KCopeland's page

I,too, am of the opinion that crossbows should get more respect, at least as much as they did historically. To that end, in my campaign, I've given crossbows a little bonus: armor penetration:

Hand crossbow = ignore one point of a target's armor or natural armor
Light crossbow = ignore two points of a target's armor or natural armor
Heavy Crossbow = ignore four points of a target's armor or natural armor

So far, it hasn't proven unbalanced. My players are a bit more cautious around crossbow-armed foes, especially rogues within sneak attack range. Yes, this does make them more deadly at lower levels, but with their slow rate of fire it makes them competitive with bows for a bit longer. I guess the best proof for me that it's not overpowering is the fact that out of six players currently at 8th level, only one still uses a crossbow. YMMV, of course.