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Old 07-17-2015, 07:00 AM   #10
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: [Combat]: Do you bow, bro?

You do know that sprinting 20 yards per second is ridiculous? And that you're doing something extremely wrong with your missile weapon rules (reached acc rating of 3? What?).

Oh, and you don't really get to impose a speed penalty on someone's attacks by running straight at them. And even if you did, that's not how they work, you add speed to range and take one penalty for the sum.

And did you seriously just run two combatants with base skill of 10? That's also pretty ridiculous, and particularly inimical to ranged weapons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Noctifer View Post
TL;DR version: Why on earth would you use a bow in GURPS?
Because DPS is not really what matters in combat. A bow is a ranged weapon. If you somehow mistake it for a melee weapon, you will at least remove yourself from the gene pool in a reasonably quick manner.

If you're actually using the rules right, aiming for 3 seconds gives you a bonus of Acc +2, worth +5 here. You also use an All Out Attack to pick up a +1. If, in addition to that, you're actually halfway worthwhile as an archer and have, say, skill 12 rather than a pitiful 10, you make a 50% to hit a man-sized target at 50 yards. At 50 yards, the fact that a bow is not taking people down nearly as fast as swording them in the face becomes irrelevant...


Technical aspects aside, as far as I know cultures that prized archery as a high-status martial skill are usually horse-archer cultures. (Maybe also chariot archer cultures?) Being atop a bulky, fast-moving platform gives a whole additional incentive to have a ranged weapon, and takes the issue of getting run down by swordsmen largely off the table.

In more general battlefield massed use, bows can engage at significantly longer ranges because they are aimed in large numbers at large groups of troops, rather than at individuals, and the arrows allowed to fall where they will.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident.
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