Archer BG2
Necroscope86
Member Posts: 79
So I'm approaching the end of SoD and my archer is beastly. My understanding has always been that BG1 Longbow is superior, BG2 it's shortbow. She's currently a GM with Longbow. My question is this - am I going to feel the pain of not being able to use Tuigans and Gesens effectively till endgame? (Well Gesens is endgame anyway). Or because I'm already GM with longbow, I won't feel the loss of the extra attack that Tuigan would bring?
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It's a shame that they still haven't provided an in-game longbow equivalent to Gesen. Possible work-arounds are:
1. Using EE Keeper to change your archer's proficiency points from longbow to shortbow at the start of BG2. Depending on your play style this might feel like cheating, but BG2 is a reset in so many ways (your starting NPCs, the loss of NPC spells from BG1/SOD etc.) that you might want to just reset your charname, too.
2. Use Near Infinity to make Arrows of Piercing strike as +4 weapons. Then you can still use long bows and you'll have +4 arrows. Again, depending on how you play you may or may not feel like this is cheating. You could also use Near Infinity or EE Keeper to bring +4 arrows from Black Pits into BG2.
3. There's an Items Upgrade mod that allows you to create a longbow called Teleomortis, which has a THACO of +4 I believe, and produces it's own unlimited ammo like Gesen.
Hell, the most damage an Archer can deal in a single round actually comes from Erinne Sling + Greater Whirlwind, which would be a way to take out those +4-required enemies from range if that's more your speed. Sling of Everard isn't as damaging, but it can hit as a +5 with unlimited ammo, and it's available to buy as soon as you set foot into sunlight.
The reason Gesen's is so powerful is because it's the most damaging bow in the game, thanks to its +1d8 electrical damage on each shot. Firetooth Crossbow used to be the most damaging bow when ammo stacked, but it doesn't anymore and Gesen's has taken over the top slot.
For what it's worth, I did a damage comparison of all notable ranged attackers at 300k XP, 2.95m XP, and 6.5m XP using level-appropriate gear and skills. https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/63666/a-comparison-of-ranged-attackers-in-bg2
At 2.95m XP, Gesen's will deal 100 damage per round, 108 with Called Shot. Tuigan deals 97.5 / 107.5. Strong Arm, (the best longbow), deals 86 / 94. It's clearly worse, but it's also not a huge deal. It's about a 15% damage loss compared to shortbows. You can easily run the entire saga with Strong Arm and still be a contributing member of the group, even if you're not perfectly optimized. And there's nothing to stop you from working towards GM in Short Bows, anyway.
Thank you all for the information, really really appreciate the info guys.
Theres certainly a few options to consider - I'm thinking I'll do something along the lines of, Use SK to take a point out of Bastard Sword and put it into SB (dont realy know what I was thinking with this, as I think it was more of a error on my part) and just work myself up to GM of SB throughout SOA. This will at least give me a headstart.