I would love your magic awesomeness bubble Gorath, because I get 1 shot on my 7 IF character wearing heraldic mail with surcoat by arbalests. A 7 IF character is anything but squishy.
Xbows are definitely too strong. I disagree with magi on longbows though. I have more of a problem with teammates shooting me in the back with them.
My opinion: Lower damage on xbows globably by about 10%, and add wpf requirement to all xbows except for hunting. the arbalest should require about 108 wpf, heavy should require 72, regular should require 96, light should require 84.
reasoning behind those numbers: all other ranged weapons have a wpf requirement attached to them. Want to use a shitty over-nerfed throwing lance? You currently need a minimum of 78 wpf after the weight malus. Long bows carry a similar requirement, but I don't have the exact number for it. Xbows not only carry no wpf requirement, but they can be used incredibly effectively with 0 wpf in them. No other ranged weapon in the game can make this claim.
The numbers given for the wpf are based off what a reasonable PD or PT requirement would be on any other throwing weapon. Arbalest is simply godly accurate and godly damaging, so its comparable to about a 9 PT throwing lance pre-ubernerf. The heavy crossbow is very effective, but clearly outshined by most other crossbows due to its 2 slot drawback, so it gets a very minimal 72 wpf, or the equivalent of 5-6 PT. The regular xbow is only usuable on foot, but only takes up a single slot, so it gets a reasonable 96 wpf (easily obtainable by hybrids.) Light has the benefit of being used on horseback, but lacks high damage, so its in-between a heavy xbow and a regular xbow.
the tl;dr version: All other ranged weapons require a wpf investment, making xbows unbalanced. Xbows are easily on par, if not stronger than bows, but carry little to no drawbacks. Unless xbows gain any sort of real requirement, eventually the vast majority of all players will have some sort of ranged weapon.