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[rda]

Ok, I'm not a medieval weapons expert, but I remember reading several places that the crossbow helped revolutionize medieval warfare, because it was a relatively cheap weapon to make AND it required little practical training.

It almost all cases where ranged combat was involved, a squad of trained bowmen would perform (much) better than a squad of crossbowman, but the main advantage to the crossbowman was that they were literally more expendable. A skilled bowman took YEARS to become an expert marksman, but you could get a guy who knew nothing about ranged weapons and train him on a crossbow in a fraction of the time.

So, given all that, what is so special about Bianca that I should want to take Varric with me, vice a trained archer?

(We're talking lore here. Obviously we'd all take Varric because his chest hair is the awesomest.).

And what does this say (again, lore wise) that his weapon of choice is basically something that anyone could pick up and get proficient with in a decent amount of time? So give Bianca to someone else, and we wouldn't need Varric. It kinda says he sucks as a fighter, doesn't it?

Comments and arguments appreciated.

[Viper371]

Ok, I'm not a medieval weapons expert, but I remember reading several places that the crossbow helped revolutionize medieval warfare, because it was a relatively cheap weapon to make AND it required little practical training.

It almost all cases where ranged combat was involved, a squad of trained bowmen would perform (much) better than a squad of crossbowman, but the main advantage to the crossbowman was that they were literally more expendable. A skilled bowman took YEARS to become an expert marksman, but you could get a guy who knew nothing about ranged weapons and train him on a crossbow in a fraction of the time.

So, given all that, what is so special about Bianca that I should want to take Varric with me, vice a trained archer?

(We're talking lore here. Obviously we'd all take Varric because his chest hair is the awesomest.).

And what does this say (again, lore wise) that his weapon of choice is basically something that anyone could pick up and get proficient with in a decent amount of time? So give Bianca to someone else, and we wouldn't need Varric. It kinda says he sucks as a fighter, doesn't it?

Comments and arguments appreciated.

Bianca is a customized crossbow, many adjustements were made to it, many personal customization.  You could give Bianca to somebody else and he'd become proficient in a few weeks, but he wouldn't know how to repair it, how to upgrade it, so he'd become obsolete soon.

The historical crossbow (and the arbalest) were great as mass weapons, just like muskets later on.  I'm pretty sure the were customized versions made for some nobles too, though they most likely had a preference for sword and armor themselves.  But in the game, you don't have all that support, you need to be relatively self sufficientm you don't equip legions of men, you equip individual characters, a few of them, so you can afford the best weapons and armor and you want to upgrade them frequently.

So in this lore, as an individual weapon, a customized crossbow is great.

Since Varric has become proficient with his crossbow he has an higher rate of fire and delivers much more of a punch than any regular soldier with a crossbow.

 

Figure it as Robin Hood.  All things being equal, you have a choice between an army of 1000 Robin Hoods and 1000 peasants with basic swords, wich would you rather have?

[katamuro]

Well Bianca is not just any crossbow. Its an automatic one, basically its an assault rifle to the bows sniper rifle. Also its one of a kind, made by a dwarf master smith(you know which one is the true one if your Varric approval is high enough) it is better in every way than any normal crossbow.

 

Also historically crossbows gained popularity when the armour got too thick to be pierced by an arrow, crossbows could be used en-masse by foot-soldiers against armoured cavalry levelling the field. Also instead of the highly trained warbands the armies became more conscript based with more and more people who did something else during the peace time, so a weapon that was easier to use and required less strength than a bow was preferable. 

 

But for gameplay Varrics crossbow is really not so different than normal bows and if you are playing as an archer then you really dont need another one, instead use mage+2 warriors.