I mentioned this in the Light Crossbow video, but I'm not a huge fan of removing/nullifying the crossbow's Loading property, either from the Crossbow expert feat or from an Item. In the first place, the crossbow is pretty heavily defined by its slow rate of "fire" and a mechanic that serves to bypass that feels like a cop out; it's just a thing that had to be added back because there are so few reasons to take the Crossbow otherwise. On the other hand, much of the loading delay associated with using a crossbow is tied to the spanning device in the first place; they work by translating longer movements into mechanical advantage. Regarding "Heavy Crossbows" in particular, Cranequin and Windlass devices convert large, easy rotations into very powerful linear forces that make it fundamentally possible to operate the weapons. More likely, the Cranequin devices would translate to a slower weapon than the "Light Crossbow" goat's foot, possibly trading Loaded for the Reload property, though that would be harder to justify from an in-game perspective. My biggest criticism, though, is that the Heavy Crossbow is made into a straight upgrade to the Light Crossbow. Beyond operating speed, there are a number of practical reasons why the so called, "Light Crossbow" might be used by a character who could use a "Heavy Crossbow." Since the Heavy Crossbow tended to be favored by foot soldiers who preferred to fight behind cover (Pavise Shields or Castle Ramparts) it could only be loaded in a turn where the user didn't move but gains a +3 (the base AC of "Chain Shirt") linear bonus to Hit, making it more reliable at inflicting damage or inducing Slow. By contrast the Light Crossbow would be more flexible, being easier to load while still offering most of the core benefits of the crossbow (higher Crit ranged + Slow effect).
Yeah, my personal view of the default crossbows were moreso 'infantry' and 'siege' crossbows in mindset. I don't have much a problem with the Loading equipment removals myself but I also was more than happy to not have a goat's foot equivilent for the heavy crossbow to help with seperating that. It'd be like speedloaders for revolver-style guns but also limiting this revolver style to pistols, so you can have slightly more punchy rifles and so on
Did Heron fumble literally everything he did? NEARLY gave the Romans crossbows, NEARLY gave the Romans steam engines! Gave up before he milked the value out of both of them!
Could you do one on the Ballista? One or two mounted on a wagon? Bolt thrower and stone thrower. (or other improvised ammunition ) I have visions of Gnomish ballista teams. Please include rate of fire. Would crossbow expert apply? Perhaps invite the Kobolds and the Gnomes to a Ballista duel?
when i try to create a character who uses a heavy crossbow i make them snipers or big game hunters or something, i dont necessarily want to remove the loading property (although this half the damage making the heavy more like 1d5 instead of 1d10). because in most cases i would instead would like to do 2d10 damage to compensate for missing loading the previous attack.
Idk, I think the way that D&D 5e handles actions/turns/combat in general just isn't conducive to how these weapons actually operate. I do think it would be cool to hand off your weapon to a hireling that reloads for you. The heavy crossbow should get like a bonus to penetration or significantly higher damage and take 1-2 turns to reload. They can also be mounted to structures on your battle map and not lugged around by PCs.
Do you plan on releasing a document that has all of these ideas listed out in one source? Much like the weapons and armor table but more in-depth with all of the changes you propose?
Some commentors have brought it up before, so I'm thinking about doing that to cap off the series once it's all finished up. It'll also give me a chance to rethink some of the suggestions I put forward previously as well, so we'll see
I've commented before on crossbow videos, but I think the game handwaves *too much* about crossbows. The rate-of-fire for a ye-olde-tymes crossbow-even a "light" crossbow"-is *monstrously slow*, so no, you can't fire it once every six seconds, don't be ridiculous. Now, if you found a magical crossbow, sure! But otherwise expect to get off maybe a single shot over 4 rounds! The advantage of a crossbow ought to be very high damage without a requirement for profeciency in exchange for a long loading time in which you're bent over reloading without moving and while being vulnerable to attack. To balm the concerns: crossbows deal *massive* damage (2d6 hand, 2d8 light, 2d10 heavy) and then you switch to another attack strategy or invest in a reload.
