Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons are all weapons that use a base launcher of some sort to hurl ammo at a target. Generally, there are two types of these weapons in GemStone IV: a bow and a crossbow.

Bow have a FIRE roundtime determined by the base roundtime subtracted by one's strength bonus divided by ten. So, in order to get a 3 second RT using a long bow, the archer needs a strength bonus of 40. The strength bonus takes into account spells, enhancives, and Surge of Strength. Sniping (shooting a target from hiding) and aiming (using the aim verb with the option of anything but random) each add one second to the shooter's roundtime. These are cumulative, so a shot with a long bow from hiding that is aiming at the left eye will incur a nine second roundtime when shooting without any strength bonus. The minimum firing roundtime is 3 seconds, including if sniping/aiming.

Crossbows must be COCKed and LOADed before firing. Both cocking and firing incur roundtime. Cocking has a base roundtime of 6 seconds for light crossbows and 9 seconds for heavy crossbows and is reduced by the strength bonus divided by ten; however, in practice there is often some random variation that adds extra roundtime. The base firing time for crossbows is a flat 2 seconds, plus an additional second each for sniping/aiming. Crossbow firing roundtime is not affected by strength.

Max Ranks and Training Point costs

Type	Square			Semi			Pure
Profession	Rogue	Warrior	Monk	Bard	Paladin	Ranger	Cleric	Empath	Savant	Sorcerer	Wizard
Max Ranks Per Level	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	-	1	1
Training Point Cost	3/1	2/1	4/1	4/2	6/2	3/1	9/3	14/3	-	14/3	14/3

Damage Factors and Attack versus Defense

Weapon	AG	Cloth	Leather				Scale				Chain				Plate				RT	Min RT	Damage Type	STR/DU
	AsG	1	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Short bow	DF	.325	.225				.275				.250				.100				5	3	Puncture/Slash	35/180
	AvD	20	27	26	25	24	20	18	16	14	31	27	23	19	27	21	15	9
Composite bow	DF	.350	.300				.325				.275				.150				6	3	Puncture/Slash	50/225
	AvD	25	35	34	33	32	30	28	26	24	42	38	34	30	36	30	24	18
Long bow	DF	.400	.325				.350				.300				.175				7	3	Puncture/Slash	60/315
	AvD	25	33	32	31	30	29	27	25	23	42	38	34	30	38	32	26	20
Hand crossbow	DF	.275	.225				.250				.190				.135				4	4	Puncture/Slash	50/285
	AvD	20	26	25	24	23	20	18	16	14	34	30	26	22	27	21	15	9
Light crossbow	DF	.350	.300				.325				.275				.150				6	4	Puncture/Slash	50/285
	AvD	25	31	30	29	28	25	23	21	19	39	35	31	27	32	26	20	14
Heavy crossbow	DF	.425	.325				.375				.285				.175				7	5	Puncture/Slash	60/315
	AvD	30	36	35	34	33	31	29	27	25	46	42	38	34	40	34	28	22

Arrow/Bolt Tips

As per the recent archery updates, you may now add different arrow/bolt tip types to your bundles to adjust how they perform under different circumstances.

In order to do so, you must have 400 ranks in the fletching skill. Hold 10 of the tip type you wish to add in the LEFT HAND and a bundle of the bolt/arrows you wish to modify in the RIGHT HAND. Type FLETCH TIP and it will ask you if you wish to confirm, warning you that all changes are permanent and the damage type will be changed from its current type to the new type. Type FLETCH TIP once more to continue.

A table outlining the four arrow/bolt tip types and how they adjust your arrow or bolt:

Tip	DF Bonus/Penalty	AvD Bonus/Penalty	Damage Type
Broadhead (Default)	.000	0	Puncture/Slash
Blunt	-.050	+10	Unbalance
Bodkin Point	See below	+5 vs Chain/Plate	Puncture/Slash
Crescent	.000	0	Slash/Puncture

In the case of the bodkin point, the exact DF changes are as follows: Cloth -0.050, Leather -0.025, Scale -0.010 Chain +0.025, Plate +0.015

As you can see, this makes the bodkin point superior to a normal arrow tip against chain and plate, but worse against scale and lower.

Attack Strength

Ranged attack strength formula:

AS

=

Dexterity bonus + Ranged Weapons skill + Truncate[(Perception ranks - 40)/4] + Truncate[(Ambushing ranks - 40)/4] + (Bow enchant + Arrow enchant) + crossbow kneeling bonus

Perception + Ambushing ranks - Perception only gives additional AS up to 2x ranks per level, even if a character can train more ranks or uses skill enhancive items. For example, at level 50, up to 102 ranks in Perception will count towards ranged AS. The bonus from Ambush can exceed 2x with enhancives.

Note that the -40 to ranks in the formula never results in a negative number. The bonus does not start till you have 40 ranks in either.

Bow enchant + Arrow enchant - Previously to the ranged changes, the enchant on the arrow stacked with the enchant on the bow up to 10x. Except in the case of special quivers and bows, this is no longer case. Now the entire enchant comes from the bow itself. Those with 500 ranks in fletching can give their bundle of ammo +5 AvD for 100 shots, once per hour. To do this, hold the ammo bundle you wish to modify in your RIGHT HAND and type FLETCH MASTER.

Kneeling bonus - While firing a light or heavy crossbow, kneeling or lying down adds +30 AS. Note: This bonus does NOT apply to the hand crossbow.

Critical Weighting

Critical weighting is applied to ranged attacks using the formula: trunc((INT + WIS) / 6). The following table shows the aforementioned relationship.

Intuition + Wisdom Bonus 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72 78 84 90 96 Critical Weighting 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Aiming

The chance to hit the left or right eye of a target is capped at 75%. Characters can achieve this through skill alone at or near level cap.

Resources

• The Art of the Bow: Guide
• List of woods
• Puncture critical table
• Sighting
• Starchitin's rogue sniper guide
• Saved posts
• Missile Weapons, on Play.net
• Officials folder
• The Archery Haven guide, on Archeryhaven.com
• QRS Script, on GSGuide.net