The Hunting Shortbow deserves to be S-tier for a number of reasons: 1. It is the first magical bow encountered in the game with a +1 damage and +1 to attack rolls. 2. A free cast of Hunters Mark's adds significant damage in the early game and can be reapplied on targets a long as the wielder can maintain concentration on this spell. This ability is great for early game swords bards and lets them be almost as powerful as a level 2 ranger (for at least one fight). 3. The Feller of Monsters gives the holder advantage against Monstrosity enemies (of which there are a lot in Act 1). And it applies to ranged attacks, spell attacks, or melee attacks. For Wyll or Warlock Tav, this means getting advantage on Elderich Blast as early as level 3. For spell caster Tav, this means getting advantage with spell attack rolls. For Sorcerer Tav, this means having advantage on twinned spells. For Paladin Tav, this means having advantage when smiting Worgs, Minotaurs, Mimics, Harpies, Entercaps, Phase Spiders, and Bullettes (to list a few). And in the early game, casters and paladins don't have that many spell slots, so having advantage when spending these rare and precious resources is incredibly valuable. 4. The Hunting Shortbow will find a use in any party--either as a primary ranged weapon for an archer or as a stat stick buffing melee characters or spellcasters. And in many play throughs, it will be both. Great as a primary ranged weapon at the point in the game you get it, and probably the first magical weapon that becomes a hand-me-down that buffs non archers in Act 1.
Nearly 800 hours in. Almost never use it. Maybe a couple times per playthrough. Though, I only play tactician. If I was doing honor mode runs on repeat I may need to look for more combat edges.
1. Hunting shortbow is at least A tier because someone in the party always carries it for whole act 1 at least, for the passive. And usually uses hunters mark just because it's there. This bow is immensely helpful in saving poor Mirkon at once. 2. It's very easy to use Spellthief. Knock down one enemy with non-lethal attack and autocrit him from close range when the battle ends. Works every time. Don't know the tier, but it's quite good while your low level. 3. Gandrell crossbow funnily enough works with Destroy undead. If someone who carries it has destroy undead, you can cast crossbow skill and use arrow of many targets. This adds, let’s say, a respectable damage with a respectable damage type, although admittedly in a niche case.
One note on spell thief, if you decide to keep the wand that raises Connor at the end of the hag's lair you can use Connor for target practice before short rests to guarantee the free spell slot
you can actually just turn on non-lethal damage in the passives action tab as well and any mobs you killed via melee (since ranged and spells cant 'non-lethal') and then just swap the spelltheif around auto critting for their last bit of HP to restore slots. It's nice for an extra slot of bless or faerie fire every short rest so I really like it
Harold could be argued to deserve S tier (only for the endgame), because it allows your Swords Bard using the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel to cast their debilitating spell on a target that is very probably affected by Bane - all while synergizing with the Helmet of Arcane Acuity and the Arrows of Many Targets. I've found it very effective during my first (and successful) honor mode run. The Bow of the Banshee, somewhat similarly synergizes very well with a Battlemaster Fighter, because you can knock enemies prone while applying Fear to them. This makes them unable to get up, effectively taking them out of the fight for as long as you can keep pommeling them with arrows. It's not as strong, because the saving throw is worse, but it worked quite well on the dinosaurs for example.
You can find a heavy crossbow in The Grove, near Ethel and Dammon. As long as you get there before Aradin’s crew (who owns the stuff) it’s white labelled and free to take. Once they show up it turns red though.
If titanstring is not number one, there will be an uproar. Best bow, given in act1! Edit -> it's important to add, that the bonus is added an additional time if you use a special arrow.
Huh? Is it because of DRS from Tactician and Below? Does it work the same way in Honour mode, there is almost no stackable DRS left? It feel like a glitch.
@@nguyendi92 It works in Honor mode and gives the STR bonus to any special arrows damage, even Slaying Arrows. There are a few DRS left in Honor Mode, namely Craterflesh Gloves with Dolor Amarus weapons amd Magic Missile
Bane is something of an underrated effect, IMO. In addition to the -1d4 penalty to saving throws that you mentioned, it also gives enemies -1d4 on their attack rolls. That’s essentially 2.5 turns of reeling with no way for enemies to lose the debuff until it expires. The spell itself gets a bit of a hard time because it competes with bless and other early concentration spells, while also being pretty fiddly to target. Getting it passively on weapon attacks is great though, to the point that I think Harold can be worth considering over the Titanstring bow if you have a magic-heavy party. It makes spells easier to land and protects your casters from attacks.
I would pump Hunters to A because you get it so early and is very useful for melee fighters that quite often do not have a good use for BA yet (with permission of jump/shove). Plus, that kind of characters don't normally have a use for concentration, at least this early. You don't use the bow, just carry it, cast HM, enjoy the extra damage and repeat. It will be soon replaced, but for early fights 1d6 per attack can be very relevant
Hunters for a fighter is pretty solid. They're not using concentration, you can reapply the target, and their concentration checks are probably the best in the game. Pure utility, but really good.
neer misser and hellfire hand crossbows are actually great on a sorcerer, especially a fire sorcerer. put the light cantrip on one of them and equip coruscation ring and callous glow ring. now when you use the free once-per-short-rest scorching ray or magic missile, it instastacks 10 radiating orbs, plus all your cantrips and spells inflict radiating orbs aswell.
also spellsparkler adds a bunch of damage. and you can bonus action attack with the offhand crossbow which has a somewhat low hit chance but still pretty decent as it also does radiating orb...
Ne'er Misser saved my run. My swords Bard had it in main hand and was able to slashing flourish a certain mound in act 2 that was impervious to most of my other characters weapons.
imo bow of the banshee is s tier. insane synergy with arcane acuity, massive internal synergy on sb archer. the effect procs much more often than you'd think, even without acuity. frightening is super powerful and the added hitchance works wonders on sb where youre making a bunch of attacks per turn, which more than covers the missing damage, since most of your damage comes from sharpshooter anyways and increased consistency is always king. plus it lets you use bloodlust instead of hillgiant when compared to titanstring which again combos super well with the added hitchance. i dont think its an item you need to make a specialized build around at all, its just the natural BIS for sb archer until you get the deadshot.
It’s one of the best imo as well. Not only on bow builds but on menacing attack fighters and barbarians as a stat stick. It even holds up late game and is great for Hunter rangers with AoE frightened or edtritch knights with eldritch strike for added chance to proc. Even just throw it on another character if you have any party member that inflicts frightened at all like a goo warlock and suddenly that party member has a meaningfully higher hit chance and damage against a significant number of enemies.
I agree completely. It's the bow I end up running again and again. Especially good on debuffer characers combined with Stormy Clamour or other reverbreation sources to make enemies fail the save Add snowburst ring + drakethroat: Frost and enemies are perma-proned and cant get up, all without dipping into GOOlock.
@@APeXofMarksmen I had been playing with that bow on a Ranger, Hunter subclass and used it all though the last half of Act 1, all of Act 2, and the first part of Act 3. What a wonderful weapon. For anyone doing a challenge run where broken mechanics like the strength-elixir-titanstring-cheese are verboten, the Shortbow of the Banshee becomes best in slot. I can count the number of times enemies weren’t frightened on one hand. In other words, it inflicts the Frightened status about 99% of the time. My Ranger had a lot of damage riders (caustic band, archery gloves, strange conduit ring, colossus slayer, and sharpshooter) that amplified the damage. The 1d4 bonus damage against frightened targets meant that my second attack was almost always a kill. Still I appreciated the tactical flexibility this short bow gave me when it came to using it for occasional crowd control. When fighting my way out of the Githyanki crèche, Ranger Tav used this bow to lock down a couple enemies-while Wyll dropped Hunger of Hadar on their asses. A really nice warlock-Ranger synergy that just would be possible without that short bow
@@ProbeAway im believe that acuity increases the dc. Although I haven’t played update 7 yet so this might have changed. also the combat log tends to be a bit buggy with this stuff. all i know for certain is that the effect procced really really often on my sb archer
One thing to keep in mind is that there are no unique light crossbows - so the +1 light crossbow is worth while purchasing for spell casters since it out paces cantrip damage early game. It deserrves higher than D tier imo
It's better till atleast level 4 and the weapon ability can be procked off of magic missiles. I would argue situationaly useful at minimum. Also can usually be bought or stolen by the grove so should beat out light crossbows at a minimum.
