by Oisin » Sun Nov 02, 2008 6:21 pm
I guarantee you that a direct hit from an arrow (a real life arrow, that is, fired from a bow that's assumed to be powerful enough to punch through plate steel) to another bow will break it. Bows, especially period bows made of natural materials, are very fragile creatures. At the least, you'd have to take it down and straighten/repair it a bit, which is well outside the time frame of a Belegarth battle, ergo effectively broken.
My guess as to why arrows don't break bows, though, is that since weapons don't block arrows, the arrow is generally presumed to have passed through the bow to hit whatever's behind it. If the arrow broke the bow, then since a single attack can only cause a single hit, the bow would effectively have blocked the arrow from hitting the person.
I think green melee weapons should break bows . . . but I also think that any archer who actually blocks with his bow is an idiot. It's dangerous, and quite likely to damage your bow.
Oisín Leathshúileach ua Duibhne
Ard Laech
Fíanna Cú RuadhAn Fhírinne in aghaidh an tSaoil--Truth against the world.