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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yair" data-source="post: 3239778" data-attributes="member: 10913">I'm actually thinking about this for an Iron Heroes game, so rogues and elves aren't much of an issue. But let's keep this D&D.I don't like that weapon proficiency is what limits a rogue to a shortbow, and at any rate it doesn't address the main problem.Elves should either be left with only the shortbow proficiency or have the longbow as a racial familiarity thingie. Personally, I'd prefer to just give them a shortbow. I think elves sniping with shortbows is the image here, not elves wielding gigantic longbows. (The shortness of the real-world composite longbows blurs these images, but I'd prefer to keep things extreme and have long bows be BIG.)I can see a -4 penalty instead of a "can't" for firing a longbow from horseback, but I think a "can't" is better - just like you need two hands to use a longbow, so too you need to set it on the ground before you and draw it parallel to your body, things you just can't do on horseback.I agree that other weapons are not sufficiently effective compared to bows. Making the longbow an exotic weapon removed their damage a little but, but the real problem is their rate of fire at high levels, and the ability to add Strength to damage. I think allowing "composite"  light and heavy crossbows (but not repeating crossbows) can help with the Strength issue; such crossbows could probably not be cocked at all by someone of lower strength. With this change, a light crossbow with Rapid Shot is nearly like a longbow with Exotic Weapon Proficiency (falling a bit short in range), as it should be. (Edit: A simple weapon + feat should be about the same as an exotic weapon since both can be had by any character via a single feat. The light crossbow can be used from horseback and the longbow has a longer range, otherwise their stats are about the same - 1d8 damage, and 20/x3 or 19-20/x2 critical.)A heavy crossbow is still somewhat problematic (perhaps an additional feat can justify lowering the loading time to a free action?). Repeating crossbows are also a problem. I think I would allow Rapid Reload to shorten their loading time much like heavy crossbows, resolving the rate-of-fire issue in this way. I don't think adding the Strength bonus makes sense, however.</blockquote>

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