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Crossbow Expert 5e | DnD Feat Optimization Guide | Arcane Eye

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On May 20, 2025
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Crossbow Expert 5e (Updated for the 2024 Rules)

Master the art of ranged combat with the Crossbow feat in D&D 5e! This feat enhances your Dexterity, eliminates the Loading property, and turns you into a crossbow-wielding dynamo.

Steve Prescott – Wizards of the Coast – Apprentice Sharpshooter

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Looking for the legacy version of this article based on the 2014 rules? Click here.

What Is the Crossbow Expert Feat in 5e?

The Crossbow Expert feat in D&D 5e is a versatile option for characters who want to maximize their ranged attacks using Hand Crossbows, Light Crossbows, or Heavy Crossbows. This feat not only boosts your Dexterity but also eliminates the Loading property for all crossbows and allows you to make extra attacks with the Light property while adding your Dexterity modifier to damage.

How Does Crossbow Expert Work?

The Crossbow Expert feat grants the following benefits:

  • Ability Score Increase: Increase your Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
  • Ignore Loading: You ignore the Loading property for Hand Crossbows, Light Crossbows, and Heavy Crossbows, allowing you to make multiple attacks without worrying about reloading.
  • Firing in Melee: You can make ranged attacks with crossbows without suffering Disadvantage for being within 5 feet of an enemy.
  • Dual Wielding: When making an attack with the Light property, you can add your Dexterity modifier to the damage of the extra attack if it is made with a Light crossbow.

How to Get the Crossbow Expert Feat

The Crossbow Expert feat is available to all classes at level 4 and beyond whenever they can select a feat.

Is Crossbow Expert Good?

In our 5e Feats Tier List, Crossbow Expert was given an A Tier rating, making it an excellent pickup for specific classes.

One of the more hotly debated feats (before the Errata), Crossbow Expert is still a worthwhile feat to pick up. Ignoring the Loading property on crossbows enables Rangers, Fighters, and any other class with an extra attack to attack multiple times with a crossbow on a turn.

The second part of the feat, being able to make a Ranged attack within 5 feet without Disadvantage, is also solid when ranged builds inevitably get encroached upon.

The third section is also a nice Bonus Action for Light Crossbow users, who will get to attack an extra time.

What Does Ignoring the Loading Property Mean?

In D&D 5e, the Loading property restricts a weapon to one attack per turn regardless of the number of attacks a character can make. This restriction is a significant hindrance for characters with Extra Attack, as they would normally be limited to a single shot per turn.

When a character takes the Crossbow Expert feat, they ignore the Loading property for Hand Crossbows, Light Crossbows, and Heavy Crossbows. This means they can fire as many times as they have attacks without needing to reload after each shot.

For classes like Fighters, Rangers, and Artificers, this is a considerable boost in action economy, allowing them to fully leverage Extra Attack while wielding crossbows.

Free Hand Requirements

The Loading property also specifies that you need a hand free to load the ammunition. While two-handed crossbows, like the Light Crossbow and Heavy Crossbow, can provide you a free hand because they only need two hands when firing, this means you couldn’t wield a Shield and a Hand Crossbow.

This feat also negates that requirement, allowing you to wield two Hand Crossbows at once.

Dual Wielding Crossbows and the Light Property

The Crossbow Expert feat now explicitly interacts with the Light property, providing a key benefit for dual-wielding Hand Crossbows.

Light Property Breakdown

When you take the Attack action and use a Light weapon, you can make an extra attack as a Bonus Action.

This extra attack must be made with a different Light weapon, and you do not add your ability modifier to the damage unless that modifier is negative.

However, the Crossbow Expert feat modifies this rule specifically for Light Crossbows, allowing you to add your Dexterity modifier to the damage of the Bonus Action attack, as long as you haven’t already applied it to that attack. This is a significant upgrade, as it effectively turns the off-hand attack into a full-powered shot.

Since the Hand Crossbow is the only crossbow with the Light property, it is the primary weapon that benefits from this change.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Crossbow Expert?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Crossbow Expert 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.

  • Red: Weak, unlikely to contribute to your build
  • Orange: Situationally good, but below average
  • Green: A solid choice
  • Blue: A great option worth considering
  • Sky Blue: One of the best choices for optimization

Crossbow Expert is best on builds that:

  • Use ranged attacks as their primary attack, including spells.
  • Want to incorporate crossbows into their weapon kit, specifically Hand Crossbows.
  • Want to use a crossbow for multiple attacks per turn and need to ignore the Loading property.

This feat works incredibly well with other archery-focused abilities, such as Sharpshooter or the Archery fighting style.

Artificer: If firearms aren’t available in your setting and you want to build a ranged Artificer, this feat will be needed to outpace cantrip damage.

Barbarian: Most Barbarians won’t stay out of melee range for long, so they can skip this feat. They’re much better off with feats like Slasher or Sentinel.

Bard: Very few Bard builds fit the bill of this feat. Bards aren’t one to use crossbows, and even if they do they don’t get extra attacks. Additionally, their Bonus Action will likely be taken up with handing out Bardic Inspiration, which conflicts with the attack granted by this feat. Valor and Swords Bards are more often than not going to be melee fighters, who are also disinterested with this feat’s effects.

Cleric: Most Clerics don’t get extra attacks, which makes the ignoring the Loading property feature of this feat irrelevant.

Druid: Crossbows aren’t available to Druids, so this can be skipped.

Fighter: Dexterity-based Fighters are pretty powerful, and this feat is one of the reasons why. Paired with feats like Sharpshooter makes them ranged Fighters a force to be reckoned with, allowing them to ignore any potential penalties with ranged damage.

Monk: Sadly, Monks cannot use crossbows. The other benefits of this feat might apply better to Way of the Kensei, which would give them a pretty good advantage.

Paladin: Like Barbarians, Paladins don’t want to be out of melee for long. You’re much better off with melee-centric feats like Great Weapon Fighting or Polearm Master.

Ranger: This can provide a ton of damage for any Dexterity-based class. The Ranger’s Hunter’s Mark makes this even more effective. This is a great pick-up even before you max your Dexterity.

Rogue: This is a tricky one. Crossbow Expert gives you a second chance at landing your Sneak Attack, but Rogues also want to maximize their Dexterity as soon as possible and there are better feats available. They also love using their Bonus Action to Disengage or Hide via Cunning Action. This one really depends on your playstyle and personal preferences.

Sorcerer: You’re going to want to skip this, as you don’t want to be wielding weapons instead of spells. You’re better off with Magic Initiate or Metamagic Adept.

Warlock: You’re going to want to skip this, as you don’t want to be wielding weapons instead of spells. You’re better off with Magic Initiate or Metamagic Adept.

Wizard: You’re going to want to skip this, as you don’t want to be wielding weapons instead of spells. You’re better off with Magic Initiate or Metamagic Adept.

Can Crossbow Expert proc off itself?

Yes! The feat’s bonus attack ability doesn’t care what the one-handed weapon is, as long as it’s one-handed. However, the only one-handed crossbow is the Hand Crossbow, not the light or heavy variants.

Does Crossbow Expert allow you to attack twice?

Crossbow Expert can allow for additional attacks in two ways. First, it allows you to ignore the Loading property of crossbows, which allows you to attack as many times as your build allows with the Attack action. Also, as long as you have a Bonus Action available, you can use it with Crossbow Expert’s third ability. However, you only get one Bonus Action per round, so use it wisely.

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Mike Bernier

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