Quick Question - rules for heavy bows

[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?

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by 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?

Exactly. (And likewise for the bow's range.)

[Farmer]

Originally Posted by 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?

For crossbows yes, all the time, since you lock them at full draw. For other bows, only if you have sufficient ST to draw it up to that (extra effort, time, etc. can compensate as normal).

The various perks and such allow you to exceed your regular ST to match the bow without extra effort and time and such.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Farmer

For crossbows yes, all the time, since you lock them at full draw. For other bows, only if you have sufficient ST to draw it up to that (extra effort, time, etc. can compensate as normal).

The various perks and such allow you to exceed your regular ST to match the bow without extra effort and time and such.

For other bows, lacking sufficient ST (after accounting for traits like Arm ST and Strongbow and options like Extra Effort) means you simply can't use them. Yeah, realistically you'll be able to pull the string part of the way back, but from my understanding, unless the bow is specifically designed to have multiple points of release, the result is probably going to be worse than if you just grabbed the arrow and chucked it like an oversized dart.