Need hundreds of feathers to make arrows

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How could one tell when a chicken has gone insane?

 

[Greenfield]

When it fails to cross the road?

Seriously, use turkeys. Better feathers for the job.

It's too bad you aren't a Wizard. One of the odd functions possible under the Prestodigitation spell was that it allowed the caster to do minor things like cause hair to grow. Feathers to a bird are like hair to a mammal. Once cast, the Cantrip is continuously useable for an hour, so one casting can "heal" a lot of birds.

Also, trying to use cure spells to replace lost "body parts" generally doesn't work. Technically you need Regeneration for that.

Or an arcane Cantrip good for 360 birds per casting, at one per round for an hour.

 

[BOZ]

I'm an archer in real life, and I teach a class in fletching arrows.

We commonly use turkey feathers. For your challenge, chicken feathers work. You'll get about a dozen feathers per bird (you normally use wing feathers), and you normally use scalding water to get the wings to release the feathers. That is usally done after the bird is dead, by the way.

If you want to pluck the birds and let them live it's more work. Pluck then, heal them, then pluck them again. Rinse/repeat until the birds go insane from having their feathers ripped out, over and over again.

I'm not sure what's worse for the druid: Killing that many birds, or simply torturing them through repeated pluckings.

Oh, believe me, being busy with other stuff isn't the only reason I haven't gotten this done yet.

When it fails to cross the road?

Seriously, use turkeys. Better feathers for the job.

It's too bad you aren't a Wizard. One of the odd functions possible under the Prestodigitation spell was that it allowed the caster to do minor things like cause hair to grow. Feathers to a bird are like hair to a mammal. Once cast, the Cantrip is continuously useable for an hour, so one casting can "heal" a lot of birds.

Also, trying to use cure spells to replace lost "body parts" generally doesn't work. Technically you need Regeneration for that.

Or an arcane Cantrip good for 360 birds per casting, at one per round for an hour.

Well, I could talk our wizard into using that... thanks for more ideas.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

That cantrip idea is brilliant, @Greenfield .

By the way, I love it how someone can ask a question on these boards and you can often get an answer from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Good stuff.

 

[Greenfield]

The vast majority of the people here know what they're talking about.

Getting them to talk about the actual question asked may be like herding cats, but whatever they end up talking about, they usually know it.

 

[Henry]

The vast majority of the people here know what they're talking about.

Getting them to talk about the actual question asked may be like herding cats, but whatever they end up talking about, they usually know it.

Agreed - for instance, i'm still giggling inwardly over the thought of a druid hierophant massacring a portion of the local ecosystem to get thousands of feathers to save a bunch of humans.

 

[Nellisir]

The idea that they can't get enough feathers makes this very nonsensical to me. Geese were a common part of farms "back in the day". Read a few fairy tales; quite a few protagonists are goose-girls (or goose-boys). They had flocks of geese. Geese were used as guard animals, and could be herded to market, etc, etc. So, you just need a flock of geese. Except that either your DM doesn't understand that, or there's something else going on, in which case I don't really have an answer.

Turkeys are fine, but if your DM is a stickler for accuracy, domestic turkey's are New World birds not introduced to Europe until the 1500's.


This article also mentions pheasant feathers and raptor feathers. It'd be hard to get raptor feathers en masse, and pheasants aren't flocking birds either, but...
http://www.sandhillsarchers.org/storage/member-articles/Fletching.pdf

Other sources mention (and show) duck and guinea hen fletching. Pigeon -might- work. All of these are and were domesticated birds.

Based on size alone, crows should be an option too.

 

[DragonSpyI]

I'm the wizard in this campaign. It is a bit nonsensical. There's no mention of birds in town besides the ones the fletcher has, and they're all raptors. The whole country was at war and there have been major political upheavals. Maybe the birds were given as tribute, I'll have to ask the GM.

I don't normally play wizards, so I have no idea of all the uses for cantrips. Thanks for the tip!

 

[BOZ]

That cantrip idea is brilliant, @Greenfield .

By the way, I love it how someone can ask a question on these boards and you can often get an answer from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Good stuff.

That's why I came here! By the way, what was the cantrip idea again?

The vast majority of the people here know what they're talking about.

Getting them to talk about the actual question asked may be like herding cats, but whatever they end up talking about, they usually know it.

LOL!

Agreed - for instance, i'm still giggling inwardly over the thought of a druid hierophant massacring a portion of the local ecosystem to get thousands of feathers to save a bunch of humans.

LTNS, Henry.

The idea that they can't get enough feathers makes this very nonsensical to me. Geese were a common part of farms "back in the day". Read a few fairy tales; quite a few protagonists are goose-girls (or goose-boys). They had flocks of geese. Geese were used as guard animals, and could be herded to market, etc, etc. So, you just need a flock of geese. Except that either your DM doesn't understand that, or there's something else going on, in which case I don't really have an answer.

Turkeys are fine, but if your DM is a stickler for accuracy, domestic turkey's are New World birds not introduced to Europe until the 1500's.


This article also mentions pheasant feathers and raptor feathers. It'd be hard to get raptor feathers en masse, and pheasants aren't flocking birds either, but...
http://www.sandhillsarchers.org/storage/member-articles/Fletching.pdf

Other sources mention (and show) duck and guinea hen fletching. Pigeon -might- work. All of these are and were domesticated birds.

Based on size alone, crows should be an option too.

"Something else going on" is the right answer. Since everyone seems so mind-boggled, I will give a little more detail (which was, still, not pertinent to my original question, but what the hell). Years spent in a losing war ravaged the country, and then the town we are in has been victimized by these raiders ever since the war was lost. "Normal" supplies are often hard to find. Unusual supplies like magic items are once-in-a-blue moon. Food is scarce, because the annual tribute is a large percentage of the town's crops, and it is harvest time so we arrived just in time. In the last year or two, the raiders have also begun taking artisans, craftsmen, and most of the town's young women. We are lucky to still have the fletcher and blacksmith. The townsfolk make it sound like it gets worse every year, so, no, paying the tribute is not an option for good-aligned heroes, nor is abandoning them to their fate. We are also very much in a "win the hearts and minds of the people" mode, so helping them out will help them trust in us and believe in themselves. It's all about the underdog beating the big bully. The bad guys outnumber us, and their high-level casters probably outpower us, but it is all about finding an intelligent way to take them out. Plus that will be like a billion zillion XP if we win, and with every victory we can convince more towns and settlements to help us out. Makes more sense now? Less silly questions, please?

I'm the wizard in this campaign. It is a bit nonsensical. There's no mention of birds in town besides the ones the fletcher has, and they're all raptors. The whole country was at war and there have been major political upheavals. Maybe the birds were given as tribute, I'll have to ask the GM.

I don't normally play wizards, so I have no idea of all the uses for cantrips. Thanks for the tip!

Howdy!

 

[DragonSpyI]

The cantrip idea was use it to make feathers grow, as they are similar to hair. Perhaps our GM will allow it.

The point of this part of the campaign is supposed to be like Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven. Stupid, astronomical, unbeatable odds. That's why we need creative solutions.