Great! I can shoot. This is nae verra complicated is it?

Well, sure, you can shoot now, but now lets talk about some other very important aspects of shooting your bow both accurately and effectively.

Aiming

First off, aim is important!  (Duh.)  There is much debate on whether full aim actually helps you or not (yes, you are fairly vulnerable when you're sitting there aiming).  Many folks even go so far as to skip aiming altogether, favoring the so-called "snap-shot" -- this might save some time, but I think it is better by far to aim, if only for a short while, before firing.  The best guess that I've  of late is that at a given range, the "aiming curve," or the benefit added to your base to-hit, is shaped like a bell.  You start at the low end and work toward the "peak" as you aim.  When you get the message that you have the best shot possible, you reach the "peak," so to speak.  From there it starts to drop back off to zero, whereupon you lose your concentration on aiming at the target.  If this is the case, it would be appropriate to point out that no matter what, aiming at a target for any amount of time will give you a better shot than if you didn't aim at all .  Thus, the ultimate in efficiency would be the archer who can aim and anticipate the point where they reach their peak aim and let loose right away... any delay only wastes time and reduces effectiveness as you coast over the "peak."

Should your target die before you finish aiming and firing, an [aim stop] will stop you on the aiming curve and taper you back from there to zero (based on the fact that you still "lose concentration" a little while after stopping aim).  You can shift aim at anytime to another creature and restart the aiming curve.

With all that said, there is the minor detail of being able to tell at which target you're aiming.  In a situation where your hunting companion desperately needs an evil, vicious rat removed from their immediate vicinity, being able to select and aim at the correct target is imperative for safety.  Recent changes to combat have finally fixed the formerly flawed and confusing aiming system.  There are two commands that are integral to targeting critters with your bow:

• [face]

Currently, you can choose to [face] a specfic critter in the room, regardless of whether it is engaged with you or not (in some situations, it's possible to not be facing anything despite the fact that creatures are pounding on you from all sides!).   Sometimes, it is advantageous to first do an [assess] or a [look] around the room, followed by [face <first, second, etc.> <critter>] before anything else.  Once you've [face]ed a critter, it becomes your default target until it dies or leaves the room.  The other use for the [face] command is if you should find a need to change targets for some reason in the midst of combat... say you're hunting crocodiles and a wayward Delv cyclops comes wandering in to pay you a visit, you might want to turn to [face] it in hopes of dealing with the situation before it deals with you!  Note however that the [face] command is pretty much superseded by proper use of the [aim] command.
• [aim]

An [aim] without any arguments will either automatically target the critter you're facing or pick the default critter in the room (appears to be either the nearest critter to you or the last critter to enter the room).  In the latter cases, a simple [aim] will effectively act as if you performed a [face] and [aim] command simultaneously.  For instance, in a room with two revenant zombies, the first might be engaged with your fair companion and the second engaged with you.  In this example, a simple [aim]  or [fire] would by default point your arrow at the zombie engaged with you (the second).   Now, if your companion gets into trouble and you want to relieve them of their burden, you can change targets by simply [aim first zombie], followed by a [fire].  Once you've done that once, the first zombie is your default target and you can just continue a [load], [aim], [fire] sequence until you're done.  Note that you will be completely ignoring the zombie breathing down your neck (the second one) as a target while you're facing your companion's zombie -- you'll have a "flanking" opponent whom you use your multi-opponent ability to defend against.

Now, if you use an argument in your command, [aim at <critter>], you will automatically face and target the last <critter> of a given type to enter a room -- regardless of what you were shooting at before or your position relative to any other creatures in the room.  For instance, if you're neck and beak with a ring-necked gidii bird at melee and another one somes trapising into the room, a simple [aim at gidii] will face and aim at the one that just walked in... not the one that's pecking your eyes out at melee.  Thus, you need to [assess] your combat, [look] around the room, and use either a [face <first, second, etc.> <critter>] or an [aim at <first, second, etc.> <critter>] to make sure you have the target you want.

In the end, thoughtful use of the various targeting commands is the key to hitting the target you want in battle... [assess] and [look] often!  Make sure you're specifying the <first, second, etc.> <critter> where necessary as well.

