Blood Bow (3.P homebrew item, PEACH)

[The Glyphstone]

This is an item I'm planning on giving to my RHoD campaign's archer as the special prize for surviving the Battle of Brindol, but I figured it'd be worth throwing out for consideration of under or over-utility.



Blood Bow
+3 Seeking Composite Longbow of Distance (+3 Str)
Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14. Neutral Evil, Ego Score 13.
Empathy, 30ft. senses.

A longbow made of pitch-black bone, with a number of spiked metal studs just above where an arrow would be nocked. It has two possible 'modes', switching between them as a full-round action.

-Homing: By voluntarily taking 1d6 bleed damage before making an attack, the arrow gains an attraction to blood. If it misses its intended target, the shot may immediately be re-rolled at no penalty. Only one re-roll may be made per attack.
-Penetration: By voluntarily taking 2d6 bleed damage before making an attack, the arrow is propelled with concussive force. Instead of rolling a normal attack, it becomes a Line effect that strikes all targets, friend or foe, in a 100ft. straight line extending from the wielder. A Reflex save negates the damage, and any effect that would apply a penalty to the attack roll (such as Rapid Shot or Deadly Aim) instead grants an equal bonus to the saving throw.


I've got a week to tweak it if necessary, so thoughts? For perspective, the party is/was a Pathfinder Fighter, Pathfinder Barbarian, Pathfinder Cleric, and ToB Warblade. Not exactly high-op, but sufficient for the task.

[Morph Bark]

What's the DC on the Reflex save? And what is bleed damage? From the name it sounds like they'd continue to take some damage in subsequent rounds until a Heal check is made.

[TuggyNE]

I'm assuming the DC is the attack roll, which may scale rather too rapidly.

Other than that, and the clarification re bleeding, it looks pretty solid.

[The Glyphstone]

Right.

The DC is Dex based - 10+1/2HD+Dex mod.

The bleed damage wouldn't continue, I do need to clarify that. It's just typed as 'bleed' damage so that DR from armor or whatnot doesn't nullify it.

[Strormer]

I like. It's a good set of effects to select from, but the penalties would add up quickly.
I would reduce the line effect from 100ft. to 60ft. however, as that is the standard short range for a line effect. The next step up is usually 120ft. if you wanted to go that long, but that range is usually an entire map as far as an average fight is concerned. Shooting everything in a straight line across the map might be a bit much. If you like, though, one idea is to have the line effect start at 60ft. and extend by 30ft. for each additional d6 bleed you take.

[The Glyphstone]

The idea was to match it to one range increment of the weapon, which I thought was 100ft. Turns out a Composite longbow is actually 110ft...

[Spiryt]

100ft is just 30 meters, anyone can throw their bow that far with a bit of luck...

Bow seems to be at least +6 overall, presumably to be used at the levels when every monster with range attack/effect of at least 200 ft.

So it really seems alright.

They seem very potent though, while that blood cost is pretty much negligible for higher level characters. Every other effect will heal those 3.5/7 damage per use, making this damage more of a flavour than actual hindrace.

Dunno if it's intended.

[The Glyphstone]

It's primarily Pathfinder, so it's more of a hindrance that one might expect. I allow 3.x sources, but no one in the group other than the ToB-player makes use of them. Actual in-game healing is done via potions, Cure spells, and Channel Energy, and when you're dealing 5d6 damage to yourself per turn, that adds up.

[Spiryt]

I suppose it's true.... It means whole 5 attacks with greatly increased chance to hit though.

Anyway, I would guess that per description "Homing" should only work against targets with blood, or some kind of life at very least.

[The Glyphstone]

I suppose it's true.... It means whole 5 attacks with greatly increased chance to hit though.

Anyway, I would guess that per description "Homing" should only work against targets with blood, or some kind of life at very least.

Hitting's not that hard anyways for most opponents in this game, they're not terribly optimized either. For the Homing description, I do need to decide if I want to change the description or make it only work vs. living targets, but that's a flavor issue.

The main benefit for me out of this is a very mild bit of trolling of the player who will get this - he tends to be stingy with character resources, and by the way I've specifically written this, the decision to 'blood' a shot has to be made before it's fired, so a Homing arrow that hits on its first attempt was wasted HP.

[Temotei]

The main benefit for me out of this is a very mild bit of trolling of the player who will get this - he tends to be stingy with character resources, and by the way I've specifically written this, the decision to 'blood' a shot has to be made before it's fired, so a Homing arrow that hits on its first attempt was wasted HP.

You're my hero.