Originally Posted by The_Red_Queen
Originally Posted by Ignatius
I agree it's a bug, there is a another more glaring bug really. Why can one dual wield hand crossbows? With no free hand, how could one load the thing?

Well, I don’t see any problem in principle with getting one shot off from each per turn, though it gets dodgier to my mind with multiple actions or bonus actions per turn. But even that doesn’t bother me all that much, though I know 5e is much stricter about reloading and I think has a feat related to it and firing a hand crossbow with the off hand?


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And the most important question, why would anyone use any other ranged weapon in the game, given they're are implemented in this way? Presently, they out-class all ranged weapons due to this. At times, I fear Larian is just not thinking things through.

Well, I suppose a ranged weapon with a higher single attack/damage might still be better for a character that has something more useful to do with their bonus action than attack, such as apply Hunter’s Mark or use Entangling Strike? I’ve not done the detailed sums, but I’m sure someone has.

Thinking of rangers, does the two weapon fighting style apply to off hand ranged weapons in 5e or is it melee only?

It would be the Crossbow Expert feat. With it you ignore the loading property of crossbows which breaks Extra Attack, disadvantage for firing within melee range, and get an extra attack with the same hand-crossbow once per turn. But, you'd still need a free hand to load the hand-crossbow.

As far as using other ranged weapons, I can't think of any reason to use them. Given the rampant dipping in fire and poison, applying weapon buffs to each attack, ultimately adding the Sharpshooter feat to each attack, and given you've two chances to get a critical hit, I see hand-crossbows as woefully superior. I mean, Hunter's mark should be once per turn, but other weapon buffs don't have that stipulation. Also, can't you do Ensnaring strike with a hand-crossbow? I never use that spell, it's not too good in my opinion.

The bonus off-hand damage comes from the Two-Weapon Fighting Style, it only apples to melee weapon attacks when Two-Weapon fighting.