New Quiver of plenty upgrade

ZanathKariashi

A nice little idea to give mid to late ToB bow users a shot in the arm. Instead of adding new bows...just upgrade the quiver of plenty a 3rd time. (slings and crossbows already have topline weapons for this purpose and aren't really in need of further buffs)

An example: (and yes I know that's not the right creature name (archon's are those wisp-looking things), but I'm having a brain fart atm...it's the one above a Deva but less then a Solar that I'm thinking of)

Planatar's Quiver (Quiver of Plenty+2 + Eye of Tyr) Costs 15,000 gold.

The holy power of the Eye of Tyr has imbued the upgraded Quiver of Plenty to create blessed arrows not unlike those used by the Planatar of the Higher Planes.

Generates infinite Planatar Arrows.

+3 Damage
Hits as if +5
Deals 2d6 additional magic damage vs extra-planar creatures


The Eye of Tyr is generally wasted as it's primary current purpose is upgrading Carsomyr (largely a waste due to it resulting in a whopping +1 damage (+2 vs CE) and the highly situational ability to by-pass Absolute Immunity). Or upgrading the Purifier to +4 (a slightly better use of the eye since it allows the Purifier to strike +4 req enemies) which tends to go unused unless the group is running 2 or more paladin.

This would add yet another option for the item and give it a tangible use regardless of party composition.

Jarrakul

Perhaps you're thinking of a Planatar? Regardless, I like it. I'm not completely sure crossbows shouldn't get something similar (perhaps somewhat less powerful), and I'd probably rather have a new upgrade item than use the Eye of Tyr (although as existing items goes the Eye of Tyr is definitely the best choice), but in general I like it a lot.

reedmilfam

Yep. Nothing like building a character over 160+ hours of game play that cannot use his/her weapon and hard-earned proficiencies against the enemies that show up. Difficulty is one thing; the game requiring metagaming is another.

ZanathKariashi

Firetooth+4/+5 is already pretty ridiculous. +2 damage, +2 fire from the bolts, +6 or +7 damage from the xbow, strikes as +4 or +5 depending on upgrade level. And Sling of Everad hits as +5, +2 damage and gets a str bonus which is easily on par or better then Firetooth, and more comparable to thrown weapons.

Bows simply can't compete with that, except in the hands of an archer, where the extra base attacks with the archer bonus makes all the difference, but only really applies to the upgraded Gesen due to a lack of +4 and higher ammo. Tasheron's Bow (longbow) is alright, since it hits as +3 but it lacks an extra elemental damage component making it weak to stoneskin or similar effects, as well as lowering the chance of the enemy's spells being disrupted due to fewer pings of damage.

Buffing the quiver allows both long and short bows to compete regardless of your class, without having to deal with adding new items, since there's already a nice variety of bows, they simply don't have good ammo to be as useful.

Jarrakul

I totally agree that Firetooth is better than anything out there for bows right now. I just think the lack the Strength bonus plus the proliferation of Str-raising items means that Firetooth is still strongly disadvantaged when compared with melee weapons. As such, I feel like crossbows also need a buff, albeit a smaller one than bows need. For the same reason, I agree with you that slings don't need to be more powerful.