Oil and arrows.

[Niessen]

I've looked in the forums a bit and I've seen a few threads like this. In the days of bows and arrows archers would use oil to light their arrows aflame. There are a lot of quests with undead who have damage reduction, and I have not really seen any real way for an archer to be effective against them :(

Would it be too much to add an Oil and torch item to  add like 1d4 fire damage to our arrows for a couple turns?

[Random_White_Guy]

Alchemist Fire on Arrows, Like Darkfire on gloves

RwG Approves.

[9lives]

Archers firing burning arrows would normally be stationary, pulling their arrows from a brazier or somesuch.

[PanamaLane]

I agree, or at least more +1dmg type arrows in general. They should be easy to locate and plentiful (especially like +1 fire arrows) if not moderately expensive. Like 100gp/quill?

[Niessen]

No, No.

I am not talking about +1 damage arrows. Those are neat, but horrible in the long run. Melee weapons can be enchanted to peirce damage reduction, be given like 1d4 + 3-6 fire damage, can be given magical damage with divine favor, and can be enchanted with deafening clang and bless weapon.  

What do arrows get that boosts them?  

Bard song, 18 seconds of poison weapon, divine might, and divine favor.  Does anybody else see the horrible imbalance here? +1 damage is neat, but it is nowhere near good enough.  Yes there is the fact that archers have less overall risk and use less supplies because they are not being constantly beaten with a sword :(   However that extra bit of safety doesn't really count for anything when you can only do 1 damage with arrows that are really hard to find. Sure there is other ways to be useful on quests, but I think archers shouldn't be completely imbalanced like this :(

[lovethesuit]

How about if you're shooting while next to a campfire you get fire bonus damage.

[Letsplayforfun]

There's lots of magical flamme arrows out there. I see them left on the ground after party sharing a lot.

Arrows don't need boost, because their main advantage is to be able to pick off opponents at range, and thus, avoid blows. If warriors used ranged weapons before engaging melee, they probably would take down one opponent before close up...

[Egon the Monkey]

Wouldn't work, LTS. You can't make fires in Quest Areas.

Letsplayforfun, the reason people leave them is that Fire Arrows never stack with each other, or at least not to stack sizes of more than 10. It makes them a bugger to reload, since the combat AI is likely to load something else.

IMO, the way to even things out against undead is quite simple:
Make Holy Water Bullets Ridiculously Common. Instead of dropping 20-30,make them drop full stacks of 99 and have them drop pretty much everywhere. Makes sense, if the Netheril had defence caches in case of Nightrisers Gone Bad.

Those bullets can do an effective amount of damage vs undead, even if you have to swap your normal weapon for a sling to use them.

There's plenty of magic weapon loot about for melee emergencies, but precious little for ranged weapons. Purple Crystal Arrows are even rarer and fewer in number, but, as I hear, more powerful.

And yes, I know about the Jergali Crossbow. It's nice loot, but the fact is that most undead have Piercing Immunity, so it's still rather crap for Risers, Mummies, Skeletons....

[The Beggar]

I think it would work mobile only if you set your archer on fire with the combust spell while saving the bow with a protection from elements.

That would be cool. Or hot.

That's my comic relief. I wouldn't mind seeing increased stacks of consumables. Seems many of the cool ones (darts especially) drop with only 1-3 (silver darts, sleep darts with low DC, etc) making them almost impracticle to use as you loose a round switching to another weapon to continue firing. I'm not saying make DR passing arrows or bullets commonplace, but perhaps increase the number you get from a drop to a useful level. You burn through them pretty fast anyways.

[Egon the Monkey]

Actually, now that I think about it, there's one quest drop that can always bypass Nightriser DR and Dmg immunity, a +1AB vs undead mace. And that will never wear out. We need a ranged equivalent. Possibly Extra Ranged Damage: Bludgeoning on the Jergali Crossbow?

The best ranged weapons for DR beating currently are the +1 Darts or Throw Axes you can find on a quest. The darts at least are something a Rogue can stockpile for PVP/Blurred foes. Except... they bounce off Undead Dmg Immunity. Really, it's Undead that are impossible for archers. So, Bludgeoning Arrows in stacks of 99 would be good for a start. As would Bludgeoning Bolts. Or, say, Arrows of Disruption, +1d6 Positive Energy Damage vs Undead. Like Silver Arrows. And please, big stacks that actually are useful...

Actually, the best solution would be to fiddle Magic Weapon to work on Bows/Slings/Crossbows to add +1AB like it does for gloves.

[Cruzel]

Yes there is the fact that archers have less overall risk and use less supplies because they are not being constantly beaten with a sword :sad:   However that extra bit of safety doesn't really count for anything when you can only do 1 damage with arrows

Arrows don't need boost, because their main advantage is to be able to pick off opponents at range, and thus, avoid blows.

Lol @ people stating a point that has already been debunked.

[PanamaLane]

The thing about nwn questing is that everyone wants to feel useful. We've identified the problem, archers are useless against enemies with DR. We've proposed some solutions:

more +1dmg arrows
more +dmg type bludgeoning arrows
more +1 arrows
allow magic weapon to work on arrows
allow darkfire/alchemists fire to work with arrows

I think the real solution is to open an archery "shop". If people really want better arrows, then they should save up and buy them. A quiver of flame arrows, pretty commonplace. A quiver of +1 arrows, common but expensive. A quiver of +1d4 arrows or similar, rare (stacks of 30) and very costly.

"we go to fight x,"
"Oh? I'll just stop buy and get some +x arrows then"

[Niessen]

The problem panama is that +1 arrows in EFU are just +1 damage. They don't pierce DR :(

Opening a shop where archers have to spend money constantly is kind of a poor solution, unless these special arrows cost like 30-40 for a stack of 99 :(  The real solution is more magic being castable on arrows and/or bows, more special long/short bows and heavy/small crossbows, or loot that can improve arrows like other loot can improve weapons. :(