Myth: Crossbows generate outlandish amounts of kinetic energy compared to compound bows.įact: Math is math-The average crossbow generates roughly 80 to 100 foot-pounds of kinetic energy. In fact, contrary to myth, they bounce off plate armour at range. The crossbow's ability to penetrate armour is dramatically overestimated by fans of the crossbow. Crossbows and longbows both produce about the same amount of kinetic energy although crossbows retain their energy over a longer range. The effectiveness of crossbows had nothing to do with damage or armour penetration. (Assumes use of Weapon-vs-AC modifiers - which are quite important for distinguishing weapons from each other) They also, IIRC, have quite nice to-hit bonuses against most armour types. I do not have the books in front of me, but I am fairly sure that if you check them you will find that a crossbow has much better range than a sling or thrown dagger. The advantages of a crossbow is/was not so much the damage it does as I think the damage done with crossbows is fine, and compares well to other weapons. Daggers too are quite lethal in the hands of someone who knows how to use them. Yet IRL crossbows were highly effective weapons of war.ĭo not underestimate sling stones - they can easily kill a person. By the book, there's no advantage to using a crossbow. Peyre wrote:In our recent discussion about allowing thieves to use crossbows, it came up that (many feel) crossbows are terribly underpowered in 1e: light crossbows do the same damage as a dagger, or a sling stone even heavy crossbows do no more damage than sling bullets. For comparison, here are BtB values from different editions: Basic* I could just make one up, but on something like this I'd like to do something vaguely semiofficial-that maybe there's some consensus of opinion I can base my house rule on. So I thought I'd solicit people's opinion of a good alternative for a house rule. Yet IRL crossbows were highly effective weapons of war. In our recent discussion about allowing thieves to use crossbows, it came up that (many feel) crossbows are terribly underpowered in 1e: light crossbows do the same damage as a dagger, or a sling stone even heavy crossbows do no more damage than sling bullets.
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