100/400 and longbow is 150/600, but in my 20 years of D&D I've only ever had 2 fights that started past 100 ft.

 

[Horwath]

All of those rules are logical, but I would never play an RPG that got as detailed as defining which ranged weapons can be fired from prone.

why would you not like some weapons being special?

Like lance is. Two handed weapon, but one handed while mounted.

then the crossbow can be a sniper one shot weapon and bow is a battle weapon.

Crossbows as simple weapons and bows as martial weapons is a clean distinction, as long as bows are strictly better. Maybe make loading take a full turn?

Loading as Action, with crossbow expert Bonus action, but then the damage should be higher.

 

[GMMichael]

Heavy Crossbow is 100/400 and longbow is 150/600, but in my 20 years of D&D I've only ever had 2 fights that started past 100 ft.

That's unfortunate. Or: spoken like a true crossbow(wo)man!