Saeviomagy
Adventurer
Plane Sailing said:This means that in surprise wilderness encounters the bowmen have to spend a round getting their weapon ready for use - which seems a fair tradeoff considering that they will be able to take full attacks for almost all the combat and don't have to worry so much about enduring their opponents blows...
Unless of course their opponents, you know, close with them. Which seems likely to say the least, especially with the current rules on encounter distance.
Combined with the round to ready the weapon, this would seem to make it quite likely that being any sort of archer in your game is a bit crap, unless you're in cramped quarters.
That seems a little counter-intuitive to me.
My earlier point about prestidigitation is that you use it once a day to clean and maintain everyone's weapons and armour, keeping them in tip-top shape, not to mention showering everyone, making the trail rations palatable and making the fighter literally smell like roses for a while purely for amusement value. Not that you keep it running to mystically string your bow.