Sorry, guys, I meant to change the subject line of the post there when I
first focused in on the crossbow issue. Anyway:
At 06:15 PM 10/7/2002 -0400, Travis Doom wrote:
>I`m of the opinion that the BR designers snuck in the crossbow rule in
an attempt to “correct” the major problem that crossbows had in 2e D&D
(basically, that they did not accurately represent the lethality of a
crossbow as a weapon). It seems to be to be a very good 2e house rule
that made it into print as a campaign rule.
I agree that that was their intention. I guess the question becomes then,
“did they go far enough in 3e?”
Ive fired a LOT of bows and crossbows in my time, and my personal take on the subject is that they certainly improved crossbows in 3e, but they still arent “realistic” in many regards. One thing that I thought was a good
addition to the 1e-2e rules was the “point blank” concept that was
sometimes used. Unfortunately, the rule itself was a little unwieldy for
practical use when playing out combat, but it was the kernal of a good idea.
At 12:04 AM 10/8/2002 +0200, Carl Cramer wrote:
We let crossbows cause auto-criticals on any threat roll that is also a hit
within 30 ft. That way, anyone with a crossbow has at least a 5% chance of
inflicting a critical hit - which makes them pretty dangerous militia
weapons.
Now, that`s a very interesting additional rule. I like it. It
incorporates the aforementioned “point blank” concept but is much easier to
handle. Kudos.
>Also, we allow crossbows to scale freely in size. That gives quite a variety
>of crossbows:
>
>Hand crossbow: T: 1d4, S: 1d6, M: 1d8 - short range, one-handed
>Light crossbow: S: 1d8, M: 2d6, L: 2d8 - medium range, quick to reload
>Heavy Crossbow: M 1d10, L: 2d6 - long range, slow reload
What do you mean by those reload times? 1 per round and 1/2 per round per
the core rules, or is it something else?
>We also made the Hand Crossbow a martial weapon (at least for Ainureans),
>and it is qute a common cavalry weapon - check the illustration on the
>cavalry war cards.
That seems sensible. Any particular cultures that use the hand crossbow
other than Anuireans? I`d probably limit it to Anuirean, Brecht and maybe
the Khinasi, personally.
Gary
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