D&D 5E Does a nonmagic arrow from a magic bow pierce nonmagic weapon resistance?

[FormerlyHemlock]

Now I want to play that warlock. I'll name him Bane Birdbane the Bane of Birds. At twentieth level he'll be able to kill one bird every 1.5 seconds!

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Athinar]

In 5.0 nothing is written, so a +1 bow gives +1 to hit for more accurate shots and +1 damage for more forceful damage and you find more than 1 magic arrow or Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction

Game Designers – you have a Grade of D for this

Because nothing is written in the DMG nor Players Handbook you have to make a House Rule

Ammunition fired from a projectile weapon with an enhancement bonus of +1 or higher is treated as a magic weapon for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction

Or find a quiver full of +X arrows and you can create more than 1 arrow

But all plusses stack

 

[Athinar]

So if I fire that Non-Magical arrow from the +1 bow, does the arrow become magical inflight and if the target is a Monk and the Monk catches the arrow and throws it back is it still magical?

If a Monk farts in the woods does the druid smell it?

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

Heh. I think it's more just (fun, I hope) way of looking at how a person views the various rules and resistances, and then, from there, whether one prefers "fun" mechanics or prefers "in game realism" (things that are more internally consistent).

Because, after all, we are talking about fantastical monsters (that don't exist) with immunity to weapons (!) that are non-magic (!!).

But let's test this- if a person fire an arrow from a magic bow, and a person casts detect magic on the arrow, is the arrow magic? I would (normally) think now. If there is some type of "permanence" (this has existed for a while) and you cast it on the arrow as it flies from the bow, is the arrow fixed at +1 or whatever? Is this how magic ammo gets made?

I think it's just one of those, "Eh, stuff is hard. Keeping track of arrows and quills is hard. Let the bow guy hit stuff with his magic bow" kind of rule. And no one really thinks about, or cares, the underlying concept (except those that do, and then they probably houserule that you have to have magic ammo).

Well, yes. Some of us like games that make sense. Arrows are either magical, or they're not. And they get used up either way. Otherwise a "magic bow" might as well look like that silly thing "Hank the Ranger" used in that old Saturday morning D&D cartoon.

Oh look, I have a magic bow; it never runs out of magic arrows - I just draw the string and they go PEW PEW all day. <GAG!>

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I always thought Hank's bow was pretty awesome (cf my previous post and limited no of charges per long rest). I'd always take that over a quiver of +1 arrows as a player, any day. The fact that Hank was a bit of a Boy Scout cheese himself doesn't stop his bow from being frickin' A1.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I always thought Hank's bow was pretty awesome (cf my previous post and limited no of charges per long rest). I'd always take that over a quiver of +1 arrows as a player, any day. The fact that Hank was a bit of a Boy Scout cheese himself doesn't stop his bow from being frickin' A1.

I haven't seen the show, but I have introduced such a weapon on more than one occasion.

The fact that a big monster can take a dozen or more arrows to drop, and an individual may attack more than a dozen other enemies throughout the day, is a significant disconnect between archers in history and archers in the game world. If you tried to play arrows "realistically", then the logical conclusion is that archers are worthless, because it's logistically improbable to go all day without running out of arrows. If circumstances are going to throw an unrealistic number of fights at our archer, then we might need some equally unrealistic method of keeping that archer viable.

 

[thalmin]

What would the point be of having a +1 Longbow if it didn't give any magical bonuses to the attacks?

That's just it. The bow doesn't have a point. Arrows have points!

erm. sorry...

 

[Athinar]

If I remember correctly Hank did not have arrows, He just pulled back on the string and a magical energy bolt appeared

No Arrows needed

Hank is a Ranger, with a magical bow that shoots arrows of glowing energy. These arrows could be used in many different ways such as a climbing tool, to hurt enemies, to bind them or to create light.

 

[LevelSix_SYSTEM]

Because when the arrow is nocked, the bow metaphorically sighs "you complete me" and their joyful union brings forth a death baby that sticks in the monster's eye.

This sentence is so beautiful it makes Shakespeare seem like emojis in comparison