Well. As much flak as I've heard this game recieve for being unfair to people who decide to follow the gunplay route, a larger proglem might be the lack of decent bows! My character is (at level 32) still absolutely hopeless at melee and I've been using the same enchanted bow that I've had since level 15. I can't find a single powerful bow, from a dungeon, merchant or otherwise. If anyone else has played through Arcanum as an archer, any tips on where to find a decent bow would be appreciated.
Yes, you're right, Arcanum is pretty badly balanced in several ways. I'm not surprised bows are pretty lacking. Anyway, as with most weapons (or as it was intended to, anyway), the best bow weapon can be found be found by finishing the Mastery quest of Kietzel Pierce (in Blackroot & Caladon). You'll get the Bow of Ecclesiastes, which I think is the most powerful, although the Arcane and Compound Bows might also be. Not sure.
The best bow may also be personal The Tech people can find schematics for making compound bows, Pyrotechnic bows, and Envenomed bows, the later two of which I consider very fun to use, There are a motley assortment of bows but aside from the technical bows, it is very bland and repetitive, Arcane bows and all that such and like Brother None said, you can always go for the archery master's bow, just say you didn't find it after getting it and you can pay him to train you, I don't tend to focus on bow characters as a character, but I believe he's right in that it's the strongest bow, but given the option I would definitely at least try and get the Pyro bow and Envenomed Bow schematics, and if needed, use the manuals to make the bows.
As long as this thread has already been resurrected, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there's an elf in Qintarra who really wants some mithril. If you bring him some, he'll trade you for a bow that's literally twice as fast as the typical elven hunter's bow.
Yes I forgot to mention that in my post, that bow in particular, is the fastest bow in the game, so it comes down to do you want to do more damage or do you want to strike faster then any other creature in Arcanum could?
