Couple of ???'s

[urdinaran]

I've been going over my player's characters for my upcoming campaign and have a couple of questions:

1. One of my players has an Aesir Barbarian, and under option #3 for equipment it says he may have a bow up to +2. Since he does'nt have any exotic bow proficiency, can he get a Hunting Bow +2 ??? I looked at the sidebar on strength ratings of bows but it's kinda vague.

2. Is it correct that a Leather Jerkin (10 sp, DR4) is cheaper than a Quilted Jerkin (45 sp, DR3)?

 

[Trodax]

1. One of my players has an Aesir Barbarian, and under option #3 for equipment it says he may have a bow up to +2. Since he does'nt have any exotic bow proficiency, can he get a Hunting Bow +2 ??? I looked at the sidebar on strength ratings of bows but it's kinda vague.

No, I'm pretty sure hunting bows don't have strength ratings. I agree that the sidebar is a bit confusing, but under the description of the various bows all of them, except for the hunting bow, say "this bow has a strength rating (see sidebar)". The hunting bow just says "if you have a strength penalty, apply it".

2. Is it correct that a Leather Jerkin (10 sp, DR4) is cheaper than a Quilted Jerkin (45 sp, DR3)?

Yeah, I guess so. The leather jerkin does have a -1 armour check penalty though, making it a bit less attractive.

Hope that helps.

 

[Bregales]

1. One of my players has an Aesir Barbarian, and under option #3 for equipment it says he may have a bow up to +2. Since he does'nt have any exotic bow proficiency, can he get a Hunting Bow +2 ??? I looked at the sidebar on strength ratings of bows but it's kinda vague.

No, I'm pretty sure hunting bows don't have strength ratings. I agree that the sidebar is a bit confusing, but under the description of the various bows all of them, except for the hunting bow, say "this bow has a strength rating (see sidebar)". The hunting bow just says "if you have a strength penalty, apply it".

Yeah, that sounds right to me. I don't remember bows being 'racial' weapons of the Aesir, you could change it to something else like an axe, sword or spear (I'm at work so I don't have access to the books, but they're pretty far north to be cutting and bowing wood. If he's doing the power metagamer search for maximum stats, then I'd just deny him a bow, but if he has an image of his guy with a bow then go with Trodax's reply and make it a hunting bow, no STR+; but whatever he wants is the main thing. :|

2. Is it correct that a Leather Jerkin (10 sp, DR4) is cheaper than a Quilted Jerkin (45 sp, DR3)?

Yeah, I guess so. The leather jerkin does have a -1 armour check penalty though, making it a bit less attractive.

Yeah, a quilted jerkin is sewn material, whereas leather is cut and tanned or boiled in oil. You're paying for more materials and cost of labor for a quilted jerkin, which also weighs less than leather 'cause it's padding instead of cured leather.

 

[Deadpool]

1. One of my players has an Aesir Barbarian, and under option #3 for equipment it says he may have a bow up to +2. Since he does'nt have any exotic bow proficiency, can he get a Hunting Bow +2 ??? I looked at the sidebar on strength ratings of bows but it's kinda vague.

It really doesn't specifically say that hunting bows have strength bonus (or not). I believe that you can make up your own house rules. I allow strength bonuses to all bows but some people may feel that the hunting bow is too primitive for strength bonuses

I agree with the other two responses on the quilted vs. Leather Jerkin in regards that it should cost more. Although I still think it is overpriced and should be up to you what price you want to give it. (You control the economics in the game).

 

[urdinaran]

Thanks for the responses. As for the Leather Jerkin, I just figured that that since it was a better piece of armor it would cost more. I don't know much about leatherworking, but I know it does involve some smelly chemical, and generally raw leather costs more than cloth.

I think what I will do is allow the PC to swap out the armor and thus keep/spend the difference in silver.

 

[René]

AE p.131 2nd line:

"All bows have strength ratings, selected at the time the bow is made."

And besides rule quotations: why shouldn't an e.g. Pictish (=hunting) bow have a strength rating? The Picts can use harder wood for stronger bows.

 

[Trodax]

AE p.131 2nd line:

"All bows have strength ratings, selected at the time the bow is made."

And besides rule quotations: why shouldn't an e.g. Pictish (=hunting) bow have a strength rating? The Picts can use harder wood for stronger bows.

Yeah, I agree that allowing hunting bows to have a strength rating would probably be a fair and good ruling (since without it, they suck major a*s). I'll probably allow it in my future games.

However, I'm not so sure thats how its meant to be according to the rules (not saying that should dictate how you play your game, though :wink: ).

I've stated before (http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6441&highlight=hunting+bow+strength) why I think this is so:

I always assumed that they do not add a strength bonus. Not sure if that's because I read it somewhere in the rules, or because of having played D&D in the past (composite versus normal bows).

However, having leafed through my books, I've found two things that would indicate that my assumption was correct.

For one, as you said, the weapon descriptions of all the regional bows state that they have a strength rating, while the description of the hunting bow only says "if you have a strength penalty, apply it to damage".

Secondly, the writeup of picts in AtTR (and in the Core book) don't have strength bonuses added to their hunting bow damage. Strangely though, some of the picts in AtTR have strength bonus added to AP.... :?

I haven't thought about this before, but now that you've mentioned it, I almost feel inclined to houserule that hunting bows do have strength ratings. Without it, it is a pretty crappy weapon.