Striking Strength For Bows?

[sjmdw45]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Even if you don't ascribe to that in general, a bow in particular is an oddity in muscle powered weapons. In effect, you aren't striking at the target (like you are with a punch, sword swing, or even a thrown rock). You are actually holding something back against resistance, and releasing it to hit the target with its own force.

I don't think anyone would argue that you suddenly use Striking ST to lift a weight, if your intention is to drop it on someone's foot.

If there were a race of cat people for example who have strong muscles which tire easily, so that they can pull powerful bows but can't handle walking around in thick plate armor, I'd model that with Striking ST.

These cats could pick up a big rock just long enough to fling it at you but couldn't hold it overhead for sixty seconds, only one or two.

[tbone]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Strongbow is from Martial Arts first I think and from there into PU@:Perks. It's definitely not restricted to the DF line.

Good find. You're right, it goes back to MA.

Originally Posted by infornic

Sticking with official rules, Striking ST for one attack only is a -60% limitation. So increased ST for bows only would be Striking ST (Bows only, -60%) or 2 points per +1 ST. As noted, it would make sense to take the Strongbow Perk first.

Tangent: Striking ST (One Attack Only) gets you twice as much boost from a swung attack than from a thrust attack. If the selected one attack is thrust, I wouldn't mind seeing that -60% become -70% or even -80%.

In the end, I like Lifting ST as the trait that aids bow-pulling (and crossbow-cranking, and halberd hefting, and all that), with single-purpose use discounted at whatever lets "+1 ST with bows" have a cost of [1], which would replace Strongbow. But that's going off into the world of "here's how I would do things...", so we can set that aside.