Revised Crossbows

[Dracos]

Anyhow, as discussed long ago...

Current crossbow rules suck.  As they stand, I'm better picking up a rock and throwing it than buying a crossbow.  Bows completely overwhelm them in practice.

Thus, in the goal of actually using one:

Three types of crossbow:
Hand crossbow : I'm leaving this alone since it does work as stands.  It's just a sort of thief weapon.

Light Crossbow: Currently, this is blatantly underpowered compared to a bow.  Bows got the range down pretty much and the power, so ideally, this should either be short ranged but painful or not so painful but fast.

Fast light crossbow:
  Light quarrel   1 sp   *   S   P   --   1d4   1d4
  Light crossbow   35 gp   7   M   --   2 (+4 each shot)   --   --
range:
  Light crossbow   3/1   60   120   180

This varient is along the lines of, it's good mechanical bow meant for quick loading and firing of tiny bolts.  It's likely that, if already drawn, this will get off first, but given the bolts only do as much as a magic missile (Sans accuracy), they're unlikely to take down anything big.  A horde of folks using these would be quite dangerous since it'd allow them to get lots of shots into the air quickly, even if they'll generally do little damage.

While you can shoot three times a round with this (locked), this is a pull back weapon, so in effect, it takes time between each shot.  Thus while you're likely to get the first shot of the round, it's also likely to take until the last shot.  It takes two hands to use.

Painful light crossbow:
  med quarrel   1 sp   *   S   P   --   2d4   2d4
  Light crossbow   35 gp   7   M   --   8   --   --
range:
  Light crossbow   2/1   60   120   180

This one does more damage and, is in every way, comparable to a between longbow and shortbow deal.

Heavy Crossbow: This should be slow, they've got that right.  But it should also be powerful.

Ammo/desc:
  Heavy quarrel   2 sp   *   S   P   --   4d8+1   4d10+1
  Heavy crossbow   50 gp   14   L   --   15   --   --
range:
  Heavy crossbow   1/2   80   160   240

And doubled range.  1 attack per two rounds.  Also L size and an increased factor. It's a siege type weapon, generally used atop battlemants and the like.  It's heavy for carrying around and generally works like a miniture ballista.  It's hard to carry, takes time to setup, and hard to shoot, but if something gets hit by that, it's not likely to get up.  Obviously takes both hands and uninterrupted setup to get a shot off.

Dracos
*knows his original concept was better but...*

[Anastasia]

Okay! Since you PCs will be the ones using these rules if they go into affect, do you have any opinion here? Floor's open if you like or dislike any part of this. I'll say my piece in a day or so after giving you a chance to chime in.

Geez, I almost wrote girls instead of PCs. Moon Power?

[Dracos]

I'll just note for myself, I'm good for either of those light crossbow varients.  I'm not going to be picking up a hand crossbow and wouldn't pick up a heavy.  I just revised that as well for thoroughness.  Maybe if we're ever doing fortress defense, it'll come into play.

Dracos

[Iron Dragoon]

Hmm...

Normally, I'd say go with the painful version, since crossbows are basically supposed to be the close in archer answer to armor.. But with the way we roll, maybe firing 3 times a round ain't such a bad idea.. Who knows, you might actually hit once with it.. Maybe *TWICE* if you get really lucky =p

I'd say Painful > Quick, though, depending on what the other characters think.

Then again, you can just do both, too, ya know. Just have them as two seperate types of crossbows in the world.

[Carthrat]

The point behind crossbows is that they're *not* faster than someone who's trained in using a bow. The idea is that they're easy to use and very effective against armoured targets, which is why they were common amongst non-English peasantry and stuff. A longbow probably has longer range and a fast fire rate.

In the interests of balance, it makes sense that a light crossbow should reflect this by going for more damage instead of higher RoF. Unless you're using an arbalest or Chu Ko Nu or something. o-o

[Anastasia]

Yeah. I lean towards damage light crossbows as well. Let's give this a beta run with Gavin and maybe a few selected NPCs as the game goes - see how it works out, hm?

[Dracos]

Note for completeness: We went with damage light cross bows.

Dracos