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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nim" data-source="post: 2627011" data-attributes="member: 5684">Right. If you want realistic archery, you need to substantially change the way it's handled in D&D...and you'll end up with something weaker than what currently exists.Now, of course we can have the debate about whether 'realism' is a worthwhile or desirable goal in a fantasy game <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The historical rate of fire for a longbowman appears to have been between 12 and 20 shots per minute, depending on which sources you believe and how well-trained the archer was. HR suggestion: Disallow iterative attacks with bows, but allow Rapid Shot. That hits the 'realistic' RoF quite nicely.The pull of a bow significantly affects its range. However, the bow ranges in the book are also a bit too generous, when we remember that the maximum range for a projectile weapon is 10 range increments.  The  US Nat'l Archery Association lists the following national distance records for longbow:Unlimited draw.....1225' 4" 12570 lb draw.....1107' 5" 11050 lb draw.....975' 10" 9535 lb draw.....867' 2" 85Source for those numbers is <a href="http://www.usarchery.org/files/04_nat_regular_flight.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.usarchery.org/files/04_nat_regular_flight.pdf</a> . Note that the ranges for modern compound recurves are MUCH higher, but those records were set with bows specifically modified for increased range (rather than power, accuracy, etc) and aren't good benchmarks for combat weapons.HR suggestion: If the 35-lb draw is a standard Strength 10 longbow, and the unlimited-draw is a Mighty +4 longbow, then it looks like the composite longbow should have a base range increment of 85, plus 10 per point of Strength bonus it allows if Mighty. Now, here's the real problem...in a hitpoint based combat system. a single arrow isn't very intimidating. So, when you take away the rapid rate of fire, you're left with bows that have no stopping power and aren't an effective primary weapon choice for adventuring combat. I'm not entirely against that, depending on the style of game you're running...bows should either weapons of ambush, or weapons of massed battlefield combat. But it's not very exciting. And even from ambush, PCs (or their foes) will shrug off the effect of a couple of arrows using the base damage.Rather than scaling up the damage of the weapon, however (because really...should a hurried shot with a bow really be more dangerous than a swordblow?), I'd suggest allowing a Take Aim action. Off the top of my head and without really running the numbers to see if it's balanced, something like:HR suggestion: Take Aim (move-equiv): While armed with a projectile weapon, you aim at a target. If you shoot that target without first breaking your aim, your critical threat range is increased by 1 for that attack only. Your aim is broken if you take any action other than shooting the target, or if the target moves out of your line of sight. You may spend 1 action aiming for each 5 points of BAB (or fraction thereof); the effects are cummulative. Special: Characters with the Feat: Improved Critical for the projectile weapon they are using apply the effect of the feat AFTER all modifiers for aiming are added. With enough BAB, taking the time to aim, and spending a feat on ImpCrit, an expert archer would crit on almost every hit. But because they'd only be attacking 1 every round or two (depending on how long they aimed), their overall damage output would still be modest compared to current levels. It would, however, greatly reward archers who went to the effort to get the benefit of surprise, so they could aim before the fight started. And really, that's fairly appropriate.</blockquote>

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