"Bows, a comparison between Era and D&D " Topic

Old, but still interesting article here.

"As a game designer I want you to take full advantage of a bow's design to leverage the attributes and training of your character. You've trained your character, improved his attributes, now you want to see all this manifest itself in the adventure. Sounds fun? Read on.

I'm going to do a quick overview of the bow mechanics in D&D and how they're changed in Era to allow a more realistic experience and better character expression as a player. We'll be looking at the range, damage and firing rate of the longbow, short bow and composite bow.

D&D has four types of bows: short, short composite, long and long composite. The main difference is range and damage. The shortbow has a range between 60 and 70 ft while the longbow has a range of 100 to 110 ft. Damage is 1d6 for short and 1d8 for long. There are damage modifiers for strength that can be applied and a minimum strength to use a composite bow. If your character doesn't have sufficient strength the composite is used at -2 and the strength bonuses can only be applied composite bows. Finally I'd like to point out that they have a fixed amount of attacks per round. I play with 2 shots, other GMs may vary. Range affects aim and it's a to hit modifier…"
See more here.
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Bows have always been bad in D&D, with nothing like the real world deadliness they should have, but it could be argued the same applies to swords, etc.

All damage dumbed down to make a character 'heroic' as they fight, rewarding brute force, and capacity for absorbing damage, instead of skill at arms.

Yes, and all of that has migrated entirely into the mentality of 'puter game design. You watch your "hits" deplete as you fight, as if you/your character is some kind of "Energizer Bunny". The possibility of a single, fatal hit in the eye through your visor? None….

D&D uses the Battleship model of damage. You beat on the target until its "health bar" depletes as if people were Battleships that just absorb damage.

Its silly – always has been always will.

Columbia Games did a quite realistic medieval role playing game called "Harn" with good combat, armor and damage rules. It could have used a bit more playtesting but had the main points correct.

TomT

GURPS does a fairly decent job in my experience. Check out "The Deadly Spring" article sometime.

M.