abgamble@water.UUCP (abgamble) (08/04/85)
In a recent Dragon magazine (#98), the Forum section had a letter from someone complaining about the new Weapon Specialization rules in Unearthed Arcana. He wrote that the new rules make Bow specialists far too powerful, and I have to agree totally. As it is now, a Bow specialist standing 30 ft away is a *much* more formiddable opponent than a fighter trying to beat you with a bastard sword. I'd have to go further, though, and say that the rules for melee weapon specialization are unfair too. Consider a 1st level fighter with 18(65) strength and a +1 magic sword. If this fighter has taken double weapon specializtion then he suddenly becomes +6 to hit and +7 to damage. If we improve him a bit ( 18(95) str. and a +2 sword), he is then +7 to hit and +10 to damage! Those are extrordinary pluses for a *1stlevel* charactor to have. Not only that but he gets to swing twice every other round! Think of the poor cleric fighting beside him who does a max. of about 8 pts of damage. Not exactly a balanced game. Opponents strong enough to challenge the fighter, will slaughter the cleric. My solution to all of this is quite simple. 1) For melee weapons - eliminate double specialization. 2) For bows - At "point blank" range the specialist is +2 to hit and +2 to damage (instead of the current double damage). Using these changes, one arrow from a specialist would probably kill a zero level type, and with the extra attacks each round, the bow specialist is still quite powerful. Ditto for the melee spec., but they are no longer walking destruction machines. Bruce Gamble