Powerbows Power Combat

psychoph

psychoph

Member
Powerbows as artifacts seem like they aren't that great, so i am assuming I am missing something.


They give no speed bonus, only a +2 accuracy, and only do 2L for the shortbow.  Main drawback I see i their rate is 2, which means you only get two attacks max with extra actions.  There is the bonus that they half soak for armor, but you got to hit first.


So what am I missing?
 
There's no Strength maximum.


Normal bows have a fixed Strength. Boost your Strength from 4 to 8 with Increasing Strength Exercise? Tough shit. Your regular bow is still going to use a max of 4. Your powerbow, however, will even accomodate your Deadly Beastman's 16 Strength pool.


Also, powerbows have hearthstone sockets.


-S
 
psychoph said:
Powerbows as artifacts seem like they aren't that great, so i am assuming I am missing something.
They give no speed bonus, only a +2 accuracy, and only do 2L for the shortbow.  Main drawback I see i their rate is 2, which means you only get two attacks max with extra actions.  There is the bonus that they half soak for armor, but you got to hit first.


So what am I missing?
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Well, powerbows also have a small range advantage over mundane bows, and you must remember to factor in the magical materials bonus - All the MM bonuses for ranged weapons are actually pretty neat.


That said, I generally prefer to use other weapons. Under power combat, the charms Immaculate Golden Bow (for solars) or Exquisite Relic Bow (for abyssals) totally kick the ass of a powerbow. Under non-power combat they're both reasonable alternatives.


If you have insane levels of resourses (I'm looking at you here, Siderials with the Salary background) using a 'perfect' (as detailed in the Players Guide) longbow or composite bow may be an option if your storyteller permits. The stats on then will be only slightly worse than a starmetal powerbow, and you don't have to mess around with siddies truely awful artifact background.


Lunas Probably do want to use a powerbow, for the afore mentioned maximum strength reasons.


Terrestrials get the short end of the stick, as always. Exceptional or Perfect mundane weapons are again a good thing to look into. The jade MM bonus for weapons adds a point of rate, which is very nice, and 'Swallow Defends the Nest' is quite possibly the best archery extra action charm in print.
 
It may be true that bows generally are mechanically inferior to other weapons, but it must also be taken into consideration, that an archer usually is at a great range from his target and thus can kick ass mightily without anyone doing much about it.
 
Ormseitr said:
It may be true that bows generally are mechanically inferior to other weapons, but it must also be taken into consideration, that an archer usually is at a great range from his target and thus can kick ass mightily without anyone doing much about it.
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Or, at the very least, "puncture" said "ass"


~FC.
 
I had always operated under the assumption that the damage of a powerbow stacks with that of the arrow type being fired, which isn't at all shabby, for the aforementioned "reach out and perforate someone" reason.


Perfect broadhead arrows anyone?
 
ImaginalDisc said:
I had always operated under the assumption that the damage of a powerbow stacks with that of the arrow type being fired
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You have assumed correctly.


-S
 
I've seen bows used to devastating effect, at least pre-power combat.  We had a player who's character had a level 4 or 5 artifact powerbow which (if I remember correctly) halved magical armor soak and ignored regular armor soak.  Combine that with the increased range of a powerbow and it was insane.    


Bows may not have awesome speed or insane damage bonuses... but they make up for it with range.  Powerbows are even better, as has been mentioned, with them adding to strength, rather than capping it at 3 or 4 or whatnot.  


They may not be the massive damage-dealers that daiklaves are, but they can still be incredibly good primary weapons.  I'm not sure I can say the same thing for throwing knives or some of the other throwing weapons.  We had one character who's primary weapons were throwing knives... he never managed to do much of anything.  Although that was, in part, the player himself.  He was expecting to do massive damage... and didn't want to buy charms.  He never really got the grasp of Exalted.  


Ok... throwing knives could be effective primary weapons... as long as the player knows how to use them correctly.
 
The only artifact Throw weapon I know of is the Infinite Jade Chakram thing Air Dragon Style uses. I think that really hurt Throw, and I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a supplemental ability, and not your primary mode of defense. I think the Dragon Blooded errata even makes some joke about Air Aspect DBs deserving some slack because they got Throw as their combat ability (implying, of course, that Throw bites).
 
Ok think about it this way, your powerbow has a range of let's say 250 here ok, the average movement during combat is what like 30 feet or less....ok then how many arrows could you not shoot before some even got close to you? Do you see where I'm going with this? You see range is for the win.
 
