How many arrows can hit a square?

[Stalker0]

This isn't covered in the rules per say, but let me get your opinion on it.

High level party vs a true hoard like army of archers. The party is flying, and can hit from multiple sides. Just how many arrows do you think could be shot at them in one round? I'm talking true block out the sun style from 300.

 

[Simm]

If we assume the target area to be a 5*5*5 foot cube it woulld have a surface area of 21 600 suqare inches. Since the target is flying, the cube can be hit from all sides, if we furthur assume that each arrow's flight path takes up a square area 2 inches to a side then, for a total of four square inches, thebn 5 400 arrows could enter the square simultaneously. I would guess that three volleys could enter the area in a six second round so that work out to being 16 200 arrows in a round, ouch. Oh course, some of the arrows are going to collide in mid air or simply not be where the target is within the square but you could still turn somthing into a pin cushon pretty fast.

 

[Jack Simth]

Well, let's see...

The range increment on a Composite Longbow (assuming you have the Far Shot feat) is 165 feet. You can fire from as many as 10 range increments away - so 1,650 feet.

Each archer needs one five-foot square.

A circle with a radius of 1,650 feet has about 8552986.12575 square feet, or about 342,119.44503 five-foot squares.

If each archer can put out one arrow per round, that's 342,119 arrows that can come the party's way each round. Most will only hit on a nat-20, so 5% will hit. 17,105.9722515 arrow hits each round, at 1d8 damage. 5% of those that hit will crit (for *3), so that's an average of 84,674.562644925 damage per round. Less any DR (with a nice multiplier - DR 20 will get that down to just the crits that happened to roll 21 or more damage - which won't be many), miss chance, and the like.

 

[frankthedm]

Just how many arrows do you think could be shot at them in one round? I'm talking true block out the sun style from 300.

All of them, or at least enough arrows to kill you and 20 or so more. Whatever penalties that might be accrued from too many arrows being fired don't matter to the natural 20s, which will be the only ones that hit.
.

 

[James McMurray]

However many archers you have could all hit the square. Square footage isn't an issue, since it's not simultaneous.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Heroes of Battle has rules for massed arrow fire.

 

[Stalker0]

Heroes of Battle has rules for massed arrow fire.

Can anyone give me a highlight?

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

It's called Volley of Arrows on page 68.

You need at least 10 archers in a contiguous group. They fire as a full-round action against an area, rather than a specific target/creature. The commander makes an attack roll (BAB + Int mod - range mods) against AC 15. If he hits, the arrows cover the same area as the area taken up by the archers themselves.

Any creature in the target area must make a DC 15 Reflex save, with special modifiers for range, magic arrows, concealment, etc. Failure and you take arrow damage (from one arrow) plus Str mod if applicable.

There is also Concentrated Fire, which is what you're looking for. This is when the archers all target a smaller space (e.g., a 5-foot square). All archers use a full attack and fire as many arrows as they can. The commander makes an attack roll as above, but against AC 20. If he hits, anyone in the space takes damage as if being hit by 1/5 of all the arrows fired (Reflex DC 15 for 1/2 damage). There's a limit of 10 archers per 5-foot square per initiative count, so 50 archers would have to either target 5 different squares or stagger their attacks over 5 initiative counts. If you had 100 archers firing 2 shots per round, that's 200 arrows or 40d6 (40d8 with longbows) + modifiers!!!

Trust me, if your players scoffed at concentrated enemy fire in the past, they won't anymore!

 

[Victim]

You don't even need rules changes to make massed archers threatening. Lots of guys means lots of natural 20s - a mere 400 archers (sans feats) will probably get around 19 hits and a crit for 22d8 (plus mods, dedicated longbowmen are probably using mighty bows) for about 100 damage per round (per 400 shooters). Rapid Shot makes that 200 damage. And since penalties don't matter, they can start shooting from more than 1000 ft away. Protection from Arrows doesn't even last a round.

Basically, massed archers can kill pretty much anything without DR, immunities, or the ability to generate sufficient wind to negate ranged attacks. Or Windwall, which is quite handy in these conditions.

 

[Sejs]

This isn't covered in the rules per say, but let me get your opinion on it.

High level party vs a true hoard like army of archers. The party is flying, and can hit from multiple sides. Just how many arrows do you think could be shot at them in one round? I'm talking true block out the sun style from 300.

There are rules for area fire for situations just like this in Heroes of Battle.

Essentially, on a concentrated volley with enough archery, unless you've got cover you're looking at a ref save for half damage. Some arrows -will- hit you, AC be damned.

Edit: late to the party and someone's wearing the same dress. Looks like the massed fire rules have already been covered.