Ranged Weapons

MooseChangerPat

One of the things that always bothered me about BG2 was that the ranged weapons had become so much less powerful than they had been in BG1! The magic arrows tend to do a third of the damage, the bows don't do nearly the same amount of damage, and there aren't magical enough arrows! In BG2 you can get up to +3 in TOB, but that's it! By that time, you're often fighting creatures that need +4 and up! I understand that they want to encourage the use of the melee weapons or whatever, but it still sort of makes things like the archer ranger class rather useless. If we could get some magical arrows that go above +3 in TOB or at least make it so that they do the BG1 damage, that would be immensely better. I mean, you're almost better off using a sling in TOB just because of the +4 bullets, and that the bullets actually DO more damage as they increase in magical level. The fact that +3 arrows still only did 1D8 was so stupid.

I'm actually a big fan of using melee weapons, and by TOB ALL of my characters were using melee weapons instead. However, I think it's still a little unfair for those who actually want to be able to use ranged attacks with, oh I don't know, A RANGER! ... Just saying.

Cheesebelly

Firetooth +5 shoots bolts that are +5 enchantment. I know it's not a bow but still, it's something to ponder at.

I agree that of all ranged weapons though, the bow needs most love. Well, maybe throwing daggers too, but by that point, I guess mages could as well use slings since they got +4 bullets available.

Bows have already a good weapon, the Tuigan. Just arrows that need some improvement.

Drayen

Archer class useless? It's definitely one of the most butt-kicking classes in BG2. With firetooth, my archer does between 48 and 56 damage a shot.. 3.5 shots per round. It's like a ranged kensai, nothing can get in melee range with you if you hit it from the start, especially with a greater whirlwind : P

One thing i'd like to see for ranged classes however, is that ammo should stack infinitely. I do agree that there should be +4/+5 bolts however, if only for the immune mobs.

ajwz

I sort of agree MooseChangerPat, except I think missile weapons were too powerful in bg1.

MooseChangerPat

Well I will agree that the missile weapons were a little overpowered in BG1, but most of the magical weapons were a little challenging to get ahold of anyways. Plus there are some really difficult encounters in that game for such low level characters.

In retrospect, I had forgotten about the Fire Tooth crossbow, which is still immensely powerful. At some point I may have to take an archer and use crossbows instead, as that still does sound like it could be a viable option. But I must disagree with being able to stack ammo infinitely as there is already enough limitless ammo things such as returning daggers, axes, hammers, and endless quivers of bolts, arrows, and a bag of bullets. It is not a matter of quantity, but quality that is the real crime here.

Bows are the weapon that I think were most hurt in BG2 when they are one of the most bad ass weapons.

Linkamus

The Archer kit does fine as is in my opinion. I've played through BG2 as an archer more than once and I don't remember there being a lot of stuff I couldn't hit, and I never felt like I didn't do enough damage.

A bow more comparable to the firetooth crossbow would be nice though. The ToB bow kind of sucks.

Dazzu

The thing with bows is that they're a case of Crutch Weapon: in Early BG, their Added THAC0 and extra strike per round will let you obliterate the many enemies with small HP pools very easily... and the same can be said if used against you.

This changes in BG2 when you can afford to reach melee safely due to higher HP, awesome defensive spells and powerful +X weapons that don't require limited ammo. Add the fact that said limited magical ammo sometimes doesn't even have a high enough +X to breach certain enemy's requirements.

Unless you specialize, you're a bit short on luck.

Boaster

As I stated in another thread, Bow and Arrows magic value should be combined when determining what it can hit, but only if you have at least +1 Arrow with +1 Bow.

Linkamus

Seriously the solution to this problem I think is to just make a bow that is comparable to firetooth... Not necessarily one that doesn't need ammunition, but a bow just as powerful as the firetooth. Currently in BG2, the obvious choice for DPS output is the firtooth, and the only real reason to use a bow is for arrows of dispelling. Adding a more powerful bow to the game would change this, and would be awesome.

Dazzu

Actually, the Crimson Dart isn't a terrible weapon. It's only +3, but as a Dart, it has a base 3 attacks per round on infinite launchability.