I have a hard time believing this hasn't been asked yet, but I searched the errata and forums and found nothing, so here we go:

1. ARPG Page 231 states that "Exceptional weapons also have excellent balance, lowering the weapon's base Speed by 1 (to a minimum of 3) in addition to dealing 1 extra point of damage with every hit".

2. Per APRG Page 233, all ranged weapons (Flintlock Pistol, Light Crossbow, Flintlock Rifle, Heavy Crossbow, Medium Crossbow) have a Speed 2, and according to the statement above, could not be reduced further by Exceptional quality.

3. My question is: is there any benefit to having an exceptional ranged weapon, other than the ability to add exceptional runes to the weapon? For base mechanics, it does appear to yield you any benefit other than the +1 damage you would already gain from a Fine quality weapon?

4. Is the speed reduction perhaps applied to your reload cost?

Greetings,

Welcome to the boards. Some of the questions you have are answered in full or in part in the Errata document. It's available for download from the Campaign site. You can find the link to it from the main Paradigm Concepts site or go directly to it at: http://www.paradigmcampaigns.com

From the errata:
Question: If you have an Exceptional Flintlock that you are using as a Melee (Unbalanced) weapon, do the Exceptional qualities still apply?
Answer: Yes

Question: In what order do I apply weapon Speed modifiers?
Answer: When applying changes to a weapon’s Speed due to properties, maneuvers, etc, all reductions are applied first. The Speed still may not fall below 3; further reductions do not apply. Then all increases are applied.

As with melee weapons of speed 3, there is no speed reduction or benefit gained in place for the exceptional quality. In the case of flintlocks, see above.

There are a number of exceptional runes that are quite handy to have such as Relentless, so there is still a benefit to it. It also allows for the +2 damage version of runes rather than the +1, or a die bump depending on whether it's a constant flat bonus (Fire, Frost) or limited number of times (Avalanche).

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Hat,

Thank you for the quick reply.

"Question: In what order do I apply weapon Speed modifiers?
Answer: When applying changes to a weapon’s Speed due to properties, maneuvers, etc, all reductions are applied first. The Speed still may not fall below 3; further reductions do not apply. Then all increases are applied."
- I understand the order that is presented here, though it appears somewhat of a non sequitur since the weapon speeds of ranged weapons are already below 3. However, I do agree with your interpretation that the rules, as written, do not appear to grant any specific benefit (with the exception of the Flintlocks, as stated, which is marginal at best, since if you're rolling a ranged character you really don't want to be in melee to begin with).

IMHO, the combat mechanics tend to be quite caster- and melee-centric, while ranged weapons take mostly a back seat, and this is a case in point were I find this is true.

Bows still benefit from Exceptional. It's not too uncommon for a character who uses flintlocks to also do melee - I've seen a few characters that intend to use their flintlocks to shoot and then melee with them. Crossbows are the ranged weapons that get shafted the most by the Exceptional rules (no speed benefit and no melee benefit).

One thing to note about flintlocks is that they are expensive to use (2Sc per shot). With the economy in Arcanis, at low tier, any flintlock user would be hurting to keep up with the cost of using their weapon all the time.

My fiancee plays a ranged combat specialist (bow(wo)man), and in general finds that there is definitely a niche for them. That said, from my own personal observations you really cannot have more than a single ranged combat specialist in a party, because if you don't have the melee people to hold enemies back, they'll just roll up on you. Bows are fundamentally slow weapons and cannot put out enough damage fast enough to keep the hoards at bay.

-Please explain, I'm interested.

-You are making exactly my point. I could take an exceptional Gladius for speed 4, rune it down to speed 3, and deliver more damage/tick than any ranged weapon available, with the added benefit of not having to buy ammo. Plus I would benefit from a much wide range of available martial techniques and combat talents that pump my damage/tick even higher.

Under the current mechanics, I really see the benefit of ranged weapons as either being an alternative for casters to burn strain for a few ticks, or for a melee specialist to fire once to start combat and then drop it to go to his primary melee weapon [Quick Draw likely included]. But if I'm trying to play a true ranged character, I just can't find the math to show me how I'm going to be as effective as melee characters.

Actually, you can't "rune it down" to 3 Ticks. Please read the text of the Celerity Rune:



Please note it says COMBAT MANEUVER.



This means that you can only ever get your Gladius to Speed 3 by using a combat maneuver which has a speed of +0 (X), or with the Rapid Strike Weapon Trick.

You are correct that Guns and Crossbows cannot fire any faster than 2 ticks in the current rules set, but Exceptional provides additional Rune Slots compared to Fine or Good Quality which is nothing to sneeze at. In terms of Bows, Exceptional bows are no less powerful than any other weapon in terms of speed vs. damage. They do have a 2 tick reload, but there are Talents and Martial Techniques which ameliorate that rather short reload.

Your base damage with a heavy crossbow or flintlock rifle is obnoxious compared to every other weapon in the game for it's initial speed. Assume quickness of 7 so d10, for speed 2 the heavy crossbow does 2d10 (1d10) damage plus any bonuses for quality, runes, etc. Average damage is 16.5 base or 8.25 per tick. A gladius is d8 base, so d8 (d10) or 10 points over 5 ticks. 2 points of damage per tick with nothing else added in. Even that assumes that the melee combatant had to go nowhere to get there. There's also a decent chance that the heavy crossbow outright wounded the target especially as you start adding in fine quality, a damage rune and get a bit lucky with the roll.

I will agree with Cody people focused on crossbows will have a harder time as they can't melee with it and including reload time they aren't as fast as a bowman. However, if you think crossbows are useless, talk to anyone who was at the Origins BI in 2014. They wounded like no one's business.

In terms of damage per tick, there are two items I'm curious if you factored into your equation.

1. Opponent's AR - small weapons may hit faster, but AR erodes their impact against larger slower weapons
2. Ticks spent by melee types in moving

Movement for melees adds up. If you wait for the enemy to come to you you're wasting ticks. If you close on them, the time to close effectively adds to the weapon speed. Unlike the original rules where Quick decreased all movement by 1 making a 5' incidental free, incidental movement now adds a minimum of 1 tick.

There's a base martial technique in Codex of Heroes that for +0 speed and 0 recovery decreases the reload time for bows by 2 to 0, a la free. The Draw on the Move talent allows you to reload a bow as a free action as part of a cautious advance. With the Quick talent this means move anywhere up to your full pace and reload your bow for speed 3. The Quickshot talent allows you to reload a bow as a trivial (speed 1) action that can be combined with shooting. An exceptional bow and that talent means that you have base weapon speed and can fire with no concerns for reload.

At Tier I you get Point Blank Shot for free on every shot within 30' bypassing 2 points of AR. As most things have AR that's effectively 2 die bumps from base average damage. Precise Aim is a Speed 2 Maneuver with recovery 0. Again, you can use that all day long if you want. In that case, because it's a maneuver, the Exceptional Celerity rune does apply.

There are additional options for boosting damage and perfectly good maneuvers and combinations that can make a bowman very deadly.

Flintlocks as the PCI team clarified switching to the A:RPG were intended as they originally were used - a single deadly opening volley and then melee. Crossbows could certainly work like that or function as a slow spike damage option.

I would also point out that if you're standing in the back you probably aren't getting wailed on like the melee types are either which is a benefit as well.

All weapons have trade offs. The goal is to find a groove that works for you using one or more weapons and have fun.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

Bows have a speed of 5(2) or 6(2) so Exceptional drops it to 4(2) or 5(2). Crossbows and flintlocks have a much faster attack speed (but slower reload) so don't end up benefiting from Exceptional (except flintlocks in the melee forms).