Is Enlarge Person worth it on Composite bow archer?

[Kreddi]

I'm wondering if the minus dex traded for the added strength is worthwhile, as that's one of the ways I've been buffing my archer characters

[Rhapsody]

No, save that spell for your Strength based melee fighters. The added reach is much better in melee.

You can eventually make use of Legendary Proportions if you get an alchemist or druid.

[Heritec]

Its worth it if you use it on Lann (he uses WIS, not Dex for attack rolls) or if you only miss with a nat 1. In the latter case its a straight buff to damage without any penalty.

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Basically you can get a agile bow of any kind with arcane 2 trickster. With weapon finesse, it adds your dex modifier to damage rolls.

But otherwise, i would prefer reduce person. If you can't hit the enemy, you won't do any damage at all.

[Aussie 760]

Originally posted by Rhapsody:

No, save that spell for your Strength based melee fighters. The added reach is much better in melee.

You can eventually make use of Legendary Proportions if you get an alchemist or druid.

The one exception being a Zen Archer, such as Lann.
Explination: Zen Archers will eventualy (5th level) turn the damage dice of thier bow into the unarmed strike damage die. This means that at 5th level the 1D8 dmg die turns into 2D6 with the size increase.

Zen archers don't rely on dex to hit (level 3 ability = wisdom to hit) so the penalty to dex doesn't matter. So for Zen archers you get an extra point of flat damage along with an extra die of damage rolled - that gets better as you level up (2D8->3D6->3D8->4D8).

Other than that, keep Enlarge Person and similar spells on the melee fighters.

[Frostfeather]

Yes, for the increased weapon damage and the strength bonus together. These bonuses outweigh a small penalty to hit.

[Aussie 760]

Originally posted by Baldurs_Gate_2:

Basically you can get a agile bow of any kind with arcane 2 trickster. With weapon finesse, it adds your dex modifier to damage rolls.

But otherwise, i would prefer reduce person. If you can't hit the enemy, you won't do any damage at all.

Reduce person really is best left to spell casters as the size reduction impacts the bow damage dice. Sure you will have a bonus to hit and ac, but the bow does less damage now as well.

[Kreddi]

I probably should have mentioned my Lann isn't a zen archer beyond the first level.
He's a divine hound, so idk I don't think his hit chance is scaling with Wisdom

[Baldurs_Gate_2]

Originally posted by Aussie 760:

Originally posted by Baldurs_Gate_2:

Basically you can get a agile bow of any kind with arcane 2 trickster. With weapon finesse, it adds your dex modifier to damage rolls.

But otherwise, i would prefer reduce person. If you can't hit the enemy, you won't do any damage at all.

Reduce person really is best left to spell casters as the size reduction impacts the bow damage dice. Sure you will have a bonus to hit and ac, but the bow does less damage now as well.

But if you use hurricane bow, it's back to normal or? ^^

[Rhapsody]

Just use Hurricane Bow without Reduce Person.

[For_Science!]

Yes, if you use hurricane bow it's back to normal...but if you use hurricane bow WITHOUT reduce person, the damage is considerable better than normal.

If Enlarge Person were just for the strength bonus to damage, it would not be worth the size penalty to your hit roll. But given that you get both the strength bonus to damage, and a step up on the weapon size ladder -- with hurricane bow, if available, giving yet another step up -- enlarge is a viable option. You can do the math yourself; if your archer is having a hard time landing hits, then increasing the number of hits (with Reduce) matters more than increasing their damage. If hits are reasonably easy to land, then the damage boost from Enlarge makes up for a few misses.

If you have a brownfur transmuter handing out buffs, then it makes even more sense to always choose either Enlarge or Reduce, but never stick with the default size.

Also, if your archer is having to punch through damage resistance, then damage becomes more important. (20 damage instead of 15 is only a 33% increase in damage.
but if the target has DR 10 that you can't mitigate, this becomes 10 damage vs 5, a 100% increase.)

[RocketMan]

Originally posted by For_Science!:

Yes, if you use hurricane bow it's back to normal...but if you use hurricane bow WITHOUT reduce person, the damage is considerable better than normal.

If Enlarge Person were just for the strength bonus to damage, it would not be worth the size penalty to your hit roll. But given that you get both the strength bonus to damage, and a step up on the weapon size ladder -- with hurricane bow, if available, giving yet another step up -- enlarge is a viable option. You can do the math yourself; if your archer is having a hard time landing hits, then increasing the number of hits (with Reduce) matters more than increasing their damage. If hits are reasonably easy to land, then the damage boost from Enlarge makes up for a few misses.

If you have a brownfur transmuter handing out buffs, then it makes even more sense to always choose either Enlarge or Reduce, but never stick with the default size.

Also, if your archer is having to punch through damage resistance, then damage becomes more important. (20 damage instead of 15 is only a 33% increase in damage.
but if the target has DR 10 that you can't mitigate, this becomes 10 damage vs 5, a 100% increase.)

Would uh lead blades also stack with hurricane bow like it stacks with enlarge person?

[amills1]

As with many things, it depends on what you are fighting against. If your opponent has high AC then enlarge with make it harder to hit as you lose DEX. If your opponents AC isn't all that high, then enlarge can help as your weapon size increases which means more damage. As For_Science! noted, DR also plays into this. Being able to hit your opponent takes priority of course.

[amills1]

Originally posted by Mail me to the Moon:

Would uh lead blades also stack with hurricane bow like it stacks with enlarge person?

No, the spell descriptions clearly state that lead blades is for melee weapons while hurricane bow is for ranged weapons.

[NoMegaCorps]

Originally posted by For_Science!:

Yes, if you use hurricane bow it's back to normal...but if you use hurricane bow WITHOUT reduce person, the damage is considerable better than normal.

If Enlarge Person were just for the strength bonus to damage, it would not be worth the size penalty to your hit roll. But given that you get both the strength bonus to damage, and a step up on the weapon size ladder -- with hurricane bow, if available, giving yet another step up -- enlarge is a viable option. You can do the math yourself; if your archer is having a hard time landing hits, then increasing the number of hits (with Reduce) matters more than increasing their damage. If hits are reasonably easy to land, then the damage boost from Enlarge makes up for a few misses.

If you have a brownfur transmuter handing out buffs, then it makes even more sense to always choose either Enlarge or Reduce, but never stick with the default size.

Also, if your archer is having to punch through damage resistance, then damage becomes more important. (20 damage instead of 15 is only a 33% increase in damage.
but if the target has DR 10 that you can't mitigate, this becomes 10 damage vs 5, a 100% increase.)

Spot on, very well said and helpful.

[RocketMan]

Originally posted by amills1:

Originally posted by Mail me to the Moon:

Would uh lead blades also stack with hurricane bow like it stacks with enlarge person?

No, the spell descriptions clearly state that lead blades is for melee weapons while hurricane bow is for ranged weapons.

Appreciate it, been a while since I played so didn't remember that tidbit.