short or long, heavy or light?

[Traveler]

Which do you prefer: The short or long bow? The light or heavy crossbow?

[guard65]

For the regular game it is about the range and long range for me but with UB1 mod and Bow Mastery feat, short bow wins every time for me.

FYI on Bow Mastery:
Your expert training with bows grants you these benefits: • You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls you make with shortbow and longbow. • When you use the Attack action with a shortbow on your turn, you can make one ranged weapon attack as a bonus action, adding your attribute modifier to damage. • You can use Strength instead of Dexterity on attack and damage rolls you make with longbow.

[Madscientist]

Without mods:

If you can equip longbow or heavy crossbow there is no reason to equip the shor or light ones unless you have a better magic weapon of the short/light type. The most importent thing is hit chance, your damage is zero if you miss.

If you can equip bows and crossbows, bows are usually better:
- Bows have a better range, though crossbow range is usually good enough. Range of thrown weapons is really short, but you can use most thrown and melee.
- If you have several attacks per round you should be able to attack several times with a bow but only once with a crossbow. I have not tested this in the game yet, so maybe I confuse rules from different editions of DnD.

[Isaacorion Ceres]

Originally posted by Madscientist:

Without mods:

- If you have several attacks per round you should be able to attack several times with a bow but only once with a crossbow. I have not tested this in the game yet, so maybe I confuse rules from different editions of DnD.

This is accurate for DnD 5E but not implemented in Solasta. Crossbows can attack as many times as a Bow.

There are several features in the game that only work with Bows and not Crossbows. Greenmage Wizard's Entangling Shot, Marksman Ranger's Step Back and Recycler abilites, and of course the Bracers of Archery.

That said, if I'm handed the materials for a Magical Crossbow and not for a Longbow, I'm fine ignoring those features for the increased dmg.

[Oaktown]

Originally posted by Isaacorion:

There are several features in the game that only work with Bows and not Crossbows. Greenmage Wizard's Entangling Shot, Marksman Ranger's Step Back and Recycler abilites, and of course the Bracers of Archery.
.

Are we sure that Bracers of Archery don't work on crossbows in Solasta?

I'm playing thru Palace of Ice ATM and my Hunter Ranger has the legendary crossbow and Bracers of Archery. When I hit with the crossbow i get the "Bracers of Archery" indicator over his head. I haven't looked at damage with the bracers on vs off but I assumed since I get the indicator I'm also getting the dmg boost.

[Ommamar]

Originally posted by Oaktown:

Originally posted by Isaacorion:

There are several features in the game that only work with Bows and not Crossbows. Greenmage Wizard's Entangling Shot, Marksman Ranger's Step Back and Recycler abilites, and of course the Bracers of Archery.
.

Are we sure that Bracers of Archery don't work on crossbows in Solasta?

I'm playing thru Palace of Ice ATM and my Hunter Ranger has the legendary crossbow and Bracers of Archery. When I hit with the crossbow i get the "Bracers of Archery" indicator over his head. I haven't looked at damage with the bracers on vs off but I assumed since I get the indicator I'm also getting the dmg boost.

I have had the same experience with the Bracers of Archery, I am fairly certain they apply to any ranged weapon.

I am a fan of the heavy crossbows although I think there are more recipes for bows. If I can get a rogue who uses one (yeah snow dwarves) I find it worthwhile as you get one shot with rogues per turn and they generally hit harder then bows while bows have slightly higher range. That rarely comes in to consideration though as the only time it really matters is if you are trying to set an ambush at the maximum range from the party. I need to collect more data but the sneak damage seems to be higher if I equip a heavy crossbow on a rogue.

[Second Batch]

They all go farther than you can perceive in the vanilla game. Heavy crossbow is just the best because its die is biggest. Nothing else matters unless you're prohibited or roleplaying. Only the existence of Bracers of Archery make this debatable.

[Doombringer]

Palace of Ice only has a good light & heavy crossbow, the heavy crossbow is clearly the best weapon there.

[Oaktown]

Originally posted by Doombringer:

Palace of Ice only has a good light & heavy crossbow, the heavy crossbow is clearly the best weapon there.

Driller is insane. It dropped for me in a elite encounter in Palace of Ice. I had to bump up the enemy health because my ranger was one and two shotting everyone.