A Little Something for Archers [3.5, Feat, PEACH]

[Amechra]

This really shouldn't be necessary, but it kinda is, if you have a DM that makes you track the number of arrows you use.

Unlimited Arrow Works
You always seem to have an arrow or two just hanging around.
Prerequisites: Precise Shot
Benefits: You have access to an unlimited number of standard projectiles for any ranged weapon that you use, as long as you have access to some sort of container where you could place those projectiles.
Special: You may extend the benefits of this feat to apply to any projectile you purchase a full "stack" of; for example, purchasing 50 blunt arrows would allow you access to an unlimited number of blunt arrows.
If you would purchase a stack of magical projectiles, you may later enhance them as if they were a single magical item, allowing you to upgrade a quiverful of +1 arrows to +1 Orc-Bane arrows.

As I said, this really shouldn't be necessary, since archery is pretty nerfed, when you get down to it.

[Morcleon]

You should probably put something in there that states you can't sell these arrows. Otherwise you get infinite wealth with 3 feats. :smalltongue:

Also, could you clarify the magic arrow part? What, exactly, constitutes a stack?

[ArkenBrony]

i believe 50, like the feat btw. makes things like army of darkness and lord of the rings make more sense.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I suspect that the kind of DM who cares about counting arrows won't allow this kind of feat...

[Kane0]

In that case, a replenishing quiver sounds in order!

[TuggyNE]

btw. makes things like [...] lord of the rings make more sense.

Do you mean the movies, or the books? I don't remember the movies too clearly, but in the books Legolas ran out of arrows several times during Helm's Deep, so clearly the "DM" was of the arrow-counting sort.

[bobthe6th]

It is sort of were game mechanics meet realism. Realistically, arrows take time to make, are semi expensive, and short of a full scale battle(agin cort sized) you try to retrieve every one. Mechanically, it is generally easier to just let the arrow explode on contact and have the archer use a bottomless quiver.

It might be nice to have a feat which makes all arrows retrievable.

[Grod_The_Giant]

It might be nice to have a feat which makes all arrows retrievable.

Yeah, that seems like more of the kind of thing that "count-your-arrows" strict DMs would allow.

[ArkenBrony]

Do you mean the movies, or the books? I don't remember the movies too clearly, but in the books Legolas ran out of arrows several times during Helm's Deep, so clearly the "DM" was of the arrow-counting sort.

in the movie, as far as i can remember, he never ran out of arrows. and in army of darkness, he lasted the entire move with his breat pocket of shotgun shells

[bobthe6th]

He also killed a dire elephant by shooting it in the face(with twice the arrows!!1!1!... note that this had the same amount of force spread over two points of contact.)... the LotR movies are not the best example of realism.

D&D tries to keep some level of realism... but this can get in the way of game balance. Really, giving the archer a quiver of infinite arrows is not game breaking. It does tend to not make a ton of sense realistically.

[ArkenBrony]

you see, i have always viewed D&D as a movie being played out, and most movies have it so that the characters never run out of arrows, unless it is dramatically appropriate, or they are making fun of the genre. so i never worried about ammunition. which i guess means this feat doesn't matter for me so i'll shut up

[lunaramblings]

If you are worried about a DM making you track arrows so precisely, this feat is not likely to see play in that environment. Personally, in my games bolts and arrows do not break, and as long as you are in an enclosed space you can easily retrieve the ammo, outside... Not so much. Maybe make it so that the feat allows you to aim such that you avoid breaking arrows that hit your target?

[Amechra]

This feat kinda came out of an in-joke with myself; I'm aware that in any game where the DM makes you count arrows, they wouldn't allow this feat.

So why do such DMs allow Eschew Material Components?

This is Eschew Material Components for Archers, which removes one of the key problems of archery:

1. Unless you can get your hands on an unlimited quiver, you have to re-buy any magic arrows you use, which gets expensive. Melee gets to buy their one weapon, and of course it getting broken is frowned upon.

2. Archers don't deal very much damage unless they machine-gun their arrows. No snipers for you!

3. Ranged combat is boring; in melee combat, you've at least got Tripping, Grappling, Bull Rushes and the like to mix things up. With archery, unless you spend feats on being sub-optimal at those things, you have "shoot them with arrows" or "shoot them with these different arrows that I bought."

4. It takes more feats than Two Weapon Fighting to be any real good at it. Two Weapon Fighting is already feat-starved.

5. It gets shut down way too easily; there are countless effects that just shut down archery and ranged attacks in general (except for spells, of course)

And the thing is, arguing that "the above 5 things are because they get to fight from a distance, keeping them safe and/or letting them attack flying creatures" is bull, since in you average game of D&D, at least one of the following things is true:

1. That flying creature can cast spells of some sort, making it so they are immune to arrows (pretty much).

2. You're in an underground area; this is one of the weaknesses of mounted combat as well.

3. The enemy has DR, meaning that your reduced damage can't actually, you know, hurt them.