Why use a crossbow? (spoilers)

[Cascade]

Hi all. [img]smile.gif[/img] Pretty much first post - great forum!

Ok, so I'm planning my new party, and it's come to the point of handing out proficiencies, and I'm starting to wonder - why use a crossbow on a fighter or part-fighter?

Really, why ever?

I mocked up a (NON-elven) character and gave her the following proficiencies:
2 x Bow (for bows)
2 x Missile (for xbows)

And I gave her a selection of missile weapons to compare. That includes the light crossbow of speed, which imo is the best xbow out there. There's Heavy XBow of accuracy, but you only get one shot with that, and a fighter should be hitting more often than not anyway. Gimme the rate of fire of light xbow of speed any day!

Composite Longbow
Thaco: 16
Attacks: 2.5
Damage: 1D6 + 2, i.e. average of 3.5 + 2 = 5.5

Light Crossbow of Speed
Thaco: 16
Attacks: 2.5
Damage: 1D8 + 1, i.e. average of 5.5

So the moment you line up:
Composite Longbow + 1
Longbow + 1
Eagle Bow
Longbow of Marksmanship

There really doesn't seem to be any reason to ever take the light xbow of speed, as those all surpass it!

Arrows are more plentiful than bolts. And magical arrows are better than magical bolts, as a rule.

The only justification I can see is that light xbow of speed is easily available, and that you will find magic bolts whatever you do so you may as well have someone who can use them.

I'm not sure if those justify having someone doing -1 damage or with -1 thaco through the rest of the game, though!

Thoughts...?

[Cascade]

Oh, and, um - this is for power, not RP purposes, you understand. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Dundee Slaytern]

Magical arrows being better than magical bolts is not a rule. In fact, some of the more deadly ammunition out there are bolts.

Bolts of Lightning, to give one example.

[Lord]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Bolts of Lightning, to give one example.

I love equiping a weak fighting-wise character with bolts of lightning (such as Jan in BG2). Even with only 1 attack per round, he can deal out nice damage.

[True_Moose]

Bolts of Lightning are even more effective in BG1, due to enemies' lower saving throws and fewer resistances. Also, if you manage to get a Bolt of Biting to hit a mage, it's game over. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Klorox]

Since archery=power in BG1, there are only a limited number of bows out there. That's reason enough to have one x-bow master!

[Kyrvias]

My personal opinion is that hte one thing that makes Crossbows better than bows is...


Bolts of Polymorphing. Turning a group of adventurers into squirrels never gets old

[Cascade]

*laughs* Ok, so it seems the specialist bolts have some followers. [img]smile.gif[/img]

It's just such a shame that the most powerful crossbow is only just equal to a simple, non-magical bow worth 1/100 of the price in stores! Crazy!

[SixOfSpades]

Even more important is that fact that 95% of all the dropped ammunition in the game is Arrows, meaning your Bowmen never run out of ammo and your Crossbowmen have to fill their backpacks every time they leave town.

But even so, I still advocate having one party member know how to use a Crossbow, if only to take advantage of the few good Bolts out there. Multiclassed Fighters, for example, can easily put 2 stars in both Bow and Missile, meaning they can switch on a whim.

The selection of magical Bolts and Crossbows alike is rather sparse in BG1 (Bolts of Lightning are matched by Arrows of Ice, Fire, and Acid, both have Biting versions, and only Arrows have the Piercing and Detonation enchantments, both of which are killer in BG1), but it improves in BG2. It might even be improved too much: There are two types of Bolts that have a high chance to Stun (read: kill, as anybody who gets Stunned for five rounds in combat is dead anyway), and rather than the standard 1D8 damage, they do 1D10 and 2d6 damage. Ouch.

[ 04-27-2006, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]

[Kyrvias]

There's still the whole "Target was changed into a squirrel" fiasco