D&D 5E Strength bows?

[Ahrimon]

I've never looked into it myself but I remember being told by someone that the main reason that they use aluminum arrows with compound bows is because the launching force would shatter a wooden arrow. It may have been complete BS, but it's believable BS.

 

[Diamabel]

I've never looked into it myself but I remember being told by someone that the main reason that they use aluminum arrows with compound bows is because the launching force would shatter a wooden arrow. It may have been complete BS, but it's believable BS.

It's doable.. but there is no real reason to do so. Aluminum and carbon are much more consistent materials.

It's all rather academic anyways.. Compound bows have no place in traditional D&D (except for modern). They were not invented until the 1960's.

 

[Herr der Qual]

Composite bows on the other hand are in previous editions have a Str rating and short composite bows were used by the mongols to capture the largest contiguous empire in the history of man. Fear the mounted barbarian who weilds a short composite bow

 

[jodyjohnson]

Equipment

Martial Ranged
Greatbow d10 req Str 15 200gp.
Ogre Bow d12 req Str 19 450gp

Strength increases damage without getting into a Dex+Str situation.

 

[aramis erak]

I've never looked into it myself but I remember being told by someone that the main reason that they use aluminum arrows with compound bows is because the launching force would shatter a wooden arrow. It may have been complete BS, but it's believable BS.

It's almost entirely BS. Some of the most powerful compounds can damage really poorly made wood or fiberglass arrows. But few reach the extreme poundage of the greatest of the historic English Longbows, which fired only wood arrows... modern replicas in historic materials can have poundage as high as 200+ lbs at 28"... tho the close matches to most run to about 150 to 185 pounds. Rumors of 300 pound draws are not unheard of for laminated recurved longbows. (Remember: draw weight is what dead weight draws the string to 28" from the handle. Crossbows can easily hit 350 pounds to max draw, requiring a cranquenin to pull the string back to the cock.

Some cheap arrows are made by sawing and turning. Good arrows are made by splitting and turning. Great arrows are made by splitting, steaming, weighting, and drawing. A steam straightend shaft that is drawn through a die to round it is about as strong as it can be... all the fibers are longitudinal and intact. Sawn and turned have many fibers ending in the sides, a sudden acceleration may reveal weaknesses.

Truth be told, tho', the aliminum and fiberglass are lighter, and thus produce a faster arrow, and further, can be fitted with different heads more easily, and are also easier to reuse.

 

[Athinar]

What about Mithral and Adamantine arrows, all metal, no removable arrow heads, flight feathers are replaceable, Adamantine arrows never break and can be reused, Mithral are light and travel farther than normal, then you can make the bows to out of the these metals, Adamantine and Mithral bows can have blades added to the ends to make them melee weapons too. Adamantine bows never break, etc..

 

[Diamabel]

What about Mithral and Adamantine arrows, all metal, no removable arrow heads, flight feathers are replaceable, Adamantine arrows never break and can be reused, Mithral are light and travel farther than normal, then you can make the bows to out of the these metals, Adamantine and Mithral bows can have blades added to the ends to make them melee weapons too. Adamantine bows never break, etc..

They might not break, but they can certainly be lost Depending on the scarcity of the metal/wealth of the PCs, using mithril and adamantite on arrows instead of fine weapons and armour would be prohibitive/wasteful. A single master crafted arrow to enchant as an arrow of slaying, sure.. not so much for firing volleys though

 

[El Mahdi]

And yet, Strength will not help you to hit the target.

In DnD's abstracted combat system it most certainly will.

Ahrimon is absolutely right. Strength will most certainly help you hit the target: both in D&D AND real life.


IRL, Human bodies have two different types of muscles or "Strength": fast twitch or smooth muscles and slow twitch or striated muscles.

Fast twitch muscles provide what we commonly describe as "Brute Strength", but they also provide speed and quickness...surges of strength...not to mention the "strength" to: twist a blade around against resistance, redirect an attack to a vulnerable area, control a weapon in the first place...

Both weightlifters and sprinters use this. The stronger your fast twitch muscles are, the more weight you can lift AND the faster you can move (which is one reason why the idea of being muscle-bound is a myth).

D&D does not model reality, as they place "speed" under Dexterity.

Dexterity is actually more like the efficiency of your brain-muscle connections and proprioception (your body's electro-mechanical feedback circuit working in concert with your brains spatial processing so you know where your limbs are without looking at them...which yes, also means the better your spatial-reasoning/intelligence is, the more agile or accurate you likely are...especially with training).

So, two main things go into "making an attack" (or any physical motion): Strength and Agility/Dexterity.

