What do all the +'s mean?

[Cavern Sniffer]

Originally posted by Northraven: In response to Cavern Sniffer's question here's how it works in AD&D: Also keep in mind that only your arrow's bonus counts towards damage inflicted, the bonus of the actual missle weapon only adds to THACO as far as I know...

Northraven,
regarding missile weapons, damage, THAC0 etc

If you take the Heartseeker Longbowas an example -
THACO: +4
Damage: +2
Weight: 7
Speed Factor: 4

Couple that with an arrow of Piercing
Damage: 1D6
THACO: +4
Special: +6 physical (piercing) damage (save vs. death for none)

My point is do we now have a THAC0 of +8 (added to the characters base THAC0)
With a damage of +8 being inflicted alongside the 1D6 standard damage of the single arrow for a possible 14 (non critical) damage per arrow before (if incorporated) any strength modifiers are applied.

Also this is my thing about these no ammo' weapons......are they really worth it? IE can the Mana Longbow really compare to the Heartseeker in the damage or THAC0 department (setting aside its magic resistance properties).

How about the Short Bow of Gesen that takes a lot of effort and time to find and build.
THAC0: +4
Damage: 2 piercing, 1-8 electrical.

It appears that it has a +4 to THAC0, fine, but can only deal out a max of 10 (non critical) damage.

It seems to me people rant and rave over these no ammo weapons but if you read the smallprint they hardly seem worth it. The Heartseeker can actually be bought in the A.M later in the game too.



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It's bleedin dark down here, slippery too.
Man, that's a pisser.

[Northraven]

Cavern Seeker,

It seems like the math is right on that last post regarding the Heartseeker bow...although I have no idea if that particular bow allows Strength modifiers to be applied to the attack roll. I don't know if I agree with you on the whole unlimited ammo bows point. I would have to say that the Gesen Bow and Tansheron's Bow are both short bows, making them attractive to the Thief/Bard set. Also keep in mind that these bows have an essentially unlimited supply of +1 ammo, meaning that you can save inventory space by only carrying around the Really good ammo. Anyway this is all just my humble opinion, I can see where you're coming from on this point.

All this discussion has made me curious about bows in BGII myself. I've been using mostly slings and crossbows in my party, I think I will check out some of the long bows for my group. Can anybody tell me who the best NPC is with bows? (Aside from Mazzy who can only use short bows I believe).

[DonkeyWan]

Fisrtly as to bows, Heart seeker was the best for me when I played as an archer and since it allowed you to hit at +7 once a day, was rewally useful versus high level critters. I was very disappointed with the Gesen bow, it really wasn't up to much, my crossbow of speed did as much damage with electric bolts and faster too.

As to quicker weapons, first strike means first chance to get spelled, so a stun weapon, or slow, or confuse will halt any major attacks.