Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 6641850" data-attributes="member: 6777737">People don't bother explaining it because it doesn't matter how it works to them.  There are too many things in the game which are difficult or impossible to describe the mechanics for, or which already do not mirror how actual historical devices worked.  It's easy to poke holes in the realism of D&D, especially combat, regardless of whether or not you include magic.  Furthermore, mechanical aptitude and engineering prowess should not be a prerequisite for playing a character in a game.Historically, a Heavy Crossbow in D&D has been one that required a winch, windlass, lever, or other drawing mechanism.  In every edition I've got that's bothered to describe them (2e and 3e) it has been so, while others merely intimate it (fires every other round in 1e, and once every three rounds in OD&D, Basic D&D allows faster firing, but carries other requirements like 18 Str to do so).  5e doesn't describe weapons, but I think we can assume that to still be the case.  The game says that in 12 seconds a high level Fighter with Crossbow Expert can launch 16 bolts from a Heavy Crossbow, and each individual shot will be as accurate as if the same character had taken a minute to make one carefully aimed shot.  Without any kind of magic.  Clearly, realism is not the focus of D&D combat.  If there's any ridiculousness here, I'd put the lion's share of it with Crossbow Expert's circumvention of the Loading property and the Fighter's Action Surge, not the fact that it's difficult to draw a hand crossbow with something in your hand.In the end, we allow it because it's not broken (being identical to using one hand crossbow with the feat), not outside the realm of how ridiculous combat is, and, most of all, because one of the players asked for it because he thought it was fun and cool.Besides, it's not like repeating hand crossbows weren't a fixture of the game at one point....</blockquote>

Verification