D&D 5E (2024) How do you rule using a Hand Crossbow with a nick weapon

[ECMO3]

The Hand crossbow is a light weapon, so by the light weapon property if you attack with it, you can use nick with another light nick weapon, for example throw a dagger, as part of the same attack action (assuming you have mastery). However you also need a hand free because a hand crossbow has the ammunition property.

It does not seem that these two are technically in conflict since RAW you don't have to be holding the dagger when you make your crossbow attack, so you could load and attack with your crossbow and then pull out your dagger and nick with it.

Thoughts??

 

[Valetudo]

I don't like what they did with xbow expert. The 2 weapon juggling has gotten silly. I like the old Xbox expert better. This is from a dms view.

 

[ECMO3]

I don't like what they did with xbow expert. The 2 weapon juggling has gotten silly. I like the old Xbox expert better. This is from a dms view.

I am assuming no crossbow expert feat, just a normal PC using a hand crossbow and a light-nick weapon like a dagger or light hammer.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Sounds a bit silly, but I'm not sure that its wrong.

 

[Charlaquin]

The Hand crossbow is a light weapon, so by the light weapon property if you attack with it, you can use nick with another light nick weapon, for example throw a dagger, as part of the same attack action (assuming you have mastery). However you also need a hand free because a hand crossbow has the ammunition property.

It does not seem that these two are technically in conflict since RAW you don't have to be holding the dagger when you make your crossbow attack, so you could load and attack with your crossbow and then pull out your dagger and nick with it.

Thoughts??

I don’t think there’s any ambiguity here. This is very clearly possible under RAW.

 

[Scribe]

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Well, at least for the 5e game I play in, the character in question has the Crossbow Expert feat, and thus uses the crossbow without issue if desired. This doesn't apply if the character is attacking purely from range, because the hand crossbow doesn't have Nick, the dagger does.

That said, a Fighter (or any other character that gets Extra Attack) would only be able to fire the Hand Crossbow the one time.

"Loading" doesn't actually say anything about needing to have a hand free to reload. It just says you can only fire one piece of ammunition each round, meaning, the weapon can only shoot one time that round.

Ironically, because it specifies "when you use an action, a Bonus Action, or a Reaction to fire it," this actually means that if (somehow) you got the ability to make an attack without using any of those...you could still fire the crossbow as normal.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

"Loading" doesn't actually say anything about needing to have a hand free to reload. It just says you can only fire one piece of ammunition each round, meaning, the weapon can only shoot one time that round.

It is the ammunition property that requires a free hand to load.

Ironically, because it specifies "when you use an action, a Bonus Action, or a Reaction to fire it," this actually means that if (somehow) you got the ability to make an attack without using any of those...you could still fire the crossbow as normal.

If you use an action and a bonus action, ost one attack total or one attack per "*action"?

 

[Minigiant]

"Loading" doesn't actually say anything about needing to have a hand free to reload. It just says you can only fire one piece of ammunition each round, meaning, the weapon can only shoot one time that round.

It's weird.

It's the Ammunition property that forces one handed weapons with the Loading property to require a free hand.

If there were a Loading weapon that doesn't use Ammunition.... like a cool down energy or mass weapon.... you technically could never need a free hand..

 

[EzekielRaiden]

It is the ammunition property that requires a free hand to load.

If you use an action and a bonus action, ost one attack total or one attack per "*action"?

I'm not sure I understand your question. It's "or". Here's the full text.

"You can fire only one piece of ammunition from a Loading weapon when you use an action, a Bonus Action, or a Reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make." Doesn't matter how many attacks you can make normally.

If, however, you had a feature that allowed you to make an attack without taking any actions at all (not even a Reaction), then that would circumvent this because it doesn't meet the trigger (it isn't being fired when you use an action, a Bonus Action, or a Reaction.) I know of no such feature, so it's not like this is an exploitable loophole. It's just an interesting note that it isn't tied to whether you fire the crossbow--it's tied to the type of action you used in order to fire it.