Mighty Composite Longbows, am I reading this right?

[The Souljourner]

Archers are *way* way weaker in 3.5, as they should be (they were ridiculous before).

The main difference being the stacking of enhancement bonuses on bows and ammunition, and the slight nerf to GMW. A single GMW gave your archer +3 to hit and damage at 9th level.. all day! Who cares if the bow enhancement doesn't get past DR! If you have a cleric or wizard in the party, you're set. If you could get two of the spells, you have +6 to hit and damage... my elven archer (rogue 3, fighter 4, OotBI 2) with 16 str and 20 dex was doing 1d8+12 at 30' or less, with 3 attacks at +20/+20/+15.

Now he does 1d8+8 at +14/+14/+9

(loss of: +4 to hit and damage - no stacking of enhancements, and GWM is +2 at 9th, not +3; loss of: +2 to hit - cat's grace doesn't last all day anymore)

Now, it's nice that mighty bows go above +4, but hey, that wasn't much of a limiting factor before.

The archer feats are really cool, and I'm glad they switched out insane power with more versatility, but they're definitely a lot weaker now than they were before.

-The Souljourner

 

[dagger]

One good thing they did give archers is that Weapon spec and favored enemy are not limited to 30'.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Note that "Mighty" is no longer an applicable term in 3.5.

All composite bows in 3.5 have a Strength rating. There is no longer a distinction between "composite bows" and "mighty composite bows", just assorted Strength ratings.

-Hyp.

 

[melkoriii]

Also if your Str is not suffitiant to use the Mighty Bow you get a negitive to attack AND can only use upto your Str bonus to damage.

 

[Darklone]

That was my houserule for mighty longbows... never liked the arabian composite stuff... not good in swamps and foggy woods