You must be on a really low difficulty then. Even fully perked into stealth and into the sniper (which isn't even in the stealth tree for some reason), a headshot wouldn't one shot an irradiated on the difficulty I play on
I must be missing something. Looking at the T3 bows, I don't see any tags for Perception or any perks in the perception tree. I just see
<item name="gunBowT3CompoundBow">
<property name="Tags" value="weapon,ranged,bowDrawPenalty,archery,bow,attAgility,perkArchery,canHaveCosmetic"/>
and
<item name="gunBowT3CompoundCrossbow">
<property name="Tags" value="weapon,ranged,holdBreathAiming,reloadPenalty,sideAttachments,smallTopAttachments,mediumTopAttachments,attAgility,perkArchery,crossbow,canHaveCosmetic"/>
For Perception to affect anything on those weapons, you would need attPerception and perkDeadshot....at least that is what I thought. I see nothing on those items referring back to Perception or Deadshot.
Here I believe is the sneak bonus damage
<effect_group name="sneak damage bonus">
<requirement name="CVarCompare" cvar="_crouching" operation="Equals" value="1"/>
<requirement name="CVarCompare" cvar="_notAlerted" operation="GT" value="0" target="other"/>
<passive_effect name="DamageBonus" operation="base_add" value="2"/>
<passive_effect name="EntityDamage" operation="perc_add" value="2" tags="perkArchery"/>
<display_value name="dEntityDamageSneak" value="2"/>
</effect_group>
</item>
Stealth doesn't affect bows as they have their own bonuses (just like knives). What I meant to say. Hidden strike doesn't affect bows and knives. Archery is the perk you need to level up to improve bow damage, not hidden strike or perception. If you been leveling up the wrong perks, that is why you are not seeing good results
Always proof read what you write and verify it reads what happens
Hidden strike affects all weapons except sledgehammers. Bows and knives have an additional item modifier for sneak damage. Fully perked hidden strike with any weapon other than knives and bows will give you a sneak damage bonus of 3x. With bows and knives, you get additional bonus damage with hidden strike.