Pathfinder 1E Slashing Damage Arrows?

[Umbran]

I know some hunting arrow tips are blade like, but its still fired in a straight line.

Over longer ranges, an archer needs to consider the fact that his arrow is also *falling* after it leaves the bow, and so will have to aim high. Sometimes very high. Parabolic arc, more indirect fire like a mortar high.

This doesn't stop them from doing piercing damage.

 

[gamerprinter]

Over longer ranges, an archer needs to consider the fact that his arrow is also *falling* after it leaves the bow, and so will have to aim high. Sometimes very high. Parabolic arc, more indirect fire like a mortar high.

This doesn't stop them from doing piercing damage.

If you were as big as a kaiju, then the arc of a long shot arrow might matter towards slashing, but unless your size matches the size of the arc, you'll only ever get pierced

 

[Puxido]

If you were as big as a kaiju, then the arc of a long shot arrow might matter towards slashing, but unless your size matches the size of the arc, you'll only ever get pierced

To me, piercing is only piercing if its at a small point. A typical arrow is a piercing arrow, bu if you had one with the guillotine end, thats slashing, because its in a bigger area. Thats how I would treat it in-game and how I would think of it irl.

 

[gamerprinter]

To me, slashing infers movement on an arc - many slashing swords are curved for that reason. Straight line penetration is piercing. I don't care if there is star of blades for an arrow tip, if the penetration is a straight line (as from an arrow or bolt) it is still piercing damage. Consider that most arrows are not just pointed round tips, rather stone age arrows have "blades" on either side of shaped flat stones of flint. Blades or points, arrows causing piercing damage - hence why D&D has always considered arrows piercing weapons since 1e.

You can houserule that arrows could be other than piercing damage for a home game, but you won't find a consensus of agreement - at least not by evidence of every other post in this thread. We all pretty much agree that arrows cause piercing damage only.

A rapier is certainly a type of sword or bladed weapon, yet it causes piercing, not slashing damage. By your argument, since a rapier is a bladed weapon it should cause slashing damage, which it doesn't, so that should compel you to question your thoughts on "slashing arrows".

 

[Starfox]

Well, to me it is more about what kind of impact surface the weapon has. A pick is swung, yet it does piercing damage because it has a narrow point on its head. My issue with slashing arrows is more that having a wide impact area on an arrow seems sub-optimal.

A drawback of this definition is that it is always going to be a matter of degrees. How wide does an arrow-point have to be in order to be slashing? Thus, I usually go by some kind of "ideal case" - the ideal arrow has a narrow point, and thus arrows do piercing damage.

 

[Puxido]

To me, slashing infers movement on an arc - many slashing swords are curved for that reason. Straight line penetration is piercing. I don't care if there is star of blades for an arrow tip, if the penetration is a straight line (as from an arrow or bolt) it is still piercing damage. Consider that most arrows are not just pointed round tips, rather stone age arrows have "blades" on either side of shaped flat stones of flint. Blades or points, arrows causing piercing damage - hence why D&D has always considered arrows piercing weapons since 1e.

You can houserule that arrows could be other than piercing damage for a home game, but you won't find a consensus of agreement - at least not by evidence of every other post in this thread. We all pretty much agree that arrows cause piercing damage only.

A rapier is certainly a type of sword or bladed weapon, yet it causes piercing, not slashing damage. By your argument, since a rapier is a bladed weapon it should cause slashing damage, which it doesn't, so that should compel you to question your thoughts on "slashing arrows".

I always assumed rapiers were piercing and slashing, but after checking up on it, you are right about that, but it only proves what I was saying. A rapier is a blade, but it isn't used to slash and hack, its thrusted, piercing your enemy. Like I said, if its over a long (over a quarter and a sixth of an inch) straight area, it's slashing, if its thinner, it's piercing. If I held a longsword horizontally, and pushed the longside of the blade into the meat of an enemy, it would still be slashing damage, in fact, that's how a axe works.

 

[gamerprinter]

You run it the way you want as for as houserules go. It doesn't matter what the shape of the blade is. It only matters in the direction of kinetic force. An arrow and other piercing weapons only attack in a straight line - thus always means piercing damage. If you want slashing, moving the weapon on an arc achieves slashing damage. No matter how you wield a bow, when it delivers an attack its in a straight line, not an arc. So it is physically impossible for an arrow to cause slashing damage. Houserule it to do so in a home game, but you'll never achieve a consensus here that agrees with you. You are alone in thinking an arrow can cause slashing damage.

 

[Leowen]

To me, if the weapon is going "into" or "through" the target, its piercing. So add a tally on that vote for me. Personally, I would never rule for "slashing" arrows sadly in my games. Unless you fired some kind of magic projectile that got to the target, then came to life before hitting the target, and danced around them trying to cut them to ribbons.. Hmm that might be interesting..

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

To me, if the weapon is going "into" or "through" the target, its piercing. So add a tally on that vote for me. Personally, I would never rule for "slashing" arrows sadly in my games. Unless you fired some kind of magic projectile that got to the target, then came to life before hitting the target, and danced around them trying to cut them to ribbons.. Hmm that might be interesting..

Still piercing though.​

 

[Starfox]

[MENTION=6674868]RUMBLETiGER[/MENTION], lol at your sig!