Which is more powerful?

[nub]

Which is? Longbows or bolts?

[Morgian]

What do you mean? Crossbow bolts? They are the same as arrows. Or cantrips like firebolt? In that case the bow for a melee and the bolt for a caster. E.g. a melee can fire three times, getting the magical attack and damage bonus each time. A caster of the same level would do 3d10, and even if he gets a damage bonus (evokers 10 do), he still gets no attack bonus. But he cannot fire three arrows, and only one cantrip.

[nub]

So longbows do more damage or crossbows?

Which is recommended?

[sevensided]

the information on weapons will tell you how much damage they can do.

[Ratch]

Probably Crossbows with relevant Feats taken. Sharpshooter and Crossbow Master come to mind. IDK if bows have a similar Feat like Crossbow Master, which removes the "too close" penalty and enhances a Bleeding attack.

Plus, crossbows include Hand Crossbows which can be Duel-Wielded. Factor in that you come across a few Enchanted Hand Crossbows and you have, in theory, access to 2 new spells plus the other benefits. Ne'er Misser and Hellfire Hand Crossbow are top.

[wei270]

there are different size to cross bolt bolts, but let just take a stander one man cross bolts. the amount of pentration from historian seems to suggest they are similar.

the difference is functionally is that when you do longbow you fire at a higher arch, which eventually the projectile speed of the arrow, but due the the size of the arrow from long bows it still have alot of power on landing. but since it is a blow you can fire it 3x fast compare to cross bow.

cross bow has a flatter trajectory for the bolt and higher initial velocity. they will have an easier time aiming and hitting the target as the flight time for the projectile is lower. but comes at the cost of longer reload.

functionally the two would be consider some what evenly matched with maybe longbow being slightly better in the hands of highly trained units who can pump out those higher rates of fire. HOWEVER, this is where you see the problem of long bows, you need to train you archers, which takes time and money. where if you give a cross bow to a random peasant on the street he now just instantly got ungraded in to a dangerous individual. that is why longbow is shift out of the battle field.

[veer]

Originally posted by nub:

So longbows do more damage or crossbows?

Which is recommended?

I think you are looking for a simple answer and you won't get that from most gamers. I can tell you simply that I prefer crossbows. Hope that helps.

[Kodaxmax]

bows and crossbows functionally are identical. just pick the one with the better numbers/ magic effect.

Hand crossbows are great for characters that dont have a use for bonus actions. they can always fire off an offhand crossbow bolt for a bit of extra damage.

Bolt spells/cantrips are ussually a better option for casters than range weapons, as they use their main casting stat rather than dexterity. However if an enemy happens to be resistant to your spells elements then bows might be better.

[Hexoplex]

Dual hand crossbows are the best :D

In the end it will depend on what you are proficient with and what bonus they have.

[Kodaxmax]

Originally posted by Hexoplex:

Dual hand crossbows are the best :D

In the end it will depend on what you are proficient with and what bonus they have.

with one exception, if you dont want to spend your bonus action on the offhand bow, than two handed bows are better damage per action.

[Hexoplex]

Originally posted by Kodaxmax:

Originally posted by Hexoplex:

Dual hand crossbows are the best :D

In the end it will depend on what you are proficient with and what bonus they have.

with one exception, if you dont want to spend your bonus action on the offhand bow, than two handed bows are better damage per action.

True, but I like having the 2nd shot option in case the first one misses/kills the mob. If the mob is low health already, I can lead with the off-hand shot and still use my main action.