[RPG] How would it unbalance gameplay to remove the limitation “requires a free hand to load” for hand crossbows

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Crossbow Expert: hand crossbow & shield

I'm working on stats for royal guards of a homebrew capital – using Guard Captain as template. I gave them a hand crossbow and the Crossbow Expert feat, thinking it would allow them to wield a shield in one hand and a hand crossbow in the other.

Crossbow Expert mentions on PHB p. 165:

You ignore the loading quality of crossbows with which you are proficient.

• 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 one-handed weapon, you can use a bonus action to attack with a hand crossbow you are holding.

At first I thought that would be enough to be wearing a shield while attacking with a hand crossbow, but the Loading property actually says:

Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.

So "loading" refers to loading speed, and the feat makes you faster. It's the Ammunition property that, by RAW (PHB p. 146), doesn't allow wielding a shield while attacking with, and reloading, a hand crossbow:

[…] Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon). […]

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Question

How would it unbalance gameplay to remove the limitation "requires a free hand to load" for hand crossbows? Thematically, it makes sense, because in my setting this city is rich enough to have such fancy technology as "semi-automatic" hand crossbows (however that would work). Since my world setting allows it, it would be only fair if it's also an option for the PCs – if they happen to acquire such a weapon and/or training. I'm mostly interested in the shield & hand crossbow combination, but if I'm overlooking other potential exploits that would unbalance gameplay please inform me.

I'm fine with allowing it for NPCs (for my guards) because I can just calculate the new CR, based on increased DPR and AC. As DM I have enough control to keep that balanced at the table. When allowing it for PCs as well though, I'm not sure which unbalanced exploits I might be overlooking. A good answer includes an analysis of mechanical costs and benefits for PCs when removing the limitation "requires a free hand to load".

To remove this limitation, I'm thinking of three possible ways:

  1. Tweaking the Ammunition property of hand crossbows specifically.
  2. Adding a feature to the Crossbow Expert feat.
  3. Solve it through magic by making the fancy crossbows of the royal guard uncommon magical weapons that can be reloaded without having a free hand.

An amazing answer includes a game balance analysis on these possible solution as well.

Best Answer

Already-powerful high DPR builds get better defenses

RAW, if you combine Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter, and the Archery fighting style, you have the basis for some of the most damaging builds in the game. This is (slightly) counterbalanced by the inability to use a shield.

With your proposed changes, those high DPR builds can wear a shield for similar defenses to a sword+board character. A plate-wearing sword+board fighter with the Dueling fighting style will have AC 20. A studded leather-wearing crossbow+board fighter with the Archery fighting style will now have AC 17-19 (depending on their Dexterity), instead of the AC 15-17 they would have without a shield. Dexterity is already a more versatile stat than Strength, and this will increase its power even more.

In case it isn't clear, the real problem here is the Sharpshooter feat. With it, the hand crossbow's normal range extends to 120 feet and you can take -5 to hit (-3 if you consider the Archery fighting style) to get +10 to damage. Combine it with the bonus action attack from Crossbow Expert and you get a terrifying amount of damage. If you restrict one-handed loading to be incompatible with Sharpshooter, most of the problems go away.

Implementation-specific considerations

  1. "Tweaking the Ammunition property of hand crossbows specifically." This does not have any particular problems besides the hand crossbow + shield ones listed above. It does allow for niche shortsword + hand crossbow fighting, which is flavorful for a Swashbuckler rogue, but not particularly powerful.
  2. "Adding a feature to the Crossbow Expert feat." This also doesn't have any particular problems, either. Shortsword + hand crossbow characters would need to take Crossbow Expert to work.
  3. "Solve it through magic by making the fancy crossbows of the royal guard uncommon magical weapons that can be reloaded without having a free hand." This is essentially the same as point 1 once the PCs get their hands on one or two of the royal guard crossbows. Depending on your players, this may also encourage them to...relieve...one of the guards of their crossbow. On the other hand, Ben Barden rightly pointed out in the comments that forcing the players to choose between a +0 repeating hand crossbow and a +3 hand crossbow may give you greater control over balance.

Cost/benefit for exploiting one-handed loading

Fighter (and most other martials)

There is definitely a cost to taking Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter, but in this case, the cost was already "paid" once you chose to play a ranged DPR build. If you want to play optimally, you're going to want both of those feats anyway. Here are four different ranged fighters (using no subclass features) at level 6, all with the Archery fighting style, shooting at an AC 15 enemy:

  • +2 DEX at L4 and L6; 2 longbow attacks for 15.7 DPR.
  • Crossbow Expert at L4, +2 DEX at L6; 3 hand crossbow attacks for 17.4 DPR.
  • Sharpshooter at L4, +2 DEX at L6; 2 longbow attacks for 19.0 DPR.
  • Crossbow Expert at L4, Sharpshooter at L6; 3 hand crossbow attacks for 22.8 DPR.

View the AnyDice program that generated these

Keep in mind, this is the worst level for Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter, and it's still on top. At level 8, the first fighter already has 20 DEX and can't go higher, but the Crossbow Expert + Sharpshooter fighter gets even better. Any bonus to hit (from +X weapons, proficiency, bless, or Battle Master's Precision Attack) only widens this gap.

Rogue

The key to a successful rogue build is landing Sneak Attack every turn. The standard way to accomplish this is to attempt to Hide each round to gain advantage on your single attack. Unfortunately, hiding is sometimes impossible, leaving even a high-level rogue with a single d20 roll to determine all of their damage for the round.

The Crossbow Expert feat provides an alternative, by offering a different use for the rogue's bonus action: another attack. Two attacks (without advantage or disadvantage) are strictly better than one attack with advantage, making Crossbow Expert's bonus action better than Cunning Action in most cases. They may both hit and maybe even crit. Better yet, if the rogue connects with the first attack, they can still choose to use their bonus action to Hide or reposition.

Changing the Crossbow Expert feat won't have a huge effect on pure rogues, but may encourage them to dip a single level of fighter for shield proficiency and the Archery fighting style. Tweaking the Ammunition property itself would mean that rogues with a fighter dip wouldn't need to take Crossbow Expert if they're okay with a single attack.