Are any changes going to be made to bows/Ranged weapons?

Novatico

From what i remember, bows(or other ranged weapons) do not scale well in NWN and only start performing well if you go Arcane Archer class.
I am not a hardcore player so do not know all the ins and outs of the game and mechanics but from trying to find bow builds online I see that Arcane Archer is usually the only decent option to go so most of the main campaign you are so underpowered and useless as a bow user. Maybe changing how the bow scales with dex as at the moment I believe it doesnt scale with anything naturally.


Have any changes to this been considered as it would open up so much more builds and flexibility for the game. As someone who likes bow based characters in most games I do feel it would make for a better game.

Libertyisback

umm... in general bows are weaker in the nwn fantasy realm because they are designed that way. it would be incorrect to interpret bows to be of the same strength as might appear in Diablo or other rpgers/mmos. I feel ranged attack was never meant to be like diablos/etc ranged attacks.

However, while in general bows are not that strong--- if you study the lore of nwn character building, and subject to the rules of the particular server, there are actually ways to make extremely effective ranged/bow builds. you should look at the item property Mighty.

what tends to happen in the nwn fantastyverse is that most bow users find themselves weak. but the moment they truly understand how to build a great bow build, the bow user becomes epic and very dangerous. to become the best in nwn, is not meant to be easy. Diablo and other rpgers are generally easy. NWN needs you to think.

ShadowM

With D&D it not mainly the ranged weapon, but the the ranged ammo that is important. Like arrows of fireball, chain lighting and other special effect ammo that really help balance out the ranged weapons. With on-hit cast spell and a integrated spell system that you can have low-medium and high effects and builder can give out a balance quantity of ammo/crafting/enchanting to help the range players contribute.

Proleric

I share the feeling that bows are underpowered. For example, in many modules, a rogue will face opponents who are overwhelming in melee but slower. So, you max ranged capabilities and dodge, then hit-and-run, but after a while it can get tedious. Of course, better modules provide more variety, with some ranged opportunities for careful players. The occasional one-shot doesn't go amiss, either.

FreshLemonBun

In D&D you have at least twice the range without penalties and it would take more than a round to close the distance sprinting. The SRD details that four a penalty of -2 per full increment you can use a composite longbow to shoot at 10 increments at 110ft each for a total range of 1100ft starting with a -20 hit penalty per shot. The wikipedia page suggests that 370m (1214ft) range was possible with an English longbow which roughly matches the D&D estimate.

The maximum unmodified movement speed in heavy armor is x3 per round, and both size and race plays a role in this speed. So you could have a dwarf with 20ft base speed and 60ft per round at a full plated run, as we can see this would mean that they spend 18 rounds running a 1 round charging for 1 attack, only getting their regular attack on the 20th round. Therein lies the true power of ranged projectile weapons in the D&D table top game.

This is also one of the reasons to ask for better range tuning for perception and weapons rather than capping out so quickly, as well as extending area sizes. Each tile represents 10 Bioware units which is roughly 1 m per unit in scale.

WarChiefZeke

To be good at ranged you want to keep opponents away from you or set traps so that they fall before they can reach you.

Clerics with Zen Archery and some decent domain picks can use a variety of spells to hold opponents down, haste himself, or keep throwing summons in between them and their opponents. Not what one would expect from a ranged build but perfectly viable.

Bards have a lot of enchantment spells to do much the same thing and can more afford to pump dex.

Then there is the OP shadowdancing archer who before he gets that ability can control the field by finding a decent position and setting traps.

Libertyisback

i love how in this thread it shows how nwn archery is so many more dimensions bigger than anything Diablo/WoW/LoL/Dota could offer in archers.