Giving heavy crossbows a range and damage boost while preventing them from being used more than once per round regardless of feats would only mean that they became a weapon for rogues and basically no one else.
Instead of once every other round for the heavy crossbow think of it like this.
Instead of per round its per attack action. So when a fighter gets his second attack a round he can instead attack with the heavy crossbow every other attack. When he gets his 3rd attack he can fire once then twice then once then twice and so on.
That’s not how a crossbow works in 5e. From the PHB:
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.
Unmodified, you get one shot with a crossbow per Attack Action, period.
Instead of once every other round for the heavy crossbow think of it like this.
Instead of per round its per attack action. So when a fighter gets his second attack a round he can instead attack with the heavy crossbow every other attack. When he gets his 3rd attack he can fire once then twice then once then twice and so on.
That's functionally saying that a heavy crossbow can be used once per combat unless it's used by a fighter of at least 11th level. There's absolutely no way to balance that so that it's a functional option- you'll either end up with the crossbow being so powerful that it one-shots most enemies or it'll simply be too useless a weapon to ever be used at all. That's the reason why heavy crossbows have such a ridiculously fast firing rate in 5E: a realistic rate would make them nonviable in D&D's combat system.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Except Rogues don't get prof with them, and +1 damage is not worth a dip or feat, so they'd just end up deader than they already are.
Possibly Bards, but point taken.
If you reduce the rate of fire to every other round with no way to improve it, it would take a significant increase in power to make it attractive.
Would you take it for 1d12? 2d6? 4d4? 2d8? (which is the same as firing a light crossbow both rounds) ...
UNLESS there was a reason to do big damage in single hits. If the target has damage reduction or damage threshold.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Instead of once every other round for the heavy crossbow think of it like this.
Instead of per round its per attack action. So when a fighter gets his second attack a round he can instead attack with the heavy crossbow every other attack. When he gets his 3rd attack he can fire once then twice then once then twice and so on.
That’s not how a crossbow works in 5e. From the PHB:
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.
Unmodified, you get one shot with a crossbow per Attack Action, period.
That's functionally saying that a heavy crossbow can be used once per combat unless it's used by a fighter of at least 11th level. There's absolutely no way to balance that so that it's a functional option- you'll either end up with the crossbow being so powerful that it one-shots most enemies or it'll simply be too useless a weapon to ever be used at all. That's the reason why heavy crossbows have such a ridiculously fast firing rate in 5E: a realistic rate would make them nonviable in D&D's combat system.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.