Your Rogue will get more benefit from switching to a hand crossbow. Light crossbow deals more base damage, but when conditions allow, hand crossbow gives them the chance to attempt a sneak attack again if they miss their first shot.
Truth. The difference between a 1d6 and a 1d8 is irrelevant when multiple Sneak Attack d6 are added on top. At that point, to only real advantage the light crossbow has is range, and the Shortbow does it better anyway.
So there are so many nested replies. What’s the verdict here? If a player has, say, a single hand crossbow, and a shield in the other hand, does the feat allow the attack action shot AND the bonus action shot from the same crossbow? Regardless of whether it requires ammunition or is a dragon wing or repeating shot weapon?
So there are so many nested replies. What’s the verdict here? If a player has, say, a single hand crossbow, and a shield in the other hand, does the feat allow the attack action shot AND the bonus action shot from the same crossbow? Regardless of whether it requires ammunition or is a dragon wing or repeating shot weapon?
An answer cannot be given without considering whether the particular Crossbow, hand requires ammunition or not because it changes the answer.
If a player has a Crossbow, hand in one hand and a Shield in the other then they lack a free hand to load a bolt into the crossbow as stipulated by the Ammunition property.
If the weapon needs to be loaded to fire, like a normal Crossbow, hand, then the player would not be able to fire it at all unless it had been loaded before they donned the Shield. If the Crossbow, hand had been loaded then the player would be able to fire once with their Attack Action and no more.
If the weapon does not need to be loaded to fire, like a Crossbow, hand infused with Repeating Shot, then the player would be able to make as many attacks as allowed by their Attack Action as well as make the Bonus Action attack granted by the Crossbow Expert Feat.
The Crossbow Expert feat allows the player to ignore the Loading property, not the Ammunition property. Getting to ignore the Loading property only really comes up when the player has Extra Attack as it would restrict the player to making a single attack even if they could normally make more. A 20th level fighter would only be able to make one attack with their Crossbow, heavy if they didn't have the Crossbow Expert feat.
Look, first, this feat is only for hand crossbows. It says it right in the feat.
Second, if you want to use the feat to shoot as a bonus you need a second hand free per the ammunition rules. Nothing in the feat lets you get out of those.
Seriously, how is someone with a shield loading crossbow rounds without some extremely uncinematic futzing around? #RuleofCool
In this case the rule path is weird (see above) but the outcome is obvious.
(Lastly, a feat is a thing you do. A thing you can *always* do is not a feat. It's a skill. C'mon DnD, get some language up in here).
So there are so many nested replies. What’s the verdict here? If a player has, say, a single hand crossbow, and a shield in the other hand, does the feat allow the attack action shot AND the bonus action shot from the same crossbow? Regardless of whether it requires ammunition or is a dragon wing or repeating shot weapon?
There's also an official ruling in Sage Advice Compendium regarding this specific question;
Do the first and third benefits of Crossbow Expert turn a hand crossbow into a semiautomatic weapon? The short answer is no. The first benefit of the feat lets you ignore the loading property (PH, 147) of the hand crossbow if you’re proficient with that weapon. The upshot is that you can fire it more than once if you have a feature like Extra Attack. You’re still limited, however, by the fact that the weapon has the ammunition property (PH, 146). The latter property requires you to have a bolt to fire from the hand crossbow, and the hand crossbow isn’t going to load itself (unless it’s magical or a gnomish invention). You need to load each bolt into the weapon, and doing so requires a hand. To dig deeper into this point, take a look at the following sentence in the definition of the ammunition property: “Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack.” The sentence tells us two important things. First, you’re assumed to be drawing— that is, extracting with your hand—the ammunition from a container. Second, the act of drawing the ammunition is included in the attack and therefore doesn’t require its own action and doesn’t use up your free interaction with an object on your turn. What does that all mean for a hand crossbow? It means Crossbow Expert makes it possible to fire a hand crossbow more than once with a feature like Extra Attack, provided that you have enough ammunition and you have a hand free to load it for each shot.
Does Crossbow Expert let you fire a hand crossbow and then fire it again as a bonus action?
It does! Take a look at the feat’s third benefit. It says you can attack with a hand crossbow as a bonus action when you use the Attack action to attack with a one-handed weapon. A hand crossbow is a one-handed weapon, so it can, indeed, be used for both attacks, assuming you have a hand free to load the hand crossbow between the two attacks.
If we are talking hand crossbow then YES you may fire it twice in one round using ONE attack action and your bonus action if your second hand is free... It's best when quoting from Sage Advice to include the link to it, which is at the top of the post.
So there are so many nested replies. What’s the verdict here? If a player has, say, a single hand crossbow, and a shield in the other hand, does the feat allow the attack action shot AND the bonus action shot from the same crossbow? Regardless of whether it requires ammunition or is a dragon wing or repeating shot weapon?
Only if you have a free hand for the ammunition property’s requirement of a free hand.
Could a 5th level fighter with two attacks and this feat with a free hand make 3 attacks with a hand crossbow?
Evan
Yes 2 as an action and 1 as a bonus action.
5 if he wanted, 2 from an action, 2 more from an action surge action, then another 1 from his bonus action.
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.
Look, first, this feat is only for hand crossbows. It says it right in the feat.
Second, if you want to use the feat to shoot as a bonus you need a second hand free per the ammunition rules. Nothing in the feat lets you get out of those.
Seriously, how is someone with a shield loading crossbow rounds without some extremely uncinematic futzing around? #RuleofCool
In this case the rule path is weird (see above) but the outcome is obvious.
(Lastly, a feat is a thing you do. A thing you can *always* do is not a feat. It's a skill. C'mon DnD, get some language up in here).
