Talk:Bow-Sword (3.5e Equipment)

Explaining a few things

Hokay so I thought I might explain a couple of the...oddities of the page so I can get some thought and input on them. First the critical, for a weapon that so easily switches between different methods of attacking without really sacrificing damage it seemed logical to some how lower the weapon's effectiveness. Flavour wise this can easily be explained in that the handling of the weapon is so complex and difficult that attempting to hit a critical area with some effectiveness is difficult at best. Second the feat, when I was making note for the weapon it came to me as an interesting way of role-playing and flavouring the weapon would be to require that on top of the usual exotic weapon proficiency users would need the two-handed fighting & Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Double ended sword. (Xenicaz 8:00AM 08/03/2013(UTC-5))

Even blunt spoon gets a x2 critical modifier, so make it that. There are other weapon traits you can pick to represent "hard to handle".

Here's how to handle the feats:

"The bow-sword is so complex that it cannot be wielded at all without the appropriate feat (Exotic Weapon Proficiency [Bow-Sword]). In addition, the wielder must have proficiencies in Composite Bow, Long Sword and Double Sword to use the bow-sword in those respective forms without taking a non-proficiency penalty to hit."

"The bow-sword is treated as a composite bow, long sword or double sword with respect to feats when it is in the appropriate form."

There's no need to make two-weapon fighting a prerequisite feat, as the wielder will presumably take the appropriate penalties if they do not have that feat.

And for crafting:

"Crafting a bow-sword requires both Craft [Weaponsmithing] and Craft [Bowmaking], using the lower of the two skills."

You'll need to come up with some gp value for crafting to work.

You also need to make this an attractive option compared to just buying a bow and a pair of swords (or double sword), especially since the critical is so low and it requires an additional feat.

Hope that helps. Marasmusine (talk) 08:23, 8 March 2013 (MST)

Okay, with respect to giving this an "attractive option", I've added the "mixed style" to those proficient. The main benefit would be if the wielder kills a creature in melee and still has attacks left - they can then switch to ranged attacks in mid full-attack.

I bet you didn't consider how complicated your bow-sword would be when it comes to crafting a magical version, eh? :) It is effectively a triple-headed weapon, which the rules do not explicitly cover. I've added a paragraph on how this might work. Rather than treating the "bow" as a whole extra "head", I've made it inherit the properties of the heads. Marasmusine (talk) 02:31, 13 March 2013 (MDT)

I found a really nice image of a bow sword on diviantart I should ask permission first before I put it up correct? Xenicaz 0130 EST March 14th

If it's small enough (less than 300 px width) we can directly link to it, or we can directly link to DA's thumbnail image. The image is most likely under copyright and we would need permission to actually copy it here. Have a quick look on Flickr too, it's a bit easier to link to that site. Marasmusine (talk) 01:23, 14 March 2013 (MDT)