Bows and Arrows Rebalanced

Bows and Arrows Rebalanced

Lore-Friendly Variety

In vanilla Skyrim, bows follow a very steady trend with few exceptions. The stronger the bow, the slower it is, and this information is hidden from the player. Combined with the fact that arrows are extremely powerful, this makes the overall balance very strange.

This mod changes the stats of all bows and arrows in the game in order to provide more meaningful choices between different bows, regardless of whether you prefer fast or slow bows. Arrows are nerfed and bows are buffed overall, to emphasize the selection of the right bow over just using the best possible arrows with a fast bow.

Changes

This mod changes the stats of all bows and arrows in the game. The only other thing it does, is incorporate the bugfixes that USSEP makes to various bows.

For an overview of the changes to bow stats, expand this spoiler:

In case you are interested in the raw speed stats, check here.

For an overview of the changes to arrow stats, expand this spoiler:

Balance Philosophy

Flat damage bonuses are very strong in Skyrim. Between improving your weapon and enchantments, you can easily rack up 50+ extra flat damage. Combined with the fact that the best arrows actually contribute MORE damage than the strongest bows (though the game does not show it, arrow damage is also affected by archery bonuses from perks, enchantments and potions), fast bows are generally superior to slow bows in the vanilla game.

The changes this mod makes aim to alleviate this issue to a degree. Slow bows now have much higher base damage than fast bows, to let Archery bonuses scale better with them. The importance of arrows is also reduced, as they have all been substantially nerfed.

In addition to game balance, changes to bow stats have also been informed by lore as well as common sense. The following changes were made specifically for this reason:

[]The longbow is now stronger but slower than the hunting bow, which is supposedly a shorter bow.

[]Bows made from heavy materials are generally stronger but slower, such as Orcish and Ebony.

[]Light materials such as Elven and Glass produce fast bows.

[]The Elven bow is fastest, as it is the lightest material (going off of armor weight), and Wood Elves are the best archers in Nirn.

[]The Daedric bow is the strongest and slowest bow, owing to the power of the Daedra within. This should make it powerful, but difficult to wield.

[]The Dwarven bow is well balanced, due to the special properties of Dwarven metal.

[*]Bows like the Ancient Nord and Falmer bows are generally weaker, owing to the fact that they are either aged or created without access to high quality, modern materials.