Carrying Strung bow 24x7

[Sledge]

prestidigitation is good because of it's duration...
It lasts for a full hour for every casting, so you can have it running much of the time. Would be better if it was 1 hour/level mind you, but I'm not sure what level that would be.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

As far as I'm concerned, if you roll a 1 on a ranged attack and then roll a confirmation check that misses the target, your bowstring snaps and you have to take a Move action to replace it.

Is it realistic? No. But neither is firing five arrows in six seconds.

 

[Diirk]

As far as I'm concerned, if you roll a 1 on a ranged attack and then roll a confirmation check that misses the target, your bowstring snaps and you have to take a Move action to replace it.

Is it realistic? No. But neither is firing five arrows in six seconds.

So a level 5 ranger shooting his bow at an ooze will basically never (5% * 5% = 0.025%) snap his bowstring, but the same ranger shooting at say... a great wyrm red dragon will snap his bowstring 5% (well, 4.975% anyway) of the time? That makes no sense. If you want fumble tables, fine, but I fail to see how the chances of you breaking a bow string relate at all to how heavily armoured your opponent is...

Have you never seen a movie where a gun slinger runs out of bullets? or drops his gun? It may not be fun for the gun slinger that he now has to find more bullets or scramble for a new gun, but I think it definitly adds a sense of realism and "scare". Like... "Oh S#it, I just broke my bow string and 20 orcs are coming at me!" RUN!

Meh, given that the average combat lasts like 4-5 rounds, I'd hardly want to use the first 2 rounds drawing and stringing my bow... thats somewhat crippling.

 

[Celebrim]

Medieval bows could not be kept strung continously for long periods of time because it would warp the wood (what's called string follow) and could weaken the wood if the bow suffers changes in temperature and humidity resulting in the bow breaking when fully drawn.

It's my general assumption that if you have weapon proficiency in a weapon, that you know how to take care of it and do so. I generally assume without being told that after battles and when breaking or making camp, that everyone in the party spends several minutes taking care of their goods. Likewise, a fighter wearing platemail is going to need about as much time oiling cleaning, and preparing his equipment as the Wizard needs to prepare spells. In the interest of game play, I don't make the PC's go through these tedious motions - though I make a point of mentioning it from time to time to remind them that things like this (and urinating and defecating) are actually going on.

As a DM, I very rarely I might take advantage of such situations to have the player's bow currently be unstrung, the fighter out of armor, and what not - but generally I would consider too much of that to be abusive on my part. I will definately do so if the players seem to be getting twinkish and insisting that they sleep in plate mail, always have thier bows cocked, never take breaks when marching, etc. Generally speaking, I run a pretty gritty campaign, and my players haven't plowing around in full plate mail anyway (having learned what a balance and swim checks are for much earlier on). If the PC's were planning long campaigns into the wilderness, I would expect them to plan ahead though by maybe having spare bows and spare bowstings on hand (or face the consequences).

I also make the assumption that magical equipment is made so remarkably as to be relatively immune to normal wear and tear, and so a magical bow can at least in the short term be considered above such worries (whether it would survive 50 years strung up on the wall of a ruin in an temperate swamp is a different matter).

 

[Vlos]

So walking around a kings castle or a lords manner as an invited guest with a strung bow slung over your shoulder, just on the odd case a monster attacks a fortified well defened place is normal?

I suppose you walk around with a shotgun over your back and a pistol at your side at your home?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I suppose you walk around with a shotgun over your back and a pistol at your side at your home?

No, but I might have if I lived in, say, 1800's California or Texas.

This is called a "Straw Man" argument, and it's not even a very good one.

 

[Plane Sailing]

We assume that bows are normally carried unstrung as part of the general care of the bow when the party is sleeping or travelling overland.

This means that in surprise wilderness encounters the bowmen have to spend a round getting their weapon ready for use - which seems a fair tradeoff considering that they will be able to take full attacks for almost all the combat and don't have to worry so much about enduring their opponents blows...

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

So a level 5 ranger shooting his bow at an ooze will basically never (5% * 5% = 0.025%) snap his bowstring, but the same ranger shooting at say... a great wyrm red dragon will snap his bowstring 5% (well, 4.975% anyway) of the time? That makes no sense. If you want fumble tables, fine, but I fail to see how the chances of you breaking a bow string relate at all to how heavily armoured your opponent is...

Higher armor class means you're pulling the bow tighter to get that last little bit of oomph out of your shot to get through the armor. Higher Dex means you have to make sharper, more sudden movements in order to track the target.

Both of these place more stress on the bowstring.

 

[moritheil]

I want to make players feel they earned what they get. Otherwise why not start out as gods?

There are plenty of ways to put your players in constant danger of death without resorting to getting bogged down in details. It is not without irony that I say this, however, as I'm continually posting that most DMs make things too cinematic. I see both sides of the issue.

I would say that if you and your players are all for that, then it's fine. I personally would die of boredom from listening to each person in the group detail their inspection of every inch of armor, every weapon grip, every arrow and arrowhead, etc. etc. each time they made camp. The first time, it might be interesting and new. By the third time (with 10+ players) I bet I would send balors, mind flayers, dragons, anything just to stop from hearing it again.

 

[moritheil]

So walking around a kings castle or a lords manner as an invited guest with a strung bow slung over your shoulder, just on the odd case a monster attacks a fortified well defened place is normal?

It could be, in some settings where there is a constant threat of attack. It's happened in real life enough times, although I thankfully have not personally been present to witness such circumstances.