Before we dive into the deep discussion of Crossbow Expert, reviewing or introducing what crossbows are would be a great idea. In the game of Dungeons and Dragons, your characters can wield any number of weapons, not the least of which is a crossbow. From hardy dwarven warriors to the silent and wicked Drow of the Underdark, crossbows can be utilized in many different shapes, sizes, and fashions.
Simply put, a crossbow is one step in the evolution from a bow and arrows to a firearm. With a bow and arrow, the thrust that pushes the projectile forward is a tensile force, aka the string being pulled back and then reverting to its normal position, pushing the arrow forward. In this example, a person’s hand is what draws the string back and what releases the string.
A crossbow is very similar. A string is still pulled back to create tensile force. The difference, however, is that in a crossbow, the string falls behind a catch that holds the string there. When the wielder desires, they can pull a trigger that releases the string, allowing it to propel forward, pushing the projectile towards its target. Also, unlike bows and arrows, typically held perpendicular to the ground, a crossbow is set in a firearm-like handle in which the bow is parallel to the ground. Instead of a large arrow, a crossbow usually fires a much shorter bolt. However, suppose you expand the size of a crossbow. In that case, you eventually get a ballista that shoots bolts roughly the size of arrows, but that’s a whole other level.
The last thing you need to know is that crossbows often have the “Loading” property, which we will dive into later.
In Dungeons and Dragons, there are at least 3 types of basic crossbows (not considering any magical crossbows). There are the Hand Crossbow, the Light Crossbow, and the Heavy Crossbow. Each has a different range and a different damage.
Hand Crossbow:
The hand crossbow is small and can often be used in someone’s offhand when fighting. The Drow of the Underdark favor hand crossbows tipped with a sleeping poison. The average hand crossbow costs 75 GP, weighs about 3 pounds, and does 1d6 damage when fired. It has a range of 30 feet with a disadvantaged range of 120 feet. It has the Ammunition, Loading, and Light Properties.
Light Crossbow:
The Light crossbow is what you might consider the standard crossbow. It costs about 25 GP, less than the hand crossbow, because none of its parts need to be minimized. It weighs about 5 pounds and does 1d8 damage when fired. It has a basic range of 80 feet with a disadvantaged range of 320 feet. It has the following properties: Ammunition, Loading, and Two-Handed.
Heavy Crossbow:
A heavy crossbow is precisely what its name implies. It is similar to the light crossbow, only bigger and more deadly. It usually costs about 50 GP and weighs 18 pounds. In the real world, a crossbow like this might have a hand crank to pull back a spring, which would then, when released, launch the bolt forward toward the target. The heavy crossbow does 1d10 damage when fired and has the following properties: Ammunition, Loading, Heavy, and Two-Handed. It has a range of 100 feet and a disadvantaged range of 400 feet.
Now, those are only the basic types of crossbows in D&D, and your dungeon master, or yourself if you are the dungeon master, may decide to create new crossbows, both non-magical and magical.
Crossbows work very similarly to bows and arrows. When a character has a crossbow, they must equip it to use it. Then, in combat, assuming no properties are interfering (we’ll talk about those next), you roll to hit and roll damage when a hit is successful. Because a crossbow is a ranged weapon, it will add your dexterity modifier to the rolls to see if you hit. If you are proficient with the specific type of crossbow, then you may add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll. Let’s go through an example to see what I mean.
Calandar, the ranger, is fighting an orc. The orc has an armor class of 13. Calandar uses a heavy crossbow and is proficient with martial weapons (a heavy crossbow is a martial weapon). Calandar’s dexterity modifier is +3, and his proficiency bonus is +2.
Calandar fires his crossbow at the orc. The player playing Calandar rolls his attack die. It rolls a 9. The player adds the Dex modifier (+3) and the Proficiency Bonus (+2) to the 9 for a total of 14. That is enough to deal damage.
So now Calendar rolls a d10 to determine damage. It is a 6, and the player adds the Dex modifier to the damage roll (6 +3) for 9 points of piercing damage.
