Crossbow or Longbow?

[TheDood]

Last night/Early Morning I was making a character and was wondering if a crossbow is a worthwhile ranged weapon (over a comp. longbow, say) for a Fighter to focus on?

My impression was that a crossbow was a suboptimal choice, it's not going to stop me from having a fighter use a crossbow over a long bow but I was wondering what other peoples experiences were?

 

[Crothian]

Crossbows are a little harder to work with multi attacks, but if the DM allows optional material there are a few ways to make them a great weapon.

 

[Capellan]

It's definitely suboptimal. At higher levels you lose out on multiple attacks, since reloading is a standard action (for light crossbows; full round for heavy). You can't take advantage of feats like Rapid Shot. You also can't get crossbows that include Strength bonuses for damage.

A crossbow's redeeming feature is that it is easy to use. For a Fighter, who automatically has martial weapons proficiency, that's not an issue.

 

[TheDood]

I thought that crossbows prevented the use of multi-attacks by requiring move-equivalent or full-round actions to reload.

Also, what are these optional materials?

 

[Numion]

Crossbows are suboptimal. Long reloading times prevent multiple attacks in a round, and crossbows don't give STR bonus to damage. Composite bows allow up to +4 of STR mod to be used in damage, which make them more worthwile.

IIRC Sword & Fist had some stuff to ease up the loading of x-bow.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

I thought that crossbows prevented the use of multi-attacks by requiring move-equivalent or full-round actions to reload.

Also, what are these optional materials?

The Arms and Equipment Guide has an enchanment called Quick Reloading for putting on Crossbows. Guess what it does.

 

[dave_o]

You could lug around a ton of crossbows, like Swashbucklers did with pistols. Fire a crossbow, drop it, pick up another.

With Quick Draw, it's a free action.

 

[TheDood]

So what feats would you choose as a fighter to get the most out of your crossbow and is there anyway to get more damage out of one, besides the 1d10+magical bonus?

 

[Bob5th]

A bit besides the point but a 10th level Deepwood sniper could have a 15-20/x4 crit range and multiplier. Pick up epic levels in the prestige class and the x4 can go up even more.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Crossbow is definitely a very suboptimal choice for a fighter to focus on. The Sword and Fist feat, Rapid Reload doesn't do much to remedy this.

Allowing one free action reload per round simply gives second level human crossbow fighters a 3shots/2 rounds ROF. (Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Rapid Reload; Crossbow starts loaded: Round 1: Rapid Shot, using rapid reload for the second shot, Round 2: Rapid Reload, fire (standard action), load (MEA), Round 3 Rapid Shot....) A human fighter can have a 2/1 ROF with a longbow one level earlier. (Round 1: Rapid shot, Round 2: Rapid Shot, etc). In this case (which is optimal for the crossbowman), the damage done is similar unless the bowman has a mighty composite bow in which case, he's ahead. Rapid Reload doesn't make crossbows a viable choice for fighter PCs.

What it does do is make it possible for NPCs without the archery feats to fire a heavy crossbow once per round. It's worthwhile for NPCs but lame for PCs.

So, when is a crossbow a viable weapon for a PC?
-When you're not proficient in regular bows (Wizard, cleric, monk, some rogues)
-When you've got a significant strength penalty and cannot have multiple sneak attacks per round (non archery focussed halfling rogues before level 8; any small or low strength rogues in campaigns that limit sneak attacks to 1/round).
-When you don't want to spend the money on a mighty bow (many low level fighters and paladins) but want more range than a javalin.
-When your DM creates house rules that give crossbows huge mechanical advantages. (Ignoring portions of armor would probably be enough for non-archer characters; dedicated archers wouldn't benefit though because (typically) they rarely miss anyway after the first few levels). If the DM asked, however, I'd recommend against doing this.
-When your DM creates a prestige class that makes crossbows a good weapon for fighters to choose. (I guess Deepwood Sniper could fill this role although it won't make crossbows competitive with bows for anything other than long range sniping--especially not if the class is open to bow archers).