Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Weapon skills and ranger question

Sitting and reading up on some of the rules and restrictions of weapons.

I was thinking about creating a Halfling Ranger and had no idea what all the weapon skills meant.
But after some searching
'Loading' means it is slow to re-load, so will not be able to take advantage of the two attacks one get at level 5?

'Heavy' means it is not suitable for small creatures?
So exactly how will this impact me? less damage, harder to hit?
And will 'heavy' affect Dwarfs?

So for efficiency I will be restricted to short bow as a halfling?
I absolutely understand why if so, I am short and weak. But will my damage output suffer greatly or just minor?


And on a side note, does proficiency stack?
as in the Ranger Martial Weapon proficiency (longbow included) and the Elfs Longbow proficiency?


Thanks for the help

https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Weapons#content This page is your friend.

Loading: yes, you can only attack once per turn
Heavy: small creatures have disadvantage to attack rolls (basically a -5 penalty to hit). Damage should remain the same. This doesn't affect Dwarves as Dwarves are medium creatures
You could also use a light or hand crossbow. Or any of the heavy weapons, but with disadvantage to attack rolls.
Proficiencies don't stack.

Of course, all of this assumes that Larian will implement these things rules-as-written.

"Loading" means you only have a single shot whenever you take an attack action regardless of your actual number of attacks. In PnP you can overcome this with a feat (Crossbow Expert), I'd assume it will be added to the available feats later on.
"Heavy" will affect your attack chance, i.e. you get a disadvantage on attacks made if you're small and wield a weapon with the "heavy" property. Dwarves won't be affected, as they're medium sized but halflings and gnomes are considered small.

You can find all of these rules in the D&D 5E basic rules on Weapon Properties at https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/equipment#WeaponProperties

In short: yeah, loading means only one shot per round, and heavy is unfortunate for small creatures. However, once more feats are implemented, that will probably include Crossbow Expert, which removes the loading problem, allows you to attack with ranged weapons while in melee without disadvantage, and lets you make off-hand attacks with a hand-crossbow.

Normally, the main disadvantage of a short bow is range, but that's not implemented -- both longbow and short bow have the same range right now. So it's only a tiny difference in damage. (As a ranger, hunter's mark and other features amp up your damage so the weapon die size isn't a big deal.)

Dwarves are medium creatures rather than small, so not affected by the restriction on heavy weapons.

Thanks all.

still just thinking out loud.

so with a dwarf I can use heavy weapons and not get the - to hit
but as a halfling I get +2 dex which helps with my + to hit.

and as stated earlier in the thread the damage difference will be neglectable

And if Crossbow Expert shows up later then it is pretty much down to play as I like?

Yes to all except Crossbow Expert won't help with the - to hit as a halfling. It allows you to make multiple attacks with a loading weapon (plus some other things, see Postwave's response above).

Also +2 dex helps with both your to-hit and your damage, adding 1 to each.

I don't get how finesse works. From what I know from pfk finesse means you can use dex instead of str right? does ranged weapons only use dex? because none of them has finesse property, but I mean its ranged in every rpg i ever played dex is for ranged...

Ranged weapons in D&D always use Dex unless otherwise specified.

Finesse applies to melee weapons that can be used with the Dex score if it is higher than Str, I believe that Daggers and Rapiers both have this and maybe some other weapons as well (Shortswords are typically finessable but I can't remember if they are in this game and dont have one to check). In prior D&D games, rapiers were always the strongest Finessable weapon.

ah okey that's what I thought. thanks

If you want to roll (or role lol) a halfling ranger, I dont think you wil miss the damage loss that much when you add hunters mark and dip in fire, etc. Ranger kicks ass, but I am running wood elf.