Saelethil
2021-12-12, 04:25 PM
I've been mulling over these changes for a while and was inspired by a couple of recent posts to finally share them. None of this has been playtested yet but the intent is to make weapon choice matter and to make melee and skirmishing slightly better options. I've made some changes to how bows and crossbows work as well as combine the crossbow expert and sharpshooter feats to remove/alter the points that bothered me. I know this isn't going to be for everyone but if you're like me and would prefer a tad more verisimilitude this might help or just spark your own homebrewing.
Bows
Firstly, I've added a Warbow because if someone invests heavily into both strength and dex they should get something cool. More impactfull though is that bows have strength requirements. If you do not meet the prerequisite, the range of the bow is halved and you subtract the difference between it and your strength from your attack rolls. For example, if you have a strength of 10 and attempt to use a Warbow, the range becomes 75/300 and you take -5 to your attack roll.
Bow
Strength Pre-Req.
Damage
Range
Shortbow
11
1d6
80/320
Longbow
13
1d8
150/600
Warbow
15
2d6
150/600
Crossbows
Crossbows lack a Strength prerequisite but will now require an attack or an action to reload and deal slightly more damage.
Crossbow
Damage
Range
Hand Crossbow
2d4
30/120
Light Crossbow
2d6
80/320
Heavy Crossbow
2d8
100/400
Bow Expert (formerly sharpshooter & crossbow expert)
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
When you use the Attack action and attack with a shortbow, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with your shortbow.
Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack's damage.
As mentioned above, there were a couple parts of both sharpshooter and crossbow expert that bothered me, namely ignoring cover and being faster with a crossbow than a bow. Now if you want to be a dangerous quick-shot you need to invest a tiny bit into strength.
I I considered removing the 3rd bullet and coming up with something new but I feel its much weaker than it was in the original sharpshooter because once you have to deal with cover that -5 to hit is a much bigger deal.
In addition to these changes I would also remove the "melee" requirement for two-weapon fighting allowing for the rapier/hand crossbow swashbucklery action but if a character wanted to go hard in that archetype they would either need a bandolier of loaded hand crossbows (a pretty cool mental image if you ask me) or spend the extra money to commission a repeating crossbow. You shouldn't be able to "fan the hammer" on a crossbow faster than Legolas can use a shortbow without magical/mechanical improvements to your weapon.
Bows
Firstly, I've added a Warbow because if someone invests heavily into both strength and dex they should get something cool. More impactfull though is that bows have strength requirements. If you do not meet the prerequisite, the range of the bow is halved and you subtract the difference between it and your strength from your attack rolls. For example, if you have a strength of 10 and attempt to use a Warbow, the range becomes 75/300 and you take -5 to your attack roll.
Bow
Strength Pre-Req.
Damage
Range
Shortbow
11
1d6
80/320
Longbow
13
1d8
150/600
Warbow
15
2d6
150/600
Crossbows
Crossbows lack a Strength prerequisite but will now require an attack or an action to reload and deal slightly more damage.
Crossbow
Damage
Range
Hand Crossbow
2d4
30/120
Light Crossbow
2d6
80/320
Heavy Crossbow
2d8
100/400
Bow Expert (formerly sharpshooter & crossbow expert)
Being within 5 feet of a hostile creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your ranged attack rolls.
When you use the Attack action and attack with a shortbow, you can use a bonus action to make an attack with your shortbow.
Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack's damage.
As mentioned above, there were a couple parts of both sharpshooter and crossbow expert that bothered me, namely ignoring cover and being faster with a crossbow than a bow. Now if you want to be a dangerous quick-shot you need to invest a tiny bit into strength.
I I considered removing the 3rd bullet and coming up with something new but I feel its much weaker than it was in the original sharpshooter because once you have to deal with cover that -5 to hit is a much bigger deal.
In addition to these changes I would also remove the "melee" requirement for two-weapon fighting allowing for the rapier/hand crossbow swashbucklery action but if a character wanted to go hard in that archetype they would either need a bandolier of loaded hand crossbows (a pretty cool mental image if you ask me) or spend the extra money to commission a repeating crossbow. You shouldn't be able to "fan the hammer" on a crossbow faster than Legolas can use a shortbow without magical/mechanical improvements to your weapon.