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[follower of nux]

So i was doing a dungeon run with 5 soldiers i scooped up and i got hit by a singe bolt. it cut apart my upper spines nervous tissue through a bronze helm and 4 mother*** leather hoods. WTF ?!
Not that i mind starting an adventurer all over again but vampires are hard to come by. playing in a 500year+ world solves that problem but i noticed that older worlds vampires blood wont turn you into a vampire but this isnt what i wanted to say.
What i wanted to say is:
Why are crossbows so overpowered and how can i protect myself from this ?
I mean... 1 bronze helm and 4 leather hoods, what else ? Strength, agility and toughness was already high in the starting screen..

[Jahsg]

run, just run

[MadocComadrin]

Train up your dodging, shield using, and armor using. Also, sacrificing a small, furry creature to your local luck deity would be helpful.

[follower of nux]

the bolt was made out of iron btw.
so...i avoid getting annihilated by crossbows by not entering fights with the members of a civ ?
well ok, dodging was at...lvl 6 or 7 but armor/shield were only lvl 1 or 2
a dungeon is dark anyway...
and there is no way i can sacrifice Mr. Fluffens, my mama will kill me

[Kagus]

Basically, ranged attacks will kill you.  Armor works to an extent (should be far better now with the way the newer versions handle materials, and yes I have been living under a rock for a couple years), but there are three other things that can assist:

Dodging
If you've got seriously high levels of dodging (masterful, even), you will occasionally pull a Neo and jump out of the way.  This has its own downsides, such as jumping off a cliff to avoid a blowdart, but will still protect you from a large number of projectiles at higher levels.

Weapon Skill
Yes, if you're wielding a weapon that you're extremely proficient with, you will be able to knock bolts, arrows, spleens and any other mundane projectiles hurled your way.  Again, doesn't work all the time, but can save your life when it does.  As you remain stationary, you no longer run the risk of jumping into nasty situations.  However, if the weapon is currently exploring the innards of some hapless grunt and doesn't want to come out anytime soon, you might have difficulty blocking more shots until it's extricated.

Shields
Probably your best bet.  A good shield with a good deal of proficiency in it will negate the highest number of flying things coming your way.  No idea if stacking shields still works or if that's been fixed, but it's worth a shot.  Shields also make for surprisingly good weapons in this version...

[follower of nux]

dude, let me tell you, i also had another human vampire (great hammerman), the other important combat skills were almost 3/4 to the top and he still got killed/incapitated by a bolt stricking his neck. however, i only had one hood and one bronze or iron helm this time but still, either the helm was thick like paper (if its not a full front impact, you'd expect the bolt to glance off) or the bolts accelerate to march 4. wtf. and also, they dont really kill you but they incapacitate you so hard that the any other enemies have enough time to poke every inch of your body with sewing needles before someones needle accelerates to hypersonic speeds again just to tear apart your brain! i never get to play an adventurer for more than 1 ingame week on average because dem troll rangeds

[MadocComadrin]

Shields
Probably your best bet.  A good shield with a good deal of proficiency in it will negate the highest number of flying things coming your way.  No idea if stacking shields still works or if that's been fixed, but it's worth a shot.  Shields also make for surprisingly good weapons in this version...

Stacking shields still works, but it's also still exploity.

Also, getting your attributes and speed rating up helps too (Armor user will reduce the speed penalty from wearing armor as well). You may want to train sneaking as well: the less time people spend firing bolts at you, the less chance you have of taking a bolt to the face.

[Thecard]

Yeah, kid, that's crossbows for you.  On the upside, they can only fire every once in a while, so try to go for them first, and incapacitate anyone who gets in your way.

[Wrex]

Shields and dodging, Corssbows MAY be bugged currently, since even candy can't stop wooden bolts consistently. The best you get is turning a shot from an instant kill, to slow, choking death. Shields, however, are made of win, and will block even dragonbreath at novice. On the upside, if you are a marksman, this applies to you as well.

[Joben]

I feel I should point out that while annoying from a gameplay perspective crossbows probably are not particularly overpower from a realism perspective. Killing armored opponents is kinda what they were designed for. Some medieval ones had something like 200 pound draws IIRC. They were so scary that one of the Popes tried to ban their use in warfare.

I find if I'm wearing iron there's a fair chance silver or copper bolts will be reduced to heavy bruising, but it's not garenteed.

[follower of nux]

please give me a link to the banning of those crossbows you speak of, especially if the ban is coming from a pope, the medieval equivalent to the lord of war... of holy warfare..or something

[Joben]

I could be wrong but I seem to remember something like that...it might have been in my copy of Macheveli's The Prince, not in the main text I think but in an annotation...I'll try to dig it up.

[edit]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow#Legal_issues

"Can. 29 of the Second Lateran Council under Pope Innocent II in 1139 banned the use of crossbows against Christians."

[Kagus]

It was seen as a threat to nobles, who were generally the only ones who could afford the really shiny and really good armor in those days.  A crossbow was sort of an equalizer, being able to bring them down with almost the same ease as a common footsoldier, thus affronting the God-given higher status and authority the knights and nobles were supposed to bear.

So naturally, as an outlawed weapon, only outlaws used them.  Smart.


And as a lovingly flawed argument as to why copper bolts can pierce through iron and stronger armors (I refuse to refer to any of the HFS as "candy" or anything else having to do with clowns...), think about today.  Bullets are made of lead, a rather soft metal, but you can still shoot through a steel plate with them.

[Loud Whispers]

The amount of times these threads pop up is disheartening. Running headfirst into a crossbow is death. It's not overpowered when it's meant to freaking kill you. They didn't exactly invent them to be blocked by a helmet and some cloth.

[MadocComadrin]

And as a lovingly flawed argument as to why copper bolts can pierce through iron and stronger armors (I refuse to refer to any of the HFS as "candy" or anything else having to do with clowns...), think about today.  Bullets are made of lead, a rather soft metal, but you can still shoot through a steel plate with them.

Your point is speed, spin and mass, but in the same respect AP bullets tend to have hard outer jackets.