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1Forge
2015-12-20, 09:37 PM
So I like making my games accurate to science and history, and since I've already made bows more realistic in my games I decided to make different arrow types for my homebrew rule book. (the arrows below can be transferred to bolts for crossbows untill I fix them)

Wooden Arrow: Your effective range is halved, when rolling damage againsed armoured opponents (yes even for light armour) you roll damage twice and take the lower. (any stick can be whittled into a wooden arrow)
Hunting arrow: Your range is unaffected, damage is normal on unarmoured and lightly armoured opponents. Roll damage twice on medium and heavily armoured opponents and take the lesser roll.
Broad head:Your range in unaffected, Damage is unaffected for unarmoured, lightly armoured, and mediumly armoured opponents. Roll damage twice on heavily armoured opponents and take the lesser roll.
Bodkin: Range is unaffected, damage is unaffected on medium and heavily armored opponents, roll damage twice and take the lower on lightly armoured opponents.

Feedback would be nice, after all this is only a preliminary suggestion that is so far un tested.

Ninja_Prawn
2015-12-21, 05:13 AM
Hmm. Strikes me as extra bookkeeping for no benefit. Every archer will just carry 50:50 quivers with broadheads and bodkins. If a fighter with 4 shots/round is worried about running out, they'll just carry multiple quivers - the cost is minimal.

Also, how do they interact with natural armour? That's probably the most common usage case

A range of magical arrows would be much more interesting!

1Forge
2015-12-21, 01:40 PM
Hmm. Strikes me as extra bookkeeping for no benefit. Every archer will just carry 50:50 quivers with broadheads and bodkins. If a fighter with 4 shots/round is worried about running out, they'll just carry multiple quivers - the cost is minimal.

Also, how do they interact with natural armour? That's probably the most common usage case

A range of magical arrows would be much more interesting!

hmm so maybe I should offer a benefit instead of a disadvantage? Maybe bodkins would have damage "advantage" on some opponents. that would encourage people to acquire more powerful weaponry. As for the magic arrows I figure enough people make them in homebrew forums and If i use this in a historical game magic would be off limits.

Spiryt
2015-12-21, 02:10 PM
Yeah, the idea seems fine enough, but it needs work.

Absolutely no reason to ever carry hunting arrows, really.... Even for hunting.

Broad arrows do the same, but also against 'Medium armor'.

manny2510
2015-12-21, 03:04 PM
Arrows should be graded against AC. Better arrows deal full damage against better AC because they have quality material.

Ninja_Prawn
2015-12-21, 03:18 PM
Arrows should be graded against AC. Better arrows deal full damage against better AC because they have quality material.

...but what's the point? If you're going to do this to arrows, you should do it to all other weapons too, or it becomes a nerf.

And then, if that's the length to which you need to go to retain immersion, each kind of armour will need to have different AC values against different types of attacks... different weapon materials will need to have different properties... basically, you want to play Dwarf Fortress, but with a human being crunching all the numbers. I just don't see the point.

lsfreak
2015-12-21, 03:22 PM
I'd also add that, at least with just this, it's inappropriately specific compared to the rest of the system. D&D glosses over the differences in effectiveness of e.g. mail versus scale versus plate against different kinds of weapons, and adding a similar distinction just to arrows seems inappropriate. The way armor works in D&D, just making you harder to hit, also just isn't very conducive to making those distinctions. Once you start bringing historicity into it, you have further problems with things like arrows of *any* kind generally being ineffective against metal armors, unless they hit an unarmored part of the body, and that armors were used in combination (e.g. scale over mail over padded armor, or two mail hauberks layered on top of each other over padded armor, or laminar ["splint"] over a coat of plates [scale probably closest] over padded armor).

1Forge
2015-12-21, 03:45 PM
I'd also add that, at least with just this, it's inappropriately specific compared to the rest of the system. D&D glosses over the differences in effectiveness of e.g. mail versus scale versus plate against different kinds of weapons, and adding a similar distinction just to arrows seems inappropriate. The way armor works in D&D, just making you harder to hit, also just isn't very conducive to making those distinctions. Once you start bringing historicity into it, you have further problems with things like arrows of *any* kind generally being ineffective against metal armors, unless they hit an unarmored part of the body, and that armors were used in combination (e.g. scale over mail over padded armor, or two mail hauberks layered on top of each other over padded armor, or laminar ["splint"] over a coat of plates [scale probably closest] over padded armor).

I get the point...so maybe just add in the wooden arrow shaped things (for when they need arrows badly) and give bodkin arrows a small bonus to hit? all other arrows would just be the standard...does that seem fair?

Submortimer
2015-12-21, 05:34 PM
I get the point...so maybe just add in the wooden arrow shaped things (for when they need arrows badly) and give bodkin arrows a small bonus to hit? all other arrows would just be the standard...does that seem fair?

If you want to, you can, but here's how I would do it: pick the best one, and make that the "Standard" PHB arrow. Call it a broadhead or whatever. any other types of arrows have minor negatives to them, as you described, but do not require the same sort of cost or skill to make as proper arrows. Then stick the players in a situation where their ammo count actually matters (Lost on a desert island, in the jungle, in a mysterious forest), because the players will NEVER use lesser arrows if a better version exists.

1Forge
2015-12-21, 09:50 PM
If you want to, you can, but here's how I would do it: pick the best one, and make that the "Standard" PHB arrow. Call it a broadhead or whatever. any other types of arrows have minor negatives to them, as you described, but do not require the same sort of cost or skill to make as proper arrows. Then stick the players in a situation where their ammo count actually matters (Lost on a desert island, in the jungle, in a mysterious forest), because the players will NEVER use lesser arrows if a better version exists.

yeah well I'm trying to make a pdf for all my homebrew games for most any situation. And currently we sometimes have situations that they have to make improvised weapons, and the regular improvised weapon rules dont feel like enough in some situations.