Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General Bows vs. Crossbows

What's been your experience?

It seems Crossbows while being superior on the whole, especially for ranger spells and special arrows... are also rarer and less likely to drop.

Aren't they also a lot slower? I've only seen a couple (though I am yet to leave Cyseal), and the time increment seemed to prohibit their use.

I've had the opposite impression. Crossbows have slightly greater firepower, but cost 2 more AP to use and have shorter range. I find having a bow with 4 ap cost is a lot better than 6 ap cost of crossbow since I can fire bow twice in one turn for total greater damage than the 1 shot I can make with the crossbow (and crossbow cant fire as far without suffering large penalties).

Bow I find simply offers greater flexibility and better damage so long as you have enough AP to fire twice. If you only have enough AP to fire either weapon once, than crossbow would be better I suppose.

Moreso if you get the -1 AP on ranged weapons talent.

If you really want to go into detail about it, number your AP, the AP cost of using your weapon for an attack, the AP of your most used skills, and see which split gives you the best use of your AP.

If you gain more in speed, then the balance might shift, favouring the other weapon. So it might not be a bad idea to keep both the best bow and crossbow you've found around.

I sort of wish they had done crossbows a little different. Low AP cost to fire, but a reload action required to ready them again. More complex, but it would have better fit how a crossbow would be used.

Think of the AP cost as both the firing and the reloading in one attack action. No difference.

I get that, but a crossbow you'd keep loaded and you could fire once and draw a melee weapon at a very small AP cost. A bow would have a higher AP cost for something like that.
Or fire and duck behind cover to reload. Again, something that would be easier with a crossbow. You could spend the high AP reload in safety. Particularly on heavy crossbows with a windlass.
Simplifications. It would also give the bow and crossbow very different use profiles vs just how many times can you fire a round with your AP. I think it'd be interesting.

Crossbow's much better by far once you get barrage and the spray shots because it doesn't matter AP use but only weapon damage with those skills.

XBow is better, if you managed to get one . At lvl 20 I tried every thing I can to get my hand on legendary Tenb Xbow. No chance in hell.

So if you are lucky and manged to get one, then make sure to look out for xbow+1 gear and as much crit chance you could find. Add guerilla talent and you should be able to one shot casters from 20+m before you the fight start.

Remember in D:OS enemy engage you when you become visible in their line of sight.