How much for real arrows?

[GuardianLurker]

I hadn't thought about it in depth before, but how about this:

Hit, >= 2x arrowshaft hardness in HP damage: Broken
Hit, 1x - 2x arrowshaft hardness: repair needed
Hit, <arrowshaft hardness: undamaged

Miss, by more than BAB: Reflex save (or Int check) to avoid losing arrow
Miss, by less than BAB: Not lost, no damage
Miss, due to concealment: 2x Concealment chance of losing arrow
Miss, due to cover or other AC adjustment: repair needed, or normal damage rules

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Miss, by more than BAB: Reflex save (or Int check) to avoid losing arrow
Miss, by less than BAB: Not lost, no damage
Miss, due to concealment: 2x Concealment chance of losing arrow
Miss, due to cover or other AC adjustment: repair needed, or normal damage rules

I'd say use (30 - attack roll) to set a DC for Search to find the arrow.

Of course, that's way too much bookkeeping (hence 50%)

 

[green slime]

The point, I think, is to get on with the heroics, and worry less about scavenging around hunting for where a non-important piece of the inventory went.

 

[andargor]

It's very DM and situation dependent. Do you have time to recover the arrows? Are you in a closed room or cavern, or in the woods, or in a field with tall grass?

I don't think Legolas went to recover the arrows he shot in Khazad-dûm, broken or not...

Just ask your DM case by case.

Andargor

 

[Bad_English]

Arrows and? [Long]

OK I hunted for a few years back in the day using a Martin Lynx Magnum compound bow with custom cambered wheels; set at 70 lbs, 29" draw and Easton 63xx arrows ( Cannot remeber, darn my old mind) 129 grain Broadheads with razors. Here is the relevent info.

1. I had to adjust my shot from the weight of the field or practice points as they were much lighter in the tip than my hunting arrows. In other words compensating for the drop of the arrow over the same distance, by learning to judge distance and keeping my release consistant.

2. The arrows spiraled after being shot and through the torque applied to the shaft; by the energy transfered from the string, would bend the shaft and it would create a visible wobble as the shaft would recover it's straitness.

During some of my target practice I would try to watch the flight of the arrow as that would show if the shaft had a slight bend to hit as the spiral/wobble would have a loss of line to the target. This is hard and often as not I would not see anything as I would have to concentrate very hard to anticipate the intial flight path of the arrow.

Now the guy I hunted with he used a 50 lb recurve and told me that the release wobble would be there, but not as pronounced. He used fiberglass shafts when hunting and aluminum during practice. The fiberglass tended to shatter compared to bending upon striking hard objects at close range. He used an expensive field point at a set weight 124 grains and custom broadheads that had a chisel point designed for breaking bone and of course razors that broke upon contact and spread like shrapnel into the body cavity.

The chisel point was advertised by a bowman firing an arrow through a car door at 30 yards a 70's road tank. The logic of this was to demonstrate the custom broadhead's ability to break bone and to penatrate.

You would ofter see other hunters looking down the shaft and turning it in their hands to find the bend in the shaft the camo would sometimes trick the eye and you would have to do it a couple times.

Now the above is important to the game in as far as:

The arrows being strait and balanced would be a considerable influence to the ability of the arrow hitting it's intended target.

I feel that if someone uses the magic on the pile of arrows there should be a percentage of bad arrows which would be either adjusted for during the game or found by the PC during inspection.

Now believe it or not a bent shaft could be used if the the bend was further up the shaft towards the tip and you rotated the bend to a specific side or top or bottom and made an adjustment to your projected (imagined) flight path of the arrow to allow for it as there is tourque bend phenomina and ...

(Darn! There is a certain way to place the bent arrow that causes it to fly relatively true because the torque is consistant in the way it bends the arrow. I just cannot remember the specific as when I found a bent shaft it was out of there.)

The shaft has to be true, balanced, and of course have the ability to straiten after release to make a good arrow for hunting. Now in warfare it also had to be made cheaply as quantity not quality was needed for the rain of arrows. Now at close range a friggen warpped shaft would work.

A side note is crossbow quarrels used to made of hickory, which is a wood not used for arrows. Why? They shatter upon hitting armour and bone, sending slivers into the wound. And as above if the quarrel was bent it could be compensated for by placement in the weapon.

The arrow in a wounded animal is more likely to kill it quickly if it did not penetrate the movement of the wounded animal would work the broadhead around the body cavity plus the broken razors. Thus ending it's pain, making the tracking of it shorter, reducing the chance of us losing it and giving meat in the freezer.

I should note we as hunters had a strict set of rules concerning the shot at an deer that was rigedly followed. The stalking, tracking was the rush and the meat was a bonus.

 

[Steverooo]

Agreed the break/loss percentage is too high, in 3e. Also agreed that the exact percentage is fairly unimportant minutia...

Re: Cedar shafts; I used to have half a dozen, and practiced for two hours/day, every day, with them. Never did I suffer a break due to a hit OR miss. What I did find, however, was that they accumulated wear, and after six months to a year, they would eventually break, once they were pocked with small pits and craters. They could then snap at any point along the shaft.

Since getting half a dozen french aluminum shafts, I have lost none, broken none, had a friend lose one, and had the nock fall off of one (easily fixed with a little superglue). I have used them both in the field, and on the archery fied (although I no longer practice every day).

In short, even the cedar shafts are far more durable than their bad press suggests. I would certainly think Masterwork arrows should be better off!

Anyway, so what to do about it, in 3(.5)e? Well, besides changing the percentages, get magical arrows, and see if your GM will allow you to get a half-dozen or so (depending upon class and whether or not you have Rapid or Multi-shot) with the Returning weapon enhancement... You fire them, and they come back in time for the next round!

 

[LGodamus]

well I have been deer and boar hunting my fair share with a bow, and as many as 75% (rough estimate) of the critters i have hit demolished an aluminum arrow..I have never really used wooden arrows though....and arrows that miss are hard as HE double hockey sticks to find in any type of wooded area .

 

[melkoriii]

I like the house rule.
Hit or Miss 50% its gone.

Make it so you can search a battle field and come up with some arrows from the fallen.

 

[0-hr]

Just for those who are curious, what we came up with is this:

"If I use Duskwood (from MoF, hard as steel), pay +1800gp for fifty, and enchant them to at least +1, then I can treat them like non-projectile weapons for breaking purposes. They'll have 10 hardness and 10 hitpoints each."

My other alternative was to buy scores of tiny spears and then put feathers on the end of them and shoot them out of my bow. Spears, no matter how small, never ever break when you hit something with them .

 

[Hypersmurf]

My other alternative was to buy scores of tiny spears and then put feathers on the end of them and shoot them out of my bow. Spears, no matter how small, never ever break when you hit something with them .

'course, you pay 50 times as much to magic them up... or GMW them one at a time...

-Hyp.