Imbalance with rangers?

[ElHombre]

Hello, I just got E2 Mac from Steam, my first foray in the Eschalon world. I am very happy to get back into the old school rpgs, but I found that there is a pretty major problem with ranged rangers (so to speak):
There are just not enough arrows to go around. Even when pumping a lot into dex and the bow skill, one's hit ratio isn't high enough to handle all the necessary killing in the first area with the available arrows.
Right now I'm in a bind: I have no arrows left, I am 200xp away from level 3, and I need to get through the dragonfly (or whatever those insects are) quest. Unless I move out of the first area to find some other guy who sells arrows, I'm pretty much stuck. I can't put any points into other martial skills because I don't have any points left, and I can't gain the necessary xp to get those. Not that I'd want to do that, as I would really like my char to be a ranged-only kind of char.

Oh, I'm playing hardcore mode too. Any ideas? Thanks.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Wait a few more game days and the weapons vendor in Eastwillow will restock and should have more arrows (stores restock every 8th day). Also, if your Bow skill is at 10 or above, use your Focus Feat and then run away until you can use it again for a while. Don't forget about moving explosive barrels around to help you with things you want to break (like the dragonel nest). Trying to do that entirely with arrows would be a MASSIVE waste.

Late in the game your ranger will pretty much be able to stand and mow down enemies with his archery skills, but early on you have to be more of a sniper. Shoot a couple times, then run and hide.

[ElHombre]

Ok thanks for the 8-day restocking tip! That should definitely help, I'll just wait around.
The barrels are great for blowing stuff up, and I always keep a number of knives/daggers at hand to break things like the dragonel nest.
I'll keep working it

[Kreador Freeaxe]

Also, later, when you're wandering through Wolfenwood you'll see that somebody left a brass pot by the side of the road. It's good to wonder why and try wandering into the forest there.

[ElHombre]

Will do. I love the depth of this thing, reminds me of Ultima 5/7.
I was just worried about the dearth of arrows. In hardcore mode that's a tiny bit offset by the deterioration of weapons for the melee people, but it makes for a huge difference when you can simply keep hacking at people vs. waiting days to restock your arrows.

[Randomizer]

Once you start using the focus feat you will find that you are killing things with only one arrow. Even the bigger monsters will fall to 2 or 3 focus feat shots. Then you won't need that many arrows.

[SpottedShroom]

Once you start using the focus feat you will find that you are killing things with only one arrow. Even the bigger monsters will fall to 2 or 3 focus feat shots. Then you won't need that many arrows.

Agreed. I found the game very easy with a bow combat heavy ranger build, and never had to worry about arrow supply. If you put 6 points into bows at character creation and save at least two more, you can have bows at 11 at level 2. It's pretty easy to get to level 2 without having to kill anything, too, doing early quests.

[KillingMoon]

Maybe this thread is interesting for you to read as well: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3253