Ranging and Attack

Despite "official" word that bows and other missile weapons are most effective at "missle range" and reduced in effectiveness at "melee" range, reality as it stands is a bit different.  Anyone who has any rudimentary knowledge of physics knows that being at missile range cannot possibly be more effective than being at melee if you just look at damage potential -- an arrow at launch is at the peak of its power input from the bow... friction and the flex in the arrow in flight will only serve to reduce its energy as it goes farther away.  However, there are many factors in addition to this that influence effectiveness at each range:

Missile range
In most cases, this is your base range for firing at a target when you first see it.  From here, your accuracy will be at its lowest due to the distance, but I'd wager that your aiming curve has a higher "peak" bonus due to less distractions from any attacks made at you (critters are still too far away).  Furthering conjecture on my part, at this range, the balance portion of a bow plays a bigger part in ensuring good aim while the power issue is less important (the range is not so far as to need extra power to compensate, but enough to eliminate any gain too... we're talkin' accross the room).  For a given hit at this range you will gain more experience than a similar hit at any other range (takes more skill to snipe than point-blank shooting).  One last benefit is that you are not "engaged" in combat from this range, so you can help your companion by sniping at their critter until the next critter walks in -- whereupon you can simply advance on it and free your companion from the additional threat if you so choose.

Pole range
My personal favorite for launching arrows... pole range is a good balance.  From here, you're not so far out that you miss every other shot, but you're far enough away to prevent any malaise directed toward you from melee weapons and/or the area effects of some spells.  In my experience full aim at this range is the most effective at getting good hits consistently.  From a defensive standpoint, this range is excellent due to your ability to see any critter advancing on you and thus, retreat a step if necessary to maintain your position out of danger.

Melee range
For you power mongers out there, shots from melee get the most devastating hits by far.  Considering that you're firing at point blank range, I seriously doubt that aiming has much effect, thus I'd wager that the peak of the aiming curve is lowest at melee range.  The balance of the bow is less of an issue at this range than its power.  The primary drawback here is that you are exposed to the ravages of melee combat while suffering from both the evasion penalty due to holding a bow and the lack of parrying ability.  Lastly, bows are now breakable at melee, so if a critter gets a good swing in and hits your bow, it can either be damaged or, even worse, completely destroyed.

A strategy that many folks use is aiming while advancing... for certain situations, this is an excellent technique, especially when you're aiming while hiding (more on that later).  For me, I [load my arrow] at missile range, [aim at <critter>], and then [advance on <critter>].  If all goes well and my timing is right, I'll reach my aiming "peak" right as I hit pole range.  From there, I fire and retreat back to missile to load and repeat the process.  It's a good way to protect yourself and take advantage of firing from pole range.  I've also noticed that if you reach your aiming "peak" right before you reach pole range, you seem to get the "aiming bonus" associated with missle range, but the range advantages of firing at pole-range.  When I use my bow on, say, blood wolves or snowbeasts, it appears that if I reach full aim at missle range as the critter advances, firing at pole range gives me an ~75% chance of a fairly hard hit (solid or above?) and a lodge.  On the otherhand, if I reach full aim after the critter has reached pole-range (and still fire at pole-range, I usually only land lighter strikes and very rarely lodge the arrow.  In other words, I get most of my one-shot kills when the timing works out to allow a slight pause between my initial move to aim and the beginning of the critter's advance upon me.  It appears consistent enough that I can almost predict when the critter will die from my first arrow based solely on when the critter starts to advance!

One last technique to maximizing your shots with a bow is a combination of shooting arrows and shoving the critter around at melee.  Starting with the previous advance-while-aiming technique... fire off one arrow once you reach pole range regardless of whether you're at full aim or not.  Once that shot is off, quickly wear your longbow and pull out your favorite melee weapon.  Once you get to melee range, do whatever sequence of movements gets you to incredibly balanced fastest  (parry-jab with a LE is the most useful for this)-- ideally, you'll be overwhelming your opponent too.  Once you get balanced, back off to missile, sheath your weapon, pull out and load your bow.  At this point, you can either aim at the critter and let it advance on you, loosing your arrow at full aim, or advance and loose your arrow at pole range, repeating either this or a combination of everything you know.  In anycase, knocking the critter off balance will garner heavier hits, thus giving you more experience for each shot.

Balance and Defense

As mentioned earlier, holding a bow in your hand is no picnic.  Sure, you have the advantage of hitting critters at distance before they get to you, but if you miss your shot or fail to kill them fast enough, you'll find yourself at melee with a mad critter -- possibly one who is very annoyed that you're peppering it with sharp little sticks.

