bows vs. crossbows

Seems that there are better crossbows in this game than longbows. I found a heavy crossbow of speed. It seems to have great bonuses. Wish I made my archer specialize in crossbow instead.... Is there a bow I'm missing?

Probably. I didn't find all that many good ones myself, plus I was sort of stuck on using the "Messenger of Sseth" with my Ranger. It fires extremely fast.

Looking around in the item files though, I've found several +2s and +3s, and even a +4 bow. I think most of those are longbows, and of course I found tons of regular and +1 bows.

I did get a bow from the ghost elf that gave +1 dex, and was +3, +3, but it's of limited value when your dex is already 19. The best one may have been one found in chapter 3, the Defender, +2 ac, +2 to hit, +3 damage (pretty sad when a +2 weapon is the best to be found).
Still, this is probably worse than the heavy crossbow of speed, which was something like +4 +4, and which uses heavier damage bolts.

[Wrath]

Well, there are some very good crossbows, but there are also some FANTASTIC bows as well. Kaylessa's Bow, like you mentioned, is nice, especially if you give it to an Elf with 1 other +Dex item, for the extra bonuses of 21 Dex. Second, one of the best weapons in the game is a bow, the Long Bow +4: Hammer. Gives you 4 attacks per round, plus 4 dam/THAC0. With a fighter proficient in bows, you can get the 5 attacks per round cap with no problem. The speed at which you can dish the damage is just rediculous.

-Wrath

I haven't seen a whole lot of magical bolts in the game whereas magical arrows are more plentiful from the corpses of your enemies. Admittedly, I'm only now starting Upper Dorn's Deep. So, that might change. I find that having one character with a crossbow (my dwarven fighter) and 3 with bows (elven ranger, elven fighter/thief, and gnomish fighter/mage to work very well. Besides, elves get the bonus with a bow so it doesn't make sense to give them a crossbow. And dwarves just seem a natural fit for crossbows...

As for bolts you've got the standard bolt, the bolt +1, bolt +2, bolt of lightning, and one other one I think.

Crossbows are nice for thieves and bards since they can only use short bows.

>>I didn't find all that many good ones myself, plus I was sort of stuck on using the "Messenger of Sseth" with my Ranger. It fires extremely fast.

The messenger doesnt fire any faster than a standard bow. There is a better bow available in the Forgotten Temple - the previous area. Its in the area where you may have found a 'black knight' chess piece instead.

>>Seems that there are better crossbows in this game than longbows. I found a heavy crossbow of speed.

You mean the 'Repeating Crossbow of spead' (two versions found at the same place, 'heavy' and 'light') found at the Fire Giants??? A +4 longbow of 'hammering' is found in the same spot. This is the best bow in the game - the 2nd best being Kressela's (sp). However Kressela has better items. The +4/+4 +1 longbow is just as good as the +5/+5 +1 attack crossbow imho.

It all depends on what you need most.

Kaylessa's bow + gloves are pretty good, they get you up to 21 dexterity. (21 dex gives you +1 to hit, +1 AC)

But, once you drink the potion that sets your mage -1 dexterity, the gloves should be given to the mage and the gauntlets of weapon experties should be matched with the Defender for better results for your archer.
At worst you have one less to hit and your AC is one worse. The defender also has a better speed factor.

one thing I found annoying was your dex would reset to 20 whenever you swapped weapons with Kaylessa's bow and it wouldn't go back to 21 until you unequiped both bow and hands and reequiped bow first. This is really annoying.

>>Kaylessa's bow + gloves are pretty good, they get you up to 21 dexterity. (21 dex gives you +1 to hit, +1 AC)

I wasnt aware you could get both? :/

But anyway, I'm replying to sort of correct the erlier statement of mine about that bow in the
'Temple of the Forgotten God area'. Playing through again with a new party for the expasion
(my reason for visiting these boards again I picked up an excelent set of Blur boots there.
This, unfortunately, will leave me with only the Messenger of Seth, and the set of +2 bows
at the top of the Hand for bows in the game - unless I chose not to pick up the repeating cross bow.

Dam these choices