So Crossbows are wrongly implemented?

[Dorok]

I tried both bow and crossbow with a fighter, and the conclusion is bow is pointless but by having a lot more drops of special arrows than special bolts.

If I get it well, without some special feat, Crossbow aren't supposed to be used more than once per turn, but they can in Solasta, and then it makes look weird bows. That's right?

[BoogieMan]

I haven't seen a craftable crossbow, but I've seen 3 craftable bows, so ultimately I'd say bows are better just because you can make the fancy ones.

It's not a huge deal since they are inexpensive and the magic quivers can generate more, but I probably see 40 arrows for every 1 bolt as an enemy drop so it's easier to maintain a supply. I haven't noticed a quiver that makes bolts either. Oddly though, I see a more even split of special bolts and arrow drops.

It's good to use both to spread out ammo. I have a ranger that is my only bow user, my Fighter and Cleric both have crossbows, then there is my wizard so he doesn't need one. The crossbows don't get used as much but for surprise rounds and weird terrain they see a decent amount of use.

[Platostotle]

You are right, weapons with the loading property are only supposed to fire once per turn. I don't know if it was a design decision by TA, or an oversight. My guess is an oversight since crossbows still have the loading property, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

[Dorok]

@BoogieMan:
Right I forgot the aspect of special bows, none for Crossbow. For the arrows and bolts drop, most are your own ammo you take back. But past that, yeah there's also more standard arrows drops and even a quiver to magically generate them.

@Platostole: Ok, that's a bit bizarre.

[Ommamar]

Since you can craft your own ammunition it isn't a big deal what drops. I will have to check but I think they added primed light crossbows to the merchant as well as the recipe to use the oil of accuracy or whatever it is called. If you combine a crossbow with poisoned bolts it becomes very potent but since you can do the same with arrows and there are at least more types of them to craft they still have the advantage.
As too the firing once per turn I always allowed a fighter who has reached the level of two attacks in a turn to be allowed to reload a crossbow to use it again. I know historically it isn't accurate but for game play I think it is a feasible choice.

[Ichthyic]

so... it's not a 5E thing to be able to shoot a xbow more than once per round? I figured it was just a rule change.

I still prefer longbows though, regardless, simply because of the low weight and 50% increased range over a heavy xbow. heavy xbows are just that... heavy. ok for a strength based character, a bit chonky for a mage or rogue. not worth the extra point of damage on average.

[Dorok]

Crossbow is fine for classes without multi attacks. For classes picking a perk for crossbow mastery. For classes than can't use bow nor want lost a perk on that.

With Solasta Homebrew there's very few reason to use any bow or as a secondary choice to use some special arrows you don't have as bolt. I don't think it's better balanced. That said if all classes had meaningful bonus actions choice, for sure allows use a bonus action to reload the crossbow something that wouldn't be needed for bow, it could work.

[Platostotle]

Originally posted by Ichthyic:

so... it's not a 5E thing to be able to shoot a xbow more than once per round? I figured it was just a rule change.

In 5e, you can take a feat to ignore the loading property of crossbows, but they normally limit you to 1 attack/round. This feat isn't in the SRD, so it's not in Solasta.