Keen OIL once the cork is off????

[Fisk]

Hey once the cork is off the bottle do you have to use all of it?

ie... I have flask of oil and want a couple of Keen arrows. I only need 4. Can I use enough for 4 and then use some later.

How many arrows can I get out of one flask?

 

[Timeboxer]

By the RAW? 50. Except you need to do them all at once.

Try not to think of a potion or an oil as a magical liquid which can thus be apportioned -- it's more like a one-use spell effect that anybody can use. And as such, it works just as if keen edge were cast on whatever you're applying the oil to. Spell effects can't really be subdivided in the way that you're describing.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Although a possibly useful houserule might be that you can use the Oil in such a fashion (by pouring out enough to just coat 4 arrows); doing so results in enough oil remaining to coat 46 arrows.

The oil may no longer be used on any other weapon.

 

[Kyrail]

If you do it that way, you just got 50 keen arrows really cheep that only require a little prep work before a battle, instead of keen arrows for 1 battle as it was intended.

The idea is when the oil is uses, he spell discharges and is used. Doing it one arrow at a time breaks the whole reason to ever buy keen arrows.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Doing it one arrow at a time breaks the whole reason to ever buy keen arrows.

Frankly, I think you'd be hard pressed to come up with any reason to buy keen arrows.

They must be at least +1 arrows to begin with, and keen adds another +1. So, we're talking 50 +2 equivalent arrows.

This results in a cost of (50 * 7gp) + 8,000gp = 8,350gp, or a cost of 167 gp per arrow. In other words, every time you shoot, you are throwing away a 2nd-level scroll. For a decent archer, this means you are throwing away 300-500 gold pieces *per round* (on 3 to 4 attacks).

Oil of Keenness, under the proposed house rule, has a cost of (5 x 3 x 50gp) = 750gp, or a cost of 15gp per arrow. Tack on another 1gp per arrow for an Oil of Magic Weapon, and you've got the same effects as above.

Whether it lasts for one battle or for many, actually enhancing ammunition is a bad, bad idea (from a cost perspective).

 

[Jdvn1]

Well, a keen bow, then.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, a keen bow, then.

'Keen' doesn't appear on the table of Ranged Weapon Special Abilities; only Melee Weapon Special Abilities.

-Hyp.

 

[Len]

Hey once the cork is off the bottle do you have to use all of it?

ie... I have flask of oil and want a couple of Keen arrows. I only need 4. Can I use enough for 4 and then use some later.

If you could do that, you should be able to do the same with a lot of other potions, e.g. drinking half of a cure moderate wounds and saving the rest for later.

But you can't.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

If you could do that, you should be able to do the same with a lot of other potions, e.g. drinking half of a cure moderate wounds and saving the rest for later.

But you can't.

I always liked the old rule from earlier editions that allowed you to drink a Greater Healing Potion in sips, or all at once, giving you the option to hold back doses. Very useful for the fighter who takes one arrow here, another there, and doesn't want to face the twin problems of wasting a perfectly good high-end potion on a few scratches and risking trouble if he's suddenly hit with a large direct-damage spell.

 

[Gez]

Once the cork is off, if you do not use all the oil at once, then the neck of the vial becomes supernaturally cutting and you'll slice your own fingers off if you try to stopper it for later use.

In the mean time, you can use the vial to punch circular holes in people, it's kinda fun. You can make cores of people's flesh that way. Great for medical analysis.