Grimrock

Why is it so? We've already had it clarified to us that dex only affects melee hit rating and defensive stats. It has absolutely no influence on missile weapon damage, and while some extra survivability is always nice, archers will most likely find themselves in the rear row, taking less hits than the meat heads in front.
Please consider changing some of these dexterity bonuses to strength bonuses (or, of course, come with a good explanation why it is this way ).

This has been answered by Petri here,

petri wrote:

Darklord wrote:Also why does the missile weapons skill increase Dex, since it's actually of no use what so ever with them? Perhaps it should be changed to strength?

Well, I tried to explain it in my previous post
Dex bonuses are there so that the skill would be more than just a flat one dimensional bonus to damage. That is,the dex upgrades give advantages that are not directly related to the weapon class. Other example is Swords skill which increases Health for instance.

Trust me, your Missile Weapon character will do plenty of damage regardless!

Daniel.

Dead_Moss wrote:Why is it so? We've already had it clarified to us that dex only affects melee hit rating and defensive stats. It has absolutely no influence on missile weapon damage, and while some extra survivability is always nice, archers will most likely find themselves in the rear row, taking less hits than the meat heads in front.
Please consider changing some of these dexterity bonuses to strength bonuses (or, of course, come with a good explanation why it is this way ).

It's better than the spell skills (other than ice magic) giving stats other than willpower.

They've already said that the stat bonuses in skills are intended largely for flavor. Obviously that doesn't apply to skills like Unarmed (that is almost entirely defined by its stat bonuses, to the point that they are the only reason the skill is worthwhile) or Spellcraft (which has no inherent bonus other than its stat bonuses), but for weapon skills, they're flavor - small bonuses that are not intended to make or break the skill.

Throwing Weapons skill gives a total of +5 strength when maxed out. That is 2.5 attack power. The best throwing weapon is the throwing axe, which has 15 attack power. The crossbow has 20 attack power, and shoots quarrels that have 2 attack power. Right there, you have 4.5 more attack power behind your ranged attacks with a Missile Weapon skill user than you can get with a Throwing Weapon skill user. This ignores the fact that there are far more quarrels than throwing axes, that you get the crossbow far earlier, that quarrels are lighter than throwing axes, and that your mage can enchant quarrels to do an extra 5 damage.

Throwing weapons are not useless - they still do good damage, they are one-handed allowing you to hold a torch while using them, and the skill enhances your carrying capacity, which is not to be sneezed at. Damage wise, however, missile weapons are still better.

I personally go for the Throwing Weapons skill set partly for this reason. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. But hey, once you get to throw two weapons at once you can throw two bombs at once making them very powerful characters.