Sage Advice on Energy Burst Bows

[kengar]

This assumes, of course, that every problem anyone has a problem with is wrong.

Granted, an assumption. I also assumed that a lot of people might have problems with many of the accurate rulings since they may not be to their liking.

 

[Marshall]

I'm sure his "off the cuff" answers in live chats and private e-mails have a lower accuracy rate though.

The problem is his off-the-cuff answers are usually questions that hes already answered in one form or another. He then goes on to give a completely different answer.

See above /^\

 

[S'mon]

According to the DMG the two stack. This makes bows very powerful. The Sage is wrong as usual, but it would be a reasonable house rule that they don't stack. A better rule IMO would be that effects like Shocking placed on bows cost x2 standard, whereas cast on ammunition they cost the normal amount. Options not restrictions & all that.

 

[mkletch]

Not sure if this will turn out to be a troll, but what about 'no magical ammunition'? The bow imparts all of its goodness on the arrow, and you never have to worry about double stacking with bow/arrow enhancements, or magic quivers that cast GMW on every arrow drawn, or any of the other silliness that both unbalances and cripples archers, depending on your perspective. Would that be a reasonably balanced house rule?

-Fletch!

 

[Phoenix8008]

Not sure if this will turn out to be a troll, but what about 'no magical ammunition'? The bow imparts all of its goodness on the arrow, and you never have to worry about double stacking with bow/arrow enhancements, or magic quivers that cast GMW on every arrow drawn, or any of the other silliness that both unbalances and cripples archers, depending on your perspective. Would that be a reasonably balanced house rule?

-Fletch!

DEAR GODS!!!

That makes so much sense it's SCARY! That IS the way it should be! Why have I never thought of that before? It's so simple and seems like it would work so well.

Wouldn't it be nice if this change was one made in D&D 3.5? I just may have to house rule that this is how it works from now on in all my campaigns.

 

[S'mon]

Hey, but remember when Thulsa Doom shot Valeria with an _arrow of slaying_?

It was clearly the arrow/snake that was magical, not the bow...

 

[Spatzimaus]

If someone wants to spend 18,000 gp for 50 +1 Shocking Burst arrows, I say more power to 'em. It's a ridiculous waste of money, after all.

Now, saying that GMW and such don't work on projectiles at all (only on the launcher), THAT would work as a house rule. To me, GMW is supposed to be a supplement, something to cast on a weapon to make it slightly more powerful than the one you'd already be using anyway. But, that's not what happens when you enchant arrows, because no one in his right mind is going to pay for a quiver of +5 arrows (1 kgp per arrow!) when they could just get GMW as needed.

IMC this whole thing isn't a problem, because we use a Material ruleset. The enchantment an item can hold is dependent on the material used, so unless you want to make Adamantine arrows or something you won't be able to get much use out of GMW. (Masterwork wooden arrows can only have a +1 enchantment in this system). Your mileage may vary.

 

[Caliban]

The problem is his off-the-cuff answers are usually questions that hes already answered in one form or another. He then goes on to give a completely different answer.

See above /^\

I'm not sure if the Sage misunderstood the question, or if he was just being obtuse on purpose.

The point the Sage was making in the first part of the answer was that the guy asking the question asked about a specific enchantment, and enchantments are a school of spell, not something you add to a weapon. You add a "special ability" to a weapon. (A silly nitpick, but one that he and Sean k Reynolds harp about, even though they make references to weapon enchantments themselves.)

In the second part of his answer he seems to be talking about the magical enhancement pluses, not the burst ability (or rather he has mistakenly applied the rule about enhancement bonuses to the burst ability).

I think he was trying to make a nit-picky point and confused himself.

 

[S'mon]

Banning GMW on arrows though takes away my favourite battlefield leveller between heroes and mooks, when the 50 1st-level Warrior archers let loose with 50 +3 arrows on the hapless PC...

 

[S'mon]

In the second part of his answer he seems to be talking about the magical enhancement pluses, not the burst ability (or rather he has mistakenly applied the rule about enhancement bonuses to the burst ability).

Except that bow & arrow enhancement plusses do stack (for to-hit & damage), like armour & shield. A house rule that they didn't would be ok of course. They only don't stack in the case of bypassing DR, where the bow's + has no effect at all.