Oh yes. For anything over 19 Strength, you'd need some unusual materials. Maybe something like an Adamantite or Mithril bow with a giant's hair bowstring, or something like that.
Nope. a +7 is a 19 Strength- which is where I propose leaving it off, because a starting Half-Orc could conceivably have that much. a 25 Strength would be +14.
That seems a little overpowered. A level 1 character with the ability to equip and have +7 to damage missile weapon would be unstoppable.
Why are Composite Long Bows not 'good enough'? Just add more +
A character with a +7 to damage on a melee weapon is pretty lethal too, and this is easily accomplished in BGtutu by making a half-orc with two weapon style. If that same half-orc is also a barbarian or kensai, he'll actually do way more damage with melee weapons in the long run even if he doesn't at the start. I'm not sure why the bow would be considered that overpowered in this example. Barring ridiculously overpowered magical arrows, archery and melee are very competitive.
Maybe it's because I'm ignorent, but irl I don't remember any bow like weapon that requires much strength, well all but the artellery bows where one had to sit and pull with both hands, else various bows/artellery pieces had pull handles or other mechanics that allowed non Arnies to operate it.
@HexHammer Bows are available in different "pull" weights. Bows with higher "Pull" poundage can be shot futher and do more damage because there is more force behind the shot.
@bigdogChris A character with a 19 strength can do that with a sword right at the beginning of the game. I fail to see why being able to do that same damage with a bow is so inherently unbalancing. Especially when I am proposing these bows only be sold in Beregost or Baldur's Gate itself. I can see Taerom Fuiruim being able to make a bow like that, whereas Winthrop in Candlekeep won't carry them because of the lack of demand for such a thing.
@bigdogChris A character with a 19 strength can do that with a sword right at the beginning of the game.
It has to do with scaling and attacks per round.
Ranged weapons allow higher APR than melee weapons. At mid game (~fifth level), a bow wielding Kivan will have almost twice the attacks than a sword wielding Minsc does. Which works out, because Kivan has smaller base damage. With your bows, though, he wouldn't.
Also, what your proposing ties ranged base damage to other gear, ie if I give the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength to Imoen then her damage goes through the roof. Which means I can get all the benefits of melee damage with none of the drawbacks.
While creative and interesting, this is a bad idea because you've created a damage system that scales with gear. Designers hate that, because it makes boss level encounters difficult, if not impossible, to balance for different party compositions.
@HexHammer Bows are available in different "pull" weights. Bows with higher "Pull" poundage can be shot futher and do more damage because there is more force behind the shot.
Please name me some irl conventional bows that has such thing other than fantasy bows.
No, it's based on a Pen and Paper character, a female character with an 18/00 Strength who uses a bow equal to that strength. I wanted to recreate her in Baldur's Gate. Yes, I still play 2e.
Comments
Why are Composite Long Bows not 'good enough'? Just add more +
Ranged weapons allow higher APR than melee weapons. At mid game (~fifth level), a bow wielding Kivan will have almost twice the attacks than a sword wielding Minsc does. Which works out, because Kivan has smaller base damage. With your bows, though, he wouldn't.
Also, what your proposing ties ranged base damage to other gear, ie if I give the Gauntlets of Ogre Strength to Imoen then her damage goes through the roof. Which means I can get all the benefits of melee damage with none of the drawbacks.
While creative and interesting, this is a bad idea because you've created a damage system that scales with gear. Designers hate that, because it makes boss level encounters difficult, if not impossible, to balance for different party compositions.
@LadyRhian Do you have some type of 'min/max' or 'hardcore' build that you are looking at doing, that you believe a +7 to damage bow would complete?