Sibling rivalry

Goldmoon · Sep 11, 2006

Where is the Elvin Longbow? How about flavor? What can I do/use thats really unusual?

Question · Sep 11, 2006

Greatbow is only 1d10. Normal longbows are 1d8. Theres hardly any difference.

Elven longbows and items like the quiver of anariel used to be on wizards site. They took it down for some reason, and i havent been able to find out why. Its basically a masterwork short or longbow that can be used as either club or quarterstaff in melee.

kenobi65 · Sep 11, 2006

Question said:
Elven longbows and items like the quiver of anariel used to be on wizards site. They took it down for some reason, and i havent been able to find out why. Its basically a masterwork short or longbow that can be used as either club or quarterstaff in melee.

I believe they're in Races of the Wild.

Question · Sep 11, 2006

I think the rules are slightly different. Its probably similar enough not to matter though.

kenobi65 · Sep 11, 2006

Goldmoon said:
What can I do/use thats really unusual?

Well, I don't know about "really unusual", but...

- You've got an advantage, over a meleer, in that you can carry different types of arrows to overcome different DRs (the meleer needs entirely different weapons). Pack some silver and cold iron arrows. Getting hold of a Quiver of Ehlonna would be a very good thing.

- Weapon enhancements on your bow generally are granted to the arrows. Getting a holy enhancement isn't cheap (costs a +2 bonus), but it's a great enhancement against many monsters. Not sure if the campaign will be undead-focused (you mentioned that your PC will be from Ravenloft), but, if so, bane (undead) would also be great. (A lot, of course, depends on how your DM treats / allows weapon enhancements.)

IcyCool · Sep 11, 2006

Question said:
Greatbow is only 1d10. Normal longbows are 1d8. Theres hardly any difference.

So why would someone ever take a Bastard Sword over a Longsword?

IcyCool · Sep 11, 2006

Goldmoon said:
Where is the Elvin Longbow? How about flavor? What can I do/use thats really unusual?

You could use a repeating crossbow. Lobby your GM to allow you to reload one with a move action and the Rapid Reload feat. Or get the quickloading enchantment from the Arms and Equipment guide.

If you absolutely need an exotic bow, the Greatbow from Complete Warrior comes in a composite version, and does 1d10 damage. It might have longer range, I'm not sure.

You might also want to look in Complete Warrior for the Ranged Pin, Ranged Disarm, and Ranged Sunder feats as well, to add some neat tricks to your bag.

Goldmoon · Sep 11, 2006

kenobi65 said:
Well, I don't know about "really unusual", but...

- You've got an advantage, over a meleer, in that you can carry different types of arrows to overcome different DRs (the meleer needs entirely different weapons). Pack some silver and cold iron arrows. Getting hold of a Quiver of Ehlonna would be a very good thing.

- Weapon enhancements on your bow generally are granted to the arrows. Getting a holy enhancement isn't cheap (costs a +2 bonus), but it's a great enhancement against many monsters. Not sure if the campaign will be undead-focused (you mentioned that your PC will be from Ravenloft), but, if so, bane (undead) would also be great. (A lot, of course, depends on how your DM treats / allows weapon enhancements.)

Our PC's will be from Ravenloft but the campaing is not set there. We just thought it matched the personalities and accents of our characters.

kenobi65 · Sep 11, 2006

IcyCool said:
So why would someone ever take a Bastard Sword over a Longsword?

Honestly, I don't see many folks who do so; it takes a feat to be able to wield it one-handed, and if you're going to wield it two-handed, might as well take a greatsword, instead.

And, that's the downside of greatbow...it takes a feat to use proficiently, for an average of 1 more point of damage per hit.

OTOH, we're talking about a human fighter build here...which tends to have feats coming out the wazoo...