Perfect timing. Im boutta fight the elder brain for the first time and its honour mode. Was deciding between deadshot and gontr mael on my ranger and this helped me lock in what i want 🎉
I'm also a Gontr Mael apologist for sure. Better accuracy than the titanstring bow and frees you up to use the much better bloodlust elixir. Better damage than the Dead Shot, plus the Dead Shot is at a premium for non-archer crit builds. If I have an archer in the party, they will usually end up using Gontr Mael.
Sadly the titanstring's damage just blows it out of the water and it's not even close. Stat club + bloodlust you're hitting thousands of damage per turn.
@SpeshQuest stat club plus bloodlust - really? Unless you abuse DRS exploits, that setup will be strictly worse than Gontr Mael with bloodlust (1d8+1+4 < 2d8+3 on average, and it gets worse if you crit). I don't see any point to using the titanstring bow unless you are also using cloud giant elixirs, once you have Gontr Mael. If you are abusing DRS exploits... fair enough, you do you - I prefer the honour mode ruleset.
@brazen_helm Yes it does it just doesnt display correctly in the log. Bro thinks he's all hard "I'm not interested in other modes" like honour mode is hard or some shit 💀
Great video. Just found your content, but I have been playing BG3 consistently since release. This is exactly the type of breakdown I want for a topic like ranged weapon choice. Actionable information that is explained well. Keep up the great work!
Haven't gotten to it yet but shout out to the Bow of the Banshee + Gloves of Power combo for occasionally cheesing the most dangerous enemy in a fight Makes Honor Mode bullette look like a test dummy
Can confirm. I am doing a solo HM run as a Tiger Barbarian, and HM Bulette could not land a single hit due to the ridiculous maluses to saving throws and attack rolls from frightened and Baned conditions
Just finished my first HM run, and I had the Bow of Awareness on my Monk through the entire game. Hands-down one of the best stat sticks in the game. Hunting Shortbow also deserves extra love as a stat stick. The advantage against monstrosities can come in really useful in certain fights, especially for rogues or GWM users. And the access to Hunter's Mark is nice for characters without much offensive use for bonus actions. Ne'er Misser is my favourite bow in the game from a design perspective for one reason. The weapon action cast of Magic Missile has its own animation where the missiles come from the weapon itself, which is just a beautiful touch.
Spellthief is actually quite useful, as any attack against a knocked out enemy is always a crit, so even without proficiency, any character with spell slots can use it to first knock the enemy unconscious with non-lethal attacks, and use spellthief to coup de grace and regain a spellslot. Incredible for a paladin for example.
I'm conflicted about your rating of the Hunters Shortbow. It applies its passive advantage on monstrosity enemies to even your melee attacks. In early act 1, that means advantage on attacks vs the following: Harpies, Mimics, Phase Spiders, Wargs, Hook Horrors, Gremishka, Minotaur, etc all of which you encounter throughout act 1 and will even run into some in act 3. I get it as far as just using a bow is concerned, short bows aren't great. However, the passive advantage gain is so nice especially early game (levels 1-4) where it feels like attacks are missing all the time and making sure you hit that target with an attack to kill it matters. This along with the early shield that Dammon sells in act 1 are instabuys for me, if not for my early archer (assuming I have one) or for my melee dps to make sure those hits land.
@@Hufflepufftuff247 I agree. I’m just going to add a short comment to support your argument. We can pick up this short bow pretty much right after reaching level 3. Gaining advantage against Monstrosities means landing hits more often, getting crits with smites more frequently, and-more importantly-missing fewer attacks. And missing an attack when at level 3 verses missing an attack for a level 4 or a level 5 character often means the fight goes on longer and our characters take more damage-a significantly larger percentage of their overall hit points at this relatively vulnerable stage of the game. On honour mode, runs can end in the very early game if an enemy-like the Harpies on the beach, for example-land a crit and down a character. At level 3, one enemy landing a crit is often enough to change the dynamics of a fight from a comfortable encounter to one where things start spiralling out of the player’s control. Having advantage against the numerous monstrosity enemies in Act 1 mitigates a lot of the bad randomness than can end early game honour mode runs. The Harpy fight is worth mentioning again because a player can literally buy this bow then head down to beach beach to do that fight at level 3. I’ve done that fight multiple times both with and without the Hunting Shortbow, and damn, it is a significantly tougher fight without it. The Hunting Shortbow gives one character advantage against the Harpies, which means we can bank on Ranger Tav making clutch shots to hit a singing harpy and break the rest of the party out of the Harpy’s charm. Feller of Monsters also applies to spell attacks, so for Sorcerer Tav about to twin chromatic orb and hurl them at a couple Harpies, well, spending the few sorcery points and spell slots available at level 3 only to roll two misses verses actually landing two hits against two different enemies during the opening round of the Harpy fight can really change the dynamics of that encounter.
I love these list because it helps me understand the mechanics of the game, but ultimately I prefer a fun playthrough as opposed to an optimized playthrough. Not saying that optimized playthroughs are un-fun or can't be fun but the vanilla game opp's barely stand a chance when taking into consideration all the available strategies to 86 them.
I feel like the joltshooter also suffers because it shares space with the Spellsparkler and that's a pretty amazing staff for most of the game. I had fun with giving the Titanstring bow and Gloves of Giant Strength to Minsc and maxing dexterity. I gave him one level of barbarian for lore reasons and the rest in his default hunter ranger class. Volley shot is a pretty good ability that bot enough people talk about.
There's a Heavy Crossbow on the table where Aradin's crew usually hangs out if you manage to get them to get along with Zevlor, so you can get one pretty quick.
I've also seen Dammon sell them on occasion, so be sure to check his inventory whenever it would refresh. It's always nice to be able to give that to an archer for some of those early fights, even if you know you'll be replacing it pretty soon.
You don't even need that. As long as they leave the grove it's just lying there and picking it up isn't even considered stealing since it doesn't belong to anybody.
I think Gandrels should be A tier. Because the adv is a passive bonus, I often throw it on my Melee characters for the ranged back up but also to give that advantage on Melee attacks as well.
This! Both Gandrel's and Hunting Shortbow give their main benefit passively, placing them just behind Bow of Awareness for any melee characters in your party, up until you get Darkfire in act 2.
@@predwin1998 Arguably even better than Darkfire for some builds as well, particularly Rogues for reliable sneak attacks, GWM users, or Smite users fishing for crits.
Gandrel’s aspiration becomes S tier against undead with a cleric having improved turn undead and an arrow of many targets. Massive damage and turning effect on all nearby undead. (The crossbow’s turn undead effect is buffed by a cleric using it if they are at the level of having the destroy undead bonus to their channel divinity)
I have deep love for the two freebies you get in the burning inn, the joltshooter and the Harold. You get them early, for free when your gold is still very tight, and they really help clearing goblin camp. They work so well in fact, that I usually run 2 archers, 2 melee setup with Tav and Astarion being archers, and Karlach and Laezel doing melee.
