Why do Crossbows Suck?

[delericho]

In every edition of DnD the crossbow has been the red headed stepchild of ranged weapons. It did far less damage than a bow in AdnD, required load times in later DnD.

Why are bows just so much better?

Because the crossbow got banned in real life for being way over-powered. You don't get more broken than that! Hardly surprising, therefore, that when we upgraded to 0E it was hit with the nerf-bat.

 

[Lindeloef]

In every edition of DnD the crossbow has been the red headed stepchild of ranged weapons.

Why are bows just so much better?

Not in 4e. The superior Crossbow is the best ranged weapon you can get cause it is the most accurate one.
Sure you need a minor to reload it but there is a feat for that to make it a free action.

Yes. One has a cool overture, and the other hasn't!

(Actually, I wonder if William Tell is a more popular myth in Europe than Robin Hood...)

Cheers!

Not that I know of... but can't image that would be the case.

 

[MerricB]

Because the crossbow got banned in real life for being way over-powered.

Erm - along with the bow. And possibly the sling.

 

[delericho]

Erm - along with the bow. And possibly the sling.

Well, yes. But since that kinda ruined my joke, I decided to overlook it.

 

[Ryujin]

Two more words: skill and price.

Longbows are simply a more deadly weapon than crossbows. A crossbow, however, takes significantly less training to use. If crossbows ever replaced longbows, it was partially because you could field a platoon of crossbowmen much faster than you could field a platoon of archers, due to lower training requirements.

Longbows are also more expensive than crossbows. I won't delve into actual market prices in history, but d20srd agrees with me in 3.5 terms. My guess is that a longbow required hours (days?) of artisan craftsmanship, while a crossbow requires a fraction of that attention.

Notice that neither training nor bulk-purchasing get much attention in RPGs.

The skill and practise thing is where my "reality adjacent" comment comes in

 

[Ryujin]

Because the crossbow got banned in real life for being way over-powered. You don't get more broken than that! Hardly surprising, therefore, that when we upgraded to 0E it was hit with the nerf-bat.

Comment about the banning of crossbows toward the end. IIRC there are three videos in this series on crossbows.

[video=youtube;-z3RfHNq1Hc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z3RfHNq1Hc&list=UU9pgQfOXRsp4UKrI8q0zjXQ[/video]

 

[Halivar]

Along the same lines: why are both the sling and the quarterstaff only d4? Both could crush armor and bone with a hit. (Remember, the quarterstaff is a 7-9 foot* long lever! waa-POW!)

EDIT: some quarterstaffs were up to 12 feet!

 

[ExploderWizard]

EDIT: some quarterstaffs were up to 12 feet!

That would be the buck and quarter staff (but don't tell anyone)

 

[SkidAce]

That would be the buck and quarter staff (but don't tell anyone)

That's just daffy...

 

[GMMichael]

Because the crossbow got banned in real life for being way over-powered...

"...as well as slings and bows..."

Looks like that was just early gun-control. Goes to my point on prevalence of crossbows though: crossbows, being easy to use and produce, made gun control necessary (in some eyes).

Cheers to [MENTION=27897]Ryujin[/MENTION] for the video. The end of the video really made it worthwhile.