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<blockquote data-quote="Celtavian" data-source="post: 7671324" data-attributes="member: 5834">No. It always takes one free hand to load whether the weapon is one or two handed. Always.The hand crossbow is not like the crossbow or longbow. You don't need an extra hand to steady and aim it or to draw the bowstring. I don't get why anyone wouldn't understand the simple physical rule that you must have a free hand to draw ammunition. It's not hard to understand. If you're holding a hand crossbow in the other hand, you don't have a free hand to draw ammunition.Seriously, we all know how these things work. We know you can hold a bow with one hand while drawing an arrow to nock. We know you can hold a light crossbow and cock it back with a lever, load the arrow, and fire it. You need a free hand to do it. How hard is it to accept you need a free hand to cock back the hand crossbow and load it. But you don't need two hands to aim it or draw back a bowstring as you do with two-handed ranged weapons. Crawford is using a very naturalistic understanding of how the weapons work to incorporate verisimilitude into action. Not realism, but the illusion of realism.As is usual with all Crawford's ruling, you get to do at your table what you and your players want. Crawford's number one rule is you and your group decide how you want it. All he does is write how the game designers would rule it or how it was intended to be ruled. There is no hard coded rules now. If you don't like it, change it. It won't affect combat much at all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celtavian, post: 7671324, member: 5834"] No. It always takes one free hand to load whether the weapon is one or two handed. Always. The hand crossbow is not like the crossbow or longbow. You don't need an extra hand to steady and aim it or to draw the bowstring. I don't get why anyone wouldn't understand the simple physical rule that you must have a free hand to draw ammunition. It's not hard to understand. If you're holding a hand crossbow in the other hand, you don't have a free hand to draw ammunition. Seriously, we all know how these things work. We know you can hold a bow with one hand while drawing an arrow to nock. We know you can hold a light crossbow and cock it back with a lever, load the arrow, and fire it. You need a free hand to do it. How hard is it to accept you need a free hand to cock back the hand crossbow and load it. But you don't need two hands to aim it or draw back a bowstring as you do with two-handed ranged weapons. Crawford is using a very naturalistic understanding of how the weapons work to incorporate verisimilitude into action. Not realism, but the illusion of realism. As is usual with all Crawford's ruling, you get to do at your table what you and your players want. Crawford's number one rule is you and your group decide how you want it. All he does is write how the game designers would rule it or how it was intended to be ruled. There is no hard coded rules now. If you don't like it, change it. It won't affect combat much at all. [/QUOTE]

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