Ranged attacks too powerful (avoid spoilers)

[Father Bronze]

After reading some of the strategy posts here in the forum, I decided to well-equip my party with ranged weapons.

It's devastating. With a little slowing spell support to combat massive hordes, everything gets wiped out rather quickly.

One of my Fighters has 4 attacks per round with the magic bow I've got him equipped with. Couple that with a THACO of 8 and he's dicing up the enemy -- and running out of arrows. I went through 120 arrows in one area of Dorn's Deep.

With this much effective firepower, is there any reason not to equip the party almost entirely with ranged weapons? (other than running out of ammunition once in a rare while.)

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Accord]

I usually only equip my fighter/thief(bow), ranger(bow/x-bow), ranger/cleric(sling), and fighter/druid(sling) with range weapons (they are not in the same party), and yes, I agree range weapon are pretty powerful at times. There are times where there are close encounters, hence my other party members usually engage in melee after maybe a spell or two. Personally I consider range weapon as close support for my melee party members, their job is to wear down enemies (similar to pure class mages in my games).

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Long live H22A1!!!!!

[Father Bronze]

Does IWD add in the penalty for using a ranged weapon in close combat the way BG2 does? I mean in BG2, your opponents get something like +4 to hit when you are using a ranged weapon in melee combat. I don't notice the same penalty in IWD, but then maybe I just take out the enemy before they get too many hits on me.

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Wulfere]

I don't know about the penalty for using ranged weapons on opponents closed with you own people, but I have been hit in the back by my Archer more than once. In 3E which I have heard is what IWD is supposed to mimic, a miss is just a miss. No chance of hitting party members. The user of the ranged weapon is supposed to have aimed wide to avoid hitting commrades.
Since you can not perform Called Shots in any of the infinity engine games then the penalties for those don't apply either. Wouldn't it be nice to have an Arcane Archer in your party.

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[Gaelic]

I am starting to fall in love with ranged weapons myself. I used only 4 members of my party to clear the area of Lower Dorn's Deep with the Idol. I took my fighter/thief, Ranger, and Paladin and equipped them with bows and magic arrows of varying types and had them slowly uncover the room, wiping out the idol's minions one and two at a time with arrows. My mage was ready with dispel magic for those nasty spells the mummies sling. That was that! The whole level cleared with almost no hit points lost.



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Gaelic

[WOLFGIR]

The AC and the attack in melee with bows still aplise and that you sometimes get the same thing as with spellcasting, you get interupted..

I usually go for a quick combo, clerics and wizards with slings and fighters with bows and 2handed swords. One paladin who has a X-bow, major drag to change to sheild and sword everytime melee is unavoidable..



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WOLF WINS EVERY FIGHT BUT ONE, AND IN THAT ONE, HE DIES

[Father Bronze]

I've never used X-bows. I tend to assume they are slow. Some in IWD seem pretty good, but I have a natural affinity to longbows myself. Maybe my bias comes from the days of PnP D&D when I played Elven Archers.

Are crossbows effective?

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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Father Bronze]

Originally posted by Wulfere: Since you can not perform Called Shots in any of the infinity engine games then the penalties for those don't apply either. Wouldn't it be nice to have an Arcane Archer in your party.

The archer kit in BG2 (Ranger Sub-Class) gives you the called shot ability. I never really obothered to use it very much, so I don't know if the game engine made it work properly.



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Most Subtle Official Straightman of the Laughing Hyenas -- Grammarian Brigade.

[Wulfere]

Hmmmm...maybe I will have to try BG2 again. Missed that. Thanks Father Bronze.

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[Axterix]

>>Are crossbows effective?

The second best ranged weapon in the game is the repeating light crossbow. Has 1/2 attacks less per turn than the Longbow +4: hammer (the 4 attack one). Combine that with the fact that crossbows deal 1-8 damage as opposed to 1-6 of bows... yah, they are effective. Things like the crossbows of accuracy are nice for classes who's thac0 falls behind (like thieves/bards). It never hurts to have a character or two that's good with them. That way, you can use all the magical bolts you find. There are more good bows than crossbows though, in my opinion.

Now, as to the power of ranged weapons... the ammo limitation is the big thing. And it gets bigger the higher level of difficulty you play on. Kick it up to Heart of Fury mode and the critters have so many hp's that you won't rely upon archery in most instances. On HoF mode, you quickly wind up going melee with all but your mage/clerical types. The good old slings don't go through ammo. The high hp of critters means that they'll live to close on you anyway.

The second limitation is critters that require a certain level of magic to hit. Only what is on your arrow counts.

And the third disadvantage is that archery damage doesn't do as much as melee. My fighter/thief clocks things for 20+, hit after hit after hit. And other melee weapons have chances to petrify, destroy, slow, whatever the enemy.

Fourth limitation is space. All those arrows, bolts, and bullets take up inventory space.

Now, all of my characters always carry a ranged weapon. There are times when mass ranged firepower is called for. But the main ranged weapons I use (besides slings on the casters that can't take a HoF-mode punch) are the throwing axe +2 and lover (+4 throwing dagger). Both of these don't offer mass attacks per round... but neither requires ammo.

By the way, to carry it all a step further, try throwing summoned critters into the mix. Summoned critters are the main way I deal with enemy spellcasters now. The melee enemies tend to rush up front, so I drop summoned critters behind the lines to mulch their casters. However, summoned critters also work great cast in front of your party while you fire arrows past them.