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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..