Quickdraw and Arrows

[thullgrim]

Had a little tiff yesterday concerning quickdraw and arrows. Does a character have to possess the Quickdraw feat in order to be able to fire more than one arrow in a round? With Rapid Shot for instance, or even in the course of the normal itreative strikes? It occurs to me that Drawing an arrow is the same as any other weapon and is a Move-Equivalent action. Is this correct?

 

[MerricB]

From the official FAQ:

Why isn’t there any information in the rules about the
rate of fire for a ranged weapon?

Because there is no such thing as "rate of fire" in the game.
Your base attack bonus determines how many times you can
attack in a round with any weapon. Note that you must use the
full attack action to attack more than once. Certain weapons,
such as crossbows, require actions to reload, so you can’t use
the full attack action with them. Bows and slings don’t require
an action to reload.

All thrown weapons require a move action to draw, so you
can throw only one a round, though you can get around that
with the Quick Draw feat.

You can find the D&D FAQs here.

Cheers!

 

[Li Shenron]

Had a little tiff yesterday concerning quickdraw and arrows. Does a character have to possess the Quickdraw feat in order to be able to fire more than one arrow in a round? With Rapid Shot for instance, or even in the course of the normal itreative strikes? It occurs to me that Drawing an arrow is the same as any other weapon and is a Move-Equivalent action. Is this correct?

If you draw an arrow and use it as a melee weapon, it's a MEA.

If you make an attack with the bow, drawing the arrow is part of the action, and if the action if a full-round attack, you can draw as many arrows as attacks you are making.

A more tricky question is: do you need a MEA to draw an arrow when you ready an attack with the bow? By the rules, you don't need it: it is still part of the attack (partial) action.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

It occurs to me that Drawing an arrow is the same as any other weapon and is a Move-Equivalent action. Is this correct?

No. You may draw as many arrows as you have attacks with your bow in a round.

 

[Chacal]

I never noticed that the sling didn't need a MEA to load,
this isn't really a huge balance issue, but it still looks a bit silly
considering that using a sling is not as fast as using a bow or firing darts in Real life (tm).

Chacal