Bow damage problems.....

[Caldor Blake]

I just don't know that to do..... i have NWN + SoU + HoU and i have this bug. Whatever my lvl or stats are i get no bonuses to range weapons damage I think it's a bug because it would be stupid to make a character and at lvl40 make 1-8 with a bow I've updated the game to v1.66. What's wrong ??

[JackOfClubs]

It isn't a bug, just part of AD&D. Might I suggest becoming a bit more familiar with the rules? It will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game.

Weapon damage does not increase with levels. DEX will increase your chance to hit with a ranged weapon but I don't think it modifies the damage you do. There are certain feats which can increase damage but most of them apply to melee weapons not ranged weapons. Some feats, such as Called Shot, will allow you to disable opponents, which allows more damage while they are out of commission, but won't do any additional damage directly. Rogues do extra damage from sneak attacks, which applies to ranged weapons as well as melee weapons.

The key to increasing damage with bows is to get better ammunition, especially those arrows that do some sort of elemental damage.

[Robert the Bard]

Another way, depending upon your strength, would be to get a bow with the Mighty property. This will allow you to add your str bonus to dmg, or part of it. ie.. If you have a str bonus of 5, and your bow is Mighty +3, it will add 3 points of dmg. However, if you have a bonus of 2, that is all that will be added. If your str bonus is higher than your Mighty bonus on the bow, it will do the full +, if not, it will do whatever your str bonus dmg is.
Hope that helps.

[sun_facer]

The highest Mighty u can get on a bow is from good'ol Rizolvir. Mighty +10.

The best build I have using a bow is the Arcane Archer. After having help from frens over LAN, my char achieved Enchant Arrow +13.

To my surprise, this feature DOES NOT stack with the mighty on the bow. So... it was a waste of good money.

There was even a suggestion to take 10 lvls of RDD to boost the STR to get higher damage on the bow... trust me, those +8 STR on the RDD is wasted. Dun waste 10 lvls on RDD for bow users. Those 10 lvls are better off on increasing Enchant Arrow on the Arcane Archer.

However, even with the better weapons, my Arcane Archer turned out to be little more than the bard she started out to be. With haste and Rapid shot, she was still doing 2 to 3 hits each turn... 25 - 32 damage each hit only. It was a nightmare fighting Mephi. Plus.. I get alot of attacks of opportunity.

The only thing fantastic about the bow users is the dex modifier and the Enchant Arrow feat increases ur attack rating to 60+ when u reach lvl 40. But what is the use of this when ur damage is so low?

I feel that HotU, SoU and NWN are very baised against ranged attackers and favours the melee types. Even spell castors have lots of problems. So... unless u r building a specific build for multiplayer purposes, u will not really like ur bow user as much as ur swash-buckling, sword swinging WM hitting 130++ each hit, 3 hits a turn.