NON Archer kit Bow advice

chickenhed

So my current fighter/mage will be going into BG2 soon and I was curious what bow proficiency I should focus on. If I were an Archer kit, I would use short bow as the Archer kit's strength's lie in the most attacks per round possible. However, since my fighter/mage is not an "Archer" per se, would long bow be a better choice? Or would short bow still be stronger?

As a side note, I know melee is generally a stronger choice for a fighter/mage but this build is themed towards archery. A sort of Arcane Archer, if you will.

CaloNord

Personally, I'am a massive fan of Tansheron's Bow early on replaced with Shortbow of Gesen later on. Taralash in ToB can also be really cool.
Have you considered Crossbows as well? They are a bit slower but Firetooth is available from Watchers Keep without even doing the keep itself...

Gallowglass

@chickenhed‌ - in BG2, longbows aren't so great, there are shortbows and crossbows which are better than any of the longbows. Nevertheless, the advantageous choice depends upon what companions you take - if you'll be having a couple of companions who can use the best shortbows and crossbows, then it might still make sense for your F/M to use longbows. However, be prepared for your longbow to be incapable of hitting many of the major enemies towards the end, so you'll have to play more as a Mage than an Archer in the last few chapters ... but that may be okay, because you'll be a good Mage by then.

CaloNord

Yea, the only longbows that came to mind were the Mana bow and the Heartseeker... Which IMO the myriad of decent short bows and crossbows out class. I think they originally had it designed with the concept of you being more likely to need a short bow or a cross bow for your thieves then a longbow for a ranger...

fanscale

As a secondary weapon shortbow is the best choice. As primary weapon I would go for longbow. Slings and darts are worth considering too. Darts are fast. Slings get a strength bonus attack.

elminster

If you are going to use a longbow you may want to consider installing arow10.itm

from

forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/31976/elminster-s-micro-bg2ee-fixes-and-tweaks/p1

It will make it so that your arrows of piercing count as +4 weapons when it comes to determining what they work against.

Pibaro

Why not sling?
Greater whirlwind + 20 strenght + +4 bullets + sling +4 and you deal more than 180 damage per round.

jackjack

Pibaro said:

Why not sling?
Greater whirlwind + 20 strenght + +4 bullets + sling +4 and you deal more than 180 damage per round.

Not to mention the absolutely hilarious mental image.

chickenhed

Pibaro said:

Why not sling?
Greater whirlwind + 20 strenght + +4 bullets + sling +4 and you deal more than 180 damage per round.

Well you're certainly not wrong, but as @jackjack‌ said, the mental image is a tad bit much for my roleplaying mind.

Pibaro

In a six second round it's true, but a real rount lasts for 60 seconds. I can easily imagine a very fast man throwing a bullet every six second.
But it's indeed a funny image, and a good reason for me to do it