Which bow is best?

[WeenerTuck813]

Running an Archer ranger playthrough.
I picked up Joltshooter thinking this was the move…but it’s kinda not right?

+1 longbow is better? What do you guys think?

The lightning charges make Joltshooter a +1 but the first attack it’s basically a normal longbow…

Also looking at that heavy crossbow that does reeling 2

[brendan_in_china]

It depends:

+1 bow is great, better than Joltshooter.

Yes, the +1 heavy crossbow is best - until extra attack at level 5 which works with bows, not crossbows. Crossbow expert feat fixes this, but then we're discussing feats, not bows.

If you can get two hand crossbows, they dish out more DPR, but the 50' range seems to come up more often than you think. Also every +1 counts.

[Ronin Gamer]

Just have some fun and experiment. Try some stuff. Not every build has to be ultra ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ maximum damage!!!! You can have some fun and just try an idea out and see if it works.

[Kryldost]

The lightning charge bow only shines if you have the boots on or on a thief tbh. For ranger I prefer spellthief to get a spellslot back on a crit.

[Snow]

Spellthief is the absolute best bow in the game, recovering a spell slot is huge and you can pass it to all your casters to recover multiple of them between short rests.

[brendan_in_china]

True. I usually give it to SH and have MC default knock out. After the battle she executes for the auto-crit.

Then again, I often forget when not under pressure.

[RhodosGuard]

Originally posted by Snow:

Spellthief is the absolute best bow in the game, recovering a spell slot is huge and you can pass it to all your casters to recover multiple of them between short rests.

If you manage to score crits on all of them.

I think creating a build with all the shock items is pretty fun.
On my last character I gave Astarion Medium Armor Proficiency and had him with Joltshooter, which worked well enough for Sneak-Attack one-shots