And I think that's a shame, because crossbows are kind of cool. So I was wondering about ways to make them more attractive. I'm thinking of these possible house rules:
- Increase the rate of fire to 2 for a light crossbow and 1 for a heavy crossbow.
- Bump the damage for each with a +1, so a light crossbow bolt does 2-5 and a heavy bolt does 3-6/3-8.
- Allow anyone to use crossbows without spending a proficiency slot. The advantage of the crossbow, historically, was that any peasant could use a crossbow: just wind, load, point, and shoot. The bow took training. So why not let people use crossbows without spending proficiency slots on it? Of course, there are lots of weapons one might say shouldn't require proficiency slots. Clubs, for example. I need to train to learn to use a club? Isn't it just a matter of hitting people with it? Alternately, the bow's increased rate of fire could come at the cost of an extra proficiency slot: bows would require 2 proficiency slots to use, but crossbows would need only one.