Difference in Short and Long bows?

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What are the major differences in short and long bows?

 

Dictionary says for long bows this:
A powerful wooden bow drawn by hand; usually 5-6 feet long; used in medieval England.

Short bow should be shorter than it, do you agree?

 

Unless it's a giants shortbow versus a human's longbow... Then the shortbow would be bigger, do you agree?

 

Aside from the obvious length differences, a short bow will generally have a recurve while a long bow does not...

Never judge a man by the length of his bow

 

Hey thanx for the lexical definition, but i should have been more specific. What is the difference between the two in BG2? .

 

Damage I think, (never used 'em really) but here goes.

The longbow requires more strength because the string is much tighter, due to this, the arrow will fly longer (not a factor in bg thouhg) and hit harder. In BG2 I think the longbow has +1 or more to damage, and that is the only difference I can think of. Perhaps the speedfactor is a bit lower for the shortbow...

 

Lokken has it...only, its a bonus to hit instead of damage...

in BG2 id give myself proficienies(?) in a short bow due to the fact that the infinite arrow bows are short bows...

[This message has been edited by Captain Spud (edited June 04, 2001).]

 

I forget if this applies to all shortbows but the gesen shortbow is slower than a longbow.

 

i havent noticed any difference in range...

 

If you guys just look in your manual and the tables you'll see the following:

Composite Long Bow ROF=2, Speed Factor=7, Bonus to Hit=+1, Bonus to Damage=+2

Long Bow ROF=2, Speed Factor=8, Bonus to Hit=+1, Bonus to Damage=0

Short Bow ROF=2, Speed Factor=6, No Bonusses
Hope this helps

 

in bg1 when you had an invisible person in your party who could see the enemy, your archer could hit him without the enemy spotting you first, this is not possible with shortbows, so the range is better

 

Shortbows are generally used by riding folk for it is easier to handle when riding a horse than a full length longbow. Mongols and the arabs used it frequently and developed remarkable skill in using it from the back of a horse at full speed effectively. It was the basic bow of the greek archers (mostly skyths) and there it has the recurved form that has been give to the composite longbow.

Traditional shortbow are basically made of composite and are quite tricky to tense - greek drawing show that it has to be done by fixing it with your knee and leg to be able to use both arms ot actually curve it to hook in the string. Maybe some of you remember the great tale of ulysses return ...

These bows should be very effective - despite that shortbows in BG-2 don´t get any boni - so it turns out to be just a short longbow without boni. Disappointing.

btw - it isn´t just the tension of the string that results in the velocity of the arrow - it is the length of the arms of the bows that allow it to be pulled longer without requiring more power (as a result of mechanics) - actually you´d find a shortbow more difficult to draw than a longbow, Lokken.

(Ragusa is implementing his profound childtime experience as his bunchs main bowmaker here ).

 

I like the short bows in BG2. Their speed factor is lower as pointed out above. And most of the enchanted short bows are significantly faster. Tungian Bow is a shortbow and my favorite bow in the game, you can get it early on too. My take on the matter is if you have a character strong enough to use a compound bow + whatever more that likely this character is one of your melee fighters. Now a short bow delivers more arrows faster giving you more chances to hit a target than the slower compound bows. There are plenty of good arrows in the game that allow you to get extra damage in. Take advantage of the speed, choose short bows.

 

If we're going to veer from BGII to reality...

The Greek and persian bows where composite recurves, composite meaning made of laminated materials.

Longbows rely on the length of the lever arm, and in the case of the classic english long bow, the bow stave was cut so that the inner half of the bow was made of heart wood and the outer half of sap wood, giving the advantage of a laminate. Does that make sense? the bow stave was cut vertically along the dividing line between those two layers of wood.

The "shortbow" in D&D is the most primitive type of bow, non-recurve and non laminated, and generally under 5 feet with a 30-45 pound draw at most.

One thing the game could use is the difference present in AD&D between war and flight arrows.

[This message has been edited by jester1137 (edited June 04, 2001).]

 

i would just like to know how many people here actually shoot bows? i do and i prefer good old long bows as opposed to these modern composite bows. first, composite bows are just to easy to pull back and aim. second, composite bows are alot more expensive in that they require more maintnance:i.e., replacing the gears and strings.

i prefer the challenge of long bows and just the riviting feeling of not knowing when the string will snap...


Edit: unless your long bow was a hand-me-down, you wont find one for under $100...at least not anywhere i have been in the states...

[This message has been edited by Captain Spud (edited June 05, 2001).]

 

I may be wrong here, but I think that the 'composite' in todays composite bows refers to the system of pulleys that give the user a mechanical advantage for drawing the string back. As far as ancient bows go, the length of the bow generally dictated how 'hard' it could fire an arrow, but the type of wood also played a role in this.

EDIT: BTA to the rescue... you are correct - Compound - Composite - such similar words. I'm beginning to think that english is really only my second or third language

[This message has been edited by Lord Moeken (edited June 05, 2001).]

 

Composite usually means using some different materials (layered for example) in a single structure. In the case of the old composite bows the composites were made of wood, bone and horn.

These bows with a block-and-tackle system are named "compound"-bows - that´s the kinda bow dear john rambo used to wipe out enemy arnmies

EDIT: Too late ...

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited June 05, 2001).]

 

I own 7 bows, and shoot almost every morning.
I own a compound bow, but I don't use it much. The only really nice feature about them is that you can tune them to a pretty wide range of draw weights, mine can be set anywhere from 65-85 pounds.

I used it the one time I ever went bow hunting..it's nice not to worry about wet strings or warped staves. I put an arrow 3 inches behind the shoulder and had to follow that buck for 12 hours. All I can say is that in age where we have firearms, bow hunting is inhumane. A 30-06 would have dropped that buck instantly.

I also used to compete in SCA archery competition using all period gear. I'm still wondering how the hell these game designers figured ANY long bow wheighed ten pounds they really under rate how fast a light cross-bow can be loaded and fired too.