Sage Advice (18 May 2015)

I can't believe they went that way with hand crossbows.

 

[mlund]

I'm not so sure. Lucky suggests that you're actually really friggin'... uhm... Lucky. What better way to show that then to turn Disadvantage into Advantage. I'm not even sure if it's really even over powered or anything. Just an interesting artifact of rules interaction.

Kick out reason and do the impossible!

Seriously, if this gets over-powered at my table I'll just demand an amusing one-liner in recompense whenever Lucky Disadvantage is invoked.

Marty Lund

 

[CrusaderX]

So a Hand Crossbow is a one-handed weapon that takes two hands to operate.

 

[Blackwarder]

I love Lucky, it's a great example of a great feat that can absolutely enhance a character concept. I don't think that turning disadvantage into super advantage with lucky is overpowered, after all, the character is lucky, what better way to show it than helping her do all this crazy things?

Warder

 

[Inchoroi]

Wait...

I just realized. Using a crossbow with the Extra Attack feature doesn't work at all without the Crossbow Expert feat. Wow. So, I guess that's the intention of the feat.

 

[Coredump]

So a Hand Crossbow is a one-handed weapon that takes two hands to operate.

You can operate it just, aim and shoot. you just need an extra hand to load it.

Just like using a pistol in real life, you can shoot it with one hand, but you need two hands to load it.

 

[Kobold Stew]

You can operate it just, aim and shoot. you just need an extra hand to load it.

Just like using a pistol in real life, you can shoot it with one hand, but you need two hands to load it.

Rapier-and-hand-crossbow is still viable, I believe; characters can still interact with one object for free on their turn (PHB 190), and for me that would include loading a weapon.

What you can't do is fire than hand crossbow twice if you happen to have two attacks (and the crossbow expert feat). But normal reloading, 1/turn is still possible. (Twice is possible on one's first round using the crossbow, too, assuming it's already loaded.)

I think the answers we've been given here are sensible.

 

[MerricB]

Rapier-and-hand-crossbow is still viable, I believe; characters can still interact with one object for free on their turn (PHB 190), and for me that would include loading a weapon.

Interacting with an object as a "free action" still requires you to have hands free.

 

[Kobold Stew]

My sense is that that's not how people play the game. Of course each table's culture is different, but my suspicion is at most tables a sword-and-board wielder can still open a door (say) without losing the benefit of the shield.

That's the scenario here: the interaction is "free" and doesn't interfere with normal combat. YMMV, of course.

 

[darius0]

I'm pretty sure the Lucky feat with disadvantage works like this: You roll 2d20 as you do when rolling with disadvantage, then you decide to use a luck point and roll an extra d20; you choose which 2 of the 3 dice will be used to determine disadvantage (like the 2 highest if you are smart). So basically you would end up using the middle value of the 3 dice. The last part where it says "...but you get to pick the die." probably refers to the die you will use for disadvantage, replacing one of the two that you initially rolled.

 

[MerricB]

I'm pretty sure the Lucky feat with disadvantage works like this: You roll 2d20 as you do when rolling with disadvantage, then you decide to use a luck point and roll an extra d20; you choose which 2 of the 3 dice will be used to determine disadvantage (like the 2 highest if you are smart). So basically you would end up using the middle value of the 3 dice. The last part where it says "...but you get to pick the die." probably refers to the die you will use for disadvantage, replacing one of the two that you initially rolled.

Jeremy Crawford has clarified it on twitter: You pick the best die out of all three you roll, but you're still in a state of disadvantage so things like Sneak Attack are disallowed...

...but he also says that a DM could rule that you make the disadvantage roll, take the lower d20, then roll the additional d20 and take the higher result.

Cheers!