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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FoxWander" data-source="post: 195544" data-attributes="member: 1356">Actually crossbows can be easily made (and often were) much stronger than bows. I've seen with my own eyes, and granted this was a modern one, a crossbow fire a quarrel THROUGH an engine block! Now as I said that was a modern weapon with a steel cable for a string and firing a solid steel quarrel, but it illustrates the power that can be built into these things. This is vaguely reflected in the rules by higher damage die compared to bows. What makes them simple as oppossed to martial weapons is that they're, well, simple. To be accurate with a long bow requires lots of training and practice. To be accurate with a crossbow only requires understanding whatever contraption is used to load it and the ability to point it and pull a trigger. That's why thier invention changed the face of medieval warfare. Whereas before accurate missile fire required trained, disciplined longbow-men; after any shmoe who could point a stick with reasonable steadyness could kill knights on horseback. Sorry for the rant, but I've always liked crossbows and always believed they were short-changed in D&D. Now as to feats in question I have to agree that they're too powerful. They either combine two feats in one (with more versatility even) or circumvent fairly core concepts- that missile weapons ONLY do ANY kind of extra damage within 30 feet, and that critical THREATS (meaning a potential rather than sure thing) must be confirmed with another successful hit to do extra damage.Now while that's a bit much for a FEAT, those effects would be more than appropriate for a prestige class. Since you obviously intended the higher feats to only be available to fighters who specialize in crossbows, why not develop it further into a PrC. Or if you simply want to add more 'oomph' to crossbows adopt a house rule (as I have) that allows Mighty Crossbows. But with a Mighty Crossbow you CAN use one of a higher strength than you possess, it just takes you even longer to load the thing. My rule is that for every extra point of STR damage bonus beyond what you can already do, it takes you one extra round to crank the string back and load the thing. I haven't found this imbalancing yet. They're very expensive (10% more than the equivalent Mighty Bow and I extended the table to account for 18+ STR bonuses) and at most they give my players a powerful first shot, cause you certainly can't reload them in combat. Several rounds of free AoE's keep them as an opening salvo weapon. Thieves may love them for sneak attacks, but watch your players tremble when they spy ogre guards armed with Arbelests (really frickin' huge crossbows if you didn't know) with a windlass to crank it on thier belts, meaning its beyond even an ogre's STR to load it in one round.Anyway, that's my 2 pence.</blockquote>

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