ranged weapons too strong?

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hi i'm currently playing with this part:
me; fighter/thief
imoen; dual to mage
minsc
jaheira
kahlid
ajantis

all of my guys use ranged weapons and the game is just too easy! if i give them all bows and arrows they kill everything before it even comes close! why would anyone want to use anything but ranged weapons?

 

Because of the challenge it takes to beat the game, and the always lurking boredom you get if the game is to easy?

 

Because everyone in my party uses bows like the village drunks?

 

Because we're not powergamers?

 

Because we like rapid-fire sarcastic responses? Seriously gentlemen, that was impressive.

 

in reply to the thing about powergaming...

i have a very hard time not "powergaming". i mean bows were put into the game on purpose so i'm not exploiting anything, and so why on earth would i sit there and risk having to use potions and spells and stuff when i can just kill them all almost instantly with arrows? i even tried increasing hte difficulty and it still too easy

 

One of the things that makes bows overpowered in BG, especially when compared with BG2, is the underwhelming speed of the characters. You can usually get 3 or 4 arrows into an ogre before it can get within melee distance. On the flip side, it bites fighting a group of bandits or hobgoblins with bows.

[ July 24, 2003, 20:52: Message edited by: CamDawg ]

 

The you will get a very (almost) easy game to beat, where is the challenge in that ?

Because it gets boring when you have done that through half the game - at least thats my opinion.

 

@CamDawg:

That's really true

But IMO it's kinda cool to send a wall of arrows on the ugly beasts that's plaguing the Sword Coast...

 

Wait till you run out of arrows, you'll regret not taking those +1 two handed swords...

*Listens to "Sakura Saku"*

 

i admit i'm not a heavy roleplayer but i am sortof... i mean if i was a fighter out there risking my life i would want to kill whatever as easily as possible not thinking about what is cooler to do or whatnot... and as for the hobgoblins being hard to kill with bows i just faced a big pack of hobgoblins that demanded my iron and gold (i think it was east of the bergost temple) and i killed about 8 of them in under 10 seconds. maybe i should try soloing? would that make the game harder?

 

I don't think they're overpowered at all. They are just what they should be, it's just that in BG1 enemies are low on hps and armour class. In BG2 the bows weren't reduced in power, it's just that there is no real way to add extra damage to a bow + arrows, whereas melee you have strength bonuses and all the enemies have high hps and better ac.

 

I don't think bows are overpowered - as some have mentioned, it's easy enough to defeat enemies with bows. The problem, I think, is that the AI isn't designed to deal as well with players using bows. That's how I've always thought of it, anyway....

 

The AI works fine for ranged weapons in BG. Just as New said, You will run out of missles at some point. That's when you have to use your noggin

 

If you're truly role-playing, then there is no way Minsc would be wielding a bow for most battles. He would definitely prefer melee weapons. Same goes for Ajantis.

 

Aldeth, good point The Evil alternatives are Kagain and Shar-Teel.

 

If you feel that ranged weapons are too powerful and you can't help but use them why not try downloading something to make the game harder like the Heart of Fury or one of the many others available.

I've found that I tend to just use bows and slings aswell so I'm going to use an item editor to lower the power of ranged weapons, improve melee weapons and maybe generate some really good new swords and stuff. I advise anyone with the same tendency to try this.

 

I never use ranged weapons, the danger of being ambushed and forced into melee or running out of arrows is too great. When you're up against hordes of enemies with town miles away or just unaccessible it's really rather hard to keep up the hail of arrows.

 

I think it's no spoiler:


In BG 1, you may use your ranged weapons in melee without penalties, in BG 2, your AC drops 4.