The most key thing you need to do when you have a bow is to make sure you set your combat and defensive stances to utilize your evasion skills.  Doing a [stance evasion 100] and moving to [dodge] are key to making sure you have every means of protection available to you.  With the bow, you can't use a shield or parry, so those skills and stances are pretty much useless.  Considering that any hit you take will knock you off balance a notch without a quick means to recover it (you can't parry), an archer who uses only a bow can only hope to knock his opponent off balance with a nice clean dodge at melee to maintain their stance.

The next most obvious technique, and the most ineffectual, in my opinion, is to try avoiding melee with a [hangback] command.  By doing this, anytime a critter tries to advance to anything closer than missile range, you employ your evasion skill to back away, maintaining your distance.  Each time you successfully or unsuccessfully back away, you get a roundtime of about two seconds.  Regardless, an unsuccessful hangback will always allow the advancing critter to reach melee for a brief instant -- longer if you don't retreat immediately.  This is a major flaw in the system as you are penalized no matter what you do with a short roundtime and any failure to hangback exposes you to a strike at melee.

Better than hanging back, but requiring that you pay attention (if you don't pay attention in combat you're dead anyhow, so this is no real jump in difficulty), is for you to manually [retreat] each time a critter becomes a threat.  My rule of thumb with a bow is to always maintain at least pole range on a target unless you can overwhelm it with your evasion skill.  Since it takes roundtime to load your bow, it is always a good idea to retreat all the way back to missile range before loading, so you have time to recover as the critter advances.  By doing this, the only roundtime you will get is if you fail to retreat -- successful retreats give zero RT.

Another trick, one favored by rangers and sometimes, teef... er.... cooks, is to [hide] once you start the aiming process and wait out the rest of the cycle.  When you actually fire  your arrow, you come out of hiding, but you can just reload, aim, and hide again.  In this way, you can cut down the time you're exposed to danger just standing around waiting for perfect aim -- critters can't advance on you if they can't see you!  Even if they find you, they have RT after their search and you have time to back off and try hiding again.  If you're feeling gutsy, you can even combine this with the aim-while-advancing technique and do an aim/hide/advance/fire/retreat routine to take advantage of both the defensive bonus of hiding and the offensive bonus of firing at melee.  It has been pointed out that there is the possibility of an additional bonus for loosing arrows from hiding (similar to backstab) where your target is caught unawares before it is too late.

One of the best ways to protect yourself is to not do so at all... let your companion [guard] you!  By doing this, you can concentrate on aiming at critters while your pal does all the work of absorbing damage and knocking the critters off balance for you.  Naturally, this is not very effective in a swarm of critters, but for small groups, it's a valid option.  The lastest action in the Gorbesh War saw many archer/melee fighter teams guarding each other and coming out for the better in the end.  Teamwork is very effective.

A final, albeit rather circuitous, technique is necessary against the most dangerous critters with ranged weapons.  All it takes is for you to leave the room full of angry critters, load your bow in a quiet room nearby, hide, sneak back into the battle zone, and aim from hiding.  Not only are you somewhat safe from ranged attacks, you're also safe from any critters who might choose to advance upon you while you load and aim your bow.  Rangers and teef... er... cooks are by far the most suited to this strategy.  This is yet another technique gleaned from the recent activities related to the Gorbesh War.

Arrow(head) selection

Once you've mastered the techniques for utilizing your bow effectively, you will be faced with the question of which arrow-type is best suited for a given situation.  Each arrow type has its own specific properties that may make it devastating against, say a vicious rat (then again, most things are devastating against rats) but useless against an armored foe such as a gypsy marauder.   Starting with the basic arrows that you can buy, moving onwards to more exotic invasion arrows, and finally to the arrows that you can eventually fletch, we have:
 

When you start off as an archer, you will be forced to buy arrows from the weapons shop unless you have a guardian angel who will bestow upon you other arrows as gifts.

Normal arrows
With a limited budget, normal arrows are an excellent bargain.  They possess the ability to severely injure almost all critters you're likely to face in your youth.

Barbed arrows
Once you've acquired a bit of wealth, you'll find that barbed arrows are an excellent general-purpose arrow that you can easily replace when lost.   They are excellent against all but armored foes and I keep a good number on me at all times.

Long arrows
The most expensive of the basic arrow types, I have never used them.  I suspect that their length might reduce accuracy due to increased flexing in flight, but their increased size makes for more damage potential due to heavier weight (more material, more impact).  That, plus the ability to draw a long arrow farther back without danger of hurting oneself may allow more power from the bow (provided you aren't able to fully draw your bow with "normal" arrows on account of arrow length).

