You Don’t Have To Leave Wolfy Behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' Your Companions Level Up With You!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8682707" data-attributes="member: 6801228">I hesitated to bring this here, but I am stumped and frustrated, so let me see what the wisdom of the crowd might offer me. I've been going through and applying a homebrew change to the various fighting styles and weapon builds. To make sure the changes weren't too crazy, I did some math and confirmed a few things that everyone basically knows is true. Pertinent examples, one of the best melee builds for damage is Polearm Master + Great Weapon Master. It is generally better than just Great Weapon Master with a Greatsword. Which makes sense, because two feats should be better than one. However, one of the best damage builds (for just looking at X number of attacks per turn and nothing else) is the Hand Crossbow + Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter. Which, makes sense right? Two feats. The issue is... It is ONLY Hand Crossbows. Again, nothing I'm stating here is really blowing anyone's mind, but laying out the math and color-coding it made it glare at me. Taking the Heavy Crossbow, it generally sucks for everyone. About the only classes that use Crossbows at all are Rogues and Artificers who ignore the limits of crossbows with their infusions. Even Clerics generally avoid crossbows in favor of Toll of the Dead. Because, since the loading property stops extra attack, no one uses a crossbow over a longbow. But then, it gets more annoying. A Heavy Crossbow fighter can get the feat to make the crossbow... as good as the longbow already was. And a Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter with a Heavy Crossbow is.... just as good as a Longbow with Sharpshooter. You've doubled your feats and gotten to the same place. Additionally, Rogues and Artificers generally don't want Crossbow expert. If I have a rogue with Crossbow Expert, I've basically added nothing to my usage of a Heavy crossbow. Except if I ended up in melee, but that's a really minor benefit to spend an entire feat on when I could have gotten Sharpshooter instead. Unless you go Hand Crossbow which immediately catapults you to one of the best damage builds in the game. So... I want to fix this. I want to have a feat for crossbows that is makes Heavy/Light Crossbow + this feat a viable choice. And I'm blanking. I know I want to keep the removal of the loading property. And I know I want to delete the hand crossbow bonus attack, because it feels out of line for the rest of the feat (and for those who still want to melee sword then fire a hand crossbow, I've re-written two-weapon fighting to allow that) but I don't know what else to do. Keeping the within 5ft seems fine, but I don't need it. And the only idea I've had so far is this:Revised Crossbow Expert: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When you hit a creature with an attack from a crossbow, you push them 5 ft</li> </ul>But not only does that feel like an anemic and weak feat, but this is what Crusher can do, and I liked the sling being able to benefit from crusher and give control. So, I'm not a fan of this. But I'm stumped.</blockquote>

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