Ryujin
Legend
I think that the mistake made here is in assuming that things have to make perfect sense, in a real world way. If you really want things to make sense then a bow would have both a STR and DEX bonus to hit AND damage, to signify the greater penetrating power of a higher pull strength bow (thereby defeating the armour) and the ability to better place the shot. This doesn't balance well in a game system and balance is desirable. It's one of the better points of the 4e system.
If you're going to go to that length, to include both hit and damage bonuses from both STR and DEX, then you might as well kick in the greater effective range for high draw weight bows. How far do you go? How much additional kack do you want piled onto your game system?
A degree of simplicity is best. For that reason you class weapons by a single attribute for hit AND damage bonus. I've always liked the idea of weapon finesse, but only for a very small range of melee weapons. That's a concept that 4e definitely took too far, even though I benefited from it, and I wouldn't want to see things go that far in Next. Please, no massive number of bloody splat books that break basic tenets.
If you're going to go to that length, to include both hit and damage bonuses from both STR and DEX, then you might as well kick in the greater effective range for high draw weight bows. How far do you go? How much additional kack do you want piled onto your game system?
A degree of simplicity is best. For that reason you class weapons by a single attribute for hit AND damage bonus. I've always liked the idea of weapon finesse, but only for a very small range of melee weapons. That's a concept that 4e definitely took too far, even though I benefited from it, and I wouldn't want to see things go that far in Next. Please, no massive number of bloody splat books that break basic tenets.
