You are also wrong on the historical argument but that is off topic. A modern hardened carbon steel bodkin arrow can penetrate plate, historical arrows could not penetrate plate armor in 99,9% of cases.
When people debate armor vs bows, people tend to be "will pierce" or "will not pierce", the reality is : Depends a lot. The bow poundage, the distance, angle of impact, where on armor hit, the type of armor, distance(...). Is like Firearms vs armor in our modern world. Can you pierce a armored vehicle with a rifle? Depends. A .22 LR obviously not. A 14.5x114mm depends on angle distance, armor model and thickness, angle of impact(...). Instead of "can bows pierce armor", the question should be "can this model of bow, fully drawed, with this type of arrowhead, hitting this specific model of armor at X meters pierce the armor?"
But one rule that i really miss is that on BG2, Plate armor had way better AC vs slashes than blunt damage. On 3e and foreward, makes no difference using a mace of a longsword to fight a knight in plate armor +2.
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But talking again about 5e. IMO instead of nerfing casters, why not separate casters than non casters?
What i mean by that? Look to world of darkness. Mages and werewolves are far stronger than vampires, so you don't have a mage and a vampire in the same party. If after everything done to 5e casters, people are still demanding more nerfs, i would rather not seeing casters or seeing separated adventures for casters than more nerf. 5e nerfs
- Fewer spell slots
- A lot of high tier magic removed
- A lot of mid tier magic moved to high tier
- Concentration requirement to anything cool
- Spells doesn't scale with caster level anymore
- No more OHK spells
- The undead which you can create with animate dead are far weaker
- (...)
Even if firebolt becomes the unique spell available on 6e, people will complain
- Balancefag : "I can swing a sword, he can shape the reality, not fair, NERF!!! Doesn't matter if i chose my char that way"
- My solution : "why not give the ability to you cut the space time, auras and other supernatural stuff or maybe look into Tome of Battle, in a world where magic exists, infusing magical energy in martial attacks makes sense. See overlord martial arts"
- Balancefag - "no, this is a anime BS. I wanna every class with only a basic attack!!! I have fun autoattacking for 666 hours, so everyone needs to have fun in the same way!!!"
I can't see another solution to appease this people.