Making Bows More Interesting

Now that we have established that a “Round” zips by at the speed it must and no zippier, let’s talk about rate of fire. And while we’re at it, let’s jazz up conventional bows a bit.

In CHAINMAIL, archers who were not disturbed and did not make a move were awarded two attacks in a Round. In fact in 1st edition AD&D gives the bow’s ROF as 2:1.

Remember how we were saying archers were pretty speedy even in the chaos of a melee? Let’s give the bowman 2:1 under ideal circumstances. Those circumstances are: not making a move and not being engaged in melee. So under those conditions he’s whizzing off two good shots a Round.

But what if he is being engaged in melee?

That’s bad. Not only is he only firing off one shot, but he should have some other penalties to compensate for his speedy delivery.

How about one arrow, at -4 to hit, and also -2 to AC because he’s jostling for the shot? And furthermore he can’t attempt a point-blank shot. That would be one way to go.

Another way would be to say he can’t get a shot off at all because he’s being harassed and has to fight for his life. I rather think this is the way to go. The archer has to toss his bow behind him and grab up a proper weapon to fend off an attacker. On the other hand, he can have a move.

Therefore we shall go with the second of these: no attacks and must defend, but still gets the move.

In my mind’s eye, I see this configuration encouraging formations where fighting-men, Demi-men and clerics would cover an angle of enemy attack to give the bowman two clear shots per round.

Crossbows would not work like this. First, crossbows take longer to load. Second, they can be used point-blank once loaded. So neither the bonuses or penalties of the bow would apply to crossbows.

What do you think?