IMO the banshee bow purpose isn’t to do damage but to debuff enemies en masse with many target arrows. I used this bow with oil of bane combined wif strange conduit ring, brain drain gloves, boots of stormy clamor, bhaal amulet, snow burst ring and drakethroat glaive applying frost. Now enemies are frightened, baned, bleeding, mental fatigued, reverbed, and proned
Video suggestion: the power of advantage in combat. I find it an interesting topic since it is not intuitive, namely: Effective immunity to critical miss (1 in 400) Multiplying critical hit chance, especially if you can lower how much you need to crit on the die. How much it affects damage depending on which weapon you are using
I do wonder if Hunting Shortbow is a tad low. Not as a primary weapon for archers but it is quite strong as a secondary weapon to give Hunters Mark to characters like Fighters.
Yeah, I nearly always buy that for Lae'zel. She doesn't shoot anyone with it, but she's a harpy weed-whacker when you're trying to save Mirkon, between the +1d6 damage and advantage on attack rolls. (Yes, the rider on the Hunting Shortbow does apply to attacks you make with your melee weapons. ;) )
Giantbreaker is great if you are using other items at add an effect when you apply a condition, because it applies the condition every time you hit without a saving throw.
Some extra notes that I really appreciate about some of my favourite bows: The Ne’er misser having a free magic missile attached is *excellent* when facing a group of low HP enemies if you’re using it on your illithid invested character. My paladin often packs the illithid powers and dual hand crossbows until act 3, and being able to pick off so many targets in separate locations is surprisingly useful! The other one I want to shout out is the Dead Shot- the critical hit bonus applies to your character even if it’s not the main weapon you’re using, allowing your critical hit rate to get *stupid* high. It’s my favored act 3 build tbh- Undermountain main hand, Orin’s dagger off hand, Dead Shot, Sarevok’s hat, slap on Banishing Smites and flourishes from lvl 10 bard and 2 levels of paladin for Divine Smite, and watch some truly silly numbers roll in.
I’ve never really experimented with it but I’m pretty sure the Joltshooter has some added utility when used in conjunction with other pieces of gear that takes advantage of expending/creating lightning charges. Specifically the boots that award 3 lightning charges for every dash. If you’re a rogue (who has a bonus action dash) you’re buffing your damage w more charges every time you attack. That has to count for something. I’m not sure to what extent but I do think the Joltshooter has some potential as a good early game bow.
Love the tier list great content for the commute and to explore and learn about less used weapons instead of just using the same 2 items for every slot. In the youtube algorithm we trust
Thank you ceph for making this game accessible to play with my gf and brothers. Got two honour mode wins unrer my belt. One using your abjuration wizard and light cleric sample team, the other using Evs stealth archer, your open hand monk, lore bard, and a evo wiz.
So some notes about the vicious short bow. It stacks as you mentioned but also is doubled by bhaallist armor. So it's worth 14 damage per hit on assassin's. If you have the two daggers that's a impressive 21 doubled to 42 damage per hit on top of the rest of the weapon effects. In addition to this is procs an additional time of craterfist gloves so an additional 7 force damage. With the two daggers and bhaalist armor you will consistently do over 100 damage per attack on assassin builds pre damage riders. And yes, that works on honor mode as well. As we know, you can fairly consistently force crits with spells, abilities, or items as well. Not to mention crit fishing.
Yeah I still think Titanstring is better given its damage bonus works without crits whereas vicious shortbow does nothing for you when you arent critting.
@insomniac0095 well it depends. Are you doing 12 round combats? Most of my combats are done in 2 or max 3 rounds as a solo player. Even big fights like the shar temple in act 3 should be a couple rounds at most with a full team. Naturally if you dont get a supprise round then assassin is objectively worse. But that's kinda like saying wizard sucks if you don't have any spell slots.
@@logan9042 No I get that, Titanstring works great with surprise round too. You're getting an extra 8 damage using strength elixir and that compounds with crits. Vicious short bow you get extra 7 damage only on a crit. Now granted you can run bloodlust with that, but I've found I dont need the extra attacks at that point with plenty of speed potions and action surge and terazul. You of course want to maximize how often you trigger surprise, but you just cant do it every combat for every round. So I dont see much reason to go Vicious short bow over Titanstring. But it's certainly viable. The correct min max answer is here is likely to use different bows for different fights depending on how long they expect to go and whether you can assure the surprise round or not. But that also requires you to juggle elixirs too and burn through them faster. And to keep resetting your drakethroat glaive buff. Not worth it for me.
Since my current Durge is throwing around ice-surfaces left and right, the hunting shortbow and Grym's helmet are two essential items I have on Lae'zel to make her immune to prone/slipping on grease/ice. AFAIK there are very few items that can grant that immunity and Lae'zel has to make do with Minthara's boots which only function when the wearer is concentrating. As a pure Battlemaster, she doesn't have a more convenient way to concentrate, so these two items have to do. She usually has the bow as a swap-in backup for a second fight should she lose concentration while using the helmet's Hunter's Mark during the first.
I would move regular hand crossbows to A tier. You dont need proficiency to attack with a bonus action. Makes them fantastic at breaking water bottles to apply the wet condition.
Another great video. I think you are not appreciating enough one feature of Gontr Mael: arrow of many targets will spread advantage on multiple targets for every attack made by your entire party. Improving attack and crit chances for all party members’ weapon attacks that come after your archer??? That has to be S tier.
I just realised that Giantbreaker crossbow applies the reeling debuff in an AoE if you use special arrows like arrows of fire. It's surprisingly good in early mid game
For the Spellthief, if you work with guaranteed criticals, it's quite useful. Just turn on non-lethal attacks. After the fight, the spellcaster of the party can execute 1 enemy to regain their spellslot.
you can find a heavy crossbow in emerald grove right after the goblin fight. if aradin and his gang leave you can go to the table(near auntie ethel) they normally stand around and take their loot which includes a heavy crossbow.
Gandrel’s aspiration becomes S tier against undead with a cleric having improved turn undead and an arrow of many targets. Massive damage and turning effect on all nearby undead. (The crossbow’s turn undead effect is buffed by a cleric using it if they are at the level of having the destroy undead bonus to their channel divinity)
Promised Victory is a passive feature that procs much more often than you may think. Combining Gontr Mael and arrows of many targets gives advantage to attacks on multiple enemies to everyone in your party. For party builds, Gontr Mael is definitely S tier.
If you need a build idea for an archer character, one idea that I don't see talked about all that much is the barbarian archer. The Tiger aspect that adds strength to hit also works on ranged weapons! So with the titan string bow you can essentially have tavern brawler on top of sharpshooter!
I recently came back to this game and had 2 weapon build that never felt complete warlock 5 fighter 1 thief 5 was using trident of waves with bind weapon and coldsnap in offhand. The problem I had was taking advantage of frozen in the same turn I realized I could slot neir misser in my offhand and use my last bonus action to sneak attack just getting a brutal amount of force damage.
Earliest way to get heavy crossbow I know is in the grove. Aradin’s area in the grove contains a heavy crossbow and if he leaves the grove due to getting knocked out you can get it for free which is a decent amount of damage for the next couple combats.
3:25 but everyone has a ranged weapon slot. So weapons that provide passive or utility weapons can still equip one. So ones that give passive bonuses can be put on a character that never intends to use it for slight benefit
one little technicality that is completely unrelated. ne'er misser does not actually change the damage of sneak attack, sneak attack doesn't have a dmg type (even though it says slashing in the level up screen) and will just follow whatever damage the weapon does. so yes ne'er misser changes the damage of sneak attack but so would any other weapon that you can sneak attack with and has a unique type of damage
For most if my characters, the ranged slot is just a statstick. Maybe titanstring bow for the TB Monk who has been a permanent fixture in every playthrough as the secondary melee character. For everybody else, it really is just a statstick.
I started a new playthrough today, so I know for a fact that I found a heavy crossbow somewhere around druid grove. I already had it on me when I talked to Dammon for the first time
I’ve never tried it on the bow, but I’m pretty sure that like the spell sparker whenever you hit a wet target with lightning damage you get double damage. So with the prevalence of builds that make use of the wet status effect you get 2 damage per arrow and 2d8 after 5 lightning charges. Is it better than the titan string? No. But is it D tier? Hardly. I personally think B or C tier is more accurate.
