a small idea to make bows be more competable choise...

[canned]

or maybe make it too powerful... but the idea is this:

Make a skill that allows people make small traps, like extra sharp sticks, or something, that can be thrown on ground from inventory, and be visible only to you for 1 min, and after that either disarm ( wind scatters the sharp sticks?) or make it invisible to all, but still effective (This would be bad BAD idea).

How this is going to help archers? well, the traps effect everything that steps on those... even those that lay the traps down, so no melee char is going to use those... as a fighter that just stands their grounds seems quite suspicious... while archer can just keep firing those attacks, and maybe run away... while the opponent most likely follows in straight line.

The trap effects could be damaging opponent (this sounds most reasonable effect to me), damaging their equipments (shoes mostly, which would make people want use higher quality shoes other than glogs to defend against losing shoes to traps) or the third effect could be draining stamina, making person hungry suddenly ( heath magic? well, this effect would make archers bit overpowered, i think), or immobilize person for 2 second ( isnt that something like 1 arrow, or long time to run away?)

So... does my idea sound reasonable, or rambling of insane hobo? And do i have some mistakes in my logic

[Peter]

Sounds OK to me. It should only work on terrain where you could reasonably dig the stakes into the ground, like grass, forest, sand, or maybe water. It should almost certainly require quite a bit of effort to dig them in. Bows would work best in ambushes and defense, in this case.

[Murazama]

What I was thinking of trap wise a few hours ago when I was laying down to sleep was a Bear Trap, of course you would need metal to use it, and it would be visible to all.

But once placed the bear trap couldn't be removed until it had been triggered, either by a player or an animal. If an animal crossed the trap it would latch onto them and hold them there for a time frame, either long enough for an experienced hunter to kill it, or long enough for the player to escape from the target.

If a player stepped on it, it would do some damage depending on armor, etc. It would also hold them in place for the time period, but the player has an option to remove trap, which would instigate the action bubble to pop up and the player would proceed to remove the trap, which in turn could either destroy the trap or take the trap.

But I dunno.

[bearhugs]

I like this idea.
I think it could work out as more of a ranged weapon, trapping something and shooting it from afar, since you don't get the defense benefit you'd get from melee.

I'm thinking along the lines of a hunter in Ragnarok Online, setting down traps in the path of something (keeping it in place for X seconds) while you can hit it with arrows.