This may or may not be important to you, though knowing that is useful for mindfully choosing or breaking the stereotype. You must use bows two-handed, while loaded crossbows may be used two-handed with a penalty to hit (that's larger for the heavy variety).Īnd finally, bows are more iconic for rangers. Shortbows and light crossbows can be used mounted, while longbows can't and, though they may be fired, your DM may rule that heavy crossbows can't be reloaded on horseback. This loosely represents that crossbows are more hard-hitting than bows, and somewhat mitigates the lower rate of fire. Crossbows also do more damage normally, rolling larger damage dice. Longbows do triple damage on a critical hit, while crossbows only do double but have a critical-hit range that's twice as large: 19-20 on the to-hit roll, versus just 20 for a bow. Bows count as Martial weapons, limiting which classes may use them proficiently without having to invest feats.
Crossbows meanwhile are unaffected by Strength, denying a bonus but ignoring penalties.Ĭrossbows have longer range than regular bows, and though it doesn't matter for a ranger, crossbows also count as Simple weapons which makes them easier to use with less training. Short- and longbows can take advantage of a Strength bonus to damage, but suffer penalties to damage for low Strength. Crossbows have longer range, but limited rate of fire. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. This makes the rate of fire 1 per 2 rounds at best. In 3.5e, reloading is a full-round action, leaving you unable to do anything else. That's what the "2 hands to reload" bit means. To reload it has to be put business-end down while you stick a foot in a stirrup and use two hands on the mechanism to crank the string back. This means that the maximum rate of fire is 1/round, and only while mostly staying put (that is, moving at most a 5-foot step).Ī heavy crossbow is much more massive and has a heavier pull. In 3.5e, reloading is a move action that leaves your guard down (i.e., it grants adjacent opponents an opportunity attack). The mechanism might be a wheel-crank or a lever, depending on design.
Because the pull is not too great, light crossbows can be cranked with one hand. The bow across the stock (hence the name) is relatively small, and constructed like a short composite bow, often made of metal. Both longbows and shortbows can be nocked for free, allowing you to fire and move in the same round.Ī light crossbow is about the size of a shotgun. D&D 3.5e features a composite longbow, though we have no historical examples of such a thing. The English longbow is the most famous historical example. The lamination reinforced the unstrung shape, increase the draw and allowing even shorter bows.Ī longbow is a tall, mostly-straight staff of wood that gets most or all of its curve from the tension of the string. Historically, many shortbows were composite, being made of laminated materials like wood and horn. The crossbows are usually used by low-level characters, characters with negative strength modifiers (bows take strength penalties, crossbows do not), characters without martial weapon proficiency, or characters that use ranged attacks as a backup to other, more powerful attacks.Ī shortbow is recurved in order to give it more pull than its short length would normally grant. The longbow allows them to use all of their attacks in a round, and gets a strength bonus as an added benefit. Crossbows need to be reloaded, which usually rules out multiple attacks in a round.īecause of this limitation, most dedicated ranged characters gravitate towards a Composite Longbow. The key long-term difference between crossbows and longbows is that when you have multiple attacks, you can take all of them with a longbow. This means that when you reload you can't have anything in your off-hand (no shield, torch, dual-wielding, etc.).Ĭan someone clarify the differences between the two weapons? You can fire most crossbows one-handed (although some give you a penalty when you do so). Can someone clarify the differences between the two weapons? I'm also confused about the meaning of "takes 2 hands to reload.
#Long crossbow 5e free#
Heavy crossbows require a full-round action, and repeating crossbows require a free action to ready a new bolt and a full-round action to load a new magazine. Hand and Light crossbows can be reloaded with a move action. There are four different types of crossbow: Hand, Light, Heavy, and Repeating. For example, Friend A states that Crossbows take an entire turn to reload, while Friend B tells me that it only uses up a move action.īoth friends are right.
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