Sword-shooting. Is there a purpose?

[SangoProduction]

There's a talent in Spheres of Might that lets you shoot swords out of a bow....at a -2 penalty. I'm trying to figure out what purpose this would have, mechanically.

[Necroticplague]

There's a talent in Spheres of Might that lets you shoot swords out of a bow....at a -2 penalty. I'm trying to figure out what purpose this would have, mechanically.

Er, you seem to be missing the very obvious.



You may treat lances, longswords, and spears as ammunition for longbows, shortbows, light crossbows, and heavy crossbows, being able to draw and load them as though they were ammunition (although they are not destroyed after hitting a target). Using these weapons as ammunition deals additional damage equal to the weapon’s damage die (this additional damage is not multiplied on a critical hit) and you take a -2 penalty on attack rolls made while using these weapons as ammunition.
Say, you're a Medium character. Using a Longbow normally does 1d8 damage. Using a lance as ammo instead of an arrow does an additional 1d8 damage.
So it's essentially just a version of Deadly Aim that scales with size instead of level. Not very good, but they can't all be winners.

[SangoProduction]

Er, you seem to be missing the very obvious.

Say, you're a Medium character. Using a Longbow normally does 1d8 damage. Using a lance as ammo instead of an arrow does an additional 1d8 damage.
So it's essentially just a version of Deadly Aim that scales with size instead of level. Not very good, but they can't all be winners.

Oh, I didn't catch that extra bit. Well that's decent. an average of +4.5 dmg for -2 to hit.

[TheFederalist]

Er, you seem to be missing the very obvious.

Say, you're a Medium character. Using a Longbow normally does 1d8 damage. Using a lance as ammo instead of an arrow does an additional 1d8 damage.
So it's essentially just a version of Deadly Aim that scales with size instead of level. Not very good, but they can't all be winners.
Rule of cool! The dragon is immune to all strikes except those from the Sword of Macguffin! And because the dragon isn't dumb, it's flying at a good distance away from Beatstick Beatrice. Grab sword and initiate launch sequence!
That's probably the primary reason for existence, that it's cool.

[Inevitability]

There's a number of unique weapons that have cool abilities: this feature allows you to use them as otherwise unobtainable ammunition.

Also, it lets you shoot vorpal projectiles out of your bow, which is neat when combined with Rapid Shot and such.

[Nifft]

Finally a use for a Returning (non-Throwing) Longsword.

[Goaty14]

they don't have a 50% chance of breaking when they hit something, so there's that. (if people actually use that rule :smallsigh:)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Gives you call to add the splitting property to your longsword.

[Vhaidara]

they don't have a 50% chance of breaking when they hit something, so there's that. (if people actually use that rule :smallsigh:)

i mean, no one uses that. Since the rule is 100% chance of breaking on hit, 50% on a miss.

[Domar]

It also lets you use Ranged Impale from the Lancer sphere at bow range rather than thrown range.

Also combine bow enchantments plus melle enchantments.