composite longbow with low strength

[drunkenmountainmonk]

new at this so be kind :)

creating a rogue character from a pixie, it only has strength 8 so -1 mod.

i was wondering if the neg modifyer would apply to the composite longbow considering the statment below from the core book.

'Strength Bonus: When you hit with a melee or thrown
weapon, including a sling, add your Strength modifier to
the damage result. A Strength penalty, but not a bonus,
applies on damage rolls made with a bow that is not a
composite bow.'

cheers :)

[LazarX]

You factor in the strength penalty for all bows, composite or otherwise. You simply don't have the strength to draw it as it needs to be.

Remember that the Bestiary has all this factored out... hence the -2 on damage for the standard str7 pixie. Yours is obviously the muscleman of the species.

of course the point of the pixie's bow shooting isn't really the damage it does....

[Thod]

Actually a composite longbow with strength 8 is worse as in addition to a -1 damage you get a -2 penalty on attacks as you are not proficient with it.

I think this is the reason of the strange wording as it wouldn't make sense to use a composite longbow with a strength below 10 as you are always non-proficient with the bow due to lack of strength.

[drunkenmountainmonk]

LazarX wrote:

You factor in the strength penalty for all bows, composite or otherwise. You simply don't have the strength to draw it as it needs to be.

thanks. i just get confused by the way its written sometimes. i was thinking you might be able to adjust the bow so it was -1 rated so it gave no penalty. in a similar way to adding +1 to allow the strength bonus. just my reasoning, guess its defunct lol

[Elven_Blades]

drunkenmountainmonk wrote:

new at this so be kind :)

creating a rogue character from a pixie, it only has strength 8 so -1 mod.

i was wondering if the neg modifyer would apply to the composite longbow considering the statment below from the core book.

'Strength Bonus: When you hit with a melee or thrown
weapon, including a sling, add your Strength modifier to
the damage result. A Strength penalty, but not a bonus,
applies on damage rolls made with a bow that is not a
composite bow.'

cheers :)

Compsite bows can be made with a strength rating (known as Mighty Composite Bows). These bows allow you to add your Str modifier to damage, up too the rating on the bow. They also apply a damage penalty for not having enough Str.

Specifically, if you read the entry for compsite longbow in the equipment section, it says "if you have a penalty for low Str score, apply it to damage rolls". Composite just let's you take advantage of a high Str score for extra damage.

The section you quoted is refuring only to regular (not composite) bows.

[Elven_Blades]

drunkenmountainmonk wrote:

LazarX wrote:

You factor in the strength penalty for all bows, composite or otherwise. You simply don't have the strength to draw it as it needs to be.

thanks. i just get confused by the way its written sometimes. i was thinking you might be able to adjust the bow so it was -1 rated so it gave no penalty. in a similar way to adding +1 to allow the strength bonus. just my reasoning, guess its defunct lol

Nope, lowest a comp. Bow can be is +0. Only goes up. I think reading the entry in equipment section would give the most clarity.

[drunkenmountainmonk]

cheers for the clarification. tbh it was more a hope more than anything.
any suggestions for a good ranged weapon.
the pixie has the feats point-blank shot, precise shot and rapid shot.
i guess normal longbow and hope for sneak attack damage?

[joeyfixit]

Elven_Blades wrote:

drunkenmountainmonk wrote:

new at this so be kind :)

creating a rogue character from a pixie, it only has strength 8 so -1 mod.

i was wondering if the neg modifyer would apply to the composite longbow considering the statment below from the core book.

'Strength Bonus: When you hit with a melee or thrown
weapon, including a sling, add your Strength modifier to
the damage result. A Strength penalty, but not a bonus,
applies on damage rolls made with a bow that is not a
composite bow.'

cheers :)

Compsite bows can be made with a strength rating (known as Mighty Composite Bows). These bows allow you to add your Str modifier to damage, up too the rating on the bow. They also apply a damage penalty for not having enough Str.

Specifically, if you read the entry for compsite longbow in the equipment section, it says "if you have a penalty for low Str score, apply it to damage rolls". Composite just let's you take advantage of a high Str score for extra damage.

The section you quoted is refuring only to regular (not composite) bows.

Not my interpretation.

I went through this recently with a kobold alchemist with super high Dex, strength 7. Basically he'll take a penalty with any long or short bow, but with non-composite the -2 penalty is to damage rolls (with a minimum of 1, albeit nonlethal), whereas with Composite bows the penalty is to attack rolls.

Basically the way it seems to work is that the composites are so hard to pull that if you do manage to get it done (taking that negative penalty to your attack), you get the regular damage, albeit without any strength modifier that the bow might have (which would also, I believe, increase the attack roll penalty).

A longbow, on the other hand, isn't that hard to pull, but if you're weak the arrow won't shoot into the bad guy as hard.

I decided to go with longbow because I don't care about the damage penalty, the arrows only serve as a poison delivery device.

For your pixie, you might consider a repeating crossbow. Rapid shot means you get your full attacks per round with no penalty, but only 5 bolts before you have to spend a full round action to reload. You're going to need to sink a feat to get proficient, a second if you want weapon focus, a third for Rapid Reload to get that full round down to a move. Pretty sure a Repeating Heavy will give you d6 damage for a tiny critter, which beats the longbow's d4.

You can get around the proficiency feat by sinking an equipment trait into it, but bear in mind that this only works for that specific weapon, so you might invest a few skill points into craft: repeating crossbow to keep it from breaking. Or you could dip into Inquisitor, which you probably don't want to do as a rogue.

EDIT: Looked over the composite longbow entry again; I guess you're right- the penalty applies to both attack and damage.

[Compubacter]

Which is why crossbows are superior in the case of high dex and low strength. Better yet, as a rogue you should flank for sneak attack with a melee weapon.

[Shifty]

As noted in the Pixie stat block from the bestiary, a normal Pixie with a Longbow is 1d6-2. Remember that a hit doing 0 damage still applies 1 point of non-lethal, which will still 'add up' if that makes sense.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/fey/pixie