Slender-tipped arrows
A very common arrow for those who venture north to Therengia, the local Kelpies keep them in abundant supply  (my silly warmie brother once had over 300 slender-tipped arrows in his pack!).  As a general-purpose arrow versus critters with little or no armor, slender-tipped arrows appear to have a propensity for sliding between ribs and into other body parts, giving rather messy results (young adventurers often learn this the hard way when a wayward Kelpie lodges one of these in their eye... ouch).  You can't beat them for value because they're abundant and free!

Blunt-tip arrows
I have never personally used one of these, but I undertand that they were left after an invasion of some mysterious creatures called "Harvesters" back before my time.  From the appraisal and my firsthand knowledge of the nastiness associated with blunt-trauma, these arrows can most likely inflict serious damage to all but creatures in heavy plate, although even that may not be enough protection.

Razor-tipped arrows
Perhaps the most legendary of all the known arrow-types, the razor-tipped arrows left long ago by the invading Gorbesh resulted in many dead adventurers.  For some unknown reason, these arrows have never reappeared, even in the the recent invasion by the Gorbesh forces in search of the young bardess, Wren.  Perhaps the brutal power of these arrows is too great a risk even for the Gorbesh, should they fall into the hands of the Realms' archers.

Barbed head arrows
I can't say much about these... instead, I opt to use the store-bought variety.

Bishop head arrows
An often overlooked arrow-type, bishop head arrows, in my experience, work well against unarmored animals and lightly armored critters (e.g. fenrae reavers).  It would appear that bishop head arrows inflict a significant vitality drain on a creature when they are lodged -- I've had more critters drop dead from lodged bishop arrows than any other type.

Bodkin head arrows
Although their appraisal may make you scoff at them, bodkin arrows are effective in the one situation where no other arrow works -- against heavily armored critters or the odd paladin-gone-awry.  Bodkin heads are designed to puncture armor plate, plain and simple.  A well rounded archer is never caught without a few of these in their quiver for those times when a metal-encased creature decides to communicate some degree of ill-will.

Broad-tip arrows
For creatures with bony protection (e.g. crabs, skeletons), broad-tips have a heavy enough head to injure them from impact alone.  However, the primary use of broad-tips is against unarmored critters in the wild.

Warhead arrows
Although I have not used these much, fellow archers tell me these arrows are excellent against lightly armored critters (e.g. trolls, goblins).

With the last group of exotic arrowheads recently sold by Bowmaster Renshear, there is little real data as to their performance as yet.  However, based on their appraisal data, you can get a pretty good idea of their properties compared to the known arrow types.  Note that the war bodkin arrow appraises like a standard crossbow bolt.

Hits vs. Lodging

Aside from the regular damage you deal when loosing arrows toward some hapless target, at some point, you are bound to physically stick an arrow into the poor critter -- commonly referred to as "lodging" the arrow.  So what does this do besides give the critter a rather messy wound and force you to load a new arrow?  Well, first off, the sequence from least severe to most severe damage/lodges is:
 

Table 2-3:  Hit and Lodge Severity

Hit:		Lodge:
harmless brushing light good solid hard strong heavy very heavy extremely heavy massive awesome devastating		shallow firm deep savage

Aside from the obvious damage caused by the critical hit (which you see in graphic detail), the lodged arrow will continue to sap the critter's vitality unless it is tended and the object removed.  If you've ever had something lodged into you and left it there for a bit (call me sadistic), you'll know that the arrow/knife/bolt gives you a twinge every now and then, sapping your vitality.  Leave the item stuck long enough without tending it and the vitality drain will be fatal unless you're disciplined enough to recover vitality quickly.  Many a time, I've watched in disbelief as my target reared to pounce on me, only to whine and drop dead from the arrow I had lodged early in the battle.  In a crowded room of critters, sometimes it can be of benefit to lodge an arrow or two in each critter before you start to concentrate on killing any one of them... let your lodged arrows "soften them up" so to speak while you do battle with the rest.  I am not sure about the specific differences between the different levels of lodging aside from the fact that most one-shot kills almost always involve a savagely lodged arrow, indicating that initial damage from the lodge is higher than any of the other depths.  Subsequent rate of vitality drain could also be based on the depth of the lodged arrow -- I don't really want to be a guinea pig for this study.  Regardless, it appears to me that most lodges I get are either shallow (which doesn't seem to faze most critters) or savage (which is usually immediately fatal).