Also, can't you do Ensnaring strike with a hand-crossbow?
Cheers for the info. I do agree applying poison and dipped effects to the off hand crossbow changes the calculus and you may well be right that that means you’re always better off with two hand crossbow attacks than one higher attack/damage attack with a more powerful ranged weapon. I certainly don’t have the maths at hand to prove you wrong!
I’m sure you can use Ensnaring Strike with a hand crossbow, but I was thinking that as it uses a bonus action as well as an action (as does Hail of Thorns, I think), you couldn’t get off an off-hand attack so would be better applying them with a more powerful single weapon.
Then there’s the, admittedly broken, stealth mechanics that mean that you can hide with a BA and get advantage on your next attack (but which would be relevant to rogues with cunning action even if this were fixed as I think it should be). I’m not sure how much better your single ranged weapon needs to be in order to mean you’re better off with a single attack with advantage compared to two without. Especially for rogues who can get sneak attack bonuses with - currently - a main hand attack with advantage (but some of whom may have two bonus actions).
I certainly accept that once all the maths are done, it may turn out that you’re always better off with two hand crossbows given the current wonky implementation. It just didn’t seem
obviously the case to me.