You can get a non magical HEAVY crossbow early in the grove if aradin and his party leave the grove. It's on the table were they would normally be left of dammon.
Once I played a really fun ascended astarion with three levels bard (can’t remember the subclass) and the rest in to thief all illithid abilities with the za’thisk and the ne’re misser and hellfire hand so he could just instakill any low health enemies and also just do decent damage he also had the paralysing crit for starting fights using invis and using luck of the far realms. Overall he was very fun
I like the Joltshooter (and other sources of lightning charges) for non-archers, but for those who care about hit chance, like rogues or Great Weapon Master users. Even one attack with this bow gives them +1 to all Attack Rolls with their PRIMARY WEAPON for the next two turns. ps The biggest problem with the Joltshooter is that it competes with Spellsparkler.
I occasionally use the Spellthief in easy fights with Luck of the Far Realms to recover a spell slot. Sure it takes a critical away from a different fight. But it feels like positive value overall to me.
I really enjoy the spellthief in early game. knocking out the enemies is nice - they got knocked out at 1 hp not 0 as they have to be to die. Then close ranged attack with the spellthief - and you have 1 more bless:P
Heavy Crossbow - There's one in act 1 in the cave with the Zhentarim caravan guards. Roughly X:32 Y :627. It's inside the cave and up above the guards. Very close to the ladder. So, you can get this at level 3 or 4 or whatever. Maybe level 2 if you try REALLY hard.
I rather like the jolt shooter. Works really well on barehand monk builds with the Sparkle hands. Tag them with the jolt shooter to get the charges, then punch 'em 4x to burn the charges. The staff is better, sure, but sometimes I just don't want to be microing a mage.
There is a heavy crossbow on a table near the blacksmith in the druid Grove. You can get it for free if you steal it or kill the guy who leads the group of humans to the Grove
You can use the spellthief against enemies that have been knocked down bcs you get guaranteed crits. That way you can guarantee 7+number_of_bards level 1 spell slots if you go the extra mile to knock down targets
Minor correction on tabletop rules for hand crossbows, unless the 2024 rules changes this: you need a free hand to load them, so the optimal archer build is a single hand crossbow, crossbow expert for the bonus action shot since that doesn't come by default, and sharpshooter.
2024 rules renders them unusable until level 4, because no variant human or custom lineage level 1 feat. You still need a free hand to shoot them, they are now light weapons that make use of the standard twf rules (which have been condensed into the light property itself) but twf style now applies to them, so they can add dex to damage at level 1/2 as a fighter/ranger, however they will still have the loading property (1 shot per crossbow per turn limit, whether as an action/bonus action/reaction) and ammunition property (need free hand to load). Crossbow expert also confers them the same bonus as twf style (they explicitly don't stack) and let's you load them without needing a free hand. So now you won't be able to use only one hand crossbow for all of your attacks, you explicitly need 2 (or another light weapon at least). Sharpshooter no longer confers them massive damage, and GWM specifically applies to Heavy weapons, including longbows and crossbows. If you want do dual wield in 2024, melee is now much better because of the nick weapon mastery and dual wielder feat. Using 2 light weapons you can attack, nick attack, and bonus action attack as soon as level 4. At level 5 you essentially get 4 attacks. I imagine with the weapon master feat, monks could also severely benefit from this. I am hoping the new kensai subclass gets a fighting style, as this would allow a monk 6 attacks at level 10 (3 armed and 3 unarmed)
I will die on the hill that the Titanstring Bow is the best bow in the game by a long shot. I did a 5 Gloom, 4 Assassin, 1 Great old One, 2 fighter run with Ascended Astarion and the late game damage was beyond ridiculous. We are talking about thousands of damage in the starting round with arrow of many targets. Also, the Bow of the Banshee is S tier for most of the game imo. With mind sanctuary and haste you can effectively disable a whole battle field with your slashing flourishes while still dealing OK damage late game.
Comment for algorithm but we need MORE brotato! Also, dex based weapons being automatically sort of better due to the nature of how important Dex is really reminds me of the Rogue in Diablo 1. Pump dex for chance to hit and damage! Ez
Hellfire handbow should come with a fireball instead of scorching ray. Would make up for an archer's inefficiency dealing with clusters of 5hp spam, and only once a day is not too broken
I think you forgot to mention that sneak attack and special arrows like fire arrow and lightning arrow also benefit from Titan string. Given the assistance of items like risky ring, or a hold monster, I think titanstring is still the best lake game under favorable circumstances, and with the right consumables and rogue multiclass build. I can see the argument for using the deadshot if you aren’t creating favorable circumstances for yourself, but it’s pretty clear to me that the benefits of dead shot are not really holding up to the damage of Titan string.
I am I believe most of the way through Act 1, and can confirm Goblin and regular Shortbows are everywhere. Light crossbows I have in spades. Yet I have A SINGLE heavy crossbow which I think I only got by slaughtering the entire Goblin Camp iirc. Weirdly less common than all other non-magical bow types for sure. Also only one hand crossbow come to think of it.
Hi and srry for distrub, i gonna start multiplayer with 2 melee . I wanna play max dps archer. I dont need survival cz my comps tank and make cc. What is the best damage build for archer?
The Hunting Shortbow deserves to be S-tier for a number of reasons:
1. It is the first magical bow encountered in the game with a +1 damage and +1 to attack rolls.
2. A free cast of Hunters Mark's adds significant damage in the early game and can be reapplied on targets a long as the wielder can maintain concentration on this spell. This ability is great for early game swords bards and lets them be almost as powerful as a level 2 ranger (for at least one fight).
3. The Feller of Monsters gives the holder advantage against Monstrosity enemies (of which there are a lot in Act 1). And it applies to ranged attacks, spell attacks, or melee attacks. For Wyll or Warlock Tav, this means getting advantage on Elderich Blast as early as level 3. For spell caster Tav, this means getting advantage with spell attack rolls. For Sorcerer Tav, this means having advantage on twinned spells. For Paladin Tav, this means having advantage when smiting Worgs, Minotaurs, Mimics, Harpies, Entercaps, Phase Spiders, and Bullettes (to list a few). And in the early game, casters and paladins don't have that many spell slots, so having advantage when spending these rare and precious resources is incredibly valuable.
4. The Hunting Shortbow will find a use in any party--either as a primary ranged weapon for an archer or as a stat stick buffing melee characters or spellcasters. And in many play throughs, it will be both. Great as a primary ranged weapon at the point in the game you get it, and probably the first magical weapon that becomes a hand-me-down that buffs non archers in Act 1.
Best in slot for melee fighters for all of act 1 and 2 imo
Fellow Hunting Shortbow appreciators! 🫡
Someone in my party carries hunting shortbow for whole act 1 at least.
As I commented elsewhere but shorter, for me is at least A.
@@alvarotopo I’d give it s-tier just because of how early we can pick it up and make use of its bonuses.
“Brace is the most important weapon action in the game” 400 hours in and I haven’t used it a single time 😅
It can be amazing when having a stealth archer build with the Titanstring bow and str elixirs.
Just goes to show you don't need to use every trick!
yeah I usually forget it exists
same I play on tactician and honor and I have never used it.
Nearly 800 hours in. Almost never use it. Maybe a couple times per playthrough. Though, I only play tactician. If I was doing honor mode runs on repeat I may need to look for more combat edges.
1. Hunting shortbow is at least A tier because someone in the party always carries it for whole act 1 at least, for the passive. And usually uses hunters mark just because it's there. This bow is immensely helpful in saving poor Mirkon at once.
2. It's very easy to use Spellthief. Knock down one enemy with non-lethal attack and autocrit him from close range when the battle ends. Works every time. Don't know the tier, but it's quite good while your low level.
