Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Crossbows shoot in a straight line, not in an arc

thats a heck of a lot of misconceptions.
Also bringing up realism in fantasy is always difficult, but lets try.

What are we even talking about?
We are talking about hand operated crossbows.
Crossbows are ridiculously in efficient missle launchers. The extremely short powerstroke, paired with very light missles (yes, wooden bolts are a heck of a lot lighter than arrows), and a massive string make for a setup very inefficient energy transfer from the limbs to the missle.
In the game we clearly have hand operated crossbows. Without cocking devices like windlasses it will be next to impossible to get very high draw weights. While Windlass crossbows could exceed 1000lbs of drawweight, you will have a hard time cocking a 400lbs crossbow even with a footrest and both hands. thats basicly a 400 lbs deadlift.

Warbows with up to (and sometimes over) 200lbs were pretty common medieval weapons. On the lower end examples have been found that would have been in the 140 range. Usually warbows were likely in the 150-170lbs area.

So about the firing arcs:
On long ranges crossbows drop off way harder than bows. Thats because their light projectiles carry less momentum and are more prone to drag.
But we are talking distances of mostly 30 meters or less. Neither bow nor crossbow would have any noticable arch. they will be about straight.

You can find many good tests e.g. from tods workshop, running test series with all kinds of weapons. e.g. with a 860lbs windlass crossbow vs a 95lbs longbow. while having 9 times the draw weight, the projectile only has ~2,5 times the energy and momentum on point blank.
On testing a 160 pound warbow with reproducitons of the mary rose arrows, the arrows carried more momentum and energy on 10 meters, than the 860lbs windlass on point blank range.

now considering that those guys in our game are not carrying a humongous crossbow with a windlass that takes easily 30 seconds to reload, but more likely lighter crossbows you can cock with body strength, the numbers for the crossbow would fall dramaticly lower.
Most likely, forgetting about all the heroic fantasy stuff:
From the weapons we see in the game, the crossbows would not come even remotely close to the energy, the momentum, the penetration and the firing speed of the bows. now way.

so lets not go for realism because nothing about what happens there on the screen is realistic.
If one feels those fantasy Crossbows are supposed to deal more damage and therefor shoot flatter. why not. perhaps they got magical enhanced limbs of stuff, or a rare dwarfen material that is somehow busted. But going for the "realism" route makes no sense, especially in that context.