Ranged weapons and the WM

[Lorkar1]

Can someone explain why the WM cannot take a ranged weapon as a weapon of choice?
I have tried with the long and shortbow and have had no success. It would stand to reason that a weapon master should be able to take any weapon available in the mod as a weapon of choice.

[Mr. O'Dearly]

why as in, point out the rule?

or

why as in, why did bioware make the rule?

edit:and just in case, it should say somewhere in the WM description that you can only choose a melee wep

[Binkyuk]

because Bioware said so.
Supposedly the AA is the 'master' of bows.

[TheBestDeception]

Anyone familiar with PnP know if this is consistent to that ruleset?

I've always thought that the lack of improvement of ranged crits (beyond IC) was a serious drawback to getting maybe 1 attack in before a melee reaches you.

[Lorkar1]

because Bioware said so.
Supposedly the AA is the 'master' of bows.

Which would be fine if I didnt have to sacrifice a class to do it or be an elf. I have never played either nor do I plan to. Elves in my(and mine alone) opinion are a mediocre race because I can get other sub-races with better bennies regardless of ECL.

[Binkyuk]

I dunno, Keen Senses is a pretty awesome feat, effectively doubles your spot or your speed vs stealthy enemies.

not that your spot skill matters much against SDs anyway, thanks to bioware's retardedness. *grumble grumble*

[Squikker2001]

As far as I know, WM's cannot take ranged weapons as a weapon of choice.

Another thing bioware screwed up was not letting WMs take Unarmed as a weapon of choice. Im guessing they were scared of having Monk/WMs going around with ki-damage d20 fists .

[Binkyuk]

well that's easy, the Monk is the 'master' class for unarmed fighting. No need for WMs there.

[Squikker2001]

Yet they get no keen gloves.

[watchwood]

I think that hitting with a base d20 would more then make up for that, comparing monk gloves to most other weapons in damage/time.

[Yonwe]

Well, in terms of PnP, Weapon Master is drawn from the Weapon Master found in Sword and Fist, and more or less functions as it does in NWN with the exception of Ki Critical being a per-day ability instead of a constant increase to the threat range, and a change to Whirlwind that would have no effect based on the structure of rounds in real time. In PnP, you can select Unarmed Strike, but you have to remember that it's a very tough trade-off since once you multiclass away from Monk, you can't go back.

However, that version of Weapon Master was scrapped and revised in 3.5 as Exotic Weapon Master, whose pre-reqs are proficiency and focus in an exotic weapon and 6 ranks in Craft (Weapons). It's only a three-level class, with a list of abilities to choose from and gain at each level such as the ability to use a Stunning Fist through the weapon, gaining an extra attack per round, not provoking an attack of opportunity with a ranged weapon, taking no penalty when dual-wielding your exotic weapon, throwing light exotic weapons without a penalty, or my personal favorite, gaining double your strength bonus when wielding your weapon in two hands and gaining three times your STR bonus when using Power Attack.

The NWN2 WM is the same as NWN in terms of mechanics, but I haven't tried to build one yet, so I don't know if Unarmed is a choice... I'm sure ranged weapons aren't.

[Blystos Re]

Hot an' fresh out th' Grimoire:

For a weapon master, perfection is found in the mastery of a single
melee weapon.

That about sums it up for me, how 'bout y'all?

[VagaStorm]

Hot an' fresh out th' Grimoire:

For a weapon master, perfection is found in the mastery of a single
melee weapon.

That about sums it up for me, how 'bout y'all?

and yeat it is til posible to focus up to 7 melee weapons :p

[Blystos Re]

Psssh! Details.

[LinuxPup]

17-20 crit range, x4 multiplier, super high ab, rapid shot... on ranged attacks ....

That'd be nuts. I think thats why its not allowed.