3. Gandrell crossbow funnily enough works with Destroy undead. If someone who carries it has destroy undead, you can cast crossbow skill and use arrow of many targets. This adds, let’s say, a respectable damage with a respectable damage type, although admittedly in a niche case.
Never thought about knocking someone out and criting with the Spellthief bow, that's amazing.
One note on spell thief, if you decide to keep the wand that raises Connor at the end of the hag's lair you can use Connor for target practice before short rests to guarantee the free spell slot
Meatslap O´Connor does not approve ^^
you can actually just turn on non-lethal damage in the passives action tab as well and any mobs you killed via melee (since ranged and spells cant 'non-lethal') and then just swap the spelltheif around auto critting for their last bit of HP to restore slots. It's nice for an extra slot of bless or faerie fire every short rest so I really like it
The weapon list begins! Been waiting for this since you started doing item tier lists.
Getting a BG3 tier list video from Ceph is always a great gift, but this one even comes with a bow. In fact, there are a lot of bows. 😅
Harold could be argued to deserve S tier (only for the endgame), because it allows your Swords Bard using the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel to cast their debilitating spell on a target that is very probably affected by Bane - all while synergizing with the Helmet of Arcane Acuity and the Arrows of Many Targets.
I've found it very effective during my first (and successful) honor mode run.
The Bow of the Banshee, somewhat similarly synergizes very well with a Battlemaster Fighter, because you can knock enemies prone while applying Fear to them. This makes them unable to get up, effectively taking them out of the fight for as long as you can keep pommeling them with arrows. It's not as strong, because the saving throw is worse, but it worked quite well on the dinosaurs for example.
You can find a heavy crossbow in The Grove, near Ethel and Dammon. As long as you get there before Aradin’s crew (who owns the stuff) it’s white labelled and free to take. Once they show up it turns red though.
playing a ranger/rogue for my honor mode run, and this is exactly what i need. thank you very much big guy 🙏
If titanstring is not number one, there will be an uproar. Best bow, given in act1!
Edit -> it's important to add, that the bonus is added an additional time if you use a special arrow.
And then double it with Bhaalist Armor. With Cloud Giant Elixir that is 32 extra damage each shot!
😮
Huh? Is it because of DRS from Tactician and Below? Does it work the same way in Honour mode, there is almost no stackable DRS left? It feel like a glitch.
@@nguyendi92 It works in Honor mode and gives the STR bonus to any special arrows damage, even Slaying Arrows. There are a few DRS left in Honor Mode, namely Craterflesh Gloves with Dolor Amarus weapons amd Magic Missile
Handbow says "twang" with both hands
Bane is something of an underrated effect, IMO. In addition to the -1d4 penalty to saving throws that you mentioned, it also gives enemies -1d4 on their attack rolls. That’s essentially 2.5 turns of reeling with no way for enemies to lose the debuff until it expires.
The spell itself gets a bit of a hard time because it competes with bless and other early concentration spells, while also being pretty fiddly to target. Getting it passively on weapon attacks is great though, to the point that I think Harold can be worth considering over the Titanstring bow if you have a magic-heavy party. It makes spells easier to land and protects your casters from attacks.
I would pump Hunters to A because you get it so early and is very useful for melee fighters that quite often do not have a good use for BA yet (with permission of jump/shove). Plus, that kind of characters don't normally have a use for concentration, at least this early.
You don't use the bow, just carry it, cast HM, enjoy the extra damage and repeat.
It will be soon replaced, but for early fights 1d6 per attack can be very relevant
Hunters for a fighter is pretty solid. They're not using concentration, you can reapply the target, and their concentration checks are probably the best in the game. Pure utility, but really good.
neer misser and hellfire hand crossbows are actually great on a sorcerer, especially a fire sorcerer. put the light cantrip on one of them and equip coruscation ring and callous glow ring. now when you use the free once-per-short-rest scorching ray or magic missile, it instastacks 10 radiating orbs, plus all your cantrips and spells inflict radiating orbs aswell.
also spellsparkler adds a bunch of damage. and you can bonus action attack with the offhand crossbow which has a somewhat low hit chance but still pretty decent as it also does radiating orb...
Ne'er Misser saved my run. My swords Bard had it in main hand and was able to slashing flourish a certain mound in act 2 that was impervious to most of my other characters weapons.
imo bow of the banshee is s tier. insane synergy with arcane acuity, massive internal synergy on sb archer. the effect procs much more often than you'd think, even without acuity. frightening is super powerful and the added hitchance works wonders on sb where youre making a bunch of attacks per turn, which more than covers the missing damage, since most of your damage comes from sharpshooter anyways and increased consistency is always king. plus it lets you use bloodlust instead of hillgiant when compared to titanstring which again combos super well with the added hitchance.
i dont think its an item you need to make a specialized build around at all, its just the natural BIS for sb archer until you get the deadshot.
It’s one of the best imo as well. Not only on bow builds but on menacing attack fighters and barbarians as a stat stick. It even holds up late game and is great for Hunter rangers with AoE frightened or edtritch knights with eldritch strike for added chance to proc. Even just throw it on another character if you have any party member that inflicts frightened at all like a goo warlock and suddenly that party member has a meaningfully higher hit chance and damage against a significant number of enemies.
I agree completely. It's the bow I end up running again and again.
Especially good on debuffer characers combined with Stormy Clamour or other reverbreation sources to make enemies fail the save
Add snowburst ring + drakethroat: Frost and enemies are perma-proned and cant get up, all without dipping into GOOlock.
@@APeXofMarksmen I had been playing with that bow on a Ranger, Hunter subclass and used it all though the last half of Act 1, all of Act 2, and the first part of Act 3.
What a wonderful weapon. For anyone doing a challenge run where broken mechanics like the strength-elixir-titanstring-cheese are verboten, the Shortbow of the Banshee becomes best in slot.
I can count the number of times enemies weren’t frightened on one hand. In other words, it inflicts the Frightened status about 99% of the time.
My Ranger had a lot of damage riders (caustic band, archery gloves, strange conduit ring, colossus slayer, and sharpshooter) that amplified the damage. The 1d4 bonus damage against frightened targets meant that my second attack was almost always a kill.
Still I appreciated the tactical flexibility this short bow gave me when it came to using it for occasional crowd control.
When fighting my way out of the Githyanki crèche, Ranger Tav used this bow to lock down a couple enemies-while Wyll dropped Hunger of Hadar on their asses. A really nice warlock-Ranger synergy that just would be possible without that short bow
How does arcane acuity help? It’s a fixed DC 12 WIS saving throw
@@ProbeAway im believe that acuity increases the dc. Although I haven’t played update 7 yet so this might have changed. also the combat log tends to be a bit buggy with this stuff. all i know for certain is that the effect procced really really often on my sb archer
One thing to keep in mind is that there are no unique light crossbows - so the +1 light crossbow is worth while purchasing for spell casters since it out paces cantrip damage early game. It deserrves higher than D tier imo
It's better till atleast level 4 and the weapon ability can be procked off of magic missiles. I would argue situationaly useful at minimum. Also can usually be bought or stolen by the grove so should beat out light crossbows at a minimum.
Perfect timing. Im boutta fight the elder brain for the first time and its honour mode. Was deciding between deadshot and gontr mael on my ranger and this helped me lock in what i want 🎉
I'm also a Gontr Mael apologist for sure. Better accuracy than the titanstring bow and frees you up to use the much better bloodlust elixir. Better damage than the Dead Shot, plus the Dead Shot is at a premium for non-archer crit builds. If I have an archer in the party, they will usually end up using Gontr Mael.
Sadly the titanstring's damage just blows it out of the water and it's not even close. Stat club + bloodlust you're hitting thousands of damage per turn.
