Is this balanced?

[Inevitability]

Going to run a game for a new and pretty young (about 10 years old) player soon, and he said he wanted to play a 'wizard bowman'. I looked through the book and came up with the following item:

Elvish Spellbow
The Elvish Spellbow is a nonmagical longbow with the following properties.
-It can be used as an arcane focus.
-It does not take up a hand for the purpose of somatic components.
-Ranged spells cast through it have the additional material component of a single arrow. Such spells appear to be 'shot' from the bow. For example, a Ray of Frost spell would look like an arrow infused with magic ice, and a Magic Missile spell would look like an arrow of force splitting in several smaller ones.

If I give this to him at first level, will it be balanced? The other players are more experienced, though I may give them a minor item too.

[Magic Myrmidon]

I don't see any way that it could possibly be unbalanced. It's... basically just refluffing the somatic components, which is what I would have suggested in the first place. Sometimes, new mechanics aren't necessary when the idea is purely fluff.

I wouldn't even require the arrow material component, honestly. Just let him create the arrows out of pure magical energy. Really, he could just hold a bow as a wizard and cast spells anyway, since he has a hand free unless he's actively shooting his bow. He'd even be proficient with the bow if he's an elf.

[hawklost]

The only questions I would have is how does it work with:

1) Sneak Attack?
--- Normally, spells cannot be used for SA

2) Multiple Attacks?
--- If a person with 2 (4/8) attacks use the bow, does it count as a weapon attack or a spell cast?
---- The first makes it so a person with 2 attacks potentially gets twice the damage of a Fighter using a bow (8 times the damage if a Fighter with a spell using AS and 4 'cantrip attacks'

3) Does the person get their Dex/(enter mod here) to the spell?

4) Does it work with only attack spells or any spell?

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If all it is is a fluff look that they are casting spells but they want to hold a bow, its perfectly fine in my mind (even cool that the spells look like spell effect arrows). If you allow any of the above to work with it though, it becomes extremely easy to make a multiclass overpowered.

[Submortimer]

Going to run a game for a new and pretty young (about 10 years old) player soon, and he said he wanted to play a 'wizard bowman'. I looked through the book and came up with the following item:

Elvish Spellbow
The Elvish Spellbow is a nonmagical longbow with the following properties.
-It can be used as an arcane focus.
-It does not take up a hand for the purpose of somatic components.
-Ranged spells cast through it have the additional material component of a single arrow. Such spells appear to be 'shot' from the bow. For example, a Ray of Frost spell would look like an arrow infused with magic ice, and a Magic Missile spell would look like an arrow of force splitting in several smaller ones.

If I give this to him at first level, will it be balanced? The other players are more experienced, though I may give them a minor item too.

If you wanted to make it more substantial than just a re-fluffed Arcane Focus, allow him to add the damage of the bow onto the spell, and allow him to substitute the Bows range for the spells range. Then make it an uncommon or rare magic item, require attunement, and boom...magic longbow.

[BRC]

If you wanted to make it more substantial than just a re-fluffed Arcane Focus, allow him to add the damage of the bow onto the spell, and allow him to substitute the Bows range for the spells range. Then make it an uncommon or rare magic item, require attunement, and boom...magic longbow.

That's pretty darn powerful for Level 1.
A refluffed magic focus works just fine for what the player wants.

[Safety Sword]

As long as you're not "shooting" spells to change the range of spells that usually emanate from the caster (eg. Thunderwave) then this is basically a big arcane focus. That's not really a problem, because a staff can be an arcane focus too. I wouldn't require an additional component either.

Other than that it's a refluff and a pretty cool one at that.

[Chaosvii7]

What it should be is a quarterstaff that can be turned into a longbow as a bonus action - the arrows and bowstring being magical constructs that he can turn off and on. The doubling as an arcane focus thing is fine as a quality of the item. Otherwise I don't see it being too terribly overpowered while being more utilitarian - it's three items in one(albeit none very good) and mechanically fills the visual/thematic niche while actually being somewhat impacting on his gameplay. But not overbearingly so, especially considering how often regular wizards really pull out weapons to beat the crap out of stuff.

[Totema]

If you wanted to make it more substantial than just a re-fluffed Arcane Focus, allow him to add the damage of the bow onto the spell, and allow him to substitute the Bows range for the spells range. Then make it an uncommon or rare magic item, require attunement, and boom...magic longbow. In the hands of an experienced player, I'd say such a thing is rather unbalanced at 1st level, but for a new and young player, it's probably fine. Let them have fun with it!

[Inevitability]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll give it to him as it is now.

[ruy343]

Oh, am I too late?

Well, if not, here's another thought:

Have the player take their first level in fighter, and have the player be a high elf (they get a free cantrip). Then, make up a cantrip like this one:

Imbue Arrow (Bonus Action): When you use this cantrip, you infuse an arrow with elemental energy, which you may use to fire at an opponent. You choose the damage type prior to rolling the attack roll. You may imbue additional arrows with energy at 8th and 15th level (though you may use the Extra Attack abilities with non-imbued arrows). Damage is still based on the type of arrow (1d8+dex).

That seems pretty well-balanced, and it gives the theme. At higher levels, suggest that they take the Eldritch Knight path to help them get the hang of spellcasting without making it too hard on them to learn (a 1/3 caster is perfect for someone who's just learning the rules).

[Inevitability]

Oh, am I too late?

Well, if not, here's another thought:

Have the player take their first level in fighter, and have the player be a high elf (they get a free cantrip). Then, make up a cantrip like this one:

Imbue Arrow (Bonus Action): When you use this cantrip, you infuse an arrow with elemental energy, which you may use to fire at an opponent. You choose the damage type prior to rolling the attack roll. You may imbue additional arrows with energy at 8th and 15th level (though you may use the Extra Attack abilities with non-imbued arrows). Damage is still based on the type of arrow (1d8+dex).

That seems pretty well-balanced, and it gives the theme. At higher levels, suggest that they take the Eldritch Knight path to help them get the hang of spellcasting without making it too hard on them to learn (a 1/3 caster is perfect for someone who's just learning the rules).

Problem is the game starts at first level and will most likely not progress beyond 3rd or even 2nd level. I really want to let the player enjoy his character concept from the beginning.