Bows skill

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There are 3 weapon classes covered by this skill:

• Short Bows
• Long Bows
• Composite Bows

Short bows

A short bow is a ranged weapon typically around half the size of its cousin, the long bow.

Short bows are the lightest of all bow classes, having a default load time of two seconds, with the well known Nisha short bow at 1 second. They tend to have the highest balance of the three stick bows, and therefore are a popular choice for characters with high agility and low strength.

Capped player-made short bows have the highest balance on a standard bow-type available in-game, slightly edging out capped player-made longbows. Their small load time is an attractive feature. A capped short bow combined with capped arrows is an amazingly powerful weapon, though many players opt for longbows to maximize their damage potential.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

• Large damage and accuracy bonuses when using AIM.
• Lowest load time of all bow types
• Highest balance of all standard bow types
• Can be fletched by players

Disadvantages

• Lower attack potential than longbows

Longbows

Historically longbows are bows fashioned from a single material (traditionally wood in most cultures) and stringed with any number of things. They lack significant recurve which, along with their much longer size, differentiates them from composite bows.

Longbows would normally present a happy medium within the hierarchy of bows, offering more suitability (damage bonus from strength) than capped short bows while having a shorter load time than composite bows. However, given players' inability to fletch composite bows (as well as crossbows), longbows have become the de facto weapon of power for ranged attacks. Capped player-made longbows offer significantly higher strength suitability than any other short bow or composite bow available in-game and have balance (damage bonus from agility) nearly identical to capped player-made short bows.

Given this, many players seeking to maximize their attack power choose longbow as their ranged weapon skill. It is currently the most popular ranged weapon skill. Thankfully, many players choose longbows for roleplay reasons instead. An example of this would be a Ranger choosing to use longbow because of the Ranger guild's affinity for longbow as dictated by game lore. The famed Elven huntress Lirisa (for which the 'Hands of Lirisa' spell is named) was a longbow-using Ranger.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

• Large damage and accuracy bonuses when using aim.
• Low load times as compared to crossbows
• Highest potential attack power of all standard bow-types
• Can be fletched by players

Disadvantages

• Higher load time than a short bow
• Must be shoulder-worn normally. Containers which can hold longbows (belt-worn greatsword sheaths, for example) mostly constitute old invasion or beta items, and are extremely rare.

Note: Returning players or players who do not frequent the Dragonrealms forum should note that the evasion penalty once applied to using bows was removed after the 3x agility modifier was lowered to a standard modifier. Bows no longer have an evasion penalty associated with them.

Composite bows

In Dragonrealms, a composite bow describes either a bow made of multiple layers of material or a recurve bow. In either case, composite bows are a slow-loading, hard-hitting bow that takes advantage of the user's strength to a greater degree than other bows. Composite bows have the highest load time of all three bow classes, though they can easily fit into backpacks and the like.

Players cannot currently fletch composite bows, and though a few high-quality models have been sold by merchants in the past, they exist in smaller numbers than comparable examples of other types of ranged weapons.

Compared to other weapons, composite bows rely more heavily on strength than agility to determine loading roundtime and damage. This can make it an attractive example to Kaldar and Gor'Tog characters, who would need to spend fewer TDPs to more effectively use their weapon. Many others choose it for RP reasons, for example, some Kaldar players use composite bows because, within Gorbesh military tradition, the composite bow is the ranged weapon of choice.

Guild-specific abilities

• Barbarians and Rangers have the ability to fire two arrows at once (dual load). The first arrow uses full attack power and the second arrow 70% of the user's attack power (snap shot). Requirements: 201 in the bow skill, 30 reflex and 30 agility. Barbarians must be using Eagle Dance and Rangers must have the Hands of Lirisa spell upon them. Syntax: load arrows.

• Rangers and Thieves have the ability to SNIPE targets (firing an arrow while remaining hidden). Requirements: 40th circle within the guild. Syntax: While hidden, use SNIPE instead of fire or shoot.

• Shield primary (Paladins) and secondary (Barbarians, Rangers, Traders) guild have the ability to load their bows while wearing an arm-worn shield. Note that this adds a 3-second roundtime penalty to the loading process. Barbarians have no penalty while using a small shield, and Rangers have no penalty while using a small shield if under the effects of See the Wind.

• Rangers have the ability to fletch hunter's bows.

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