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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HoboGod" data-source="post: 5251921" data-attributes="member: 90920">Yeah, and that's my point, in a nutshell. Without taking a lot of class levels in a bow specialist class and taking a bunch of archery feats, using a bow is just short of pathetically not worth it. On the other hand, without taking a lot of specialist class levels and a bunch of feats, melee combat can kick some serious ass.A bard is forced into combat because the party is losing, the cleric buffs him, he pulls out his composite longbow. Combat, no big deal, he took a level of fighter for all the nifty proficiencies. If he has quick draw, he may take a full-round action, if he doesn't, he can still attack that round. That's pretty much where the bow stops being good. Any buff like bull's strength or bear's endurance does nothing. If he choses to attack that round, he'll likely get swamped by dudes with swords and his archery skills start to suck. If he choses to take a move action, he can get pretty far away and start hailing arrows, but melee combatants can make a charge attack and make up the difference in a second. He can take a full-round action to run, that gets him a good distance to fire arrows, but so can the melee combatants and once they catch up to the bard, taking a run action prevokes an attack of opportunity. Let's assume nobody wants to fight him, he has cooties. The melee combatants engage in battle with other party members, so unless the bard has precise shot, he takes a penalty to hit. WTF? Swordsmen don't get a penalty to hit archers launching arrows at their friends. Well, at least maybe the fact that you're launching fast moving, sharp pointy objects at people is mowing them down pretty quick, right? Nope, people can dodge arrows just as well as somebody swinging a friggin huge, hulking greatsword. Also, in terms of damage, it never hurts worse than somebody poking you with a number of one-handed melee weapons. In fact, unless you pay extra for your bow and can accurately guess your strength modifier at any given time, the melee weapon hurts more. And the guy with a pitiful weapon like that usually has a shield. You can't use a shield! The melee combatant without the shield has a hulking 2d6 kill stick that adds strength and a half to cut you in half. Seriously? Maybe the bard shouldn't try to attack that guy, look, there's one with no weapons! He just caught the friggin arrow. He can CATCH it. I have a two-handed weapon that does slightly less than a good one handed weapon, it has range but more penalties and limitations than what range makes up for, and some silly guy in robes keeps catching my arrows, anything else? Oh, I only have six arrows left.*packs up and goes home*</blockquote>

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