@SpeshQuest stat club plus bloodlust - really? Unless you abuse DRS exploits, that setup will be strictly worse than Gontr Mael with bloodlust (1d8+1+4 < 2d8+3 on average, and it gets worse if you crit). I don't see any point to using the titanstring bow unless you are also using cloud giant elixirs, once you have Gontr Mael.
If you are abusing DRS exploits... fair enough, you do you - I prefer the honour mode ruleset.
@@brazen_helm Using other driders isn't an exploit its part of the gameplay lmao. And its +4 to every instance of damage not just the bow's damage.
@@SpeshQuest that's not how it works on honour mode, and I'm not interested in other modes.
@brazen_helm Yes it does it just doesnt display correctly in the log. Bro thinks he's all hard "I'm not interested in other modes" like honour mode is hard or some shit 💀
Great video. Just found your content, but I have been playing BG3 consistently since release. This is exactly the type of breakdown I want for a topic like ranged weapon choice. Actionable information that is explained well. Keep up the great work!
Haven't gotten to it yet but shout out to the Bow of the Banshee + Gloves of Power combo for occasionally cheesing the most dangerous enemy in a fight
Makes Honor Mode bullette look like a test dummy
Can confirm. I am doing a solo HM run as a Tiger Barbarian, and HM Bulette could not land a single hit due to the ridiculous maluses to saving throws and attack rolls from frightened and Baned conditions
add the boots of stormy clamor for even more insanity
Gloves of Baneful Striking acquired from Lady Esther can be used similarly to the Gloves of Power and works without the Absolute's Brand
Just finished my first HM run, and I had the Bow of Awareness on my Monk through the entire game. Hands-down one of the best stat sticks in the game.
Hunting Shortbow also deserves extra love as a stat stick. The advantage against monstrosities can come in really useful in certain fights, especially for rogues or GWM users. And the access to Hunter's Mark is nice for characters without much offensive use for bonus actions.
Ne'er Misser is my favourite bow in the game from a design perspective for one reason. The weapon action cast of Magic Missile has its own animation where the missiles come from the weapon itself, which is just a beautiful touch.
Spellthief is actually quite useful, as any attack against a knocked out enemy is always a crit, so even without proficiency, any character with spell slots can use it to first knock the enemy unconscious with non-lethal attacks, and use spellthief to coup de grace and regain a spellslot. Incredible for a paladin for example.
I'm conflicted about your rating of the Hunters Shortbow. It applies its passive advantage on monstrosity enemies to even your melee attacks. In early act 1, that means advantage on attacks vs the following: Harpies, Mimics, Phase Spiders, Wargs, Hook Horrors, Gremishka, Minotaur, etc all of which you encounter throughout act 1 and will even run into some in act 3. I get it as far as just using a bow is concerned, short bows aren't great. However, the passive advantage gain is so nice especially early game (levels 1-4) where it feels like attacks are missing all the time and making sure you hit that target with an attack to kill it matters. This along with the early shield that Dammon sells in act 1 are instabuys for me, if not for my early archer (assuming I have one) or for my melee dps to make sure those hits land.
@@Hufflepufftuff247 I agree.
I’m just going to add a short comment to support your argument.
We can pick up this short bow pretty much right after reaching level 3.
Gaining advantage against Monstrosities means landing hits more often, getting crits with smites more frequently, and-more importantly-missing fewer attacks.
And missing an attack when at level 3 verses missing an attack for a level 4 or a level 5 character often means the fight goes on longer and our characters take more damage-a significantly larger percentage of their overall hit points at this relatively vulnerable stage of the game.
On honour mode, runs can end in the very early game if an enemy-like the Harpies on the beach, for example-land a crit and down a character. At level 3, one enemy landing a crit is often enough to change the dynamics of a fight from a comfortable encounter to one where things start spiralling out of the player’s control.
Having advantage against the numerous monstrosity enemies in Act 1 mitigates a lot of the bad randomness than can end early game honour mode runs.
The Harpy fight is worth mentioning again because a player can literally buy this bow then head down to beach beach to do that fight at level 3.
I’ve done that fight multiple times both with and without the Hunting Shortbow, and damn, it is a significantly tougher fight without it.
The Hunting Shortbow gives one character advantage against the Harpies, which means we can bank on Ranger Tav making clutch shots to hit a singing harpy and break the rest of the party out of the Harpy’s charm.
Feller of Monsters also applies to spell attacks, so for Sorcerer Tav about to twin chromatic orb and hurl them at a couple Harpies, well, spending the few sorcery points and spell slots available at level 3 only to roll two misses verses actually landing two hits against two different enemies during the opening round of the Harpy fight can really change the dynamics of that encounter.
@@wfdmount aww thank you thats so kind
I love these list because it helps me understand the mechanics of the game, but ultimately I prefer a fun playthrough as opposed to an optimized playthrough. Not saying that optimized playthroughs are un-fun or can't be fun but the vanilla game opp's barely stand a chance when taking into consideration all the available strategies to 86 them.
I feel like the joltshooter also suffers because it shares space with the Spellsparkler and that's a pretty amazing staff for most of the game.
I had fun with giving the Titanstring bow and Gloves of Giant Strength to Minsc and maxing dexterity. I gave him one level of barbarian for lore reasons and the rest in his default hunter ranger class. Volley shot is a pretty good ability that bot enough people talk about.
There's a Heavy Crossbow on the table where Aradin's crew usually hangs out if you manage to get them to get along with Zevlor, so you can get one pretty quick.
I've also seen Dammon sell them on occasion, so be sure to check his inventory whenever it would refresh. It's always nice to be able to give that to an archer for some of those early fights, even if you know you'll be replacing it pretty soon.
Also in the cave with the caravan chest up the ladder
You don't even need that. As long as they leave the grove it's just lying there and picking it up isn't even considered stealing since it doesn't belong to anybody.
@@serrekker9702But thats way too late! Make some music, or cast Minor Illusion, then let Astarion steal it.
@@DesaMii How is that too late? They leave straight after you get to the grove if you just stand back during their conversation with Zevlor.
I think Gandrels should be A tier. Because the adv is a passive bonus, I often throw it on my Melee characters for the ranged back up but also to give that advantage on Melee attacks as well.
Likewise with the Hunting Shortbow
This! Both Gandrel's and Hunting Shortbow give their main benefit passively, placing them just behind Bow of Awareness for any melee characters in your party, up until you get Darkfire in act 2.
@@predwin1998 Arguably even better than Darkfire for some builds as well, particularly Rogues for reliable sneak attacks, GWM users, or Smite users fishing for crits.
Gandrel’s aspiration becomes S tier against undead with a cleric having improved turn undead and an arrow of many targets. Massive damage and turning effect on all nearby undead. (The crossbow’s turn undead effect is buffed by a cleric using it if they are at the level of having the destroy undead bonus to their channel divinity)
I have deep love for the two freebies you get in the burning inn, the joltshooter and the Harold. You get them early, for free when your gold is still very tight, and they really help clearing goblin camp. They work so well in fact, that I usually run 2 archers, 2 melee setup with Tav and Astarion being archers, and Karlach and Laezel doing melee.
It is definitely worth noting that the "caster" hand crossbows are great on a magic missile type build!
IMO the banshee bow purpose isn’t to do damage but to debuff enemies en masse with many target arrows. I used this bow with oil of bane combined wif strange conduit ring, brain drain gloves, boots of stormy clamor, bhaal amulet, snow burst ring and drakethroat glaive applying frost. Now enemies are frightened, baned, bleeding, mental fatigued, reverbed, and proned
Video suggestion: the power of advantage in combat.
I find it an interesting topic since it is not intuitive, namely:
Effective immunity to critical miss (1 in 400)
Multiplying critical hit chance, especially if you can lower how much you need to crit on the die.
