AC drop when using Great Crossbow

[Bravosi]

Was experimenting with a Half-elf Aritificer and got the Oladren's Great Crossbow from Korthos. Noticed a -4 to AC when its equipped.

I suspect this is a bug. Is anyone else having the same problem, or am I somehow confused and this is WAI?

[Questing_Healer]

Was experimenting with a Half-elf Aritificer and got the Oladren's Great Crossbow from Korthos. Noticed a -4 to AC when its equipped.

I suspect this is a bug. Is anyone else having the same problem, or am I somehow confused and this is WAI?

Same thing happened to me. DM told me it was a bug and to submit a bug report.

[sigtrent]

All ranged weapons should cause you to have -4 ac against melee attacks while wielding it. This is a DDO rule that was created to simulate the vulnerability usually represented by attacks of opportunity in the D&D rules. Generally it doesn't show up on your character sheet though since it is circumstantial.

I've not verified this in a long time but it certainly used to work that way.