Quiver size ?

[Spudolas]

What is the capacity of the standard quiver (arrows not bolts) ? I'm guessing 24 ?

Given this what do most people out there playing rangers do as you can get through way more than 24 arrows (particularly with twinstrike) in a single fight ?

Do you:
- give up on a bow after you've fired 24 arrows and jsut draw melee weapons after this ?
- carry multiple quivers ?
- carry a larger quiver, say 36 ?
- carry extra arrows in backpack and get them out during a fight ?

Spud

 

[Bagpuss]

We don't track ammo. I suggest you do* the same. If a character was using a thrown weapon he no longer needs to care after it becomes magical. So why should one class (the Ranger) been penalised?

We assume he collects arrows in the 5 minute rest after encounters, and makes replacements for broken ones in an 8 hour rest. Or that magic bows instantly form the arrow as he draws the string. Or some other reason just so long as you don't need to track them.

The price of a magic quiver in the Adventurer's Vault is ridiculous, just to allow a character to use his class powers, no other class has to pay this penalty and it certainly isn't a balancing factor in the powers.


*I suppose technically it's not doing.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Same here, altho if I was running a long term survival campaign that focused on battleing the elements and conserving food/ammo/etc.. I would indeed track ammunition, endurance, etc... However this campaign would only happen with the players buy-in.

Generally I have a 0 level magic item in my game that is a Quiver that holds 3 normal arrows or bolts. They magically regenerate when drawn, evaporate within 5 minutes and always break when they hit anything.
Its called the 'Quiver of lessened accounting'

 

[Garthanos]

Because one is allowed to visualize your power however you like!

An archers two attacks could even be by way of the same arrow, kind of like the Robinhood -- William Tell class bounce the arrow trick it threatens more than one opponent... and doesn't necessarily stop in the first one (unless the second attack misses).

Or it can be visualized the opposite way...1 arrow? it might well be a small barrage of 6 arrows.

If one wants that kind of resource tracking I think it will take some house rules and wizards might end up tracking bat wings and guano and acorns and miscellaneous ingredients ;-)

 

[DMingNicholas]

I didn't think anyone tracked ammo. What is the point? It's not fun. I don't feel like it adds anything to the game unless you are pressing on how resource strapped the heroes are (in that case you had better also be tracking all resource uses of everyone). If you really want someone to run out of ammo I suggest an abstract system, like on a natural 1 they ran out of arrows. That is quite unfair to the ranger though, unless you're using a similar system for other characters (on a 1 the fighter's sword breaks).

 

[BobTheNob]

I didn't think anyone tracked ammo. What is the point? It's not fun. I don't feel like it adds anything to the game unless you are pressing on how resource strapped the heroes are (in that case you had better also be tracking all resource uses of everyone). If you really want someone to run out of ammo I suggest an abstract system, like on a natural 1 they ran out of arrows. That is quite unfair to the ranger though, unless you're using a similar system for other characters (on a 1 the fighter's sword breaks).

We stopped tracking ammo in RPG's many years ago (before 3.0 from memory!). Its about as much fun as accounting, for everyone!

We like to call it "Diablo bows" as the game Diablo was the first to give us bows with no ammo requirement.

 

[MrBeens]

What is the capacity of the standard quiver (arrows not bolts) ? I'm guessing 24 ?

Given this what do most people out there playing rangers do as you can get through way more than 24 arrows (particularly with twinstrike) in a single fight ?

Do you:
- give up on a bow after you've fired 24 arrows and jsut draw melee weapons after this ?
- carry multiple quivers ?
- carry a larger quiver, say 36 ?
- carry extra arrows in backpack and get them out during a fight ?

Spud

We don't track ammo in our game, but I would guess quivers should have a capacity of 30, as this is the standard bunch of arrows available to buy.

 

[Nytmare]

Huh. We only started tracking ammo again when we started playing 4E. In 3rd we ignored ammo (and spell components) and relegated the possibility of running out to a range on our fumble charts.

The PHB has a quiver of arrows holding 30, and a quiver of bolts or a bag of sling bullets holding 20. The ammo dependant players I've had usually carry two quivers (or quiver analogues) of ammo and have enjoyed the little bit of added resource management.

Each of my players has what we call a "scratch card" that has each of the decremental bits of their character (HP, surges, ammo) listed as a bunch of cross-outable circles, so it's not hard for us to keep track of the numbers.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

We track ammo, and allow a player to carry twenty arrows in his quiver/bolt case/gunpowder sack. If the player makes a successful saving throw at the end of the encounter, he can recover all of his ammunition. If not, they're simply gone.

 

[Garthanos]

We track ammo, and allow a player to carry twenty arrows in his quiver/bolt case/gunpowder sack. If the player makes a successful saving throw at the end of the encounter, he can recover all of his ammunition. If not, they're simply gone.

If anyone thinks they are trying to be realistic. I am just picturing the various pcs while we hunt for a arrow which missed the target (call that 5 to 10 minutes for 1 arrow a narrow miss in a relatively normal grass setting). If I fired 20 and 10 missed... lets say we are there for an hour hunting for my equipment guess the mage will have time to look around for more bat wings, tree moss, and whatever engredients and the warrior can sharpen his sword so none of us need be bored.

You do make sure the warrior does equipment upkeep right? does he pay for the oils... medievel weaponry had to be maintained in an oiled state.

Everyone I think who has gamed for a while will have tried out varying degrees of tracking the minutia versus none at all, it can be fun in some cases thinking in detail about what the characters are doing instead of glossing over so much...

With the powers defined the way they are in 4e you have to figure the fellow using the magic arrow description for a double attack is just less likely to spend as much effort trying to find his arrows so he ends up using loosing around the same amount ie it balances out.