Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - Role of archers in low-tech parties?

bitbyter · 07-26-2010, 01:05 PM

From personal experience it is possible to get through and through shots on bear and moose with a 60 lb recurve self-bow. In some cases this includes going through bone. This is usually at about 20 yrds or less but I'd imagine with bodkin points it is possible to do the same with most low TL armors at a similar range. Increase the poundage of the bow and the effective range goes up as well. Besides this, I think the most useful point of a bow is both psychological and eventual kill.

1. Psychological - when facing an skilled archer with enough range there is a good chance that you will be wounded or even killed before you even have the option of wounding him / her. This is not something to ignore and it takes a while to teach PC's this.

2. Piercing / Impaling wounds are horrible at low tech levels (not that they aren't at higher ones). Very hard to keep clean, sew closed and then there is the whole issue of removing the arrow. If the head is buried in the victim I would consider him / her dead unless access to a skilled surgeon (rare) or magical healing is available. In my campaign I impose negatives to first aid rolls for these types of wounds (piercing / impaling) and have tweaked the infection rules so the PC's are just as afraid of it as they are of the guy bearing down on them with an axe or aiming a missile weapon their way. They have actually surrendered to enemies that had a high % of missile weapons just so that they might get the off chance of fighting them later in melee.

Bows were the guns of their day and people were afraid of a skilled user (for good reason in my opinion).

07-26-2010, 01:05 PM	#103
bitbyter Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Oakville, Ontario	Re: Role of archers in low-tech parties? From personal experience it is possible to get through and through shots on bear and moose with a 60 lb recurve self-bow. In some cases this includes going through bone. This is usually at about 20 yrds or less but I'd imagine with bodkin points it is possible to do the same with most low TL armors at a similar range. Increase the poundage of the bow and the effective range goes up as well. Besides this, I think the most useful point of a bow is both psychological and eventual kill. 1. Psychological - when facing an skilled archer with enough range there is a good chance that you will be wounded or even killed before you even have the option of wounding him / her. This is not something to ignore and it takes a while to teach PC's this. 2. Piercing / Impaling wounds are horrible at low tech levels (not that they aren't at higher ones). Very hard to keep clean, sew closed and then there is the whole issue of removing the arrow. If the head is buried in the victim I would consider him / her dead unless access to a skilled surgeon (rare) or magical healing is available. In my campaign I impose negatives to first aid rolls for these types of wounds (piercing / impaling) and have tweaked the infection rules so the PC's are just as afraid of it as they are of the guy bearing down on them with an axe or aiming a missile weapon their way. They have actually surrendered to enemies that had a high % of missile weapons just so that they might get the off chance of fighting them later in melee. Bows were the guns of their day and people were afraid of a skilled user (for good reason in my opinion).