First off, Archery. My house rule on damage (so they don't get stiffed) is that an arrow does Str+2, assuming a bow with appropriate pull. Means archers won't be relegated only to mook-clearing duties.
Has the shot cost of reloading a bow been mentioned anywhere? I'd assume it's either a 1 or 2 shot job at a maximum.
Are there any archery schticks anywhere (I know about Versatile Ammo)?
Other question is around Gun (and by extension Weapon) schticks. Are there any web-sources with some new/interesting ones? I ask because of the existing, well they're not very good.
Both Guns Blazing is basically useless unless you get four or five schticks of it.
Eagle Eye and Signature Weapon are only useful against Named Characters.
You need at least two of Carnival of Carnage for it to be worthwhile.
I've seen the ones in Golden Comeback, there's some good ones there (Cover Fire, 10,000 Bullets and Shoot Weapon in particular, though only the last works for melee weapons).
There are more gun shticks in the Jammer sourcebook "Gorilla Warfare". I recall only two, and only what they did (not the names): One allowed aim for more than 3 shots, the other cancelled snapshot penalties for guns (but you could not then aim).
"I guess maybe I'm expecting a little too much from Schticks."
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Ya know, Kiero, I've often thought the gun schticks were a bit wanky, myself. As you said, some of them aren't worth much unless you take them multiple times to start with, and some of them just don't do a whole lot even when you do have several schtick levels.
I've always loved the basic ideas of Feng Shui, but sometimes the execution left something to be desired. I just have never gotten around to revamping the schticks to make them more worthwhile at lower levels.
"Has the shot cost of reloading a bow been mentioned anywhere? I'd assume it's either a 1 or 2 shot job at a maximum."
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I can't friggin' find it, but I'd almost swear that I saw in one of the sourcebooks or errata that it's 3 shots, like firing a gun. I can't back that up at the moment, but Thorns says that Gun schticks can be used with bows and crossbows. Due to that, I seem to recall that bows have a 3 shot cost so that they work mechanically like guns, for the schticks.
Blood of the Valiant (Atlas pg. 78/Ronin pg. 97) says that as long as you have arrows in your quiver, you needn't spend any shots reloading. As for Both Guns Blazing and Carnival of Carnage I must disagree Kiero. In my experience, YMMV of course, one or two schticks of BGB is a good way to finish off a named character who already has a few points of impairment from wounds (or perhaps from having been blinded by thrown sand or similar), and is all the more so when you add in a fortune die; in one instance, with a fortune die and a good roll, I managed to put down three named characters with BGB, of course they were already injured. Also, even one schtick of CoC is pretty good for putting down mooks, and when combined with Dead Eye you can drop the mooks with a shot cost of only one (and only be spending two shots per attack on named characters). In the case of Signature Weapon, I have ruled that it drops the outcome needed to drop mooks by one so that it can be useful against both named and unnamed characters (beware the signature AK-47). I'm with you though on the damage of bows, BTW.
Perception
Craft (Mr Fixit and Sabotage)
Discern Motive
Notice
Investigation (Detective and Police)
Willpower
Arcane Abilities (Creature Powers)
I'm wondering if two of those under Perception, Discern Motive and Notice are a bit excessive. Particularly because I could just use Perception (doubled) in place of Notice.
Also is it a good idea to move Riding to Agility, and Melee to Dexterity? Does mean that wearing armour no longer penalises your fighting ability. I was broadly taking inspiration from the skills list for True20: true20.com/files/grr1704_pre3.pdf
Certainly unofficial, but I figure it's in keeping with the spirit of things.
As tulmkohr says, though on defense I say that they add an additional +1 when you parry instead of the cover bonus, I came up with that before Gorilla Warfare came out, but I've kept the house rule over the official version.
I'll have another look at the book when I get home. However, with no reload time unless you need to refill your quiver, and the never-empty quiver effect of Lightning Reload (which I'd be tempted to give for archers at a single schtick pick), you do get the classic epic archer of film ...
