Helping Build Tikhon

[UbiquitousRat]

mhd: Forgive my ignorance here, but can you qualify / explain how bows are too good against armour without AP?

 

Thanks to the others for suggestions - keep it simple, eh?

[mhd]

HERO doesn't really have a big granularity when it comes to DCs, especially at the Heroic scale. So it's a bit hard to decided where you position your weapons. And for bows, people went for the "rounding up" option, so they end up being rather effective, basically on the same level as huge friggin' polearms or mounted lances.

 

With a standard heavy longbow, you're able to pierce most plate on average, and that doesn't even include player abilities (weaponmaster, martial arts, CSLs). That's more than what's possible in the real world and thus I see no real reason to provide the players with a standard way of increasing that further. Certainly not via the common explanation of "as is it's hunting arrows, these are war arrows". I'm fine with magic, as that generally limits availability and increases the price. "You use one of your four remaining elven dragonslaying arrows?" is cool, "I'm buying another few bundles of AP broadheads" isn't.

 

But hey, that's just me, I'm generally a more "armor should matter" guy and if I ever get around to remodeling my FH weapon tables, a lot of weapons would be nerfed.

[UbiquitousRat]

Thanks, mhd! My guy has a Heavy Bow (1 1/2 d6) and struggled against the Skeletons armoured with 7PD full panoply armour. Most of the time, he couldn't do more than scratch them. The 2d6 Hvy Longbow, however, does pack more punch, I guess.

 

I might go the root of Draxian War Arrows, an enchanted and very rare commodity, with AP. That seems a nice, flavourful compromise which also reveals that, although Drax don't usually use bows, they can make cool arrows for their allies.

[Greywind]

Bows shouldn't do much to a skel anyways. Too much possibility of a through-and-through for no damage.

[bluesguy]

Thanks to the others for suggestions - keep it simple, eh?

 

KISS is the way to go.

[mhd]

In my experience, archers tend to gravitate to the heaviest bows possible. Understandably, and "+5 STR; only for bow usage" is quite realistic.

 

For magical arrows -- unless you're fighting ultra-heavy beasts -- a +1 STUN mult is more fun than AP. Can emulate both a heavy whoomp and excruciating pain.

[darkarus99]

A few suggestions for the character if I was playing it.

 

• Increase the Stun to 40 I know it doesn't sound like much but if your plan is to dive into the center of Combat then the extra stun will help keep you on your feet.
• Increase the Con to 18 at a 13 solid blows are going to stun this character also a problem if you want to dive into the thick of battle
• Increase the Dex to 15 at a 13 he is going to be one of the slowest characters most likely and it is going to be tough for him to do much (I know because I just finished playing a Sword and Sorcery style game where my character started at a 13 dex and it was the 3rd thing he bought up after getting his sword skills to a +4 and buying off some bad limitations on his spells.
• Increase the Int to a 13 a 9 means he won't see much which can be very bad for a character as not knowing what is happening is likely to get you killed.
• After that skills like Tactics or Teamwork are good, and Martial Arts are never a waste of 10 points.

[IndianaJoe3]

 

A few suggestions for the character if I was playing it.

• IIncrease the Dex to 15 at a 13 he is going to be one of the slowest characters most likely and it is going to be tough for him to do much (I know because I just finished playing a Sword and Sorcery style game where my character started at a 13 dex and it was the 3rd thing he bought up after getting his sword skills to a +4 and buying off some bad limitations on his spells.

 

This will vary greatly depending on your game. I once designed a character with a 15 effective DEX (13 DEX plus 2 points of Lightning Reflexes) and figured he'd probably be a little slower than most of the party. He went second in a party of 8, and was even ahead of the, "ninja."