Ignoring Loading

[Xayah]

Currently, I am working on a concept for a girl that's worked in a smithery or some other workplace for a long time and has eventually created Hand Crossbows that are attached to her wrists. In combat, she fights using only those two, no shields, swords, or anything else (except armor, but only light armor).

Now, this is already not a super optimized strategy, and I get that, but I like it in concept so that's fine by me. The only issue is that I don't know how to realize it. For one, it's surprisingly hard to get access to two crossbows from level one, with Fighters being the only RAW option, though I could probably talk my DM into letting me have them instead of Crossbows for a Ranger too. In addition, I intend to be a Variant Human and start with Crossbow Master (to shoot with both every turn) and probably take a feat at lvl 4, but not sure what yet.

The major problem comes with the Loading quality that crossbows have. Ammunition I can deal with, but as soon as I get Extra Attack on any of the martial classes that this concept would work with, I can still only attack once per turn with each crossbow. This is a serious problem, especially if I go the Fighter route, since without Extra Attacks they are just... extremely weak, at least in my eyes.

So my question is, is there any way, preferably in RAW, to ignore the Loading quality. As far as I can tell there is none, so if that is true, then how do you guys suggest for this concept to be realized? I'd really appreciate any advice! If you have any Homebrew stuff that could help me, I'd love to see it. Worst case scenario I'll just try and talk my DM into letting me ignore loading, based on the fact that she'd have a system in place to load instantly for her.

Anyway, thanks in advance!

[Boci]

The feat Crossbow Expert gives 3 benefits, include ignoring the loading quality with any crossbow you are proficient with.

[CorporateSlave]

Well the Crossbow Expert feat lets you ignore the loading property of crossbows with which you are proficient.

Of course that doesn't solve the issue of a free hand to handle the ammunition...but then again since apparently the intent is you can load and fire a single hand crossbow twice using the Crossbow Expert feat, you'd think a good DM would simply allow you to reskin the shooting as using a hand crossbow in each hand, and deftly drawing bolts with a couple of fingers to load them, since mechanically it does the same thing as if you fired the same hand crossbow twice anyway.

[stoutstien]

Currently, I am working on a concept for a girl that's worked in a smithery or some other workplace for a long time and has eventually created Hand Crossbows that are attached to her wrists. In combat, she fights using only those two, no shields, swords, or anything else (except armor, but only light armor).

Now, this is already not a super optimized strategy, and I get that, but I like it in concept so that's fine by me. The only issue is that I don't know how to realize it. For one, it's surprisingly hard to get access to two crossbows from level one, with Fighters being the only RAW option, though I could probably talk my DM into letting me have them instead of Crossbows for a Ranger too. In addition, I intend to be a Variant Human and start with Crossbow Master (to shoot with both every turn) and probably take a feat at lvl 4, but not sure what yet.

The major problem comes with the Loading quality that crossbows have. Ammunition I can deal with, but as soon as I get Extra Attack on any of the martial classes that this concept would work with, I can still only attack once per turn with each crossbow. This is a serious problem, especially if I go the Fighter route, since without Extra Attacks they are just... extremely weak, at least in my eyes.

So my question is, is there any way, preferably in RAW, to ignore the Loading quality. As far as I can tell there is none, so if that is true, then how do you guys suggest for this concept to be realized? I'd really appreciate any advice! If you have any Homebrew stuff that could help me, I'd love to see it. Worst case scenario I'll just try and talk my DM into letting me ignore loading, based on the fact that she'd have a system in place to load instantly for her.

Anyway, thanks in advance!

you're using wrist-mounted hand crossbows you're already firmly into the ask your DM category. Like others have said the cross bowmaster feat is probably what you are looking for.

You can always carry a bunch of hand crossbows and just switch them out. :)

[Xayah]

Okay so apparently I can't read. I swear I read Crossbow Master like 5 times and somehow skipped over the crucial one that I needed. Anyway, thank you guys a lot! I am aware that wrist mounted crossbows are gonna be... well gotta hope it's allowed, but I'm not planning on cheating with it (as in I'm still not gonna hold stuff in a hand that has a crossbow currently attached), so I hope it'll be fine! Seriously though, thank you!

[Maelynn]

I just wanted to point out one thing that might cause an issue - if you'd like to go the Ranger way, and you have crossbows attached to your wrists, it means that your hand movement is hampered - meaning that you probably won't be able to cast spells that require a somatic component. Something you may want to look into and consider in case your DM brings it up.

[Yunru]

Okay so apparently I can't read. I swear I read Crossbow Master like 5 times and somehow skipped over the crucial one that I needed. Anyway, thank you guys a lot! I am aware that wrist mounted crossbows are gonna be... well gotta hope it's allowed, but I'm not planning on cheating with it (as in I'm still not gonna hold stuff in a hand that has a crossbow currently attached), so I hope it'll be fine! Seriously though, thank you!

If your DM tries to protest a matter of balance, point out you can do the same with just one Hand Crossbow, and the second is actually just hindering you slightly for the aesthetics.