Umni said:
Ok think about it this way, your powerbow has a range of let's say 250 here ok, the average movement during combat is what like 30 feet or less....ok then how many arrows could you not shoot before some even got close to you? Do you see where I'm going with this? You see range is for the win.
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That's made even more powerful by the fact that 250 is merely the range increment. The bow can actually fire out to three times that distance.


-S
 
DarkProphet said:
I've seen bows used to devastating effect, at least pre-power combat.  We had a player who's character had a level 4 or 5 artifact powerbow which (if I remember correctly) halved magical armor soak and ignored regular armor soak.  Combine that with the increased range of a powerbow and it was insane.    
Bows may not have awesome speed or insane damage bonuses... but they make up for it with range.  Powerbows are even better, as has been mentioned, with them adding to strength, rather than capping it at 3 or 4 or whatnot.  


They may not be the massive damage-dealers that daiklaves are, but they can still be incredibly good primary weapons.  I'm not sure I can say the same thing for throwing knives or some of the other throwing weapons.  We had one character who's primary weapons were throwing knives... he never managed to do much of anything.  Although that was, in part, the player himself.  He was expecting to do massive damage... and didn't want to buy charms.  He never really got the grasp of Exalted.  


Ok... throwing knives could be effective primary weapons... as long as the player knows how to use them correctly.
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Then he needs the sling of deadly proress, found in the Night Caste book. It has an accuracy of +1, and a damage of +4L, and a rate of 2, with a range of 150. And it uses the 5MM bonus of powerbows. Has an attunement of 3 motes. It REALLY rocks as a thrown weapon at artifact 1.


You might want to point out Cascade of Cutting terror to him... and tell him... Double your die pool and can not be dodged at all. That usually gets people's attentions... when they work out that this translates to an insane attack die pool and if the target tried to dodge, they tend to suffer... alot.
 
BTW- can anyone tell me why there's no speed-rating with ranged weapons? I'm pretty shure I knew it once but I didn't do much in Exalted the past couple of years.
 
My guess would be that in power combat speed applies basically to reach of a weapon.  Bows and slings have no reach at least no more than your normal fist does, which doesn't get a speed bonus, as such the weapons weren't given a speed because your never going to use them in hand to hand combat.
 
If you want to see what a person can do with a bow, try watching the movie 'Hero'.  There you see a company of archers devistate a town by simple saturation firing.  In the hands of a Exalt, a powerbow can do that and more.
 
Top that off with some Solar goodness, (Namely Inexhaustible Bolts of Solar Fire from CB: Dawn and Arrow Storm Technique from the main book) and youre knocking whole armies off in a round or 2. No range or wind penalties, infinite ammo of your choice, and a single attack against everyone in range (750 yards) at your full pool so long as you hit. Sure it may have a problem once you hit actual exalts, but every mortal in range is gonna be feeling pretty shot up after that.


And powerbows have what problem again?
 
psychoph said:
...which means you only get two attacks max with extra actions...
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While everything else has been said I thought it prudent to point out that this is absurd.  Rate is a trait that determines how many times you can make use of the weapon's combative functions without the use of Charms.  Extra Action Charms negate Rate ratings (guh I hate saying those two words one after the other) for the purpose of shooting, hitting, or otherwise slashing.
 
Thing is, as an artifact, the bow really doesn't compare to the daiklave, unless you take into consideration the circumstances you use them under.  If you're using daiklaves you always, unless you're using charms, have to be in range of the enemies fists at least, wheras with a powerbow you could be firing from something like 900 yards away and the enemy could be filled with something like 30 arrows (if you're just firing 1 per turn) by the time he reaches you.  Unless he's attacking you with a bow then he's gonna be pretty dead by the time he's stumbles over to you and falls to your feet, bleeding profusely.


Also, you've got to remember that with a bow you can be picking off enemies from a good way away, out of the way of the dangers of combat, while your circlemates are actually in the fray stopping them from hitting you.  Whilst standing next to someone and firing a bow in his face probably isn't the best idea, there are a load of other, not directly mechanical, benefits.
 
Also, in the Dawn Caste book, there is a charm that for 10 motes gives you unlimited ammo of what ever kind of arrows you want.  If your opponent is a few hundred yards away you can split your dice pool to spray enough arrows that your target will be seriously hurt or dead and you haven't even broken a fingernail.
 
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