Why take a Crossbow?

[Yellow Sign]

During a game, I noticed that our thief, who uses a crossbow, was having problems with it. He had just got to the level that he had more than one attack a round. But with the reload time of his light crossbow that made it impossible for him to make more than one attack a round with it. So my question is, Why ever take, use, or specialize in Crossbows? They might be fine at lower levels but at higher levels they are totally out shone by regular bows. So why bother?

 

[Vaxalon]

1> Because you don't have bow proficiency
2> Because you're primarily a melee specialist, and you always end up dropping your missile weapon after the first round of combat
3> Because you're an NPC with no plans to advance to a high enough level to get multiple attacks
4> Because you're weak and you don't want the damage penalty

 

[0-hr]

Crossbows are simple weapons so many more people can use them.
That d10 for a heavy crossbow is nice too, as is the increased crit range.

Given the option though, I agree that bows are better overall.

 

[thegreatbuddha]

IMC, I've house ruled that to allow someonje with multiple attacks to use an attack to reload, so some one with a BAB +20 can load and shoot twice per round. heavy crossbows require 2 attacks unless thw eilder has rapid reload.

 

[LokiDR]

You are not mistaken, the bow is better. The crossbow is not a weapon for specialist. It was, however, the only weapon outlawed by the Pope for being unfair. It takes little training to use a crossbow, so you can put them in the hands of peasents and have an effective army.

Your rogue should get a shortbow.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Crossbows are small. Light Crossbows and Hand Crossbows are small enough that you could use them 1-handed (although reloading would still require another hand). No bows are that small.

They do more damage than a bow (slightly) unless it's a Mighty bow. They don't penalize you if you have a low STR.

But really, anyone who has bow proficiency should use that instead. You could add some other benefits (like making Hand Crossbows do extra sneak-attack damage when the opponent is surprised), but they'll pretty much always be inferior.

 

[CCamfield]

Hey, you know, that even works in D&D: a commoner proficient in one simple weapon could have selected a crossbow. Cue a Seven Samurai style mission where the PCs have to help a village defend themselves from bandits. Maybe they have to obtain a shipment of crossbows and bring them in to the village, too. (Or rebelling commoners might want to get their hands on them.)

Efficiency aside, you might also take a crossbow because it suits your character more. A dwarf with a heavy crossbow might seem more "in style" than a dwarf with a longbow.

Another possible reason to take a crossbow, even though it's slow to reload: a character whose main strength is in melee might want to fire a single shot before engaging the enemy.

In my campaign, explosives exist (dracotechnics from AEG's Mercenaries). I might not allow explosive arrows but allow explosive quarrels since quarrels are (I think) heavier.

 

[John Smallberries]

Crossbows are great for snipers, since you fire them from prone at no penalty (and +4 to your AC from enemy fire).

 

[Arcanus]

Rakhassa's are the main reason to carry crossbows.

 

[Bonedagger]

And you might get your hands on a repeating crossbow.

Very good for a sniper who's prone.