These prods provide an excellent handle for the swordsman to rip it out of your hands, and crossbows were only 1/3rd as long as muskets with bayonets attached, no such standoff distance is gained by attaching a bayonet. Crossbows are shorter by nature of requiring a heavy prod (proper terminology for the bow part of a crossbow) to be cocked without breaking. The bayonet was useful against swordsmen due primarily to the large (by melee standards) amount of standoff distance it created when fixed to a musket. Bayonets combined pikemen and musketeers, and was so effective it essentially ended melee only infantry types within a short time of its implementation. Muskets were very long, 6 to 7 feet, attaching a bayonet meant that instead of needing pikemen you can now have 100% of your men armed with guns, but still be capable of closing ranks and repelling cavalry with their bayonets. The problem was that not only does this mean half your guys can't carry guns, but if the pikemen should falter or run you lose all of your musketeers to understandably angry enemy infantry venting their frustrations on their formerly unassailable adversaries. The bayonet was adapted due to the preceding pike and gun tactic. Here's my input:Ĭrossbow bayonets are not very effective. Not exactly the same thing, but close.įormer Marine, I carried and was routinely trained with bayonets for years. This one looks like a photo of a fantasy prop:Īnd this is a crossbow that's designed to be carried in a sword sheath. Apparently there's a rule for it for D&D 3.5 in Complete Scoundrel, and several fantasy images popped up in my search.īut how effective would this actually be? If a target armed with a sword managed to close the distance, how well would the archer be able to defend themselves with just a bayonet attached to a crossbow? The lack of historical overlap and/or association hasn't stopped fantasy settings from putting bayonets on crossbows. Modern crossbows usually have a cocking stirrup at the front instead of a blade. And those bayonets are strictly associated with muskets, as sources note the change from plug bayonets to socket bayonets over the next 30 to 40 years. Historically, there's about a 700-year gap between when crossbows start appearing in European texts around 950, and when bayonets do the same around 1670.
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