I am playing a New Game + mode and I'm currently at level 45. The best crossbow I could find requires level 24 and does 8 - 10 damage. The best bolts I have in my inventory makes 9 - 11 damage. Underwater creatures, like drowners, are scaled up and crossbow makes almost no damage to them.

I think this is a bug which can make some underwater sections impossible to pass... Well, sections with drowners are managable with one potion you could get in previous game, but I guess you will have serious problems when you have to fight sirens underwater.

Edit: It is definetly a bug. I just found Feline Crossbow diagram and it has exactly the same stats in new game + as it has in normal game mode.

Going to bump this old topic because I have just encountered the same problem. Crossbows do not scale with level as other pieces of equipment do. This makes it impossible to fight underwater creatures as crossbows do little damage.

Could any one advise as to how to get around this issue ?

True, the crossbows don't scale up as expected. You can put some points into that section to increase their damage if you want to - but the main issue seems to be that the crossbows do little damage if the underwater target is far away - if it is close to you - you may get a one-shot-kill. Makes these underwater fight more difficult - but not impossible.

Well, either shoot at close range or wait to level up, it helps too.

Either way, it's not a huge problem but would be nice if crossbows actually had higher levels in new game + than they do in the original playthroguh. It's weird to see a crossbow with 10pts of damage on level 58 :P

I'm Lvl 80 same issue with the crossbow for me but I use explosive arrow's and they are the best to get max damage 1 -2 shot kill on high Lvl mobs.