GameBanshee Forums

I never did, exept Jan in the beginning, but let him switch to shortbow asap.
Did anyone ever used a crossbow, and did you thnk ther better then bows or not?

Bows are better, they are much faster.
Crossbows do more dammage but they are far to slow and there aren't really great crosbows.

Btw Jan is one of my extra tanks
i gave him 2 shortswords (backstabbing and the one that gives free action while equiped)
with spells like Stone Skin, Mirror Image, Fire Shield Red, and Blur he can do quite some dammage. the fact he has the gridle of 19 strenght gives also a nice effect. .

Bows have a higher rate of fire and are, over all, a better choise. If you have to choose, that is. I like to use them both, everybody using the same kind of weapon is pretty boring. Also, the Heavy Cross Bow of Accuracy is excellent even though it could be found already in BG1 (those poor noble brothers died all the time... )

I use a crossbow with Keldorn. 2 attacks per round and the one i use (loot from the Fallen Paladin IIRC) gives +5 to THAC0 and Keldorn has two ++ in crossbows so it works well.

I prefer bow though

I don't think any of my (N)PCs except Keldorn has ever used Crossbows. They are just too slow for my liking.

Used the light crossbow, the one you get in Nalia's castle.
But they are slow.
Plus if you have the heartseeker, eleven bow and tugain bow.
You really don't need a cross bow.
Plus then you get the mana bow and gesen bow in the later chapters.

double post.

[ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: Fas ]

About crossbows and Keldorn
I went on a sopping spree in the adventurer's mart and got him the giant hair crossbow +3, wit +1 bolts he does INSANE amounts of damage (over 20 per hit) and for speed, I invest in 2 handed eapon style (for Carsomyr if nothing else)

IMO, both Crossbows and Long Bows are as they say "Same ****, Different Smell"

Both equiped with arrows or bolts of biting are very, very useful. Especially against mages with no missle protection.

One thing though, the arrows of detonation, why In gods name are they not included in BG2? I abosutely loved them in BG1. I took out Sarevok and everyone of his allies. With 6 people using these arrows, and one main guy with a -11 AC to take incoming melee attacks, It absolutely owned!

Originally posted by ReignsOfPower:
<STRONG>One thing though, the arrows of detonation, why In gods name are they not included in BG2? I abosutely loved them in BG1. I took out Sarevok and everyone of his allies. With 6 people using these arrows, and one main guy with a -11 AC to take incoming melee attacks, It absolutely owned! </STRONG>

The Arrows of Detonation are still in BG2 albeit in very rare quantities... so far, I have only found 2 of these in 2 separate games both as random pieces of treasure (one from the shelf at the mephit room back at Irenicus' dungeon and the other one from a cowled wizard when I casted a spell in Athkatla).

I always thought bows were better, but that crossbow that RPGvault put out, firestorm, made me re-think that =). I mean, it was +4 and shot +2 fire arrows (no arrows needed) and speed factor 1. Damn sweet =).

[ 06-17-2001: Message edited by: Irenin ]

Xbows are better than bows if used by your main tanks, IMHO. Usually you can only get one shot off before enemies close on you and you have to switch to melee weapons, so why not get the one that does better damage in that single shot. Besides, if you get several characters with crossbows, you might not need a second shot. Bolts are fairly common, and the paralytic bolts in the Kuo-Toa dungeon are great. I echo the thoughts of others about the bolts of biting. Great and plentiful.