STR-based Archery (3.PF)

[Forrestfire]

Bloodstorm Blade can do some silly things with elvencraft shortbows, arguably!

Unlike something like a bayonet, elvencraft bows from Races of the Wild are their alternate weapon. An elvencraft shortbow is a club, an elvencraft longbow is a quarterstaff.

Bloodstorm Blade's thunderous throw ability has this to say:

Thunderous Throw (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, you build up incredible tension as you ready yourself to throw your weapon, which becomes visible around you like heat waves. When you release your weapon, that power rushes out with your weapon. As a swift action, you can choose to treat your ranged attack rolls with thrown weapons as melee attacks for the rest of your turn. You use your melee attack bonus, including Strength bonus, feats, and so forth, to determine your attack bonus for each attack as normal, but you apply the standard modifiers for range penalties. Attacking into melee, through cover, and so forth incurs the standard penalties. In addition, you can apply 1-1/2 times your Strength bonus to damage if you wield the thrown weapon with two hands, and you can use Power Attack with your thrown weapon attacks (adding two times the number subtracted from attack rolls as a bonus on damage rolls when throwing a twohanded weapon).

Because clubs are thrown weapons, elvencraft shortbows are (arguably) thrown weapons, and a shot with an elvencraft shortbow in projectile mode is a "ranged attack roll with [a] thrown weapon." Thus, by using a swift action, you can exploit this interaction to have fully Strength-based bow attacks. Since you're holding the bow in two hands, you can probably get 1.5 Str to damage, too!

It becomes shakier with the elvencraft longbow. A Bloodstorm Blade has the Throw Anything feat, which says "you can throw a melee weapon you are proficient with as if it were a ranged weapon." However, the distinction between "you can throw a melee weapon" and "that melee weapon is a thrown weapon" is possibly relevant. The rules for weapons define the club as a thrown weapon ("Daggers, clubs, shortspears, spears, darts, javelins, throwing axes, light hammers, tridents, shuriken, and nets are thrown weapons."), but the same can't be said of Throw Anything'd weapons. So, just use a shortbow since the argument is much stronger there.

Is this intended? Absolutely not. Is there an argument for its functionality by RAW? Yeah. If your DM accepts it, you can take two levels of Bloodstorm Blade and get your Strength-based archery. As far as I am aware, there is no other way to really get that functionality other than aptitude weapons and Brutal Throw, which is a little shakier by RAW and frankly, aptitude weapons are kinda wonky in the first place.