# Greatbow balance

**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/greatbow-balance/17474
**Category:** The Drawing Board
**Created:** [November 13, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/greatbow-balance/17474 "2018-11-13T21:59:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 20

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### Author: ![darktoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@darktoes](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/darktoes)
#### Post date: [November 14, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/greatbow-balance/17474/20 "2018-11-14T12:01:17Z")

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> [@Bows, Crossbows and Their Balance](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/bows-crossbows-and-their-balance/17067/195):
>
> Do you want me to provide video evidence of a character one-shotting stuff with that thing or what?  
> I mean, It’s just a fact-of-life that thing one-shots Z’s. It’s not just my opinion, it’s simply how things work.

Yes, that’s how it works, and that’s _fine_. It’s a near top-end strength build niche ranged weapon. Is it also an issue that the Nodachi and Barrett .50 cal can one-shot enemies? Obviously not, so it must be okay.

> [@Bows, Crossbows and Their Balance](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/bows-crossbows-and-their-balance/17067/195):
>
> Something “rare” can still be “normal” if it’s available to all profession and starting scenarios.  
> I mean, being a mechanical engineer IRL is pretty rare. Does that means it’s not a normal thing for a person to be?

Nothing wrong with being a mechanical engineer, but you can’t grab an engineer, hand him an engineering problem to solve and say “It’s an easy problem, he solved it in two minutes! You need a harder problem!”  
The greatbow is designed for builds with high strength. You’re intentionally adjusting the circumstances to start with a normally difficult prerequisite and complaining that it’s too overpowered.  
Start with 8 strength and get a greatbow in a week and we can talk earlygame balance.

> [@Bows, Crossbows and Their Balance](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/bows-crossbows-and-their-balance/17067/195):
>
> The damage scaling that exists is 0.5 points of damage per point of str.

For a wooden spear.  
You’re taking something unrelated and applying it to something with a solid rationale and saying it’s not okay because the two don’t match up. The only issue here is that melee weapons don’t scale proportionally with strength, and that’s not an issue with bows.

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