How much it affects damage depending on which weapon you are using
This game so good it got this guy talking about bows for an hour
Great video. Never really gave much thought about the off hand passive effects to non archery characters but will now. Thanks
This is the series we've all been excitedly awaiting!
I love that there’s still stuff I have to learn about this game, 👍
I do wonder if Hunting Shortbow is a tad low.
Not as a primary weapon for archers but it is quite strong as a secondary weapon to give Hunters Mark to characters like Fighters.
Yeah, I nearly always buy that for Lae'zel. She doesn't shoot anyone with it, but she's a harpy weed-whacker when you're trying to save Mirkon, between the +1d6 damage and advantage on attack rolls. (Yes, the rider on the Hunting Shortbow does apply to attacks you make with your melee weapons. ;) )
Yes, Been waiting for the weapons tier list👍👍
Giantbreaker is great if you are using other items at add an effect when you apply a condition, because it applies the condition every time you hit without a saving throw.
This is just so good from my honor run. Ty very much ❤
Some extra notes that I really appreciate about some of my favourite bows:
The Ne’er misser having a free magic missile attached is *excellent* when facing a group of low HP enemies if you’re using it on your illithid invested character. My paladin often packs the illithid powers and dual hand crossbows until act 3, and being able to pick off so many targets in separate locations is surprisingly useful!
The other one I want to shout out is the Dead Shot- the critical hit bonus applies to your character even if it’s not the main weapon you’re using, allowing your critical hit rate to get *stupid* high. It’s my favored act 3 build tbh- Undermountain main hand, Orin’s dagger off hand, Dead Shot, Sarevok’s hat, slap on Banishing Smites and flourishes from lvl 10 bard and 2 levels of paladin for Divine Smite, and watch some truly silly numbers roll in.
I’ve never really experimented with it but I’m pretty sure the Joltshooter has some added utility when used in conjunction with other pieces of gear that takes advantage of expending/creating lightning charges. Specifically the boots that award 3 lightning charges for every dash. If you’re a rogue (who has a bonus action dash) you’re buffing your damage w more charges every time you attack. That has to count for something. I’m not sure to what extent but I do think the Joltshooter has some potential as a good early game bow.
Fight the algorithm! And I agree with the stat stick idea. I realized bonus spells are just great for making a day longer.
Im doing a jolt shooter play thru, and to be honest, it's way better than i expected.
Love the tier list great content for the commute and to explore and learn about less used weapons instead of just using the same 2 items for every slot. In the youtube algorithm we trust
Thanks! Glad you like it
Thank you ceph for making this game accessible to play with my gf and brothers. Got two honour mode wins unrer my belt.
One using your abjuration wizard and light cleric sample team, the other using Evs stealth archer, your open hand monk, lore bard, and a evo wiz.
So some notes about the vicious short bow. It stacks as you mentioned but also is doubled by bhaallist armor. So it's worth 14 damage per hit on assassin's. If you have the two daggers that's a impressive 21 doubled to 42 damage per hit on top of the rest of the weapon effects. In addition to this is procs an additional time of craterfist gloves so an additional 7 force damage. With the two daggers and bhaalist armor you will consistently do over 100 damage per attack on assassin builds pre damage riders. And yes, that works on honor mode as well.
As we know, you can fairly consistently force crits with spells, abilities, or items as well. Not to mention crit fishing.
Yeah I still think Titanstring is better given its damage bonus works without crits whereas vicious shortbow does nothing for you when you arent critting.
@insomniac0095 well it depends. Are you doing 12 round combats? Most of my combats are done in 2 or max 3 rounds as a solo player. Even big fights like the shar temple in act 3 should be a couple rounds at most with a full team.
Naturally if you dont get a supprise round then assassin is objectively worse. But that's kinda like saying wizard sucks if you don't have any spell slots.
@@logan9042 No I get that, Titanstring works great with surprise round too. You're getting an extra 8 damage using strength elixir and that compounds with crits. Vicious short bow you get extra 7 damage only on a crit. Now granted you can run bloodlust with that, but I've found I dont need the extra attacks at that point with plenty of speed potions and action surge and terazul.
You of course want to maximize how often you trigger surprise, but you just cant do it every combat for every round. So I dont see much reason to go Vicious short bow over Titanstring. But it's certainly viable.
The correct min max answer is here is likely to use different bows for different fights depending on how long they expect to go and whether you can assure the surprise round or not. But that also requires you to juggle elixirs too and burn through them faster. And to keep resetting your drakethroat glaive buff. Not worth it for me.
If you factor in the fact that the Dead Shot allows you to end your dependence on strength potions and drink a blood lust potion instead…
Yep!
Since my current Durge is throwing around ice-surfaces left and right, the hunting shortbow and Grym's helmet are two essential items I have on Lae'zel to make her immune to prone/slipping on grease/ice. AFAIK there are very few items that can grant that immunity and Lae'zel has to make do with Minthara's boots which only function when the wearer is concentrating. As a pure Battlemaster, she doesn't have a more convenient way to concentrate, so these two items have to do. She usually has the bow as a swap-in backup for a second fight should she lose concentration while using the helmet's Hunter's Mark during the first.
I've been waiting for this video!!!
I would move regular hand crossbows to A tier. You dont need proficiency to attack with a bonus action. Makes them fantastic at breaking water bottles to apply the wet condition.
That's true, there's a lot of utility to just having a random offhand attack on other characters!
Another great video. I think you are not appreciating enough one feature of Gontr Mael: arrow of many targets will spread advantage on multiple targets for every attack made by your entire party. Improving attack and crit chances for all party members’ weapon attacks that come after your archer??? That has to be S tier.
I just realised that Giantbreaker crossbow applies the reeling debuff in an AoE if you use special arrows like arrows of fire. It's surprisingly good in early mid game
Yesss!! So glad you made this!
nice, ive been waiting for a weapon tier list, i never know what to keep or sell as there so many of them
Find giantbreaker is good for when you get it. Gives easy Way to inflict a condition for other items combo
For the Spellthief, if you work with guaranteed criticals, it's quite useful.
Just turn on non-lethal attacks. After the fight, the spellcaster of the party can execute 1 enemy to regain their spellslot.
you can find a heavy crossbow in emerald grove right after the goblin fight. if aradin and his gang leave you can go to the table(near auntie ethel) they normally stand around and take their loot which includes a heavy crossbow.
Gandrels aspiration and shortbow of hunting are great on melee characters as the advantage also works in melee. Pop that on your paladin or fighter
Gandrel’s aspiration becomes S tier against undead with a cleric having improved turn undead and an arrow of many targets. Massive damage and turning effect on all nearby undead. (The crossbow’s turn undead effect is buffed by a cleric using it if they are at the level of having the destroy undead bonus to their channel divinity)
Promised Victory is a passive feature that procs much more often than you may think. Combining Gontr Mael and arrows of many targets gives advantage to attacks on multiple enemies to everyone in your party. For party builds, Gontr Mael is definitely S tier.
tfw when a new ceph bg3 video drops
If you need a build idea for an archer character, one idea that I don't see talked about all that much is the barbarian archer. The Tiger aspect that adds strength to hit also works on ranged weapons! So with the titan string bow you can essentially have tavern brawler on top of sharpshooter!
I recently came back to this game and had 2 weapon build that never felt complete warlock 5 fighter 1 thief 5 was using trident of waves with bind weapon and coldsnap in offhand. The problem I had was taking advantage of frozen in the same turn I realized I could slot neir misser in my offhand and use my last bonus action to sneak attack just getting a brutal amount of force damage.
Earliest way to get heavy crossbow I know is in the grove. Aradin’s area in the grove contains a heavy crossbow and if he leaves the grove due to getting knocked out you can get it for free which is a decent amount of damage for the next couple combats.