Actually only the third bullet point mentions hand crossbow and RAW for the second point would work for regular bow if I am correct
Look, first, this feat is only for hand crossbows. It says it right in the feat.
Second, if you want to use the feat to shoot as a bonus you need a second hand free per the ammunition rules. Nothing in the feat lets you get out of those.
Seriously, how is someone with a shield loading crossbow rounds without some extremely uncinematic futzing around? #RuleofCool
In this case the rule path is weird (see above) but the outcome is obvious.
(Lastly, a feat is a thing you do. A thing you can *always* do is not a feat. It's a skill. C'mon DnD, get some language up in here).
Actually only the third bullet point mentions hand crossbow and RAW for the second point would work for regular bow if I am correct
That's correct 2nd bullet doesn't mention crossbow do it works with any range attacks, including spells.
Ok can someone please answer me this. IF a 20 level fighter, who has 5 attacks in one round, and he has the crossbow expertise feat, be able to attack with a HEAVY/Light crossbow, with all 5 of his attacks in one round? Yes or NO please.
Ok can someone please answer me this. IF a 20 level fighter, who has 5 attacks in one round, and he has the crossbow expertise feat, be able to attack with a HEAVY/Light crossbow, with all 5 of his attacks in one round? Yes or NO please.
No a L20 Crossbow Expert Fighter can make 4 attacks with a light or heavy crossbow, but 5 with a hand crossbow being a one-handed weapon.
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.
Truth. The difference between a 1d6 and a 1d8 is irrelevant when multiple Sneak Attack d6 are added on top. At that point, to only real advantage the light crossbow has is range, and the Shortbow does it better anyway.
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So there are so many nested replies. What’s the verdict here? If a player has, say, a single hand crossbow, and a shield in the other hand, does the feat allow the attack action shot AND the bonus action shot from the same crossbow? Regardless of whether it requires ammunition or is a dragon wing or repeating shot weapon?
An answer cannot be given without considering whether the particular Crossbow, hand requires ammunition or not because it changes the answer.
If a player has a Crossbow, hand in one hand and a Shield in the other then they lack a free hand to load a bolt into the crossbow as stipulated by the Ammunition property.
If the weapon needs to be loaded to fire, like a normal Crossbow, hand, then the player would not be able to fire it at all unless it had been loaded before they donned the Shield. If the Crossbow, hand had been loaded then the player would be able to fire once with their Attack Action and no more.
If the weapon does not need to be loaded to fire, like a Crossbow, hand infused with Repeating Shot, then the player would be able to make as many attacks as allowed by their Attack Action as well as make the Bonus Action attack granted by the Crossbow Expert Feat.
The Crossbow Expert feat allows the player to ignore the Loading property, not the Ammunition property. Getting to ignore the Loading property only really comes up when the player has Extra Attack as it would restrict the player to making a single attack even if they could normally make more. A 20th level fighter would only be able to make one attack with their Crossbow, heavy if they didn't have the Crossbow Expert feat.
Look, first, this feat is only for hand crossbows. It says it right in the feat.
Second, if you want to use the feat to shoot as a bonus you need a second hand free per the ammunition rules. Nothing in the feat lets you get out of those.
Seriously, how is someone with a shield loading crossbow rounds without some extremely uncinematic futzing around? #RuleofCool
In this case the rule path is weird (see above) but the outcome is obvious.
(Lastly, a feat is a thing you do. A thing you can *always* do is not a feat. It's a skill. C'mon DnD, get some language up in here).
There's also an official ruling in Sage Advice Compendium regarding this specific question;
@
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium#SA084
Does Crossbow Expert let you fire a hand crossbow and then fire it again as a bonus action?
It does! Take a look at the feat’s third benefit. It says you can attack with a hand crossbow as a bonus action when you use the Attack action to attack with a one-handed weapon. A hand crossbow is a one-handed weapon, so it can, indeed, be used for both attacks, assuming you have a hand free to load the hand crossbow between the two attacks.
If we are talking hand crossbow then YES you may fire it twice in one round using ONE attack action and your bonus action if your second hand is free... It's best when quoting from Sage Advice to include the link to it, which is at the top of the post.
Only if you have a free hand for the ammunition property’s requirement of a free hand.
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So, to revive a long dead thread....
Could a 5th level fighter with two attacks and this feat with a free hand make 3 attacks with a hand crossbow?
Evan
Yes 2 as an action and 1 as a bonus action.
5 if he wanted, 2 from an action, 2 more from an action surge action, then another 1 from his bonus action.
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.
Hadn't thought of that. Sharpshooter mowdown...
Yes.
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Actually only the third bullet point mentions hand crossbow and RAW for the second point would work for regular bow if I am correct
That's correct 2nd bullet doesn't mention crossbow do it works with any range attacks, including spells.
Ok can someone please answer me this. IF a 20 level fighter, who has 5 attacks in one round, and he has the crossbow expertise feat, be able to attack with a HEAVY/Light crossbow, with all 5 of his attacks in one round? Yes or NO please.
No a L20 Crossbow Expert Fighter can make 4 attacks with a light or heavy crossbow, but 5 with a hand crossbow being a one-handed weapon.
It can make 4 more attacks using Action Surge.
Ok thank you for this clarification for me.
Just get a dragon wing crossbow
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.
Umm I am sure my DM would NOT let me find something that reminds him of the D&D cartoon show. Still would be nice item to have.
AND, if that rogue were a thief subtype with fast hands, SIX attacks due to two bonus actions?
2 from an action, 2 more from an action surge action, then another 2 from EACH of his 2 bonus actions.