Alternatives to bows

[Inconsequenti-AL]

How about a wand projectile weapon? It could be a somewhat complicated undertaking to balance it and get the feel right. Make it a ranged weapon that does 1d6 (or even 1d4) force damage, ranged touch attack to hit. You wouldn't get the strength bonus, but then again, you could do some serious damage by virtue the low AC for touch attacks and things like sneak attack and rapid shot.

That's an intriguing idea. Strikes me as having some of the feel of a firearm... could fit nicely into a high magic setting/environment.

Sneak attack would be brutal with it...

Using the DMG item creation rules - costs are going to be pretty steep. Can't think of many offensive spells that let you attack 'at full speed'?

Chill touch possibly?

 

[Darmanicus]

Don't know if this has been mentioned as I haven't had time to read all the posts. Ever thought about statting up the Boomerang? Don't need to enchant those puppies for 'em to return!

 

[MerakSpielman]

Don't know if this has been mentioned as I haven't had time to read all the posts. Ever thought about statting up the Boomerang? Don't need to enchant those puppies for 'em to return!

Only problem is, boomerangs don't return if they actually hit something.

 

[Rel]

Only problem is, boomerangs don't return if they actually hit something.

The weapon that circumvents this problem is, of course, the Attack Yo-Yo.

 

[Rackhir]

The crossbow was the only weapon made illegal by the papacy. The battle of Agincourt was won by French stupidity, not english bows. Their bows couldn't penetrate the steel plate worn by the french. The bow's effectiveness was its abilty to be fired en-masse and cover the field at range. This is not modeled in D&D.

Well the crossbow was made illegal for basically two reason, IIRC.

One. Any damm fool could use one to kill a knight and guess who was the class in power.

Two. Crossbow bolts were barbed and thus couldn't simply be pulled out of a wound. They had to be pushed through the victim with generally unpleasant consequences. This was apparently considered "unchristian".

It's also worth noting that the ban was an abject failure (not even as effective as the Chemical weapons treaty is today) and in any case was considered perfectly okay for use against "heathen".

Once again. The reason why bows are the best missile weapon is because bows ARE the best missile weapon, short of modern guns. Bows were even superior weapons until several hundred years into the gunpoweder period, with the caveat about a well trained user, which IS after all what combat classes in D&D are supposed to be.

Aside from some circumstances that D&D doesn't model very well. you wish to change the bow's superiority, you're going to have to warp logic and/or reality to make it be so. Do that if you wish, but don't pretend there's any real basis for it.

 

[Sigma]

That's an intriguing idea. Strikes me as having some of the feel of a firearm... could fit nicely into a high magic setting/environment.

Sneak attack would be brutal with it...

Using the DMG item creation rules - costs are going to be pretty steep. Can't think of many offensive spells that let you attack 'at full speed'?

Chill touch possibly?

I played w/the idea for a while, but couldn't come up with anything that worked really well (though part of the reason is because I went off on a huge tangent trying to build a system to let spellcasters channel spell levels through the wand for extra damage). I didn't really use the magic item rules because I wanted it to be more like an weapon than an item. I suppose the easiest way to try to balance it is get rid of the touch attack aspect. Doing so takes away some flavor, but it makes it a lot easier to deal with.

It might work as an exotic weapon, which does 1d6 or 1d4 damage (less than a bow), requires that the user be able to cast arcane spells, and is a force effect. That way, you scale down the bow's damage and give an effect (the force damage) that is on par with an increase in crit in exchange for a feat and spellcasting. I see the lack of ammo as more of a disadvantage than an advantage, considering that you can't get cheap magic ammo. The cost of ammo is fairly insignificant, you could just make the wand cost more than a bow and have the cost difference be about what the character would spend on normal arrows. If having unilimited ammo were really a concern, you could toss in wand crystals at 1gp a pop, and have each one hold 10 charges. Replacing a wand crystal would probably be a move equivalent action. Adds a bit too much bookkeeping for my taste, but it could work.