Elves bow bonus and how does it work? And about the archer..

Aron740

Hey a quick question that I always wondered about:
Does the elven bow bonus apply for crossbows and shortbows?

I was planning to create an elven archer for a playthrough and I thought that the light-crossbow from the Beregost smithy would be great for an archer with low thaco and high attack per round(was even planning to cheat and add the poison weapon ability through keeper and remove the archers worthless ability that does like nothing, bad bad I know :P)

And I should create a separate thread for this I know but I don't want to clutter up the forum with my minor questions but: Will the archer be any good in bg(2)ee? I have heard some bad things about them...

And one last minor question: Is this the right section for questions like this? Or should I put them in general since I do not mind spoilers?

TheElf

1. Should just be long swords/bows. Haven't checked to see if it's implemented correctly. It wasn't in BG2 at least at first I believe.
2. Archers are pretty great until ToB really, when they'll start to pale compared to melee characters quickly. Might change in EE, might not. Also, called shot will be pretty nice to have in 2 as well.

Aron740

I will feel so bad about myself if I do not remove something if I add something so overpowered as poison weapon :P

Jarrakul

1. The elf bonus applies to longbows and shortbows. Not to crossbows.
2. It's up to you what you decide to change, but my thoughts are this: called shot isn't great in BG1, but it eventually gets to be a really nasty debuff. Given that archery in general is amazing in BG1, I think that actually works out well on its own, with called shot being strongest when archers are weakest. Also keep in mind that bows have the same base attacks per round as the crossbow of speed.
3. Archers are still extremely viable in TOB, so long as you don't dump points into longbows (shortbows, crossbows, and slings are all good options). Their level-based damage bonus will be extremely high, and their main disadvantages will be irrelevant (as light armor isn't really a disadvantage by that point, and it's perfectly viable to use a bow in melee as a high-level archer). Now, ranged weapons just aren't as good as some melee setups in terms of sheer damage, but called shot is such a powerful debuff that you can live with doing slightly less damage, plus range is still really nice to have.

This is a fine forum to ask this in, as is general. If you're okay with spoilers, it's honestly up to you.

DreadKhan

The light crossbow does average 5.5 damage, which is less than the comp bow +1, but IMHO, bolts of lightning are pretty beastly. Crossbows rock if you want str as a dump stat for your archer. If dex is also not great, the crossbow of accuracy is pretty effective, and deals base 6.5 damage, and you will rarely miss!

atcDave

The biggest problem with the archer is that late in the game (ToB) you encounter an increasing number of opponents who are immune to piercing attacks. BUT, in most battles, it will not be ALL opponents, just a few.
So if you regard an archer as one weapon in your complete and balanced party you should do fine. The archer will always be an effective contributor.
But if you require the archer to be the ultimate weapon of destruction in your party, you may be disappointed.

Aron740

Thanks!
I was actually going to make a custom party of four or five where I was going to try out classes I never played as so I am completely fine with it if the archer will not be a weapon of mass destruction but I wanted him/her to be a bit special since I am planning to make him/her the protagonist :-)

The party will probably be:

Archer
Stalker
Ranger/cleric
Dragon diciple
Fighter/thief-maybe...

Not super amazing but that is why I may put in some extra innates! I also left two or one slots for some in-out npc.

atcDave

I would think an archer would be an excellent compliment to that party.

Quartz

Elven Bow bonus: Applies to all Short Bows, Long Bows, Composite Long Bows. Not Crossbows.
Elven Sword bonus: Currently it applies to all Short Swords, Scimitars/Wakazashis/Ninja-Tos, Katanas, Long Swords, Bastard Swords, Two-Handed Swords. Literally the only blade it doesn't apply to is a Dagger. This is thought to be a glitch/oversight, and it probably is. So we'll see if it stays how it is.

Archers don't become weak in BGII; hell, by that time they are usually pretty solid with a melee weapon should you need to use it, despite the lack of specialization. They remain pretty good the whole series, it's just that you might get bored of one because they are very much one trick ponies. They're powerful but not necessarily the most entertaining class in the world.

DreadKhan

Quartz said:

Elven Bow bonus: Applies to all Short Bows, Long Bows, Composite Long Bows. Not Crossbows.
Elven Sword bonus: Currently it applies to all Short Swords, Scimitars/Wakazashis/Ninja-Tos, Katanas, Long Swords, Bastard Swords, Two-Handed Swords. Literally the only blade it doesn't apply to is a Dagger. This is thought to be a glitch/oversight, and it probably is. So we'll see if it stays how it is.

Archers don't become weak in BGII; hell, by that time they are usually pretty solid with a melee weapon should you need to use it, despite the lack of specialization. They remain pretty good the whole series, it's just that you might get bored of one because they are very much one trick ponies. They're powerful but not necessarily the most entertaining class in the world.

Curious, but how is an archer a one trick pony? Scout, weak spell caster (buffs), superb ranged damage dealing potential... Still get twf for cheap. It's not as versatile as a thief, but realistically, all mages do is cast spells. Nothing else. Archers can be played in a variety of ways, especially if you switch from longbows to crossbows during soa. How you use called shots also makes a big difference.

ZanathKariashi

They get 1-3 druid spells....which are borderline useless and not worth mentioning. Only the Beastmaster gets spell casting worth mention and it's only because he gets a handful of higher level spells on earlier levels, to simulate his ability to have an army of animals following him around.

The BM and stalker also get bonuses to stealth, while the archer does not.

The difference being, a mage's spells can do just about anything you want them to (literally anything in PnP)...an archer just shoots arrows (and BG2 lacks all the stupidly OP ammos that BG1 had), until epic levels, when they can load up on GWW to offset their lack of base melee attacks (which is likely yet another oversight due to time constraints, like giving Blades access to Epic Bard song was, since it removes the classes only real disadvantage).