I found the bow that fires 3 per round from that beastmaster guy with the tiger. Is that the best one for a thief to use? Seems crossbows are so slow in firing but which is best?

Anything with extra attacks is good, especially for a class that only gets 1 attack per round normally. I'd say stick with the Tuigin shortbow from the beastmaster guy.

Tuigan is definitely the best for a thief. Yoshimo gets it early, and passes it on to Imoen.

yes stick with that one, and later you can use the cross bow from WC when fighting trolls, or use flame/poison arrows.
not necesary when using an assasin though

Gesen's makes a really nice bow for a thief too. I think you can get a couple attacks a round out of it and the electric arrows it fires can be nice.

im pretty sure Gesens is the standard 1 attack per round. Tuigans or the light crossbow of speed are the best choices for a thief, and you can use fire arrows/firetooth for trolls.

But I know Imoen and Nalia and my PC thief can get 2 attacks per round with Gesen, that other magic shortbow I can't remember the name of that you buy in Trademeet :D and normal shortbows.

Tuigan = 3 ApR
LCoS and any long or short bow (this includes Gesen) except Tuigan = 2 ApR
Any crossbow except the LCoS = 1 ApR

What I'm surprised people haven't mentioned yet are the magical throwing daggers, because I remember more than a few talking about their thieves using them. Throwing daggers have two attacks per round (like bows), but do less damage, which is why I stick to bows. There are also magical darts (the +3 returning Crimson Dart is easy to get very early), which have three attacks per round, but do even less damage than daggers.

Crossbow of speed is nifty, it adds +1 attack per round.

Crossbow ammunition is so much better. Look at the ammo types. Arrows of fire is extremely sucky (save allowed). BUT electrical bolts does 4d4 additional damage per hit, with a save vs breath for half. They do massive damage, couple it with a GWW attack and you have a 40d4 bonus damage. Major ouchies. :shake: An improved hasted thief can still make four attacks per round with CoSpeed.

Those bolts which do poison damage do tons of damage upon a failed save vs death. Plus, they are not that rare, I don't know if this is due to my mods or not but Jan never runs out of electric or poison bolts.

Not to mention that base damage of a crossbow bolt is 1d8, even 1d10 in some cases. Arrows are always 1d6. Plus magical bows do not generaly enhance the damage, but each and every heavy crossbow will give a tremendous bonus to damage and accuracy. Which reminds me, Crossbow of Accuracy (found in Unseeing Eye quest IIRC, I can not be sure) is the ultimate weapon for those who have lousy THAC0s.

Go for both. You will find great ammo for crossbows and a +4 crossbow. Tanshurons bow gives you limitless ammo and its +3. In my experience the Tuigan bow is best left for Mazzy or an archer pc.

Not to mention that base damage of a crossbow bolt is 1d8, even 1d10 in some cases. Arrows are always 1d6. :shame: While that may be how it is in the game (no 1d10's, BTW), it is wildly incorrect. Light crossbow bolts should do 1d4, and heavy crossbow bolts should do 1d4+1/1d6+1 (probably just shifted to 1d6 for game mechanics). Meanwhile, there are flight arrows for bows, which give longer range but only do 1d6 damage, and sheaf arrows, which do 1d8 damage. *This has been a 2e lesson from Felinoid. If you'd like to hear more, press '1' now.*

@Bassil
Why? Mazzy or any ranger/fighter/paladin pc would have natural 3 attacks per round, theres no need for tuigan short bow. You'd be better off rushing down to WK early and picking up firetooth.

Gesens unless you use arrows with it is limitless in it's ammo as well once you get it. There are only a few things that it can't hit on it's own and there are only a few monsters that resist the electrical damage.