Move up to enemy with short sword in right hand and loaded hand crossbow in the other hand.
Attack with sword. Bonus action attack with crossbow.
Round 2... Swing with sword. Drop sword (using free action). Bonus action attack with crossbow (hand is free for loading). Pick up sword using object interaction action..
Move up to enemy with short sword in right hand and loaded hand crossbow in the other hand.
Attack with sword. Bonus action attack with crossbow.
Round 2... Swing with sword. Drop sword (using free action). Bonus action attack with crossbow (hand is free for loading). Pick up sword using object interaction action..
Reapeat forever.
Will that actually work under RAW?
Assuming that you have crossbow expert since two weapon fighting specifically doesn't allow for a ranged weapon attack. It is also dependent on the DM allowing for a loaded hands crossbow, but even if they don't, having the unloaded hand crossbow in hand should allow for sequence to start with the first attack instead of the second attack. The good news is that you can go up to a d8 weapon (longsword, rapier, warhammer, etc.
Just fair warning, if I were your DM, the second round of combat where you drop your sword (so 3rd round of combat) there's a good chance of an enemy having a held action to pick it up.
Under RAW no. Two weapon fighting applies to melee weapons only, and to attack with a hand crossbow as a bonus action takes a feat. Plus you need a free hand to load any weapon with the ammunition property.
The hand crossbow shouldn't have been labeled as light and the crossbow expert feat should be more specific in just saying if you attack with a H.Bow you can use your bonus action to attack again.
Under RAW no. Two weapon fighting applies to melee weapons only, and to attack with a hand crossbow as a bonus action takes a feat. Plus you need a free hand to load any weapon with the ammunition property.
The hand crossbow shouldn't have been labeled as light and the crossbow expert feat should be more specific in just saying if you attack with a H.Bow you can use your bonus action to attack again.
The free hand is achieved by dropping the sword. The drawback is as Lunali stated, enemies are free to pick up the weapon. Another option to achieving the free hand would be to have a thrown weapon that gets thrown first, then attack with the hand crossbow. That's best achieved by a build with equal strength and dexterity so that javelins and spears (and hand axes, but javelins have superior range and spears are versatile in case you wanted to stow the hand crossbow and attack with two hands while forgoing the crossbow expert attack) could be used instead of daggers for a dex only build.
I'll agree that hand crossbow for both the action and the crossbow expert bonus action would be the cleanest usage, aside from stowing the melee weapon before firing and then drawing it to make the attack the next round, but then you can't make the crossbow expert attack unless your DM allows you to load the hand crossbow, draw and attack with the melee weapon, and then attack with the hand crossbow (which I wouldn't allow under most circumstances since that's getting really loose with the interactions due to the timing of the loading and the firing of the hand crossbow).
Honestly this is a lot of aggravating the DM and other players with technicalities just so you can have a melee weapon ready for AoO. The extra attacks from the AoO are probably not worth the extra damage you'll likely take as a result of the aggravation. I would just stick with the crossbow attacks since hand crossbows qualify to trigger the bonus action hand crossbow attack.
I agree with Lunali. RAW this works, but exploiting loopholes that result in your character doing nonsensical things isn't likely to get you in anyone's good graces. If you want a semi-automatic hand cross that badly just ask your DM for it directly.
another issue your not take into account. The two combatanst are not standing toe to toe with neither moving. The flavor of the game is both are moving and dodging ducking etc. That over 6 seconds you get in attack. To think I dropped the sword right at my feet and I start next turn in exact same spot is un realistic
Alternatively, since you have the Crossbow Master feat:
Move up to your foe. Shoot the foe with your hand crossbow (Action). Shoot the foe with your hand crossbow (Bonus Action). All attacks are normal rolls (i.e. no disadvantage). If your foe moves away, who cares. On your next turn you can still shoot them, since you have a ranged weapon.
A better alternative: stay away from your foe and shoot them!
To rephrase it as a question - if you have a crossbow, why are you moving next to your foe? What are you trying to achieve here?
Alternatively, since you have the Crossbow Master feat:
Move up to your foe. Shoot the foe with your hand crossbow (Action). Shoot the foe with your hand crossbow (Bonus Action). All attacks are normal rolls (i.e. no disadvantage). If your foe moves away, who cares. On your next turn you can still shoot them, since you have a ranged weapon.
A better alternative: stay away from your foe and shoot them!
To rephrase it as a question - if you have a crossbow, why are you moving next to your foe? What are you trying to achieve here?
I think the desire to have the 1 hand melee weapon is from wanting the melee weapon for OAs instead of the unarmed strike or the desire to attack a creature in melee with a 1d8 weapon and then a creature at range with the hand crossbow. Or they just like the thought of the visual. Or they don't realize that they can use these hand crossbow for both attacks. Yep, that's all I can think of.
Doesn't crosbow expert let you ignore reload? Why wouñd he need to drop the sword?
There are two different properties/actions/features at play here.
First: Ammunition. You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon). At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield.
Second: Loading. Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.
Crossbow Expert feat only lets you ignore the "Loading" property, not the "Ammunition" property. - You ignore the loading property of crossbows with which you are proficient
If my enemies started wasting their actions picking up my dropped weapons I might wanna adopt this plan even more than before. That'd be amazing!
Just carry like 3 or 4 swords and draw/drop them once a round. Not only do a bunch of attacks while keeping your hand free for reloads, but allso free CCing one enemy's action every round! Brilliant.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Picking-up a dropped item is not an action but a free item interaction that you can do in tandem with your movement and action.
Held actions are not free item interactions... and it'd need to be held actions otherwise you'd use your own free interact to pick it back up again yourself.
