D&D 5E New doubts

[Jeff Albertson]

Tracking ammo seemed standard back in the day, there are even ammo boxes to tick off on some pre-3rd Ed character sheets.

 

[aramis erak]

Just dropping in to add a quick question to the bunch: in your fine folk opinion, how many arrows should a character be allowed to bring along? I don't use any kind of encumbrance rules at my table different from common sense, do you think 30 is fair?

1-2 quivers of ready, plus maybe another 2-3 affixed unreadied to the pack, no more than 24 to a quiver.
The ready quivers are either open at the draw-arm's shoulder or bow-arm-side's hip.

If they ride, another quiver on each side of the saddle as ready, and 4 or so unready.

An unready quiver would require an interaction-with-objects to move it to a draw location before it could be used - you're not drawing from the quiver on the back of your backpack.

 

[jrowland]

Just dropping in to add a quick question to the bunch: in your fine folk opinion, how many arrows should a character be allowed to bring along? I don't use any kind of encumbrance rules at my table different from common sense, do you think 30 is fair?

The Sum of Strength and Dexterity. Anything more is awkward (dis on all checks until quiver is removed). Just kidding. 30 seems fair enough for most games.

Historically about 10-15 (I think 12 is referred to in literature, but It could be my imperial units-trained american mind) arrows in a quiver and rarely more than that were carried for most hunters. For Archers in war, 2 quivers or 20-30 seems reasonable but I don't know if that was actually done. More likely a lord rounded up a bunch of hunters and viola! An archery unit! they brought their own gear. An insane murder hobo (ie adventurer) could bring as many quivers as they wanted, but bear in mind its a little unwieldy. I carried small-medium duffel bags this past weekend from the car to the house. A litlle bigger than a quiver, but close-enough. I wouldn't have been able to string and fire a bow.

yeah, I'd probably cap at 30 and call it generous.

 

[lall]

Just dropping in to add a quick question to the bunch: in your fine folk opinion, how many arrows should a character be allowed to bring along?

As many as he can afford? My thief is starting with 200.

 

[Fabio Andrea Rossi]

On the rare occasion that you need to know exactly how many arrows a PC is carrying at a given moment, I'd go with 30-40.

However, if you aren't tracking encumbrance, I don't see why you'd bother tracking ammunition.

Thank you all for your suggestions! A fine point Dausuul. I want to have a cap to the number of ammution just to keep it in line with the "common sense" thing, but I was never sure how much sense it made 30 arrows vs, say, 60. Actually you are right and it has never been an issue the number of arrows in the quiver but it keeps the players in line with a minimum of survivalist fear they may end in the middle of a dungeon...sort of an illusion, but still good to keep it there.

It's like rations to me: unless I script the importance of that element in (for instance, being isolated by a storm for some weeks in an hostile snowy peak) it never comes into play, but still we agree to a reasonable amount of food in the backpack, even if there's no tracking of how much it weights.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Just dropping in to add a quick question to the bunch: in your fine folk opinion, how many arrows should a character be allowed to bring along? I don't use any kind of encumbrance rules at my table different from common sense, do you think 30 is fair?

If you don't track encumbrance, you probably don't need to track individual arrows. If you get in a situation where the character is likely to go through a huge number of arrows without re-supplying or collecting any (a scenario like being trapped in an abandoned keep by a numerically overwhelming force, for instance), you'll want come up with something - have the characters 'inventory their supplies' and pick or randomly generate a number, for instance.

 

[Herobizkit]

No reason to think your archer couldn't carry 40 arrows slung over his back and/or on his hips.

But yeah, ammunition is the rot and completely unfun. :3

 

[Sword of Spirit]

DC 10 = Easy (for an adventure)
DC 15 = Moderate
DC 20 = Hard
DC above 20 = Really, really hard

That's all you really need to know about assigning DCs as a DM.