Alternatives to bows

[Darklone]

One of the big problems in D&D: you only get more damage by more attacks... while the hitpoints increase... ah well.

 

[RangerWickett]

I let a single arrow or a single bolt or a single slingstone count as a full attack. You make multiple attack rolls, but that just represents you getting one really good shot in.

 

[Darklone]

I let a single arrow or a single bolt or a single slingstone count as a full attack. You make multiple attack rolls, but that just represents you getting one really good shot in.

Right, but exactly this doesn't transfer nicely to Xbows. Especially heavy ones.

 

[Shallown]

in FR their is a crossbow enchanment that is +2 that holds 50 (or maybe a 100) bolts and auto reloads the crossbow. I had the character gifted with one and 10 bolts of different varieties. 10 that dispelled, 10 that had a 10' raduis fireball. Etc. The crossbow and bolts came from the God of Engineering and metal so it fit in my game. The rogue/fighter swears by it now. He unfortunatlye used up all his specialty bolts and only has MW left but plans to invest in some more.

later

 

[Wippit Guud]

No mention of blowgun yet... sure, does bad damage, and low rate of fire, but can have some intersting fringe benefits.

Also no mention of going into straight magic... dunno the cost effectiveness of using a multi-missile magic missile wand or a wand of lightning bolts.

 

[Rel]

I believe that the AD&D Oriental Adventures book included a "stone bow". Basically, a sling shot shaped like a bow that had a small leather pouch on the string that fired sling stones. I think you could translate this into a bow that did sling damage and you could add Mighty to it as well.

I would of course do inferior damage to a regular bow but it does have two small advantages: Crushing damage instead of Piercing for creatures that have resistance or immunity to that and your ammunition is everywhere. I could particularly see this weapon being used by underground races or desert dwellers whose access to enough wood to make arrows all the time would be limited.

And then there's always the Hoopak...

 

[CombatWombat51]

Agh. Yeah.
Shortspears in 3E, now known as Spears in 3.5, require a full round action to throw, as two-handed weapons.

How do you figure? Under thrown weapons on page 113 (3.5), it says that throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action, but that's burried in a paragraph about throwing weapons that aren't designed to be thrown. Also in that paragraph, it says "Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat (a possible critical hit) only on a natural 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet."

Seems to me that they're talking about improvised weapons, because if all two-handed thrown weapons had a range of 10 feet, why would they mention the longer range under spears?

 

[LokiDR]

in FR their is a crossbow enchanment that is +2 that holds 50 (or maybe a 100) bolts and auto reloads the crossbow.

FR also has the "teleporting" enchantment, basically the weapon returns to your hand as soon as you speak a word, as a free action. So you can take a full attack with one thrown weapon. I think that was even listed at a +1, but I could be wrong.

 

[RangerWickett]

Right, but exactly this doesn't transfer nicely to Xbows. Especially heavy ones.

Why doesn't it work? I, a 17th level Fighter, have a loaded heavy crossbow, which I spent a move action to load (unless I am proficient in martial weapons, in which case it was a free action), and I see my target, a juicy demon that's just finished cutting through some helpless low-level adventurers.

My crossbow is a +5 crossbow, I've got a 17 Dexterity, and weapon focus, and greater weapon focus, and weapon spec, and greater weapon spec, and improved crit (crossbow). I have bonuses of +27/+22/+17/+12 to my attack roll, so I fire my arrow, and make four attack rolls. Two hit, another criticals, one misses. I only fired one arrow, but I'm such a danged good shot, that one arrow does more damage than a less-trained person could manage. With one shot (but four attack rolls), I deal 4d10+16 damage.

This makes perfectly fine sense to me, and the only extra little house rule I tossed in was to make reloading faster if you know how to use martial weapons. Now, you couldn't shoot that one arrow and hit four targets, which is something that makes the crossbow a bit weaker than a bow, but I think this balances it a bit better.

And if you have trouble letting 4 attack rolls represent 1 attack, think of a high-level fighter with a greatsword. Is he really swinging that thing four times in six seconds? Actually, probably yes. But now think about the high-level fighter who uses a shortsword. Are you telling me he's only swinging that sword at the speed of a greatsword? I'd expect more out of such a legendary warrior.

 

[Eltern]

Why doesn't it work? I, a 17th level Fighter, have a loaded heavy crossbow, which I spent a move action to load (unless I am proficient in martial weapons, in which case it was a free action), and I see my target, a juicy demon that's just finished cutting through some helpless low-level adventurers.

My crossbow is a +5 crossbow, I've got a 17 Dexterity, and weapon focus, and greater weapon focus, and weapon spec, and greater weapon spec, and improved crit (crossbow). I have bonuses of +27/+22/+17/+12 to my attack roll, so I fire my arrow, and make four attack rolls. Two hit, another criticals, one misses. I only fired one arrow, but I'm such a danged good shot, that one arrow does more damage than a less-trained person could manage. With one shot (but four attack rolls), I deal 4d10+16 damage.

Now you're talking death from massive damage, which really ought not to happen with this situation.