how do bows work??

[Sky]

so, i got this longbow x3 +20, and another x4 +15.

assuming standard arrows, they should deal more or less the same damage, right?

i thought the damage was (arrow dice + arrow bonus + bow bonus) x might multiplier.

so an arrow 1d4 +10 out of a x3 bow +10 would be 3d4 +60. right?

instead i'm getting higher values out of the x3 bow instead of the x4 bow. bug?

[Derakon]

You have the formula right, though you should also bear in mind that to-hit affects your critical hit rate, which has an effect on your damage. Probably more relevant, though, is the fact that since these bows are very equivalent, it's easy for your frail human brain to see patterns that don't exist because e.g. you happened to get high rolls with one bow and low rolls with the other.

To actually do the math: with a 1d4 arrow, your average damage dice is 2.5, so you're looking at (2.5 + 20) * 3 = 67.5 for the x3 bow, vs. (2.5 + 15) * 4 = 70 for the x4 bow. The actual ranges are 63-72 for the first bow and 64-76 for the second bow. The arrows aren't literally 3d4 or 4d4 because the dice is calculated before the multiplier kicks in.

I threw together a quick Monte Carlo simulator and it looks like the x3 bow has about a 31% chance of rolling higher than the x4 bow, assuming they have the same crit rate.

[Sky]

no, i'm talking the actual scores the game gives me, in the weapon description. they were one +16 to hit and the other +14 so that would be a minute percentage of difference. And there are no other attached stats that could influence the end result.

[Derakon]

How odd. Post a character dump?

[Sky]

i should have done that earlier, they are gone now. i'll try to recreate it.

[Sky]

see, now (i'm playing the latest hyrbid build) i have a crossbow of extra shots, X3 +16, and i do 100 dps, while with the same bolt (id5 +5) i do 137 using a X4 +25.