Arrows Usable Once Only?

[HealingAura]

Can a character who uses arrows (lets say a Ranger) pick up his arrows after the combat ends?
If the answer to is yes, then can that Ranger use those arrows again thus having unlimited ammunition and not having to buy any more arrows for the rest of his life?
If the answer to is no, because the arrows are no longer in the same condition as new arrows, then can he reuse silvered arrows? (they cost 500 times more than regular arrows and I assume they are tougher and not break as easily)
If the answer to is yes, then can the Ranger use arrows of his opponents, if they are of the same type of arrows? (or even take out arrows that hit his body and use them against his opponents)

 

[Danceofmasks]

PHB p221
Ammunition is used up when fired ...

 

[HealingAura]

PHB p221
Ammunition is used up when fired ...

Meaning that your character has fewer arrows after shooting them. It doesn't say that you can or cannot reuse them again later.

 

[Wormwood]

Meaning that your character has fewer arrows after shooting them. It doesn't say that you can or cannot reuse them again later.

I think "used up" is fairly self explanatory.

So yeah, I'd say the RAW interpretation is "ammunition are used once and then are no longer ammuntion"

[house rule section]
Of course, I think that's boring, and the idea of a ranger pulling his opponent's arrow out of his thigh and firing it back is so freakin' cool that I would kiss the player who tried it.

Not that I track ammunition, of course. That's even more boring.
[/house rule section]

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, for cinematic purposes, it's cool.
But ... in 3e when there were such rules, people rarely cared ... mostly it was just crossing them off.
Except when it was about expensive ammo. Like arrows of slaying.
Magic ammo no longer exists (ok, maybe they will later).

 

[RabidBob]

Personally I'd say for the sake of balancing having to carry 2000000 arrows (like in WoW) vs not ever having to buy arrows again that a character would be able to scavenge 50% of the arrows fired back from the battlefield. This assumes you want to bother tracking ammo; I'd prefer to myself, but there's nowt wrong with hand waving and having the players pay X gold to restock and repair armour back in town.

 

[Set]

I think it better fits the 'feel' of 4E to just ignore ammunition completely. Just like material components. Unless the character has a specific reason *not* to have arrows / bolts / throwing knives, etc. just let them fire all day.

The Wizard can shoot all day, so why not the Fighters?

 

[Tervin]

I think it better fits the 'feel' of 4E to just ignore ammunition completely. Just like material components. Unless the character has a specific reason *not* to have arrows / bolts / throwing knives, etc. just let them fire all day.

The Wizard can shoot all day, so why not the Fighters?

I would only count arrows in adventures where I also feel reasons to count food rations and water. In most stories those things just end up feeling boring and pointless. If part of the challenge is to survive with limited resources, then I would probably count everything that the party is in danger of running out of.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

I probably won't track ammunition either, though I can see where in some situations, like the group is far from a reliable source of restocking supplies, you could have the arrow slingers make a simple saving throw for each arrow they loosed. Fail the save and the arrow broke or is otherwise unusable, make the save and it's salvageable. Easy.

 

[Zinovia]

Our group has always house-ruled that if you hit with an arrow, it's gone. You could take the time to pry it out (with pliers), but you're just as likely to break it in the process as remove it. For misses, the DM let us recover half the arrows. They break easily if they hit stuff, and have a nasty tendency to bury themselves into the grass and such so that you can barely see the fletching sticking out. It's why I have bright yellow fletching and nocks on my real arrows - we shoot outdoors mostly, and I've lost and broken plenty of arrows.

Now we really only tracked magical arrows in that way. Normal ones we just sort of assumed we had enough of, and bought more as needed to replace them. My character had fletching skill, so she could just make them as needed with the right materials. It's like tracking food - only do it if it seems to matter for that particular part of the campaign. If you are lost in the desert, the amount of food and water you carry is absolutely essential to know. Otherwise, it's just book-keeping.