Looking at historical crossbows, that is about right. But the long and short bows shoot twice a round for 1d6! So 1E crossbows are far worse relatively. Since the damage output ends up being the same over the course of several combats, it seems to be a fair trade-off.ĪD&D 1E has even more rubbish crossbows, the light crossbow shoots once a round for 1d4 and the heavy every second round for 2-5. That makes the crossbow a tactical choice: You can't attack every round, but when you do hit it leaves a mark! They also work great as 1st-round ogre repellent. Our group decided that since crossbows can only fire every other round, and at the end of the initiative order, they will hit for 2d6 damage in compensation. It is true that crossbows fired much slower than regular bows, but they traditionally hit harder. All three do 1d6 damage.ĭoes the extra 30' of range justify losing 50% of your attacks and acting last in initiative? Yes, there are outlyers about being able to use a crossbow from a prone position, or kneel in the front line and have another missile attack fire over your head from the 2nd row, but those are fringe cases. Now, crossbows do have the best range in B/X (topping out at 240', compared to the longbow's 210' and the shortbows 150'), their cost is mid-range (30gp for a crossbow, 40 gp for a longbow, and 25 gp for a shortbow) but their encumbrance is highest (50 cn compared to the long and short bow's 30 cn). So, in the Marsh Expert Set, page X4 gives the 'optional' rule that "Crossbows may be fired once every two rounds, taking a round to load and one to fire." Add that to page B27, which indicates the crossbow is a two-handed weapon, and therefore attacks last in the initiative order each round (regular bows do not have this restriction). I've searched around, and this hasn't been discussed in about 12 years.
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