Quick Question - rules for heavy bows

[Donny Brook]

The Strongbow perk lets you use a "heavy bow" rated higher than your regular ST. But where are the rules for these heavy bows?

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

The Strongbow perk lets you use a "heavy bow" rated higher than your regular ST. But where are the rules for these heavy bows?

They're just any bow that is strung to a higher strength. Unless you want to delve into things like The Deadly Spring (Pyramid #3/33) which will calculate all things to match up bow ST with materials and size and weight and such.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Farmer

They're just any bow that is strung to a higher strength.

Okay, but where are the rules for that?

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Okay, but where are the rules for that?

p. B373: "your range and damage are determined by your ST – or in the case of a bow or a crossbow, by the weapon’s ST." A heavy bow is simply any bow with ST higher than your own.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Okay, but where are the rules for that?

B270 - "Crossbows and ST: Bows, crossbows, and prodds have their own ST value. Use this instead of your ST to determine range and damage. You must specify the ST of such a weapon when you buy it. You can always use a weapon that is weaker than you. You can use a stronger crossbow or prodd; it does more damage but take longer to cock (see Shots, above). You cannot use a stronger bow" - and B373 - "Muscle-Powered Missile Weapons: These include bows, slings, and crossbows. As with thrown weapons, your range and damage are determined by your ST – or in the case of a bow or a crossbow, by the weapon’s ST. See the Muscle-Powered Ranged Weapon Table (p. 275) for details" (emphasis in the original in both cases). Martial Arts and Low-Tech reiterate this IIRC.

[Donny Brook]

Where are the rules that say how much a higher than listed ST for a bow affects its damage?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Where are the rules that say how much a higher than listed ST for a bow affects its damage?

They make it fairly clear that you only use the bow's ST for damage and range, so using having higher ST than the bow requires results in a bow that functions exactly like it would for someone who exactly matched its ST. Strongbow doesn't make any bow you pick up somehow stronger (although Weapon Master arguably does), rather it means you can use a stronger bow. So if you have Bow at sufficient level to get +2 ST from Strongbow, and you have ST 12 to start with, you can use up to an ST 14 bow.

As for exactly what effect using an ST 14 bow has over using an ST 12 one, a longbow for example deals thr+2 imp and has Range x15/x20. So an ST 14 bow does 1d+2 imp and has Range 210/280, while an ST 12 one only deals thr+1 imp and has Range 180/240.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Varyon

...
As for exactly what effect using an ST 14 bow has over using an ST 12 one, a longbow for example deals thr+2 imp and has Range x15/x20. So an ST 14 bow does 1d+2 imp and has Range 210/280, while an ST 12 one only deals thr+1 imp and has Range 180/240.

But where do those figures come from?

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

But where do those figures come from?

From the weapons tables that list the damage for each type of bow as thr+?, and general damage rules for muscle-powered weapons are on B268 under "Damage". The rule regarding bows and crossbows using "their" ST is on B270 under "ST (Strength)" in the third column, the last paragraph of that section before "Bulk".

[Donny Brook]

OOOOOH! So you treat the ST assigned to the bow as if it were the ST score for a character to determine base damage?