Okay WB, I read your explanation. Thank you for finally laying it out, sans bad examples.
Now, try something for me. Sit at a table or desk. With your right hand, drum a beat, as fast as you can.
Now, do the same with your left.
Now, are your two hands beating faster than the one hand?
Guess what? You've just proven that you can do things faster with two hands than with one.
As for your logic: I see flaws with more than a few of your premises.
A Standard Action isn't three seconds long. It's whatever portion of six seconds it takes you to make all the attacks or other actions you can while still moving.
For a first level archer, that's drawing an arrow, nocking it on the string, drawing that string to a firing position, picking a target, waiting for the right moment and releasing. Unless your target is a tree (i.e. stationary), you have to time that shot or you have no chance of hitting.
Now, when you do that 30 foot move, it might be done at standard walking speed, 3.409 mph, and you're prepping your bow and eying a target as you move, and firing as soon as you get into position. It might be at a hustle, 6.818 mph, which makes it harder to set up that shot because of your movement, but gives you more time to establish a stance. Hell, it might be done at a full run, then skid to a stop and take your shot.
But it isn't any set amount of time. Your argument presumes that it is, that it's a fixed three seconds.
So let's revisit one of your premises. You say a first level archer can move 30 feet,
then draw an arrow, nock it, draw the bow and fire. I suggest that it's far more "logical" that he's combining those motions, pulling the arrow as he moves, that he selected his target before he moved, and is positioning to get a better shot. That he's gauging the distance and motion as he moves, using both his brain and his legs at the same time. And therefore it's more "logical" that he can't skip the movement and double his rate of fire. The mechanics of "loading" the bow take time, a time that the axe man doesn't have to spend since he has two axes all ready "loaded". He'll have to take a move or move equivalent action to reload, in fact, before he can repeat that trick next round.
Now, is it logical that two hand axes are thrown simultaneously? They can be. I've watched lumberjack competitions that include axe throws, and yeah, when they double throw, they're thrown in unison. I've also seen martial arts demonstrations where darts, shuriken and axes are thrown, rapid fire, at a series of targets.
But you know what? None of those guys we see doing these demonstrations would be considered "first level". They're competition grade, good enough to show off their speed and accuracy.
Whether they're thrown at once or in a windmill motion, one after the other, to get both off takes some skill, and the throw actions are combined into a single combination move. You throw with your whole body, not just the arm. I'm pretty sure you know that if you've ever played a sport.
Still, try it. Stand up and go through the throwing action with one hand. Now try it with both. The natural body mechanics move the throwing shoulder from back to forward as you release, setting the other shoulder into that "back" position for it's throw. Two weapons, two separate throws, one continuous flow of muscle and motion in the upper body. But you put your legs into that first throw, didn't you. Leaving them in the wrong position to help with the second? Off hand penalty to both accuracy and power? In the real world? Tell me it ain't so!
Real world, throwing with both hands isn't two distinct actions. Nocking, drawing, aiming and firing a bow is.
One weapon can't and won't fire as fast as two weapons, and it isn't anything resembling "logical" to argue that it can. Go practice with two tennis balls, one in each hand, and tell me I'm wrong about the motion.
Now, go to an archery range, and try the move and fire trick. I'll lay long odds thatfor you to get that shot off
without "penalty" after a 30 foot move, you had to be pulling the arrow and loading the bow as you moved.
Wanna bet?
