Why do elves generally use bows rather than something like boomerangs as their staple weapon? It's kinda perfect for elves, solid and heavy wooden weapon, always comes back, able to drop an elk at 100 yards in the hands of the right person.
>>46657438
>always comes back
Not if it hits something.
Pretty neat stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzaMDp3dgJc
>>46657438
Boomerangs are fairly terrible weapons, and this is from someone who thinks that boomerangs are neat.
>always comes back
If you think that all boomerangs always come back, or ones designed to hunt game are the same as returning boomerangs, then I don't think you understand much of anything about them.
Anyways, the reason that elves generally use bows is Tolkien. A more general reason is that bows are a common war weapon, and so to use something effective, elves use bows. Halflings typically have training in slings, after all, but nobody in their right mind bothers with slings past the first few levels. Even the +1 to hit isn't going to convince someone to use an extremely worse weapon.
>>46657438
>boomerangs inflict blunt force trauma
>need great strength to throw it with enough force for it to be effective
>strength isn't really the elves thing
>honestly probably a bump on the head if you're wearing a helmet
And this guy's point
>>>46657687
>>46657438
>always comes back
Are you implicitly talking about enchanted boomerangs?
Why not just have magic returning arrows at that point? Or an arcane quiver that produces infinite arrows?
Like others said, boomerangs that are designed to return to the thrower are basically toys. Hunting boomerangs are essentially throwing clubs with great aerodynamics.
Also, they would be useless in the forest since they'd bounce off of trees and get lost int he undergrowth, so they are ill suited for elves in general.
Boomerangs would be better for a race of plains/scrub dwelling Giants. Even boomerangs designed to return to the thrower would be heavy enough to kill humans and large animals even if they don't come back.
>>46659061
It's interesting how the arrow designs on those ones run counter to the direction they'd be moving in when thrown.
>>46659061
This. And even the hunting boomerangs weren't used by Aboriginal Australians as a means to kill people. That'd be stupid. They had perfectly serviceable spears for that.
>>46657438
>Why do elves generally use bows
Because Gygax ripped off Gimli and Legolas, then everybody else ripped off Gygax.
>>46661024
Those are not arrows, the aboriginal Australians never developed the bow and arrow.
>>46662972
Well skin my scorpion, what a delightful cross-cultural misinterpretation.
>>46662972
That's pretty neato!
>>46663003
>>46663335
The creation of sacred art is one of the most important aspects of Aboriginal culture. For them, their real art, not the tourist kind, is a form of sympathetic magic. They believe that creating images of animals helps maintain those creatures in our world and prevent their numbers from dwindling.
One of the central beliefs of many of the tribes is that humans are the caretakers of nature. By creating images of animals through art, they believe they are making sure those species won't go extinct. Given Aboriginal oral traditions go back 50,000 years, these beliefs probably developed in response to the numerous forms of megafauna that were hunted to extinction.
>>46657438
You try throwing a boomerang in a forest.
>>46658923
Bows require great strength too, to be useful in warfare. Guess the elves are going to have to get over themselves and start using crossbows.
>>46659025
Wouldn't a quiver of infinite arrows lead to the formation of a black hole over time? Or at least, a world entirely covered in arrows?
>>46669211
Can you put boomerangs in crossbows?
>>46658923
>>boomerangs inflict blunt force trauma
Make them perfect for Elven Clerics though. Only other thing they could use for that would be boxing glove arrows.
>>46663429
>Aborigines are irl elves
>>46663429
>muh Golden Bough
>>46669935
Only if that elf sat there shooting arrows for his whole life and even then
Might be hard to keep up with your arrows rotting
>>46657438
Because forests tend to lack big open spaces because, you know, trees.
>>46670049
it checks out
>>46657438
Legolas.
