Bow against Sword!

[Kichwas]

As for sundering the bow, yes the sunder attempt will usually work.

A monster manual orc with a greataxe ... he will deal 12 hit points of damage about 42% of the time.

A raging orc barbarian with a greataxe deals an average of 12.5 hit points of damage. He deals at least 12 points of damage 58% of the time and 10 hp of damage 75% of the time.

As characters go up in levels, they may get magic bows which prevent sunder from working unless the opponent also has a magic weapon. Their

This is why my archer PC keeps a Bow caddie (er... cohort) around.

If I lose the +3 bow, I've got a +1, if I lose that, I've got a couple Masterworks...

I'm actually on my 2nd +3 bow already.

But I'll tell you this, +3 mighty composite longbows, arrows with greater magic weapon +3, a +2 str bonus, rapid shot, precise shot, far shot, level iterations, and a class ability to give me one more shot all stack up to some serious heavy hitting.

Let the idiots run into melee. Anything closer than 100 feet is too close for me.

 

[Li Shenron]

If opponant attempts to strike weapon he opens himself ot AoO. By dropping bow and drawing sword (free actions) the opponant is potentially struck and now does not have the bow to sunder.

Wait, wait, wait... do you mean that before your AoO you can perform free actions? I don't think so. I think you should be on your turn to make a free action, plus if you don't already have a melee weapon in hand you won't even get the AoO at all.

As for striking a weapon, I believe the opposed attack roll is to represent crushing of the weapons against each other, but maybe it may instead mean you're weaving the weapon to avoid it being struck... anyway it's a melee attack roll, you definitely don't make attack rolls with a bow/crossbow (well, maybe you can try ); what would a ranged attack roll opposed to a sundering melee attack roll mean???
I always though you use sunder rules (opposed rolls) only when attacking a melee weapon, and instead you simply strike a held object when you want to break an attended ranged weapon as any other non-weapon object --> exactly what Hyp said

OTOH I may consider allowing the second way (for held object) to protect your melee weapon from being sundered if you have a better bonus, for example because the weapon is smaller or your Dex bonus very high. This way may represent you're simply moving the weapon away from the attack, while if you are better in making the opposed attack roll, you're resisting the crushing "sword against sword".
After all, while it may be difficult with a longsword to sunder a greatsword and easier to sunder a shortsword, I wonder why should it be even easier to sunder (I mean hit, in this case) a Tiny character's Fine dagger.

--> remember that in sunder opposed rolls the bigger the weapon, the better (!! or... is it only when disarming??); instead when striking an attended object, the smaller, the better (I mean the attacked object)!

 

[Darklone]

HOUSERULE WARNING:

Since I don't use many generic rules like "A +3 weapon is needed to sunder a +2 weapon".... I use the following instead: If you want to sunder a weapon, you can only do it with a weapon of at least the same hardness rating. And both weapons take the damage.

Alas, noone uses it.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Forgive me to laugh, but this is silly.

Your argument, summed up, is: I want to play an archer that is as strong in close quarter fights as any melee fighter. And since the rules don't support this (IMHO silly) claim, you say the rules are wrong.

The archers in my campaigns never had problems with being too weak. And I never pulled punches. They just tended to climb on trees or roofs before unleashing clouds of arrows at their enemies.

With a little bit common sense you could avoid MANY problems. Forgive me to be insulting, but this just ASKS for it.

Forgive me to laugh, but this is silly.

your argumenmt summed up is: I don't like archers so I want them to get frustrated with the game and not play by making the rules as dumb as possible for them. Oh wait I forgot jumping in a tree or on a roof magically protects you from mellee fighters. By the level anyone has a decent magical bow, and the opposition can sunder it they can't seem to find their way to jump into a tree or onto a roof to take out the guy standing by his lonesome, right.




I don't think anyone is asking for bow user to be as good in mellee as mellee fighters. What people are asking for is a sundering attempt for a bow to actually have some degree of difficulty attached to it. As is it is almost always an auto success.(oh and magically the only times an attmept occurs is when the sunderer has a weapon with a high enough enchantment to make the attempt)

 

[Darklone]

Well Shard, the only argument I heard till now to make sundering a bow more difficult is: My archer is not clever enough to stay away from melee fighters.

I don't see no reason why sundering a bow should be more difficult. And we had some very successful archers in our groups.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Well Shard, the only argument I heard till now to make sundering a bow more difficult is: My archer is not clever enough to stay away from melee fighters.

I don't see no reason why sundering a bow should be more difficult. And we had some very successful archers in our groups.

Big problem is sunder is just too easy.(not just for bows.) sure you stay out of melee range, my fighter just charges you and attacks your bow, or were you anywhere from 60-160 more distance away from me because that's the range of how far a fighter or barb can charge with or without the boots of cheat. And what's your archer going to do, get an attack on me with my -2 to ac with your back up weapon a short sword or something. Oh no i might of taken an AoO as I blew past the line of defenders, I think that's worth removing one person as a threat from the fight.(and hey spend a few ranks in tumble and I might avoid AoO, and just one rank allows me to move through sqaures in those indoor the path is completely blocked situations)

 

[Sir Ragnar]

What about disarming a bow? It seems that the mechanic for sundering a bow doesn't apply because it's a ranged weapon, therefore you use the rules for striking an object. How would a disarm attempt against a bow work?

Sir Ragnar