Strength Adjustable Bow: How Much should be reasonable?

[Shin Okada]

My playgroup will finish months long campaign this weekend. At the end of the campaign, each PCs will be given special "gift" magic items from the lord of the city they have saved.

We have one archer, and they have defeated a huge red dragon when defending the city. So, a magical dragon bone bow look great for the "gift for the hero archer".

But the problem is, each composite longbow has it's strength set and cannot be changed once created. But in future the PC will get better strength enhancing items, inherence bonuses and such. His player is even considering increasing his PC's strength in future levelling up.

So, If he is given a certain "memorial" gift bow, he may sell it and they buy a stronger bow in future. That is not what I want to happen.

But, it seems that other than that crappy relic of corellon (the archer is a Dwarf!), there is no strength changing bow or weapon ability which allow it in WotC books.

So I must rely on a house rule.

How much will be reasonable for "strength-adjustable" feature of a magic bow?

I want to set it either as a +x enhancement bonus equivalent or +x,xxx gp ability, as the PC can upgrade his "memorial" bow in future.

Thanks in advance.

Edit : Now I am thinking to make it a +5,000gp ability. It is the same cost as sizing ability in MIC. If a weapon can be changed into any size from dimunitive to colossal, changing in it's strength should not be much difficult than it.

 

[Nifft]

Nah, "Sizing" is cheap because it's mostly unnecessary: magic spells which change your size tend to explicitly also change the size of your equipment.

Also, there are only a fixed number of sizes (so there's a fixed maximum benefit for "Sizing"), while Strength bonus can grow without bound.

Anyway, pricing: the standard price for +5 damage is +2 enhancement. This item isn't actually granting the damage, merely allowing it, so that price is probably too high. +2 for up to +10 strength might be good, if a bit conservative.

The one bit of advice I'd give most strongly is: cap the bonus. Make sure you're not granting an unlimited damage source for a low, fixed price.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Shin Okada]

The one bit of advice I'd give most strongly is: cap the bonus. Make sure you're not granting an unlimited damage source for a low, fixed price.

But, without high strength, an archer cannot get damage bonus from it anyway. And melee fighters does not need any magical powers to use his full strength bonus (or even 1.5 times of it). Shall I really need such a cap?

The said archer will never likely to get uber strength even if this campaign lasts til he becomes a 20th-level character (maybe +5 inherent bonus and +6 enhancement bonus + current str 16 = 27. Maybe 30 or so at the most, if he uses some of his ability score increase via levelling up for str instead of dex).

Even if some player change his character for a new monster-race archer, he can make appropriately strong bow at that time anyway. And in 3.0e/3.5e, monster characters are relatively weak due to LA.

 

[Nifft]

But, without high strength, an archer cannot get damage bonus from it anyway. And melee fighters does not need any magical powers to use his full strength bonus (or even 1.5 times of it). Shall I really need such a cap?

Melee fighters don't get to make full attacks every round. Melee fighters have to actually get into melee. Melee fighters don't get to stack special abilities of their bow and their ammo... ranged attackers are already amazingly strong relative to melee dudes.

Yes, there should be a cap.

The said archer will never likely to get uber strength even if this campaign lasts til he becomes a 20th-level character (maybe +5 inherent bonus and +6 enhancement bonus + current str 16 = 27. Maybe 30 or so at the most, if he uses some of his ability score increase via levelling up for str instead of dex).

I don't really get what your issue is. If the PC never bumps into the cap, then he won't even notice it's there. If he does: good thing you have one.

It's like a parachute. You don't usually plan on needing one. You have it for when things don't go as you'd expected.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Shin Okada]

Melee fighters don't get to make full attacks every round. Melee fighters have to actually get into melee. Melee fighters don't get to stack special abilities of their bow and their ammo... ranged attackers are already amazingly strong relative to melee dudes.

