What goes boom?

[poolio]

Greetings, so I've come up with with a glass tipped crossbow bolt design that would alow for the shooting of special bolts, and I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any liquids or chemicals/components that would explode on impact? I'm a little hesitant to google "Explosive material" or "ways to make bombs" lol:smalltongue:

[Safety Sword]

Greetings, so I've come up with with a glass tipped crossbow bolt design that would alow for the shooting of special bolts, and I'm wondering if anyone here knows of any liquids or chemicals/components that would explode on impact? I'm a little hesitant to google "Explosive material" or "ways to make bombs" lol:smalltongue:

Sensible soul.

The answer is "Whatever the DM says can". With access to (presumably) medieval levels of science you would have trouble classifying many materials and less of refining a useful contact explosive.

Your best bet is maybe the poop of a firebat or a gland of a fire breathing creature so that there's an in-game reason for it to work. This way the DM can make it a quest and you have an instant hook.

"I'm out of ammo! Quick! Onward to the cave of firebat poop!"

[poolio]

Sensible soul.

The answer is "Whatever the DM says can". With access to (presumably) medieval levels of science you would have trouble classifying many materials and less of refining a useful contact explosive.

Your best bet is maybe the poop of a firebat or a gland of a fire breathing creature so that there's an in-game reason for it to work. This way the DM can make it a quest and you have an instant hook.

"I'm out of ammo! Quick! Onward to the cave of firebat poop!"

Haha well i do intend to utilize in-game components, I'm interested in learning about common real world things to use, if i come at the dm with actual knowledge of such things he's usually more open for these sort of ideas :smallsmile:

[Elminster298]

Haha well i do intend to utilize in-game components, I'm interested in learning about common real world things to use, if i come at the dm with actual knowledge of such things he's usually more open for these sort of ideas :smallsmile:

Look up Nitrogen Triiodide. I believe that is exactly what you are looking for.

[AttilatheYeon]

Charcoal, salt peter, sulfure dioxide, ammonia,...

[NNescio]

Look up Nitrogen Triiodide. I believe that is exactly what you are looking for.

That thing is almost impossible to handle. The shock of launching the bolt will set it off, assuming it doesn't even explode in your bolt case first when you're moving around.

Heck, dropping a feather or a gentle breeze (including blowing on it) can set NI3 off. Or alpha radiation, really.

You want a shock-sensitive explosive, use something like the fulminates instead, which were also known to alchemists. Mercury fulminate (or under its older name "fulminating quicksilver") would be the most stable for most applciations.


Charcoal, salt peter, sulfure dioxide, ammonia,...

Congratz, you just made a wet powder mixture that can't burn and stinks to high heaven of pee, assuming you're using ammonia solution (I don't even know how you're going to handle sulfur dioxide and ammonia gas, and they do barely anything to the solid mixture anyway, other than making it stink and becoming less stable and reliable).

Gunpowder uses charcoal, potassium nitrate (saltpeter) and sulfur (NOT sulfur dioxide, which is a gas). Guano can itself be used as a source for saltpeter. You'll notice that these form the material components for Fireball.

An explosive charge is best made (without access to modern technology) by using a gunpowder charge set off by a small amount of fulminating quicksilver (or fulminating silver) as the primer on impact.

[poolio]

Thanks guys, I'm sure i can figure some stuff out with some of these things, if nithing else it at least gives me something more specific to look up, if anyone else has any ideas or knowledge to share, by all means keep it coming, it's interesting to learn more about these sort of things, the pyro in me is having a blast, sorry couldn't resist :smalltongue:

[CursedRhubarb]

Look up Nitrogen Triiodide. I believe that is exactly what you are looking for.

Bah! I saw the title and that's exactly what I thought of! 😸

[Ninja_Prawn]

With access to (presumably) medieval levels of science you would have trouble classifying many materials and less of refining a useful contact explosive.

I'd be inclined to look for a 'fantasy' answer too, as opposed to a 'medieval' one.

