Huge Mighty Longbows

[MasterLich]

Hello all,

New to the board i be. I am currently playing a NG Minotaur 2 fighter/1 rogue ECL = 11.

Str: 26 (+8)
Dex: 16 (+3)
Con: 20 (+5)
Int: 10 (I am a smart minotaur)
Wis: 10
Cha: 6 (-2, ugly though)

Currently i am fighting with a Leveling GreatAxe onhand and a Dwarven WarAxe off-hand. I am prettymuch the only fighter in the current group which has a bunch of spell casters in it, who want to launch there fireballs and such into combat, thus i stay back quite often unless we are in a real hurry as last session. Now because my Character has a str of +8 i was talking to my DM that a Huge Mightly Longbows would be helpful in longrange combat, keeping everyone happy until they close in where i shine. We have had a few of these. But i was wanting a Mighty +8 to take full use of my str. We discussed this and he agreed but i would have to do a quest for it, he has to figure a few things out. Probably kill something/a gnomish contraption it may be. Now the question can this be done, seeing that the we can only find a max if +4 modifiers, and what is the cost?

Possibity: +2 Huge Mighty (+8) Longbow 2d6+8 (i believe)

 

[HellHound]

Full rules for mighty composite bows of differing sizes are included in Three Arrows For The King - The Archer's Guide.

According to the tables in said book, a Huge Composite Bow can indeed be up to "Mighty +8".

Huge Mighty (+8) Composite Bow
(250gp base price (for Huge Composite Bow) *900% (+8 Mighty))
2,250gp value
160 ft range, 2d6 damage

 

[MasterLich]

kewl, Thanks. Forwarding to DM.....

 

[Saeviomagy]

There is certainly a precedent for massively high-strength bows - take a look at storm giants for an example (although they're huge instead of large)

I'd suggest making the maximum strength bonus available a point or so below the maximum strength for your race though, in the same way as the best mighty bow a human can get is only +3 while their strength could potentially start at +4.

 

[HellHound]

Uhmmm...

That would be fine except that humans can buy Mighty (+4) Composite bows of Large size (Longbows) in the PHB.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Uhmmm...

That would be fine except that humans can buy Mighty (+4) Composite bows of Large size (Longbows) in the PHB.

Oops, you're right.

Now why'd I think anything different?

 

[Spatula]

Note that the max STR for small humanoids is 16 (+3) but mighty shortbows only go up to +2. So you can't really infer much from that.

This is really something that Savage Species should have covered. I would have said increase the max bonus by 2 for each size increase, so a huge mighty bow could go to +6, a gargantuan to +8, etc. But the storm giant has a gargantuan mighty (+14) bow. So +8 looks like a good maximum for a huge bow; it sets up a nice workable pattern: +2/4/8/14/22.

 

[Darklone]

Thinking about halforcs, eh?

 

[MasterLich]

Really? We didnt know that. I personnally thought that a max a Mighty bow can go is +4, i never knew that was what the restriction to med-size. Hmmm... very interesting indeed.

I was trying to argue my point across to my DM that Y shouldn't there be one available to my size/charac. IE: An Ogre Mage has a Huge Longbow. Now Y would it have that when It can't use it's str bonus for damge? O well, now that i have some info to work with it should be easy enuf for him to come up with something. He wants to make this bow something special in our campaign. It's not like i am gonna become an archer or anything....

Besides i am having enuf trouble trying to walk around in towns. Without my Grom Gulthyn symbol i would get my ass thrown out (I was raised by dwarves).