Projectiles all round...?

[Demosthenes]

From what I've been reading on here it seems that alot of people don't mind having a few PC set for only melee, ala cursed weapons etc.

All 8 of my characters, (Sam-Val-Ran-Rog-Mag-Pri-Vi-Madras) have missle weapons. Some use them more than others but with my level 12 party everybody is a decent shot. Pri, Mag and Vi use slings with Impaling Stones (when available) the Rogue a Hvy. XBow, and the Sam, Val and of course the Ranger all have LongBows with a variety of specialty arrows.

I still charge the enemy because the Val, Sam and Vi do WAY more damage up close, but my point is I wouldn't trade this flexibility for anything. It seemed obvious to me and I've been surprised by how many people don't seem to value this.

Comments, Confirmations, Criticisms?

[hjx]

Same as u ... I also ive everyone long range weapons ....

[Larlador]

I charge em all the time. Although i am now handing out modern weapons to some of my front row fighters, the only people who use ranged weapons are my flank protectors.

[ObverseReaction]

Well, the problem with that particular line of reasoning is that the weapons that are cursed are often better than non-cursed ones. In other words, the trade off is more melee damage vs ranged damage. If you're going to charge the enemy anyway, seems like melee has the advantage (does for me, anyway).

O.R.

[Virgil]

Bloodlust, the cursed sword, gives my fighter an extra swing per attack. My fighter currently attacks twice per round, for around 35 points of damage per swing. This adds up to +70 points of damager per round. With a missile weapon, I see him doing a maximum of 20 points of damage per round.

My thief is dual wielding two cursed thieve's daggers. These have a chance of poisoning an opponent and a chance of instant killing an opponent. The damage isn't extraordinary, but he does an average of 20 damage per swing, four times a round. He's gotten at least four instant kills.

In both cases, this seems preferable to the smaller damage missile weapons give me. There have been times, like fighting millipedes in the swamp, where having the whole party with melee weapons would be an advantage. Overall, I prefer the increased melee damage over lesser increase in missile damage.

Plus, I'm not crazy about managing my missile inventory. It's easier with only four people to keep stocked with ammo instead of eight.

[Vaylord]

I also use a missile weapon on each character. When I first got bloodlust I gave it to my lord because of the berserk attack type. It was great except that I couldn't switch to his bow. I finally decided the loss of a missile weapon was unacceptable and sold bloodlust. I haven't regreted it for a moment. My Lord now gets 2 attacks of 2 strikes each with his bow doing on average 21-27 damage per strike with mystic arrows (which I have way too many of). He Paralyzes often and instakills with it also. its great when you haven't even closed with a monster and it dies from a single arrow. And I have found a few weapons better than bloodlust anywqay so it really comes as no loss since none of them are cursed.

[MaskedFrog]

Missile weapons are nice but I prefer to move up to melee range anyway. My Samurai with Bloodlust does tremendous damage up close. Also with my party configuration I have a better chance at instant kills when I am in melee range. At first I thought the loss of flexability would be bad but I have never really noticed the lack of a few people with ranged weapons.

This said you just have to go with a strategy that works for you and your party.

[Spooks]

Don't see why you can't have the best of both worlds.

I have Samurai/Fighter/Fighter/Bard/Ninja/Bishop/Madras/Vi

I have the Samurai and Ninja up front with bloodlust and cane of corpus. Everyone else has bows/sling/omnigun. My left flank fighter I put all points into polearm, modern weapon, close range, ranged (3,2,2,2). Was a bit of a disappointment early on, but now she's got a blunderbuss and does the most ranged damage.

Anyway, I got 6 characters with ranged weapons, not to mention the bishop's spells . . . I don't miss the lack of the two characters missile weapons and combat goes so much faster with them up there when I get to melee range.

Not to mention, my Bloodlusting Samurai absolutely rocked Nessie's world, whereas before she just wasn't holding her own compared to the fighters.

[BlackRaven]

There are times when "charging" up to a fight doesn't work so well. I charged 6 Dreadmares then watched 4 of my people "turncoat" when they reared, even with all of the magic shields in place. I reloaded and stayed back using missile weapons and cleaned them up. I think you need to have more than one strategy, including melee, magic & missiles.