It really depends on situation and in most situations in most adventures, archers are not so stronger comparing to melee warriors. Archers need to avoid melee combat and simultaneousely keep the line of sight to the target. Their bows are easily sundererd or disarmed. They must keep paying for expensive ammos while once the warrior got a good melee weapon they don't need any cost to keep it operational. And archers never get 1.5 times one's strength bonus though they are using both-hands. I have been playing 3.0e/3.5e for years and in this party, having 7 members, an archer is spending relatively good time for the first time in our play group. All the other former archers or semi-archers could not keep shooting for a long time.

I don't really get what your issue is. If the PC never bumps into the cap, then he won't even notice it's there. If he does: good thing you have one.

Well, one reason is that I don't want to bother putting unnecessery rule text to a magic item's description.

And the main purpose of this house rule magic item is to let the PC continue to use that memorial bow, upgrading if need, for a long time. So I don't want to make a cap. I don't want to limit his characters way of development either. If he happen to bump his str up to +11 or higher, by sucrificing other abilities or resources, I don't see any problem on it. If the bow has +10 str cap, he will just sell his old bow and buy or create new one. That is not what I want to see.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

For what it's worth, the bonebow from Frostburn is an exotic weapon that is like a composite bow that automatically adjusts for Str and costs 250gp.

 

[Nifft]

It really depends on situation and in most situations in most adventures, archers are not so stronger comparing to melee warriors. Archers need to avoid melee combat and simultaneousely keep the line of sight to the target. Their bows are easily sundererd or disarmed. They must keep paying for expensive ammos while once the warrior got a good melee weapon they don't need any cost to keep it operational. And archers never get 1.5 times one's strength bonus though they are using both-hands. I have been playing 3.0e/3.5e for years and in this party, having 7 members, an archer is spending relatively good time for the first time in our play group. All the other former archers or semi-archers could not keep shooting for a long time.

My players would disagree with you: they tend to prefer melee, but think that ranged attackers are stronger over all.

For ammo, a ranged attacker typically puts everything into his bow. He then gets greater magic weapon, and possibly also flame arrow or keen edge, cast on his (cheap, non-masterwork) ammo. He can easily swap metal types or Bane properties just by using different ammo -- the fighter with the greatsword is not so lucky. If he buys Bane, he's stuck with it.

Well, one reason is that I don't want to bother putting unnecessery rule text to a magic item's description.

And the main purpose of this house rule magic item is to let the PC continue to use that memorial bow, upgrading if need, for a long time. So I don't want to make a cap. I don't want to limit his characters way of development either. If he happen to bump his str up to +11 or higher, by sucrificing other abilities or resources, I don't see any problem on it. If the bow has +10 str cap, he will just sell his old bow and buy or create new one. That is not what I want to see.

I bolded one part. Who says the special ability can't stack with itself? If you want him to be able to bump his cap, allow him to do so, at a price. Most abilities can't stack with themselves, but there's no reason to disallow this one.

So my proposed property:

Strenuous Recurvature
Prerequisite: This property can only be applied to a Composite bow with a strength rating of +3 or higher. The bow's strength rating increases to accomodate users with a strength bonus up to 5 above its normal bonus.
Price: +1 enhancement
Special: You may add this ability to a weapon multiple times.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Set]

Have the dragonbone bow go up to a +10 Str mod for damage, and be usable at 'lower pull strength' for those with, for example, a Str 20 and only to use +5 of that. It's ingeniously magically designed so that the dragon sinew used for the string and the dragon bone used for the bow increase their strength to 'fight' the user, and so increase the Str rating of the bow as the user's own Str increases.

Heck, it might go all the way up to the Str rating of the dragon itself, if the bow-wielder gains access to some massive boost to Strength (say, from the Strength Domain for a single round).

In this case, the bow might be made with a core of dragonbone, wrapped with leather made from the dragons sinew and muscle and hide, making the bow itself appear 'muscular,' and with those 'muscles' flexing along with the users arm-strength.

 

[Folly]

A fellow poster of ours (eamon) point this item out in another post about bows and str bonuses.

Bow of the Wintermoon (3,400 gp) from the MIC

Its a +1 Longbow that adjust to any str mod. If fluff doesn't fit.... its fluff, change it and no one will care. So you are paying about 1400 for a longbow that changes str mod.