D&D 5E Strength bows?

[slaughterj]

I have a house rule I use in certain campaigns that allows a second attack with a dart as a bonus action if you only move half your speed. If you use no movement, you can throw a third dart as a reaction you take at your initiative minus 10.

The same house rule allows you to throw a third dagger at your initiative minus 10 as well.

Because it is wonky that 1st-4th level fighting classes can use thrown weapons and bows equally, but once they get their extra attacks, suddenly thrown weapons fall by the wayside in effectiveness given the limited ability to draw multiple ones over successive rounds, we houseruled away the thrown weapons drawing for throwing, to let thrown weapons still be equally effective at higher levels with multiple attacks. But hardly anyone throws anything anyway, so it doesn't much matter.

 

[clearstream]

You could merely create a new Weapon Property specific to the longbow whcih is the antithesis of Finesse:

Might. When making an attack with a might weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls.

Keep an eye on it (limit it to longbows to start), and if it doesn't throw things out of whack, maybe branch out to heavy crossbows (stronger gears,pulleys,etc). Would help mitigate the "Dex/Finesse fighter is king of D&D now" thing going on a bit.

That's incredibly close to something we discussed awhile back. Where I landed was...

Mighty Weapon Property
When making an attack with a mighty weapon, you use your Strength modifier for the damage rolls.

Martial Ranged Weapons
Longbow, Composite 150gp 1d8 piercing 2 Ammunition (range 150/600), heavy, two-handed, mighty

 

[Hriston]

Because it is wonky that 1st-4th level fighting classes can use thrown weapons and bows equally, but once they get their extra attacks, suddenly thrown weapons fall by the wayside in effectiveness given the limited ability to draw multiple ones over successive rounds, we houseruled away the thrown weapons drawing for throwing, to let thrown weapons still be equally effective at higher levels with multiple attacks. But hardly anyone throws anything anyway, so it doesn't much matter.

I'm not concerned with balancing things that way, so I require an interaction to draw a weapon. To get the three attacks I was talking about with a dart or a dagger, you'd need to have one in each hand, and then draw the third, so it's really only good for one round. For what it's worth, when using this houserule, I allow blowguns and bows an extra attack at initiative minus 10 as well, provided the character has used no movement and there are no hostile creatures within 5 feet.

 

[Hriston]

You could merely create a new Weapon Property specific to the longbow whcih is the antithesis of Finesse:

Might. When making an attack with a might weapon, you use your choice of your Strength or Dexterity modifier for the attack and damage rolls. You must use the same modifier for both rolls.

That's the finesse property. You don't need to give it a different name to add it to the longbow.

 

[BookBarbarian]

That's the finesse property. You don't need to give it a different name to add it to the longbow.

Right. Finesse already gives the choice of strength or dex, It's just currently the only ranged weapon with it (and therefore can be used with strength) is the Dart.

 

[clearstream]

That's the finesse property. You don't need to give it a different name to add it to the longbow.

Exactly! That's part of why "Mighty" is Strength mod to damage only.

 

[Hriston]

Right. Finesse already gives the choice of strength or dex, It's just currently the only ranged weapon with it (and therefore can be used with strength) is the Dart.

Exactly! That's part of why "Mighty" is Strength mod to damage only.

Adding finesse or using STR for damage only are both reasonable solutions to the "problem" of not having more ranged weapon options for STR-based characters. Personally, I'm happy with the options available in the form of melee weapons with the thrown property. To give archers a reason to value STR, however, my suggestion up-thread was to introduce bows that continue to use DEX for attack and damage, but that deal a larger damage die and have a STR prerequisite.

 

[Cellowyn]

Sort of.. a more powerful bow/crossbow/thrown weapon allows it to punch through armour/hide more easily(and the arrow/bolt would travel more swiftly- thus being harder to dodge via dex based AC), while the Dexterity based hit and damage increase would come from increased accuracy by way of improved hand/eye coordination.

Being someone that shoots a bow for fun and taking my son to his archery team lessons, I will tell you that strength has an effect on bows. It is in the draw weight. The higher the weight, the stronger the archer has to be AND the faster the arrow flies. There are kids at lessons that are starting with a very light weight. There isn’t much punch, and you can see the arrow in motion - but I still wouldn’t want to dodge it if I had to at close range. The long time adult (and even kid) archers have much heavier draws. You can hear and see the difference in the flight of the arrows. It’s much straighter and MUCH faster - forget about dodging and hope they miss...

So, the “Might” characteristic makes sense.

 

[Oofta]

Being someone that shoots a bow for fun and taking my son to his archery team lessons, I will tell you that strength has an effect on bows. It is in the draw weight. The higher the weight, the stronger the archer has to be AND the faster the arrow flies. There are kids at lessons that are starting with a very light weight. There isn’t much punch, and you can see the arrow in motion - but I still wouldn’t want to dodge it if I had to at close range. The long time adult (and even kid) archers have much heavier draws. You can hear and see the difference in the flight of the arrows. It’s much straighter and MUCH faster - forget about dodging and hope they miss...

So, the “Might” characteristic makes sense.

Attacks and damage based solely on dex in D&D are kind of silly for the reasons you just stated. I've considered a house rule that damage from dex is limited to twice your strength bonus (minimum +1) to reflect the fact that strength matters.

As far as adding dexterity to AC, I remember a Mythbusters episode where they shot arrows with padded ends at a martial arts expert and he couldn't dodge any arrows, even though they were from light weight bows.

On the other hand, think of dodging this way: they aren't dodging a specific arrow, but they are constantly dodging and moving around. Medium sized creatures are assumed to be somewhere in a 5 ft square, high dex characters are just using more of it at all times in combat.

 

[Yardiff]

The way I understand it, dodging makes you harder to target so that its harder to hit those less armored/vulnerable spots. Lots of misses is your armor protecting you.