Wizards with bows... WTF

[Psimancer]

As both a player and DM, I find it rather ridiculous that sorcerers and wizards revert to bows and crossbows when their daily spells become depleted. With that in mind, I have created the following spell and would like some feedback before introducing it to my game(s):

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[DarkMaster]

Who said they had to rely on bow and crossbow. IMC they rely on wands mostly.

 

[Psimancer]

In every campaign I have played or DMed, every Sorcerer or Wizard has resorted to bows and crossbows at low level.

At higher levels, wands, IMHO, would be preferable to this spell...

This spell is merely to get them away from using 'weapons', not magic items.

 

[HellHound]

Too good, in my opinion.

I wouldn't scale the damage with level - I would just make it a flat 1d4 or 1d6 damage (I'm leaning towards 1d4), and the attack roll is made with the caster's BAB as normal (no additional bonus - the write up you have makes them as good with this as an actual fighter with a longbow).

As this spell will almost always be used by low-level casters, the "If the caster takes a full-round action to make a single attack, they gain a +2 bonus to damage" rule means that it will usually be used in this manner, since the average caster will have only one attack per attack action anyways, so if they don't have to move, they can stand still for the +2 damage... Maybe if it was a situation that they could cash in iterative attacks for +2 damage, then I could see it working better.

I would also indicate what kind of damage it deals.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Why would I waste one of the valuable spell slots from my meagre allowance preparing this, when I can just dig out the old trusty sling/bow/crossbow? Sure the wizard would rather rely on his magic, but one of the reasons he's trying to gain levels is to get enough personal power that he doesn't have to rely on such "mundane" methods. But you don't get to be all cool like that from level one. You need to earn it, damnit.

"Hey, did you notice that Bob the Wizard got rid of his crossbow? He's in the big leagues now."
"Ehh, not really. He just hired some kid to shoot it for him when he runs out of spells."

 

[Psimancer]

I wouldn't scale the damage with level - I would just make it a flat 1d4 or 1d6 damage (I'm leaning towards 1d4), and the attack roll is made with the caster's BAB as normal (no additional bonus - the write up you have makes them as good with this as an actual fighter with a longbow).

Not so. A 20th level Fighter with a mighty longbow will be doing around 4 attacks of 1d8 damage + str bonus + magic bonus (around 1d8+10 inc feats) with a to hit in the vicinity of +30. In comparison a spellcaster with this spell would be doing 2 attacks of 1d6+10 and a to hit bonus of only +20.

The build-up option is to replicate the increase damage potential and rate of fire of a crossbow…

 

[Psimancer]

Why would I waste one of the valuable spell slots from my meagre allowance preparing this, when I can just dig out the old trusty sling/bow/crossbow? Sure the wizard would rather rely on his magic, but one of the reasons he's trying to gain levels is to get enough personal power that he doesn't have to rely on such "mundane" methods. But you don't get to be all cool like that from level one. You need to earn it, damnit.

Hmmm, I think you answered your own question there, didn't you?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I don't suppose I did. If what you're intending this for is "the spell all wizards must take every day until they hit level 5 or so," you might have a winner so long as it's better to take this spell than it is to take any other spell. But I think that if I had a very small number of spells each day, I'd rather make sure I had a Mage Armor prepared instead and stick to using the crossbow for firing bolts.

Thing is, it's cool to be able to rely on just your spells. But at low levels the spell slots are too valuable to be wasting on something that can be pretty much exactly duplicated by carrying around a sidearm. Coolness is bought at a dear price when you have to give up the ability to cast a spell that lets you do something you couldn't otherwise do in order to prepare a spell that duplicates something you already can do, like fire arrows at people.

 

[Psimancer]

Granted. But you answered you own question because NOT all wizards and sorcerers would take it. The trade-off is a piece of mundane equipment versus a 1st level spell slot. You want to be ‘cool’ and not take hunk-a-junk and rely on your own talents – go for it…

At the end of the day, this spell will scale slightly behind a magical weapon assuming the higher you get, the more powerful the items you carry…

 

[Captain Tagon]

What exactly is wrong with a arcane magic user using a bow?