Bow of awareness usually goes on gale for me... he's going to sling the cantrips, but he's slinging them quicker
3:25 but everyone has a ranged weapon slot. So weapons that provide passive or utility weapons can still equip one. So ones that give passive bonuses can be put on a character that never intends to use it for slight benefit
one little technicality that is completely unrelated. ne'er misser does not actually change the damage of sneak attack, sneak attack doesn't have a dmg type (even though it says slashing in the level up screen) and will just follow whatever damage the weapon does. so yes ne'er misser changes the damage of sneak attack but so would any other weapon that you can sneak attack with and has a unique type of damage
For most if my characters, the ranged slot is just a statstick. Maybe titanstring bow for the TB Monk who has been a permanent fixture in every playthrough as the secondary melee character. For everybody else, it really is just a statstick.
Another great sleep video, thank you very much! You should really think about doing long lore videos
I started a new playthrough today, so I know for a fact that I found a heavy crossbow somewhere around druid grove. I already had it on me when I talked to Dammon for the first time
Soon I'll be able to start my first playthrough.
I think it could be really fun to do a playthrough using only the weapons and items that he rates as bad
@@breadsheeran8234 you can finish the game using normal items at any difficulty if you have the proper tactics.
Woo! Titanstring bow S-rank! One of the best bows for a swords bard from start to finish.
*the best for all bow archers
@@formatomi For damage, no question. The Dead Shot competes for best bow overall, though. Damage doesn't matter if you don't hit.
Great list. Thanks!
I’ve never tried it on the bow, but I’m pretty sure that like the spell sparker whenever you hit a wet target with lightning damage you get double damage. So with the prevalence of builds that make use of the wet status effect you get 2 damage per arrow and 2d8 after 5 lightning charges. Is it better than the titan string? No. But is it D tier? Hardly. I personally think B or C tier is more accurate.
You can get a non magical HEAVY crossbow early in the grove if aradin and his party leave the grove. It's on the table were they would normally be left of dammon.
Once I played a really fun ascended astarion with three levels bard (can’t remember the subclass) and the rest in to thief all illithid abilities with the za’thisk and the ne’re misser and hellfire hand so he could just instakill any low health enemies and also just do decent damage he also had the paralysing crit for starting fights using invis and using luck of the far realms. Overall he was very fun
I like the Joltshooter (and other sources of lightning charges) for non-archers, but for those who care about hit chance, like rogues or Great Weapon Master users. Even one attack with this bow gives them +1 to all Attack Rolls with their PRIMARY WEAPON for the next two turns.
ps
The biggest problem with the Joltshooter is that it competes with Spellsparkler.
Let's goooo, new tier list UwU
I occasionally use the Spellthief in easy fights with Luck of the Far Realms to recover a spell slot. Sure it takes a critical away from a different fight. But it feels like positive value overall to me.
With the Titanstring bow, I'm giving that to Laezel. With the Gauntlets of Hill Giant strength, I can pump her Dex and max the damage with this bow.
I really enjoy the spellthief in early game. knocking out the enemies is nice - they got knocked out at 1 hp not 0 as they have to be to die. Then close ranged attack with the spellthief - and you have 1 more bless:P
Heavy Crossbow -
There's one in act 1 in the cave with the Zhentarim caravan guards. Roughly X:32 Y :627. It's inside the cave and up above the guards. Very close to the ladder.
So, you can get this at level 3 or 4 or whatever. Maybe level 2 if you try REALLY hard.
I want to propose a new tier for these item tier lists: Feed to Gale tier
he makes that comment alot
I rather like the jolt shooter. Works really well on barehand monk builds with the Sparkle hands. Tag them with the jolt shooter to get the charges, then punch 'em 4x to burn the charges. The staff is better, sure, but sometimes I just don't want to be microing a mage.
There is a heavy crossbow on a table near the blacksmith in the druid Grove. You can get it for free if you steal it or kill the guy who leads the group of humans to the Grove
You can use the spellthief against enemies that have been knocked down bcs you get guaranteed crits. That way you can guarantee 7+number_of_bards level 1 spell slots if you go the extra mile to knock down targets
Minor correction on tabletop rules for hand crossbows, unless the 2024 rules changes this: you need a free hand to load them, so the optimal archer build is a single hand crossbow, crossbow expert for the bonus action shot since that doesn't come by default, and sharpshooter.
2024 rules renders them unusable until level 4, because no variant human or custom lineage level 1 feat. You still need a free hand to shoot them, they are now light weapons that make use of the standard twf rules (which have been condensed into the light property itself) but twf style now applies to them, so they can add dex to damage at level 1/2 as a fighter/ranger, however they will still have the loading property (1 shot per crossbow per turn limit, whether as an action/bonus action/reaction) and ammunition property (need free hand to load). Crossbow expert also confers them the same bonus as twf style (they explicitly don't stack) and let's you load them without needing a free hand. So now you won't be able to use only one hand crossbow for all of your attacks, you explicitly need 2 (or another light weapon at least).
Sharpshooter no longer confers them massive damage, and GWM specifically applies to Heavy weapons, including longbows and crossbows.
If you want do dual wield in 2024, melee is now much better because of the nick weapon mastery and dual wielder feat. Using 2 light weapons you can attack, nick attack, and bonus action attack as soon as level 4. At level 5 you essentially get 4 attacks. I imagine with the weapon master feat, monks could also severely benefit from this. I am hoping the new kensai subclass gets a fighting style, as this would allow a monk 6 attacks at level 10 (3 armed and 3 unarmed)
titanstrength bow is the best in all acts till the end maybe best all over weapon
weapon tier list yippieeeee❤❤❤
I will die on the hill that the Titanstring Bow is the best bow in the game by a long shot. I did a 5 Gloom, 4 Assassin, 1 Great old One, 2 fighter run with Ascended Astarion and the late game damage was beyond ridiculous. We are talking about thousands of damage in the starting round with arrow of many targets.
Also, the Bow of the Banshee is S tier for most of the game imo. With mind sanctuary and haste you can effectively disable a whole battle field with your slashing flourishes while still dealing OK damage late game.
Comment for algorithm but we need MORE brotato! Also, dex based weapons being automatically sort of better due to the nature of how important Dex is really reminds me of the Rogue in Diablo 1. Pump dex for chance to hit and damage! Ez
still holding out hope for the wild shape/slayer form tier list 🤞
there is always a heavy crossbow in the grove at the table where Aradin and his party go if they stay at the grove
Hellfire handbow should come with a fireball instead of scorching ray. Would make up for an archer's inefficiency dealing with clusters of 5hp spam, and only once a day is not too broken
Yay Im so happy I love playing archers!
I think you forgot to mention that sneak attack and special arrows like fire arrow and lightning arrow also benefit from Titan string. Given the assistance of items like risky ring, or a hold monster, I think titanstring is still the best lake game under favorable circumstances, and with the right consumables and rogue multiclass build. I can see the argument for using the deadshot if you aren’t creating favorable circumstances for yourself, but it’s pretty clear to me that the benefits of dead shot are not really holding up to the damage of Titan string.
I am I believe most of the way through Act 1, and can confirm Goblin and regular Shortbows are everywhere. Light crossbows I have in spades. Yet I have A SINGLE heavy crossbow which I think I only got by slaughtering the entire Goblin Camp iirc. Weirdly less common than all other non-magical bow types for sure. Also only one hand crossbow come to think of it.
You put the mundane longbow above the +1 longbow?
What the actual fuck...
Correct! One is an improvement over the weapons you have when you get it, and one isn't. I'll let you figure out which is which.
Heavy Crossbow is sitting on the table next to the mercenaries. Fog cloud and Astarian makes off with it.
Hi and srry for distrub, i gonna start multiplayer with 2 melee . I wanna play max dps archer. I dont need survival cz my comps tank and make cc.
What is the best damage build for archer?
Deadshot, Titanstring, Gontr Mael (due to effects), Ne'er Misser.