Elven masterbow

[gpetruc]

I've designed this special bow for elves in my campaign

Elven Masterbow
Large exotic weapon (requires Dex 13+ to take the EWP feat)
Damage 1d6, Crit 19-20/x3, Range 150ft, Price 200 gp (arrows cost 1sp each)
(mighty versions do not exist, but it can be made masterwork as usual)

With another feat:
Elven Bowmastery
requires: EWP in elven masterbow,
Point blank shot, Bab 3+
effect: you can add your dexterity bonus (pu to a maximum of +4) to damage, but only in the first range increment
(I know that usually bonuses to damage are usable only at 30ft or
less, but still this is at the expense of two feats, and consider
that with a composite bow you can nearly have the same bonus at full
range)

What do you think ?

I was also working on the
Hobgoblin Warbow
large exotic weapon (requres Str 13+),
1d10, crit x4, 100ft, armor penetration 1 (as the heavy crossbow)
mighty up to +5, price 200 gp
(Hobgoblins are strong in my world)

Any comments?suggestions ?

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

19-20/x3 is a really odd crit range and is significantly more powerful than any crit range in the book at the moment. Despite that, I think the Elven Masterbow would be acceptable as an Exotic Weapon with those stats.

The EWP on it, however. Absolutely not ever under any circumstances. It's easily possible for an archer to dish out as much damage as a raging barbarian with a greatsword at the moment without adding dex bonusses to damage. If dex bonusses are added to damage (within 150 no less--much more for Deepwood Snipers with Far Shot), the would outdamage every other class combination bar none. In other words. No way. Archers do plenty of damage already. If anything, new rules should be introduced to reduce their effectiveness not to boost it. (Especially at the cost of a feat--a resource that archers have plenty of).

As to the Hobgoblin Warbow. The same. Definitely not. For the same reasons and a few more: just going to d10 damage from d8 would be sufficient to merit an EWP. So is improving the crit category--going from 19-20/x2 or 20/x3 to 20/x4. This proposed bow does both AND adds a new armor penetration mechanic (completely unnecessary--well constructed archers rarely miss anyway) AND improves the amount of strength bonus attainable (one of the major balancing factors on bows). Scale it down to d10 20/x3 and it'd be workable.

 

[MarauderX]

I think the both should be scaled down even more, as archers are pretty powerful already with all of the feats available. I would keep the crits to a max of x3, especially anything ranged that is already doing d10 damage.

If you have some high powered characters or some enhanced armies I would still limit the amount of ranged damage any of them can do.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I think the both should be scaled down even more, as archers are pretty powerful already with all of the feats available.

Actually, my impression is that it isn't that there are tons of good archer feats. Quite the contrary. My impression is that an archer really only needs a few feats to be effective:

Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot

And that there are a few more feats that are helpful:
Weapon Focus
Weapon Specialization
Improved Critical

And one high level feat that is absolutely broken:
Manyshot

A character can easily master all of these feats (except Weapon Specialization) without ever taking a level of fighter and still have spare feats left over. And none of the other feats (except possibly Zen Archery for an Order of the Bow Initiate, Far Shot for the Deepwood Sniper wannabe, and Extend Spell and Persistent Spell for the cleric archer) really add much of any significance to the archer's effectiveness.

Which is to say, it is very easy to collect all of the archery feats and have lots of feats left over. And even with just Point Blank, Precise, and Rapid shot, an archer would be effective--and much more so with Manyshot. Archers don't really need any other feats. (Although there are a few helpful ones). That is also the difficulty with archer prestige classes--since there aren't many effective archer feats, qualifying for one archer prestige class puts a character within spitting distance of qualifying for all the rest. That's why it's very easy to be a Fighter/Wizard/Arcane Archer/Order of the Bow Initiate/Deepwood Sniper. (It probably doesn't take much to add Peerless Archer to that either but I don't know much about that class). On the other hand, managing to put together a Fighter/Barbarian/Forsaker/Frenzied Beserker/Tribal Protector would be much more difficult.

 

[gpetruc]

My idea for the feat that allowed dex bonus on damage was that with a normal composite longbow you have the str bonus to damage free (up to +4), while the elven bow does not give you the strenght bonus, and so you will be doing less damage than normal (and also -1 damage for the d6 instead of d8).

Being capped at +4 I can't see how it could be much more powerful than what you can have from a standard compostite longbow.

I'll drop the hobgoblin warbow to the normal x3 critical (and so the only difference is that is exotic and that does 1d10 instead of 1d8), and leave the mighty to a max of +4.
Actually the armor penetration was there because I already use it for firearms and for heavy crossbows, and so I thought it could be useful for the army troops if not for the PC heroes.

 

[las]

there a feat in dragon 403 that foes that but only if the targets within 30 ft.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

My idea for the feat that allowed dex bonus on damage was that with a normal composite longbow you have the str bonus to damage free (up to +4), while the elven bow does not give you the strenght bonus, and so you will be doing less damage than normal (and also -1 damage for the d6 instead of d8).

Being capped at +4 I can't see how it could be much more powerful than what you can have from a standard compostite longbow.

Ahh. I missed the "no mighty Masterbows" bit. In that case, I think it might be alright. It does allow archers to ignore their strength bonus but by adding two feats to the archery tree, it might force characters to be picky about which of the archery feats they choose. Characters couldn't have them all without fighter levels anymore. Which IMHO is a good thing.

I'll drop the hobgoblin warbow to the normal x3 critical (and so the only difference is that is exotic and that does 1d10 instead of 1d8), and leave the mighty to a max of +4.
Actually the armor penetration was there because I already use it for firearms and for heavy crossbows, and so I thought it could be useful for the army troops if not for the PC heroes.

I suppose it could be useful for army troops to have the armor penetration. If you're already using the rules, it might not be so bad but if I were DMing, I'd like to preserve the possibility that archers might miss occasionally. Probably a pipe dream though