In other words, BOTH Strength and Dexterity "help you hit the target" (and actually, Intelligence does also...given equal strength and agility, the smartest combatant is the one most likely to win...but that's not how D&D works).


By the way, the other muscles (slow-twitch/striated muscles) are what provide Endurance (and not Constitution, as in D&D). The heart is a form of slow-twitch/striated muscle also.


Putting this all together as applies to attacks with bows; in real life:
Strength allows you to effectively draw the bow and "hold" the draw in a stable manner (not shaking due to exertion).
Dexterity allows you to use your eyes in concert with your muscles and limbs to accurately aim your shot.
Intelligence informs you of where to hit; where's the weak spots in the armor? - where's the vital spots on the targets body?
Wisdom informs you of when the moment is right; and tactically, how it relates to the greater fight.
Will allows you to control your emotions of the situation; to mentally counteract (as much as possible) your adrenaline (anyone who's ever been in real combat will tell you this is most certainly a factor that cannot be ignored).

But that's reality, not D&D.

D&D Abilities are "effective" abilities. They are already-combined abilities that describe the most commonly used applications within the activities common to a D&D game

In D&D:
Strength allows you to pack more punch and "penetrate" armor (if you can't get through the armor, you're not "hitting the target"...). High Strength characters focus more on brute force to successfully hit and damage the target, than they do on accuracy/placement.
Dexterity allows you to more accurately hit vital areas and weak points, "bypassing" armor to "hit the target" and cause more damage by hitting vital areas. High Dexterity characters focus more on accuracy/placement, than they do on brute force.


If D&D modeled reality, which it doesn't, you'd have something like:

Strength (fast-twitch/smooth muscles): lifting capacity and speed, high intensity physical activity
Agility (brain-muscle connection/proprioception): accuracy/efficiency of body movement
Dexterity (hand-eye coordination): picking-locks, detailed craft work, video-games - one can have high Dexterity (Craftsmen), without having high Agility (Athletes)...something you can't currently do with D&D
Endurance (slow-twitch/striated muscles): long duration, low intensity, physical activity
Constitution (homeostasis): genetic base augmented by physical fitness, to resist adverse environmental, biological, and toxic (toxins/poisons) threats to the body
Intelligence (generalized quantification of intelligence): could be broken down into eight or more Intelligences - in D&D generally covers ability to retain knowledge (which IRL, is not so definitively linked to Intelligence*), language skills, mathematical skills, analytical thinking, etc.
Will (judgement, sense of self, "existential" awareness): could also include "Critical Thinking" (reason, "how" to think, common sense...) - these are actually forms of Intelligence
Charisma (interpersonal relation): this is actually an Intelligence also; encompassing social skills/knowledge, emotional intelligence, and more abstract things like personal energy, appearance/attractiveness, etc.

So, in "Reality" you'd have at least eight Abilities, and as many as thirteen or fourteen, with composite "Applications" (as most "Tasks" do not use just one single "Ability", but instead use multiple Abilities in concert).

And you'd have a very complicated and difficult system to use.




*Memory and Intelligence: Memory is certainly important to Intelligence, but has only incidental application to analytical thinking itself (the ability to think critically and analytically), and beyond a certain threshold, doesn't improve effective intelligence (diminishing returns). And Intelligence has nothing to do with one's memory capacity (a perfect example is the average intelligence of those with eidetic memories).

Think of this like a computer. Having a big hard drive means your computer can remember a lot of stuff. Same with having a lot of RAM. But having a large hard drive or RAM chip won't make your computer any better than its processor capability. Fast, multiple processors equals high intelligence. Slow, single processors equal a low intelligence...and a dumb computer. However, as mentioned above, having a too small hard drive or RAM does effect what you can actually do with that high-speed processor; though above a certain threshold, the benefits are negligible.

 

[Herschel]

The real problem is that if you can use the best ranged weapon in the game(Long Bow) using strength then you can create a character who only needs one stat to simultaneously be the best at melee weapons, AC, and ranged weapons.

It requires no tradeoffs at all to be the best at literally everything.

This is really not true. You lose on DEX saves (far more prevalent than STR saves), DEX Skills and Initiative while being stuck with heavy armor. 5e is pretty limited so far in scope and versatility.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The Dex-based Str-dump fighter, meleeist or range-ist or combo, is very practical in 5e, more so than previous editions. Besides damage dealing, Dex is often used via Saves, Skills, Init.

So I am not really seeing a balance reasons to limit Str ranged options here, because pure Dex builds have more ooph than ever.