This game is enormous and amazing...finally hit my stride at level 6. Also small question too about why my character can use longbows?

Absolutely loving it now.

I was able to get stuck in after people's recommendations in a recent post of mine regarding the issues I was having with challenging difficulty. The problem was simply, as someone mentioned, that I was veering too far afield too soon. Doing great now and progressing as I would expect and feeling very comfortable on challenging.

The game is just gigantic and I saw this map is only like 1/4 of what is to come having accidentally gotten a spoiler while watching a youtube tips video (no more spoilers on that please!).

I love the details. The spells effects are cool and unique (unlike neverwinter nights 2 which were super lazy compared to the 1st - just saying as it sticks out in my mind from all those years ago) as well as the weapons.

Little details like how they stand on a hill with their legs and in low light the shadows are dimmed on the character too.

As to the question. I was in town and buying some more gear for characters. I noticed that my halfling rogue was able to use longbows. This is confusing to me since when I started the game, as I expected as per other 3.5 dnd rules, she was unable to equip longbows. When I looked in the store though and also a basic composite in stash she was able to equip them. How is this so?

It bugged me a bit when I noticed that because I had already used a feat to focus on shortbow so if I had have known they could equip longs as a halfling I would have. How come she couldn't at the start then could? I looked in the character sheet and could find nothing indicating longbow proficiency and longbow clearly says martial proficiency.

I know I could respec but I want to rp it now and so am not going to touch it and would feel I wasted a feat on short. Just wondering why/how she can use them as a halfling? It can't be because pathfinder rules are somehow different because they acted as expected when the game started - I respeced just as a test and didn't save it and she couldn't use long even at leveled up to 6. So what made my unspecced character able to use them?

This baby is gonna keep me occupied for a good while methinks. It will replace Crusader Kings 3 for the topspot as most addictive. I had not long finished Pillars 1 and having tried Pillars 2 and hated it (watered down, stupid deleveling of companions with no cannon explanation) I jumped back to try PK, having given up a few times. I love POE1 and PK both for different reasons. POE1 more for overall atmosphere, graphics and music (I would say the music in PK is a real weak point with very little variation, is there any? I think only like 1 track) and PK for grand scale (POE is epic but more for the story and lore than map and adventure) and of course the faithfulness to the pathfinder/dnd 3.5 ruleset. Both awesome in their own rights for different reasons.