Help Me Evaluate this Magiked-Up Bolt

[nittanytbone]

Does this player realize that he could have gotten 50 shots of +1 Dragon Bane regular ammo for the same price of the magic enchantments alone?

A heavy crossbow bolt with bane ammo would do 1d10+3+2d6 = 15.5 damage. And it costs 1/50 as much.

The 6d8 is only = 27 damage -- definitely in the same ballpark.

Let it work to some degree, he's wasted a ton of resources on a very inefficient and costly solution.

 

[darthkilmor]

After thinking about it more(and yeah, dragon bane bolts would be a much better idea, but as a thought exercise lets finish it out, and ignore the Shrink Item on magic items limitation): I'd advocate this line of reasoning: The bolt is medium sized till it hits soemthing solid. Assuming the something solid is a creature, lets say it still does 1d10 dmg on impact, and then expands. Its a fair bit heavier but not a whole lot, and if you consider conservation of momentum and all that, its probably shouldnt do any extra dmg, unless you want to use the line of reasoning in the Blink spell and others, when things get shunted out of solid objects then thats an extra 1d6 dmg. Toss the player a cookie and say its 1d6 dmg per size catagory and make it 4d6, and destroy the bolt, and discourage them from doing it again(maybe they find some dragon bane bolts on a dead adventurer in the dragons territory). You could describe it as the wound ripping open and the bolt flying out of the wound from the force of the sudden expansion.

Anecdote: I had a friend tell me about a game where they killed the tarrasque using shrink item. They shrunk a bunch of spiked stones(like, hundreds I think) and shoved them in some fish or goats or soemthing, got the tarrasque to eat them and waited till they expanded. I think the thing was described as "Your tarrasque asplode". Probably not raw but definately cool.

 

[LiquidBlue]

I don't have much to add to what has already been said, but I do question the ability of a crossbow to fire a floppy, cloth bolt in manner that can cause damage.

 

[Ciaran]

I don't have much to add to what has already been said, but I do question the ability of a crossbow to fire a floppy, cloth bolt in manner that can cause damage.

The shrink item spell's default function is simply to shrink the item; turning it into cloth is optional but not mandatory.

 

[Infinite_Kydeem]

Does this player realize that he could have gotten 50 shots of +1 Dragon Bane regular ammo for the same price of the magic enchantments alone?

A heavy crossbow bolt with bane ammo would do 1d10+3+2d6 = 15.5 damage. And it costs 1/50 as much.

The 6d8 is only = 27 damage -- definitely in the same ballpark.

Let it work to some degree, he's wasted a ton of resources on a very inefficient and costly solution.

Yes, he realizes that would be the 'efficient' way to go. But he's trying for the 'one shot - one kill' super sniper. Plus suddenly finding a fast giant spear sticking out of your guts without knowing where it came from has got to be confusing for the target.

As he says, "Besides, it's just cool!"

 

[Infinite_Kydeem]

Assuming the whole concept works (and yes I think I'll tone the damage down a bit) what do you think should be the chance to recover a usable or at least repairable bolt if:

A) The bolt is still made out of adamantine but not enchanted so he can use the standard shrink item spell?

B) The enchanted adamantine bolt and a researched spell that will work on enchanted items? { Any thoughts on how high a level spell that would end up being? }

 

[Shadeus]

I don't see why you really need to delve into the details, unless that is really what you are into in your campaign. The DMG doesn't explain that you need bat wings and puppy juice to make a potion of healing, why split hairs on this item?

Make it a +1 enhancement for every two size categories. Make Shrink Item a pre-req spell, and let the player have his fun! So if he wants a +2 bolt that increased 4 categories, price it as a +4 item. If you want it to be ammo, make it 1/50 of the cost of the one bolt and there's the standard 50% chance of breakage. If he actually pays for it as a +4 weapon, then make it unbreakable...like a spear or something.

Just my opinion.

 

[darthkilmor]

Assuming the whole concept works (and yes I think I'll tone the damage down a bit) what do you think should be the chance to recover a usable or at least repairable bolt if:

A) The bolt is still made out of adamantine but not enchanted so he can use the standard shrink item spell?

B) The enchanted adamantine bolt and a researched spell that will work on enchanted items? { Any thoughts on how high a level spell that would end up being? }

I'd say no chance of reuse except on a miss. Fired bolts break, I believe thats a standard rule. ( A bolt that hits its target is destroyed; one that misses has a 50% chance of being destroyed or lost. )
and its fairly cheap anyway:
Type of Adamantine Item Item Cost Modifier
Ammunition +60 gp
And say it costs 16x as much for the collosal size bolt, thats still only 960 gp for a one-shot deal alot of dmg thing.

That plus a wand of Shrink Item is 11,250, so for ... effectively 1191 gp he's got a chance (assuming he hits!) of dealing, say its 6d8 dmg. Thats not too bad, about the same as say, a scroll of Cone of Cold.( 9d6 dmg for 1125 gp).