When I get to BGII as I am now playing in BGI, I was wondering exactly which bow would be best, a long bow or a short bow? Also is the archer kit any good when at grandmaster? Personally I was going to go with long bow as it deals more damage and has greater accuracy.

Traditionalists stay with Longbows, powergamers go for Shortbows. I personally use Longbows first, and Shortbows later. Call it the roleplay factor.

Of course the archer kit is good at grandmaster! Anything that adds to your "to hit" and "damage" scores is beneficial.

If you are a powergamer, as per Dundee's comment above, you should base your choice upon the magical bows available and whether or not you intend to install "Throne of Bhaal"......[Spoiler alert]............
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In SoA the best longbow available is the Heartseeker, whose special ability is only usable for a few seconds once per day. This is found in the Windspear Hills dungeon, one of the most difficult adventures which can be performed in Chapter 2. For the shortbows you can get the Tuigan and the Tansheron, both of which are available in chapter 2 in easy adventures, and the Gesen.

If you also install ToB, then you might also want to consider the crossbow, as the Firetooth +4 Crossbow is available for sale right outside Watcher's Keep and therefore also available in Chapter 2. It also does a lot of damage.

Actually,
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The Strongarm +2 is more powerful than the Heartseeker +3. It deals far superior damage at the expense of 1 THACO bonus. Besides... even with a unenchanted Composite Longbow, your THACO can easily hit -20. Damage is a more important aspect.

I have always found longbows funner anyway. They get an additional damage or to hit bonus over shortbows, and have a longer range, which is especially good for archers, since they get some extra time to kill people. Also, install the Baldurdash Grandmastery patch to return Grandmastery to its former glory.

I am currently playing as an Archer, and yes it does rock indeed [img]smile.gif[/img]
If you're starting off and looking for something good go for the Elven Court Longbow, it's in De'Arnise keep an it's THACO of +4 is nice indeed .

While I'm here I want to ask a question, does anyone know why an Archer starts off with two points in two weapon fighting?

Archer is a Ranger subclass, which means it automatically gets 2 stars in dual weapon fighting.

That is the most pointless thing ever, why would somone be an archer and choose to wield two weapons?

1. It's part of the ranger template - blame TSR/WOTC/Black Isle Studios/whoever.

2. What's the poor archer gonna do when someone gets close enough to melee him - hit him with his bow or maybe stab him with an arrow?

3. If you don't like the dual weapon proficiencies, don't use them. The two stars were a freebie, after all.

1. OK calm down there you seem to be taking this a bit to seriously, when an enemy comes close to me i just switch over to my SINGLE Flaming long sword +1, I don't see the point in going in to the inventory taking off the bow and putting another weapon in the shield slot only to take the weapon out of the shield slot and re-equip the bow when the enemy goes down, it just seems like a waste of time to me...

2. And I'm not looking to blame anyone, I just think it seems a little strange to be specialised in two weapon fighting when an Archer would use a single two handed weapon. Surely someone else must see the reasoning behind this?

3. Thank you I don't use them.....just a pity those two points couldn't be put to better use in say two handed weapon or single weapon fighting but hey what do I know?