Various weapons have properties, which are modifiers to the weapon, adding special rules or capabilities. Let’s talk about the properties that you will most likely encounter as you use crossbows in your games.
Ammunition: The ammunition property stipulates that you can only use the item’s primary function if you have another item, ammunition, in enough quantity to use the main item. In this case, the secondary item is crossbow bolts. You need one crossbow bolt for every time you shoot the crossbow. This is barring any interference by magic, of course.
Heavy: This simply means that smaller creatures (Small or Tiny-sized creatures) have disadvantage while using this item.
Light: This means the weapon is small enough to be used as one half of a two-weapon combo, one in each hand.
Range: This property allows the weapon to pass beyond the normal range of 5 to 10 feet (if the weapon has reach) and reach much greater distances. Usually, this property will be shown with 2 numbers divided by a slash (100/400, for example). The first number is the range that the weapon can comfortably reach. The second number is considered the weapon’s long range and can be attempted only by rolling with disadvantage.
Two-Handed: This property forces the user to use both hands while wielding this weapon.
Loading: This property is a bit more complicated and honestly is very crucial to understanding crossbow expert and using it correctly, so here is what DNDBeyond says exactly about the property:
“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, suppose your character typically has two attacks. In that case, they use one attack to fire a crossbow with this property, and the second attack is considered used up to reload the weapon. The same applies to a bonus action or reaction.
Here is what the Player’s Handbook says about the Crossbow Expert Feat:
“Thanks to extensive practice with the crossbow, you gain the following benefits:
Player’s Handbook
You ignore the loading property 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.”
So, remember that loading property that we talked about? Yeah, you can ignore that. So, that means that someone with multiple attacks can attack multiple times with a crossbow if they have sufficient ammunition. You also can fire at point-blank range without disadvantage, something other ranged weapons can not do.
Finally, this feat opens up the possibility of using your hand crossbow as a bonus action, something you usually wouldn’t be able to do.
Now that we understand what this feat does let’s take a closer look at what it does, or rather, what it would look like in-game situations.
This feat is an excellent choice for any class that doesn’t get any multi-attacks. A rogue would be a perfect example. This may be an excellent choice for a rogue because, if the rogue has a hand-crossbow, they can now attack on their turn with their action and then attack with their hand-crossbow on their bonus action. Rogues usually don’t get multi-attacks, so adding this can make for a potent combination.
It is also a great choice for characters who get multi-attacks but would rather have the crossbow for their ranged weapon. With this feat, you can use both multi-attacks rather than have the Loading property swallow up the second one.
Overall, this feat allows the user to start to transition into the realm of automatic weapons (the first steps towards rapid-firing firearms) and be lethal both at a distance and at point blank.
While many classes and races can benefit from this feat, let’s discuss the general “Who should take the feat” and then add more specifics.
So, first of all, if you love crossbows, then this feat is a no-brainer. That’s obvious to say, but it bears saying.
Second, if you are looking for a nice bonus action, then consider this feat. I already mentioned this above in conjunction with the Rogue class.
Honestly, this feat is generally geared toward those who like the crossbow. Asking whether or not it would fit your class is a pretty easy question to answer because you are likely already using a crossbow.
If you are getting hurt often because you are in the thick of it, transitioning to a crossbow might be the best choice. If that’s the case, then this feat makes sense, if nothing else, just to ignore the Loading property.
As already stated, the primary benefit is the ability to ignore the Loading property. That means those with multi-attacks can attack multiple times with the crossbow rather than wait and load it up.
This feat also allows the user to dual-wield a crossbow and another weapon, taking a character with minor attacks during their turn and making them much more deadly.
Overall, the major benefit of this feat is that it allows characters to do more damage on their turns. It stops them from being slowed down and, in some cases, will enable them to speed up the time between attacks. It’s a great feat and one that can usually benefit anyone.
