How would you model the gastraphetes or belly bow in 5e?
It's far quicker to reload than a standard crossbow but has a far lower accuracy. No goat's foot or cranequin needed. So rather than give it the Loading property, how about making reloads use movement? Say 10' of movement per reload? What range would you give it?
I'm thinking that its stat line could be
Crossbow, belly: 50 gp 1d8 piercing 10 lb Ammunition (range 30 / 100), heavy, two-handed, special loading
I'm putting the maximum range so low not because the bolts won't reach that far but to reflect the low accuracy.
And would you make it a Simple or Martial ranged weapon?
This then led me to think about using movement to reload all crossbows. Because when you're reloading a crossbow you're not moving. So perhaps a light crossbow would require 20' of movement to reload within a turn and a heavy crossbow 30' of movement and the Crossbow Expert feat would halve (or perhaps cut by 10') the amount of movement required. This would have the advantage of making the Crossbow Expert non-mandatory unless you were a high-level Fighter.
What do you think?