Quote from Lunali >>
Just fair warning, if I were your DM, the second round of combat where you drop your sword (so 3rd round of combat) there's a good chance of an enemy having a held action to pick it up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Using the Ready action to move or Use an Item as a reaction to pick-up a dropped weapon is not economic action wise, but if the weapon is magical it might be worthed for exemple.
Another thing to consider is if the free item interaction is even possible outside your turn since it's listed as other activities you can do on your turn;
Other Activities On Your Turn: You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action.
Tell me if this will work...
Move up to enemy with short sword in right hand and loaded hand crossbow in the other hand.
Attack with sword. Bonus action attack with crossbow.
Round 2... Swing with sword. Drop sword (using free action). Bonus action attack with crossbow (hand is free for loading). Pick up sword using object interaction action..
Reapeat forever.
Will that actually work under RAW?
Assuming that you have crossbow expert since two weapon fighting specifically doesn't allow for a ranged weapon attack. It is also dependent on the DM allowing for a loaded hands crossbow, but even if they don't, having the unloaded hand crossbow in hand should allow for sequence to start with the first attack instead of the second attack. The good news is that you can go up to a d8 weapon (longsword, rapier, warhammer, etc.
Just fair warning, if I were your DM, the second round of combat where you drop your sword (so 3rd round of combat) there's a good chance of an enemy having a held action to pick it up.
Doesn't taking the sword from the floor at enemy's face provokes an attak of opportunity? It should
Nope, the only thing that provokes an attack of opportunity is moving out of an enemies reach.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Under RAW no. Two weapon fighting applies to melee weapons only, and to attack with a hand crossbow as a bonus action takes a feat. Plus you need a free hand to load any weapon with the ammunition property.
The hand crossbow shouldn't have been labeled as light and the crossbow expert feat should be more specific in just saying if you attack with a H.Bow you can use your bonus action to attack again.
The free hand is achieved by dropping the sword. The drawback is as Lunali stated, enemies are free to pick up the weapon. Another option to achieving the free hand would be to have a thrown weapon that gets thrown first, then attack with the hand crossbow. That's best achieved by a build with equal strength and dexterity so that javelins and spears (and hand axes, but javelins have superior range and spears are versatile in case you wanted to stow the hand crossbow and attack with two hands while forgoing the crossbow expert attack) could be used instead of daggers for a dex only build.
I'll agree that hand crossbow for both the action and the crossbow expert bonus action would be the cleanest usage, aside from stowing the melee weapon before firing and then drawing it to make the attack the next round, but then you can't make the crossbow expert attack unless your DM allows you to load the hand crossbow, draw and attack with the melee weapon, and then attack with the hand crossbow (which I wouldn't allow under most circumstances since that's getting really loose with the interactions due to the timing of the loading and the firing of the hand crossbow).
Honestly this is a lot of aggravating the DM and other players with technicalities just so you can have a melee weapon ready for AoO. The extra attacks from the AoO are probably not worth the extra damage you'll likely take as a result of the aggravation. I would just stick with the crossbow attacks since hand crossbows qualify to trigger the bonus action hand crossbow attack.
I agree with Lunali. RAW this works, but exploiting loopholes that result in your character doing nonsensical things isn't likely to get you in anyone's good graces. If you want a semi-automatic hand cross that badly just ask your DM for it directly.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
It could technically work but it's poor roleplaying. Who throws their sword down every six seconds in a melee combat?
another issue your not take into account. The two combatanst are not standing toe to toe with neither moving. The flavor of the game is both are moving and dodging ducking etc. That over 6 seconds you get in attack. To think I dropped the sword right at my feet and I start next turn in exact same spot is un realistic
Alternatively, since you have the Crossbow Master feat:
Move up to your foe. Shoot the foe with your hand crossbow (Action). Shoot the foe with your hand crossbow (Bonus Action). All attacks are normal rolls (i.e. no disadvantage). If your foe moves away, who cares. On your next turn you can still shoot them, since you have a ranged weapon.
A better alternative: stay away from your foe and shoot them!
To rephrase it as a question - if you have a crossbow, why are you moving next to your foe? What are you trying to achieve here?
I think the desire to have the 1 hand melee weapon is from wanting the melee weapon for OAs instead of the unarmed strike or the desire to attack a creature in melee with a 1d8 weapon and then a creature at range with the hand crossbow. Or they just like the thought of the visual. Or they don't realize that they can use these hand crossbow for both attacks. Yep, that's all I can think of.
Doesn't crosbow expert let you ignore reload? Why wouñd he need to drop the sword?
There are two different properties/actions/features at play here.
First: Ammunition. You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon). At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield.
Second: Loading. Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.
Crossbow Expert feat only lets you ignore the "Loading" property, not the "Ammunition" property.
- You ignore the loading property of crossbows with which you are proficient
Because Crossbow Expert doesn't ignore the ammunition property, which requires a free hand.
If my enemies started wasting their actions picking up my dropped weapons I might wanna adopt this plan even more than before. That'd be amazing!
Just carry like 3 or 4 swords and draw/drop them once a round. Not only do a bunch of attacks while keeping your hand free for reloads, but allso free CCing one enemy's action every round! Brilliant.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Picking-up a dropped item is not an action but a free item interaction that you can do in tandem with your movement and action.
Held actions are not free item interactions... and it'd need to be held actions otherwise you'd use your own free interact to pick it back up again yourself.
Quote from Lunali >>
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Using the Ready action to move or Use an Item as a reaction to pick-up a dropped weapon is not economic action wise, but if the weapon is magical it might be worthed for exemple.
Another thing to consider is if the free item interaction is even possible outside your turn since it's listed as other activities you can do on your turn;