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Simple question but I need to know!
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Gesen's short bow

Composite Longbow: heartseeker (+4 Thac0, +2 Damage, +7 Thac0 1/day for 9 seconds), requires 18 STR
Standard Longbow: Mana Bow +4 (+4 Thac0)
Shortbow: Gesen Bow +4 (requires no ammo)


My favorite is Heartseeker.

The final answer depends upon who will be weilding it. An archer should absolutely, positively use Heartseeker. Hands down the best bow in SoA and, IMHO, remain the best even in ToB.

I would like to point out the Strongarm Longbow, it has a +3 to damage modifier and requires 19 STR to wield.

It has a lower THACO bonus than the Heartseeker, but really, would you rather have more damage or an additional +1 to your THACO? ;)

Well, all these bows are nice and dandy but most are unuseable to thief classes and the zoomy ones come pretty late as well. So there should be added some other handy ones, what you can get earlier. Like Tansheron's Shortbow, which is +3 one and requires no arrows at all.

Wow, and I was afraid there wasn't going to be enough cool equipment for Ranged strategies. (I notice BG2 leans more toward the melee style than BG1, with its monsters that can be hurt only by +3 weapons, etc.)

I actually don't like Gesen's bow, its ROF is too slow. :( Tansheron's Bow +3 (one less than Gesen) is quicker.

Strongarm is bought at the Adventurer's Mart, you can get it the moment you can afford it( need 19 STR too by the way).

If you have plenty of ammunition, the Tuigan Bow is pretty good too, especially for Thieves, because it grants 3 attacks per round.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern:

If you have plenty of ammunition, the Tuigan Bow is pretty good too, especially for Thieves, because it grants 3 attacks per round.<hr></blockquote>
And is available in Chapter 2, not 6.

Nalia killed something cool with Tansheron's Bow.. forgot what it was..
I had a lot more respect for it after that. I think it was a Lich or something. One arrow flew across the crypt and killed the Lich as it was about to bolster its defences and blast my party..

In my party, when I substitute valygar 4 Jaheira/Aerie, Ill give him hill giant str so he can use ANY longbow. Nalia gets Gesen while Imoen has her place as the holder of Tansheron's.

P.S. BTW, who should I remove? I have Anomen, Jaheira, Nalia, Aerie and Jan.

As was said, Gesen's is slow yes. Not to mention that I have had quite many battles where Gesen bow doesn't do a squat, since the target is either very magic resistant or just plain immune. I canno't recall all the names of those targets, but there was plenty of them to warrant the fact that Gesen's Bow is not the "top of the notch". Not to mention that in many cases the damage done by it is pretty pathetic.

Tuigan Bow is definately good for starters, due to the high attack round, but carrying the arrows around became soon too "old" hehe.. Tanseron's Bow was luckily not hard to get, neither too far, until that Tuigan Bow will be just fine (for thief classes anyway). I think - though I may mess it up with something else - that you can also get some neat crossbow, in the place where you also get the Elven Court Bow +3 and Flail of Ages (that's a big tip!). Wasn't there even some +5 crossbow somewhere? Also the crossbows seem to have quite nice amount of different bolts, bow arrow selection seems tad smaller and bullet selection for slings outright pathetic.

Actually... Arrows are the most diverse. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Normal Arrows
Arrows +1
Arrows +2
Acid Arrows
Flame Arrows
Arrows of Dispelling
Arrows of Piercing
Arrows of Biting

Normal Bolts
Bolts +1
Bolts +2
Bolts of Lightning
Bolts of Biting

Normal Bullets
Bullets +1
Bullets +2
Sunstone Bullets

ToB Additional:

Arrows +3

Bolts +3

Bullets +3
Bullets +4

what I like about Gesen's Bow is its electrical attack. it goes through stoneskins so it's great for disrupting mages. it can also hit practically any enemy in the game, including Adamantite Golems, Demi-Liches... etc. that's why I always have someone use it.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>
Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern:

I would like to point out the Strongarm Longbow, it has a +3 to damage modifier and requires 19 STR to wield.

It has a lower THACO bonus than the Heartseeker, but really, would you rather have more damage or an additional +1 to your THACO?
<hr></blockquote>

Call it personal preference, but I actually do prefer +1 to THAC0 to a +1 to +1 to damage. Since so much of SoA/ToB is about combatting enemies that are spellcasters, ensuring hits has always been paramount in my thinking.

Besides, the Strongarm bow requires a 19 STR and I hate to give the girdle of hill giant STR to someone just so that they can use a bow. I prefer to give it to someone who needs a real STR boost to be useful, such as Jahiera or Mazzy.

(to quote someone else ...) Just my 2 GP ... ;)

Also, in addition to Dundee's fine list of ammo, there's some other ToB ammo items that he missed that are quite useful.


Case of Plenty +1 (upgradeable to +2) unlimited Xbow bolts
Quiver of Plenty +1 (upgradeable to +2) unlimited arrows
Bag of Plenty +1 (upgradeable to +2) unlimited sling bullets

Ammo Belt: a new "bag" for carrying various ammo

Crimson Dart +3, a dart that always returns to the user's hand

Well, for an Archer, Strongarm will be better in the end, because an Archer can easily attain -20+ THACO, and since THACO is capped at -20, Strongarm will be better than Heartseeker in the end.

Strongarm is +3 to THACO by the way.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Magness:
Also, in addition to Dundee's fine list of ammo, there's some other ToB ammo items that he missed that are quite useful.


Case of Plenty +1 (upgradeable to +2) unlimited Xbow bolts
Quiver of Plenty +1 (upgradeable to +2) unlimited arrows
Bag of Plenty +1 (upgradeable to +2) unlimited sling bullets

Ammo Belt: a new "bag" for carrying various ammo

Crimson Dart +3, a dart that always returns to the user's hand<hr></blockquote>

It's not really necessary to post this here, as there are many people on this forum who haven't played TOB yet and this post will spoil them. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Personally, I don't think it's much of a spoiler, considering it only concerns ammo. And Magness only stated what the items were, not where they are or how to get them. I for one don't feel spoiled, the way I did what I accidentally read the exact location of the Helm of Balduran.

In the list of ammo types, I notice that a few are missing from the selection offered in BG1: Arrows of Ice, Slaying (not that I ever used them), and Detonation, as well of Bolts of Polymorphing. The Detonators are probably gone because they were too overpowered, but I never saw much point in the Polymorphers. (Any enemy worth using them on is just gonna Save vs. them, so why bother?) What do the Sunstone Bullets do?

Whailor, I know there's a crossbow in BG1 that gives +5 to THAC0, but I wouldn't know about BG2. I'm a Bow man myself. I've got a guy using a Crossbow now, but that's because he's a Fighter going to be dualed to Cleric. He's gonna be restricted to a Sling eventually, so he's gotta put his weapon points into Missile, but until he makes the Dual to Cleric, he can use those points toward any Missile weapon--including the Light Crossbow of Speed. [img]smile.gif[/img] (Yes, this is BG1, where the game still groups Slings and Crossbows in the same category, yet Maces and Morning Stars are different.)

In BG2, can you finally put Darts into your ammo slots, the way you can with arrows/bolts/bullets?

Doh!

My bad, I forgot about the following.

SoA:

Arrows of Ice

ToB:

Arrows of Detonation( good luck trying to get a full quiver though)

And no, you still cannot put Darts in your ammo slots.

There is a +5 to THACO heavy crossbow in SoA, you get it during the Unseeing Eye quest. ToB also has a +5 crossbow.