One drawback is the fact that this feat doesn’t uniquely benefit spellcasters. The fact that you can dual-wield a hand crossbow with another weapon and the fact that if you usually would have 2 attack actions, then the crossbow expert feat allows you to use both with your crossbow are both useless to spellcasters who can only cast 1 spell even if they have 2 attacks per action on their turn. Likewise, that same spellcaster can not use the hand crossbow as a bonus action if it is in their offhand because the feat stipulates that that can only be done when the action is used to attack someone.
If the spellcaster has many bonus action spells, then having this feat would still be helpful, for example, if the spellcaster used a Spiritual Weapon or a Misty Step.
Overall, though, the feat doesn’t have that many drawbacks. It’s advantageous and quite deadly in the right hands.
In D&D 5e, the Crossbow Expert feat has no explicitly written prerequisites. That said, it requires the user to use a crossbow and have a crossbow and ammunition. I suppose that that also requires the user to be intelligent enough to use one and dexterous enough to be able to hit things with one, but those probably go without saying.
The most common misconception about the Crossbow Expert feat is that you don’t have to load your crossbow. This is mostly semantics, but the feat allows you to load incredibly fast so that it has no mechanical effect. Narratively speaking, you are still loading and preparing your crossbow.
Another thing that people may get wrong is that this feat allows you to shoot your crossbow as a bonus action. Instead, it only allows you to do that if you have attacked with a one-handed weapon as an action and you have a hand-crossbow in your offhand. Theoretically, you could have two hand crossbows, and with the Crossbow Expert feat, you could shoot them and then shoot one of them as a bonus action. If you have multiple actions, that turns into at least 3 shots from your hand crossbows.
Level 4 is generally the first chance most characters get to pick a feat or boost an ability score. That is, therefore, the first opportunity to choose the Crossbow expert feat.
But…
Usually, level 8 is the next chance to pick a feat, opening up a whole world of possibilities. Feats complement each other and help create a more well-rounded and dynamic character. So, let’s look at how the crossbow expert feat would interact with a few other feats.
The Sharpshooter feat turns a ranged character into a deadly long-ranged sniper. Now, your range is not disadvantaged even up to your long-range limit, and you ignore half cover and three-quarters cover. You can also take a -5 penalty to the attack roll, and if you hit, add a +10 to the damage roll.
Now imagine someone with 2 hand crossbows and 2 attacks per action. Let’s say their Proficiency bonus is +3, and their Dex is +3. With the Sharpshooter feat combined with the Crossbow expert feat, they could shoot an enemy 3 times in a round and ignore anything but full cover of that enemy. They could take the -5 for the +10 damage each time they shoot. Since they get 3 chances to hit, that becomes a much better bargain. Oh, and they can do this all within 120 feet. They could be far away from their target and deal enough damage on one turn (if they crit) to kill the target outright.
Let’s play this out:
They fire against our orc from before (15 Hit Points, 13 Armor Class). I rolled a d20 3 times to simulate the character’s attack. Let’s assume they take the -5 on the attack roll to get a +10 for each roll’s damage.
Roll 1: 18 – 5 (Sharpshooter) + 6 (Dex and Probo) = 19 (Hit)
Roll 2: 20 (Crit) – 5 (Sharpshooter) + 6 (Dex and Probo) = 21 (Hit)
Roll 3: 6 – 5 (Sharpshooter) + 6 (Dex and Probo) = 7 (Miss)
So out of my 3 attacks, there were 2 successes and 1 Crit! Now, let’s roll the damage.
Hit 1: 5 (Normal roll) + 10 (Sharpshooter) = 15
Now, 15 hitpoints are precisely how many hitpoints an orc has, so just for fun, let’s pretend there is another orc there with him.
Hit 2 (Crit): 1 (Normal roll) + 6 (Crit roll) + 10 (Sharpshooter) = 17
With that, 2 orcs are dead in 1 turn, all from 120 feet out. That is an amazing combination for a sniper in D&D.
Having an extra attack available to you is a very powerful thing to join with the crossbow expert feat. We’ve already shown that it allows you to fire twice with your crossbow without spending time reloading.
