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Old 02-14-2012, 07:21 AM   #1
Cheomesh
 
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Default The Deadly Spring question

So I've read "The Deadly Spring" in Pyramid and talked it over with a player. For some reason, we think it's kind of strange that every longbowman is going to have at a minimum of 16 strength just to use his bow. Other than using Arm Strength (which is Exotic) is there a way to boost someone's ability to pull a heavy bow?

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Old 02-14-2012, 07:35 AM   #2
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

Arm ST should not be exotic, its a thing that really happened. In MA I think its a perk to justify taking it.
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Old 02-14-2012, 07:37 AM   #3
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

There's also the Strongbow perk.
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Old 02-14-2012, 09:54 AM   #4
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

The actual Longbow was a special and legendary weapon, far from normal archery. Those people trained most of their lives to use it as well so a higher upper body ST is perfectly reasonable.
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Old 02-14-2012, 09:54 AM   #5
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

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Originally Posted by Cheomesh View Post
So I've read "The Deadly Spring" in Pyramid and talked it over with a player. For some reason, we think it's kind of strange that every longbowman is going to have at a minimum of 16 strength just to use his bow. Other than using Arm Strength (which is Exotic) is there a way to boost someone's ability to pull a heavy bow?

M.
Longbow archers trained from childhood and deformed their muscular and skeletal development in order to draw their bows. English kings made it a legal requirement (in various eras) for men to practice weekly with the bow to maintain their strength and skill, so if a man was able to draw a longbow, he was likely to retain that conditioning well into his life.

1) Take the perk Special Exercises (from Martial Arts, it's basically a little Unusual Background) twice to allow him to buy +2 Arm Strength even though it's exotic. Your special exercises were a lifetime of training.
2) Take the Strongbow perk (Again, Martial Arts) and make sure your skill is at DX+2 for an effective +2 to ST for the purpose of drawing a heavy bow.

You now can now have a ST 12 archer who can draw a ST 16 bow.
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Old 02-14-2012, 09:57 AM   #6
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

:/ removed
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Old 02-14-2012, 11:42 AM   #7
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

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You now can now have a ST 12 archer who can draw a ST 16 bow.
That would require at least thirty points in the appropriate skills and techniques, right?
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Old 02-14-2012, 12:01 PM   #8
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

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That would require at least thirty points in the appropriate skills and techniques, right?
It would require 20 points in the style (you get 1 perk per 10 points in style skills, and 1 perk per 20 points in general combat skills - and style skill points count for both categories.) However, I'd be inclined to relax those requirements, since there are plenty of historical styles that only make sense when perks are included (such as Shield Wall Training or Teamwork for styles like Armatura and Viking Spear Fighting.)
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Old 02-14-2012, 01:45 PM   #9
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

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It would require 20 points in the style (you get 1 perk per 10 points in style skills, and 1 perk per 20 points in general combat skills - and style skill points count for both categories.)
30 points in the style; it's three perks: Strongbow and Special Exercises (2x).
Quote:
However, I'd be inclined to relax those requirements, since there are plenty of historical styles that only make sense when perks are included (such as Shield Wall Training or Teamwork for styles like Armatura and Viking Spear Fighting.)
Yeah it does seem like many styles have one or two perks that are more primary than others. Some styles, IIRC, expressly state this, I can't remember if the Foot Archery one does or not.
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Old 02-14-2012, 01:49 PM   #10
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Default Re: The Deadly Spring question

Even taking only one Special Training perk and one level of Arm ST requires ST 13, which is still reasonably reasonable.
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