Why take a Crossbow?

[Darklone]

Thanks, Xarlen! *blush*

Ah well, don't forget to let them move away as fast as possible ... out of sight of the players.

Those wizards tend to put fireballs above the holes where they were creeping in

 

[Pax]

Thanks, Xarlen! *blush*

Ah well, don't forget to let them move away as fast as possible ... out of sight of the players.

Those wizards tend to put fireballs above the holes where they were creeping in

Have the tribe's Adept (or whatever) be an Arcane spellcaster, and obtain a couple scrolls of Antimagic Field ... and Permanency.

No more fireball problem.

 

[JoelF]

Also, heavy crossbows have better range than any other weapons. With a high enough attack bonus, you can hit your enemies before they hit you.

Furthermore, they have greater range than even most long range spells. Used with Truestrike, you can hit enemies even before they could hit you with magic missiles, etc.

JoelF

 

[Henrix]

I'm surprised noone mentions that firing a crossbow does not provoke an AoO. (Loading does, though.)

 

[CCamfield]

I'm surprised noone mentions that firing a crossbow does not provoke an AoO. (Loading does, though.)

Err... it doesn't? Where does it say that? I looked (quickly) through the combat section of the PHB and couldn't find anything about that.

 

[Dakhran the Dark]

Errr, as far as I know, crossbows aren't exempt from AoOs triggered by attacking with a ranged weapon...

 

[incognito]

Three reasons to use a crossbow

#1 you are prone (sniper)
#2 you are small, with no strength bonus
#3 You have no martial prof, and a low BAB

I made a Halfling Rogue/Wizard who was quite a sniper for that one shot, always from prone on higher ground. It's too bad imporved critical is BAB based...(sigh)

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

I don't think they are actually used, but some special forces, like British commando, train with the crossbow for night ops and hostage situations, like on air planes.

But yes, the crossbow is great to give a non range, and especially a general non combatant, something to do without wasting spells. I used to use one GMW and split them up with the party for the day. Twelve each was always plenty, but that was assuming you could enchant both arrows and bolts in one shot.

 

[Felon]

Re: Re: Re: Range ...Range...

My Refference was wrong it is the Crossbow out of the "The quinitisential fighter" . It dawned on me on the drive home. Check the distrittion.

And this is a non-magical weapon? One more black mark against Mongoose and their rather rubbishy notions of balanced game material...IMHO.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Fires his first shot at +6 and Rapid Shots a second at +4. Since he isn't concerned about reloading, he can move or perform any other move equivalent action.

Minor quibble here. Rapid Shot gives -2 to all shots in a round, so both shots would be at +4, not +6/+4. And, rapid shot requires a full-attack action to use, so no move-equivalent.