Having an extra attack also allows you to attack someone with a melee weapon in close quarters if you have one. That way, you can send some damage to a distant spellcaster and focus on what’s in front of you.
Unfortunately, the Crossbow Expert feat doesn’t interact well with spellcasting. If you cast a spell, it will either take an action or a bonus action. If it takes a bonus action, then you are in luck. If your spell requires an action, you can’t use Crossbow Expert.
That said, there are a few bonus action spells that could come in handy.
For example, Misty Step allows you to quickly cover great distances. Suppose an enemy advances on you and manages to get engaged with you. In that case, you can cast Misty Step, travel 30 feet instantly as a bonus action, and then use your normal movement for another 30 feet and find yourself 60 feet away from the enemy. Then, you can use your standard action to fire your crossbow at them.
Other spells to use with Crossbow Expert are any bonus action spell that empowers your weapon. A great example of this is Ensnaring Strike. This makes it so that when you hit with your crossbow, the target is restrained and cannot move. That makes it very powerful when you start the initiative, and the rest of your party has yet to go.
Likewise, spells like Hex or Hunter’s Mark would be great tools to use with Crossbow Expert. With this in mind, classes like Ranger, Warlock, Cleric, or Paladin would likely be the best spellcasting classes to use with Crossbow Expert.
Naturally, as you play DND, you make many characters. In fact, you’ll make far more than you actually ever play. Let’s look at some common builds that might make a great combination with the Crossbow Expert feat.
For Rangers, the name of the game is definitely Hunter’s Mark. It is the spell of Rangers. It is also a bonus action. As we’ve said above, using Hunter’s Mark as your bonus action and then using your attacks with your crossbow can deal even more damage. Not to mention that Rangers can also cast an ensnaring strike. With that one-two punch, a ranger could theoretically kill all enemies alone.
Adding the crossbow expert to a Rogue gives you yet another option for your bonus action. Rogues can already hide, dash, or disengage as a bonus action. With Crossbow Expert, Rogues could use a hand crossbow if they’ve already used another weapon on their main attack. This gives them more opportunities to hit when, typically, Rogues are a hit-or-miss class.
For fighters, the name of the game is skill and number of attacks. With Action Surge, a fighter could take two actions, with two attacks each, for a total of 4 attacks. As we discussed, if the ranger is equipped with two hand crossbows, they can also use their bonus action to attack with one of the crossbows. That turns into 5 attacks. The only drawback here would be that the player would have to remember to say, “I would like to recover my crossbow darts” at the end of every combat encounter. Otherwise, 5 crossbow bolts per turn can lead to a high cost of crossbow darts.
By now, you realize that this feat is an incredibly useful one. It has a lot of use cases, but how exactly does one use it to the best of their ability? Let’s look at a few tips that will open up more possibilities for you in the game.
The first tip to use with the Crossbow Expert feat in DND 5e is to try to move away from the light crossbow. The heavy crossbow weighs more, but both the heavy and the light crossbows are two-handed weapons, so if you want the most bang for your buck, go with the heavy crossbow, which will do much more damage. A better option is choosing to use a hand crossbow. As we’ve already discussed, a major part of the entire feat is the ability to use the hand crossbow as a bonus action after using another weapon on your action. Both weapons must be one-handed, so having a light or heavy crossbow prevents you from doing this.
The next tip is to use cover. This tip really goes for any ranged character. Still, because you are primarily ranged, you want to be able to fire at adversaries, with them having a disadvantage when firing back. In this case, the best part of the Crossbow expert feat is that if the enemy closes the distance and tries to use melee weapons on you, you can still fire your crossbow like normal.
Aside from using other feats with the crossbow expert feat, you’ll want to team up with some spellcasters in your party to supercharge your weapon. Adding that extra damage, especially if you and the spellcaster have full cover until you are ready to fire, can wreak havoc on any plans your adversaries have.
Overall, the crossbow expert feat is one of my favorites in DND because it turns a fun weapon, the crossbow, into something much more helpful. Of course, there may have been parts of this feat I should have covered today, so if I missed something, list it below in the comments.
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