How to "fix" bow DPS

[nateusmaximus]

Due to recent changes to ranged DPS - mostly affecting, and designed to affect, Inquisitive builds - long/shortbow DPS took some collateral damage. It was already sub-par compared to Mechanic builds using great crossbows or repeaters, Inquisitive builds using light or heavy crossbows, or even Arti builds using repeaters. I know the Devs are looking at ways to improve bow combat to bring it back on par with other forms of ranged combat, as they very successfully did with throwing knives/darts in the recent update. I have two suggestions toward this end, and I think the recent changes to throwing daggers/darts can serve as a model for one possible change.

Suggestion 1: The Simple Thrown Weapon Expertise feat, modeled on Shuriken Expertise, did a great job of making daggers and darts viable again. I think a feat version of this for bows (i.e. Bow Expertise) would be the simplest method of bringing bow combat back up to par. It wouldn't be OP, as even with the best-geared builds at end-game content it would only add approximately 1 arrow per shot. There is already an equivalent of Multitude of Missiles - Manyshot - so bow combat would then be roughly on-par with throwing weapons. Moreover, as with Simple Thrown Weapon Expertise and intelligence, there could be an enhancement option in the Falconry cores to convert the percent chance to proc an extra arrow to being based on the highest of wisdom or dexterity. Alternatively, a secondary effect added to Zen Archery could convert the percent chance to being wisdom based if wis is higher than dex. I think this would be a fair change because it wouldn't be free - it would require a feat slot to acquire, and as mentioned before, it wouldn't be OP, but only bring bows to a comparable level with the various xbow options, shuriken, and daggers/darts. Finally, this would be an easy change to implement since the code for Shuriken Expertise/Simple Thrown Weapon Expertise is already written and would only need to be adapted to bows.

Suggestion 2: Make the Rapid Reload feat apply to bows. The reload animation on bows has always been a substantial factor in limiting bow DPS and shortening that animation would go a long way to bringing it up to par. Rapid Reload successfully addresses that problem when it comes to crossbows, so why not simply have it work with bows too. Again, it wouldn't be a "freebie" to bow combatants. It would require a feat slot or a splash of Arti. Also, the degree of effect on reload speed could be dialed up or dialed down in its impact to bring bow DPS into line with other forms of ranged combat. This might require more coding to accomplish, but again, the basic Rapid Reload code is written and would just need to be made to work with bow animations.

Both of the above suggestions could work independently, or together, to bring bow combat up to par with other ranged options. Moreover, Suggestion 1 would only have a mild effect on DPS at low levels, escalating to its full impact in end-game, avoiding making bow combat OP in heroic content but making it end-game viable. Suggestion 2's degree of speed increase could be experimented with, and/or its degree of effect could be BaB dependent, also avoiding making it OP in heroic levels.

Thanks for your consideration! :-D


Bonus suggestion: Make Thrown Expertise feats for all of the throwing weapons - I would love to see a Throwing Axe/Hammer Expertise feat, and make a dwarf thrower.