Its my go-to bow for every character I make. All other bows look lame, except the traditional longbow.

I dont start playing properly until I've aquired my Imperial bow.

It's a fine piece of craftsmanship, and it's rustic look ensures it hardly ever looks out of place. I try to use it as long as possibly viable as my main bow.

My Ranger (avatar, sig) uses an Imperial Bow exclusively. Along with the rest of his gear, his orcish arrows really compliment the ensemble.

Quite a lot of my charcters use one until they get an ancient Nord bow.

The problem with many of the other bows is that they suffer OTT fantasy syndrome... in which lame looking 'badass' curves and carvings try too hard to impress.

What?

Its the difference between Aragorn in LOTR and a power ranger villain.

His point being there are way too many over the top bows in this game with a design that is rather unlikeable and rather ridiculous to that of a true bow with a traditional look to it like the Imperial bow.

I myself, don't mind the designs.

I agree that Imperial Bows are very well crafted, and my current Argonian Assassin used it to hunt down Narfi, cowering from me in a couple of bushes. It looked really good in the kill-cam!

Forsworn Bow FTW, it looks handcrafted from something that you hunt and kill yourself. It has the same base damage as a Dwarven bow and is easy to acquire early in the game so it pisses on your precious Imperial Bow

And yet people here favor looks over stats. I'm not sure about this forum anymore...

What? He complained about the other bows looking too fantasy so I mentioned the Forsworn Bow looks handcrafted from animals and as a bonus has a stronger base damage....the best of both worlds.

Eh? Stats have never mattered in TES. EVER.

You can complete the past 3 games with basic iron gear as I have done.

It is also one of the fastest bows (faster than dwarven) and it can be improved "twice as much" with the steel smithing perk. I will second the vote for the forsworn bow.

Hooray for fortify Smithing enchantments.

It's a great bow that tends to be overlooked. It's my go-to bow for most of the game, especially if I'm playing a live off the land type of character as it looks very natural.

I've always liked the Orcish Bow, it's very simple and basic look, and, well, Orcish, and the Orcish Arrows look quite brutal and ugly too.

I don't think I've ever donned an Imperial Bow. The name would bother me to the point I felt I needed a shower.

I suffer from the Daryl Dixon syndrome. i take my crossbow where ever i go

Dwarven bow is faster than Forsworn bow according to wiki, and the imperial bow is same speed as Dwarven.

I don't like the bolts on it, and it's a bit too geometric. The hunting bow's nice, but it's weird from a shooter's position; it shoots too quickly too. I've never liked long bows either. They seem like dull, uncharacteristic branches.

What I want is a big bow with strong poundage made with good wood. It needs to have an elegant yet aggressive look. Something that shoots lethally and makes opponents fall down and stay down.

I like the Nord Hero, Ebony, and Stalhrim bows. I wish more were nice wooden ones, though.

Ebony's probably my favorite even if it's changed so much from Oblivion. It has a fluid, curved design, but it adds some odd knots and loses the gilded quality and leather grip. Nevertheless, I still like it. I just wish we had more traditional recurves. I'd certainly use them more.

Dwarven: 10 lbs 12 dam .75 draw speed

Imperial: 8 lbs 9 dam .75 draw speed

Forsworn: 11 lbs 12 dam .875 draw speed

Michi like Bow of the Hunt: 7 lbs 10 dam .9375 draw speed, but is thinking on making a switch to a long bow.

Just came back from playing on my Male Imperial, using the forsworn bow I found later on in the Reach region. Come to find out, I never have ever used this bow before. I never even gave it a close look at it for some reason. This svcker has teeth on it! Amazing

I'll probably use an imperial bow still with my imperial. But I will have my high level nord pick this up some time once am maxed out on my destruction magic. My nord was going to undertake archery after he was finished being a mage anyway and he'll seem more of a Reach man

Oh ok, I see where you are coming from. The same reason why I made a nord in the first place. Just to feel more natural

Whoa whoa whoa....whoa. Too much badass there or I will end up needing a crossbow

This is what makes me think the system isn't in pounds. Bows in reality are really only viable at 50lb for hunting. I myself prefer a 60lb bow. Mind you, these are recurves to which I'm referring; compounds jump up to extraordinary poundages.

Edit: You know what, I'm confusing draw weight with actual weight. I suppose these weights could work.

Wait a minute..... bows in the game have varying draw and shoot speeds?

Mind freakin blown.