what are the best short bows and long bows and which is better?

The best short bow is probably the Gesen Bow. Dunno about long bows, though.

I generally give Short Bow profs to anyone with less than 18 STR, as that's the amount you need to use a composite bow. Although, if you take Minsc in the party, you'll have a suitable longbowman already. And the infinite ammo short bows (Gesen's, Tansheron's) are very handy. I don't think there are any infinite ammo longbows in SoA, only ToB, but I could be wrong.

As an alternative, have you ever thought about throwing daggers? Ok, non-magic variants are far too much of a pain in the arse, but Fullen's Boomerang Dagger and Dragon's Tooth (or whatever it's called; I always forget) are superb. Same attacks/round as a bow, and they get the thrown weapons strength bonus (IIRC)! This can really stack up, in terms of damage/round. And you can carry a shield with them, and Kensai and Cavaliers can use them too.

[ June 14, 2005, 13:26: Message edited by: The Magpie ]

HeartSeeker is the best Longbow imo. You can find it in Firkaag's lair.
The Ripper would be the second best, altough you need 19 Strt to use it. Ribald sells it iirc.

The best short bow IMO is tuigian bow. There are so many magical arrows in the game so you'll never run out of them, and 3 shots per round is awesome!

I have to disagree about the Tuigan shortbow - it is nice but Gesen's is better.

With Gesen you can still use magical arrows and they get Gesen's bonus electrical damage - this electrical damage more than makes up for Tuigan's extra shot.

The best use of the Tuigan Bow is for Assassins - the extra poison damage inflicted with the bonus attack really counts. For a similar reason, they can also find darts useful. For anyone else, it probably should be Gesen's, unless your target is Protected from Electricity.

short bow:Gesen bow, Tuigin bow
Long bow:Heartseeker.
but I think elven court bow is better than ripper.

What are the advantages of each again?

I don't remember, but do longbows have more range? More damage? Probably not THAC0 though... slightly slower in speed factor but same number of attacks per round so whatever.

Range is the same for all missile weapons in the game, altough Composite Longbows should actually have extended range going by the ingame descriptions imo.
Longbows get more base damage.

Actually, darts and throwing stuff have shorter range than bows and slings... it's really annoying to see my weak dart thrower standing closest to the enemy :S

@JSBB: Are you sure that Gesen's bow adds electrical damage to magical arrows?

I ask because I am sure that Gesen's fired with arrows will not damage a Golem, but fired without arrows it will.

I tend to prefer the Tuigan bow anyway, as I think that 50% more attacks is worth more than the Thac0 bonus from the Gesen...

but darts are naturally 3 shots per round, aren't they?

@Truper: When you use ammo with Gesen, your enchantment to hit is the one on the ammo. If you use no ammo, you get the +4 enchantment to your attacks. What kind of Golem was this?

Actually, IIRC, Gesen Bow is only +3

Nah, it's +4; at least according to its description, anyway.

Tansheron's - the other unlimited ammo bow - is +3.

For longbows: Heartseeker, Elven Court bow, Ripper

Shortbows: Gensen, Tasheron's, Tuigen

Personal preference is getting weapons that don't require ammo. Then I discovered the ammo belt and thank heavens for that. :)

Gensen is +3 and does extra electrical damage. You can hurt golems with it, but usually just electrical damage. The Firetooth dagger from Ust Natha is great and does damage against golems as well (just the fire damage, though).

For adamantine/iron golems, there's nothing better than trapping them in a doorway they can't fit through and having Jaheira and Imoen fire away with Firetooth and Gensen! :cool:

In SOA, if you're playing an archer, Strong Arm is your best bet. There are a bunch of other bows that give +4 THACO (Heartseeker, Mana Bow, Elven Court Bow), but +1 THACO is meaningless to an archer (who should get negative THACO very quickly, especially an elf with 19 DEX). Heartseeker's +2 damage is nice, but its added THACO ability is pretty redundant (there aren't any critters with -17 AC in SOA). Then again, not even getting blinded can stop an archer of decent level.

Strong Arm gives the best damage bonus for a longbow (+3), which is most important for an archer, especially for criticals and called shots. Also, if you don't mind being dishonest, you can use the old Baldur's Gate cheat of equipping a giant strength girdle, equipping Strong Arm, then unequip the girdle (but keep the bow equipped).

The Gesen Bow fires only +2 arrows, iirc. The enchantment on the bow may be +4, but unless you're gonna use it to bash someone up close it doesn't help much. Any projectile shot from this bow can inflict electrical damage.

Tansheron's Bow, however, naturally fires +3 arrows, and is effective against just about any monster in the game.

The Tuigan bow is ideal for people who have can't have mastery/grandmastery in short bows, or who can't use whirlwind/greater whirlwind. No other bow, imo, goes better with Arrows of Biting, Dispelling and Fireball.

As you can see the Short Bows have it all covered.

Long bows and composite bows have better range and can do 2 or 3 more points of damage, but in terms of other enchantments lose out to Short bows.

The Heartseeker grants you the ability to increase your THAC0 significantly for a few seconds once a day - which isn't very useful since Archer characters usually have low enough THAC0 without it. Weighing advantages and disadvantages, in the end the Heartseeker isn't as strong as Gesen's Bow, or the Tuigan (when wielded by non-fighting classes). The Heartseeker shines only in the hands of an Archer or Fighter, and only against such monsters as dragons with extremely low AC.

The only other Longbow worth mentioning, iirc, is the Mana Bow, which is ideal for Wizard Slayers. The Ripper, sadly, is no more than a +2 Composite Bow with a fancy name.

EDIT:

That might actually be the case if Strong Arm weren't the most damaging long bow in SOA, which it is. The mana bow is the only +4 longbow with a special ability even worth mentioning, and it has no damage bonus at all. Strong Arm only gives +3 THACO, but the difference between +3 THACO and +4 THACO for archers is negligible. Damage is what's more important for archers and Strong Arm wins out there.

Damage is what's more important for archers and Strong Arm wins out there. Damn straight! :pope:

As for short bows, however, it's hard to choose between Tuigan and Gesen. Gesen does a little extra damage and doesn't need ammo, but I think Tuigan's extra shot outweighs that.

And if you want to see the statistics for yourself, take a look at the item bank on planetbaldursgate.com.