No one uses anything but the hand crossbow and the halberd, dont pretend 5e is a good game where people are 'creative'. No, you're punished for being creative, play a good game like 3.5 or PF
Video from a gaming context about shooting thing starts with THAT music
I almost got heart attack lol
I mentioned this in the Light Crossbow video, but I'm not a huge fan of removing/nullifying the crossbow's Loading property, either from the Crossbow expert feat or from an Item. In the first place, the crossbow is pretty heavily defined by its slow rate of "fire" and a mechanic that serves to bypass that feels like a cop out; it's just a thing that had to be added back because there are so few reasons to take the Crossbow otherwise. On the other hand, much of the loading delay associated with using a crossbow is tied to the spanning device in the first place; they work by translating longer movements into mechanical advantage. Regarding "Heavy Crossbows" in particular, Cranequin and Windlass devices convert large, easy rotations into very powerful linear forces that make it fundamentally possible to operate the weapons. More likely, the Cranequin devices would translate to a slower weapon than the "Light Crossbow" goat's foot, possibly trading Loaded for the Reload property, though that would be harder to justify from an in-game perspective.
My biggest criticism, though, is that the Heavy Crossbow is made into a straight upgrade to the Light Crossbow. Beyond operating speed, there are a number of practical reasons why the so called, "Light Crossbow" might be used by a character who could use a "Heavy Crossbow." Since the Heavy Crossbow tended to be favored by foot soldiers who preferred to fight behind cover (Pavise Shields or Castle Ramparts) it could only be loaded in a turn where the user didn't move but gains a +3 (the base AC of "Chain Shirt") linear bonus to Hit, making it more reliable at inflicting damage or inducing Slow. By contrast the Light Crossbow would be more flexible, being easier to load while still offering most of the core benefits of the crossbow (higher Crit ranged + Slow effect).
Yeah, my personal view of the default crossbows were moreso 'infantry' and 'siege' crossbows in mindset. I don't have much a problem with the Loading equipment removals myself but I also was more than happy to not have a goat's foot equivilent for the heavy crossbow to help with seperating that. It'd be like speedloaders for revolver-style guns but also limiting this revolver style to pistols, so you can have slightly more punchy rifles and so on
I enjoy all of Altrole RPG videos
🥳🫂👍🏿
Nearly there!
Did Heron fumble literally everything he did? NEARLY gave the Romans crossbows, NEARLY gave the Romans steam engines! Gave up before he milked the value out of both of them!
Could you do one on the Ballista? One or two mounted on a wagon? Bolt thrower and stone thrower. (or other improvised ammunition ) I have visions of Gnomish ballista teams. Please include rate of fire. Would crossbow expert apply? Perhaps invite the Kobolds and the Gnomes to a Ballista duel?
when i try to create a character who uses a heavy crossbow i make them snipers or big game hunters or something, i dont necessarily want to remove the loading property (although this half the damage making the heavy more like 1d5 instead of 1d10). because in most cases i would instead would like to do 2d10 damage to compensate for missing loading the previous attack.
I value the push 5 ft back over slow , but that’s the Ranger/druid in me wanting to push foes deeper into my spike growth or other aoes lol.
Idk, I think the way that D&D 5e handles actions/turns/combat in general just isn't conducive to how these weapons actually operate. I do think it would be cool to hand off your weapon to a hireling that reloads for you. The heavy crossbow should get like a bonus to penetration or significantly higher damage and take 1-2 turns to reload. They can also be mounted to structures on your battle map and not lugged around by PCs.
Do you plan on releasing a document that has all of these ideas listed out in one source? Much like the weapons and armor table but more in-depth with all of the changes you propose?
Some commentors have brought it up before, so I'm thinking about doing that to cap off the series once it's all finished up. It'll also give me a chance to rethink some of the suggestions I put forward previously as well, so we'll see
@@altrolerpg I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Big hand crossbow
I've commented before on crossbow videos, but I think the game handwaves *too much* about crossbows.
The rate-of-fire for a ye-olde-tymes crossbow-even a "light" crossbow"-is *monstrously slow*, so no, you can't fire it once every six seconds, don't be ridiculous.
Now, if you found a magical crossbow, sure! But otherwise expect to get off maybe a single shot over 4 rounds!
The advantage of a crossbow ought to be very high damage without a requirement for profeciency in exchange for a long loading time in which you're bent over reloading without moving and while being vulnerable to attack.
To balm the concerns: crossbows deal *massive* damage (2d6 hand, 2d8 light, 2d10 heavy) and then you switch to another attack strategy or invest in a reload.
No one uses anything but the hand crossbow and the halberd, dont pretend 5e is a good game where people are 'creative'. No, you're punished for being creative, play a good game like 3.5 or PF
Guilty of skipping to the DnD section