What's the point of magic arrows?

[Ithilorien]

Here's "my" arcane archer homebrew:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?p=1341142#post1341142

A little of Nifft, a little of Cesare, hopefully a lot better than the DMG 3.5 version without being overpowered.

 

[LordAO]

I'm confused. I thought in 3.5 the +value of the bow itself was only added to the to-hit roll, and the +value of the arrow was only added to the damage roll.

If that's not the case, that's how I think it should be. Magic arrows would still be useful because they deal more damage.

That's orignally what I thought as well. But that is not the case. A +5 bow adds +5 to hit and damage, as do +5 arrows, but the bow and arrow do not stack, only the highest one applies.

It's too bad they didn't do it that way, as it would make it so that there would be apoint to having an enhancement bonus on both your bow and your arrows. The way they do it now is kind of ridiculous, IMHO.

 

[Cheiromancer]

So I guess the point for magic arrows is to provide treasure for low level parties.

Fifty +1 arrows costs a little over 2000 gp, so that's only 40 gp per arrow.

 

[James McMurray]

It's too bad they didn't do it that way, as it would make it so that there would be apoint to having an enhancement bonus on both your bow and your arrows. The way they do it now is kind of ridiculous, IMHO.

It would also make arhery way too expensive, as you'd have to pay double what the meleer is paying in order to equal their magical benefits. Perhaps if they cost half of what they do now, but you'd still have to pay more for archery in the long run because arrows are used up quickly.

 

[James McMurray]

So I guess the point for magic arrows is to provide treasure for low level parties.

Fifty +1 arrows costs a little over 2000 gp, so that's only 40 gp per arrow.

That's one of them. Another would be versatility. You can have +1 lycanthrope bane arrows for when you need them, etc.