Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General What happened to the longbow?

Lol @ the idea that long bows and heavy crossbows shouldn't be 'starting equipment'. They're literally included in the phb as starting equipment...

I guess we can cancel the release of BG3 because no longbows in the starting area. It seems that people are way too bored because they have to start splitting hairs on every trivial matter.

You are free to say what you wish and I never tried to restrain you actually. Thats not within my jurisdiction, hah! Doesn't change the fact that you were not useful at answering the OP question, not informative on the topic discussed and not even funny. It would be more useful to the whole platform if you could at least spark a laugh or something!
IMO, if you don't have anything constructive to say then better stay silent. But you do you, of course. I said my part!

Can confirm, am bored and splitting hairs. Though also not sure why anyone would use a longbow when crossbows are right there... (half-sarcasm)

OP asked why there are no longbows in EA and I told him that there are four different longbows in EA. So I answered OP's question and then you came in and started to derail this thread into something totally different.

Yeah thats a problem right there. The only difference right now is the 'Hamstring Shot' vs 'Piercing Shot', and I'd say the latter is much more tempting for use in the game where almost all of the fights are about the highest damage.

Sooo.. any other thoughts on where to find longbows?

Longbows are not hidden in the game, they can be found as often as longswords and any other regular weapons. Just keep your eyes open and look. Shops have random gear, they can appear there too.

Keep in mind that proficiency plays a big part here, too. It doesn't matter that a longbow uses a larger die if you don't know how to use it well. As for compound bows, they aren't separate like they were in 2E, which is sad, because it made bows viable for strength based characters.

Honestly the whole "dex is for bows" thing is dumb anyway. Real Longbows have ridiculous draw weights and are far more strength dependent than agility based. Dex is for crossbows and maybe shortbows would be fine enough, but Longbows should be completely strength based or at least have it be either/or like a finesse weapon.

I still would have liked to be able to choose my starting layout.

Dragon Age Origins did a good job with translating longbows and short bows into the game mechanically. If I remember correctly, in DAO bows get damage boosts from both STR and DEX equally, but they only get attack boost from DEX. It kinda makes sense, because you need both a quick draw and a steady aim to hit and deal damage.

We're lucky that the Mind Flayers even let us keep our weapons at all. It would make more sense that we'd have to find our stuff in a box somewhere.

I'm sure Larian wanted to give people equipment that made sense so that newbies wouldn't hurt themselves, but also give us room to grow.

Besides, it's one more dopamine rush they can add in, so I don't really see a problem with it.

It seems in the intro that everyone captured is just teleported straight into the pods, so any weapons and armour comes along for the ride. They probably don't see much reason to open the pods to strip the victims of gear, it's not like getting out is commonplace if Shadowheart's efforts are any indication.

Fair Point.

Speaking of long- and other bows, is point-blank shot and the penalty for using a bow at short range still a thing?

Kind of.

In 5e RAW, shooting through a creature gives it a +2 AC bonus, but Cover isn't implemented in BG3.

In 5e, shooting a ranged weapon while within melee range of an enemy gives that attack Disadvantage to hit. This is implemented in BG3.

In 5e, there is the Sharpshooter Feat which allows one to ignore cover, shoot from long range without disadvantage, and take a -5 penalty to hit in exchange for +10 damage on ranged attacks. In BG3, the middle and latter should be useful.

In 5e, there's also the Crossbow Expert Feat which, among other things, allows one to shoot while in melee without imposing Disadvantage.

We don't know(?) exactly how these 2 feats will be implemented in 5e.

Thanks for the answer.

One of the reasons I asked is because in Solasta the stats for a bow give a min and max range but there is no PBS type feat and I never experienced or noticed any warning or malus so I wondered what the point of the min range was.

Didn't there used to be 'compound'(?) bows in D&D which added STR or something?

Composite Bows, yeah.

In 3.5e*, bows added your Dex modifier to hit and had *no bonus* to damage. Composite bows allowed you to add your Str mod to damage.
However, 5e was simplified so that you automatically add your Dex to damage with all bows. Composite bows were removed.

*Most of my Earlier D&D Edition information is extrapolated from my knowledge of Pathfinder, so might not exactly match 3.5e.

Speaking of combat mechanics and modifiers on bow to hit and damage, don't forget that if a system was made that would be 100% realistic in RL, it would most certainly be too complex for practical gameplay. Yes, it might work in a computer game, but then it wouldn't be D&D. That is why I never complain about the details in the rules as long as there is balance and the rules are not completely crazy compared to what is being modelled. In reality I would think that skill, dex and str worked together in determining the outcome. But hit points are an abstraction modelling levels of 'heroism'. In real life you could be killed by a single arrow or a hit at the right spot even from an unwounded condition if you were unlucky, but then again, in real life magic wouldn't exist either.