Does the OP's party include an alchemist? I'm sure they'd be able to prepare a contact explosive. Maybe using exotic ingredients like elemental fire...? As an aside, I'm currently working on a major homebrew alchemy supplement, so if anyone has any thoughts on how rare/expensive this sort of thing should be, I'd be interested to hear them.

[CursedRhubarb]

Another thing you could try is Caesium. It explodes on contact with water and even on contact with air. Even a tiny bit makes a big bang.

You could do a vial with it for the bolt tip or a special vial that's split with half water and half Caesium so when it impacts it's guaranteed to go boom.

Would be exspensive though and whatever you do, Do. Not. Fall. Down.

[NNescio]

I'd be inclined to look for a 'fantasy' answer too, as opposed to a 'medieval' one.

Does the OP's party include an alchemist? I'm sure they'd be able to prepare a contact explosive. Maybe using exotic ingredients like elemental fire...? As an aside, I'm currently working on a major homebrew alchemy supplement, so if anyone has any thoughts on how rare/expensive this sort of thing should be, I'd be interested to hear them.

Fulminating silver/gold/quicksilver were actually prepared by alchemists in the real world. Fulminating gold in particular is the oldest primary explosive (and also very expensive, as it is made out of gold), prepared accidentally when alchemists wre fooling around with dissolving gold and adding various salts, spirit of hartshorn (read: ammonia solution) and aqua vitae (read: ethanol) to the solution.

Really, you can import a lot of chemical compounds wholescale into fantasy series so long as you take care to use the historical alchemical names to keep the fluff consistent.


Another thing you could try is Caesium. It explodes on contact with water and even on contact with air. Even a tiny bit makes a big bang.

You could do a vial with it for the bolt tip or a special vial that's split with half water and half Caesium so when it impacts it's guaranteed to go boom.

Would be exspensive though and whatever you do, Do. Not. Fall. Down.

Good luck extracting caesium/sodium/potassium any alkali metal without the modern tech needed to electrolyze molten salts.

[Afrodactyl]

Looking in the PHB, you could use a small vial of alchemist's fire secured to a bolt.

[MrStabby]

Well xenon hexafluoride would also work - but good luck making that. Good luck surviving it.

[NNescio]

Well xenon hexafluoride would also work - but good luck making that. Good luck surviving it.

XeF6 isn't explosive. Sure, it's a very strong oxidizing agent and reacts violently with water (to form XeO3, which is explosive), but the compound itself isn't. It also attacks glass, so good luck storing this compound without access to Teflon.

And geez, what's with the fetish on exotic chemical compounds that require modern tech and pure elements (including those in the gaseous state) to synthesize? And most of them aren't useful as explosives anyway due to their instability and the sheer impracticality of handling them, especially for an adventurer who doesn't exactly have the luxury to wear shock-dampening harnesses all over the place.

[MrStabby]

XeF6 isn't explosive. Sure, it's a very strong oxidizing agent and reacts violently with water (to form XeO3, which is explosive), but the compound itself isn't.

And geez, what's with the fetish on exotic chemical compounds that require modern tech and pure elements (including those in the gaseous state) to synthesize? And most of them aren't useful as explosives anyway due to their instability and the sheer impracticality of handling them, especially for an adventurer who doesn't exactly have the luxury to wear shock-dampening harnesses all over the place.

I think that's the point though. Unless you stabilise things - like dynamite vs nitroglycerine, you are going to have a really bad time with this.

The whole, look for inspiration for fun things to shoot at people and will make the game exciting, type approach does require something more exotic.

Perfect, percussion explosives that can be stabilised and are actually used in the world are used because they are effective, not because they are fun. Also, if you need something set of by a crossbow bolt impacting into someones flesh, you may need something a bit less stable than if you were to set it off by hitting it with a hammer.

[NNescio]

I think that's the point though. Unless you stabilise things - like dynamite vs nitroglycerine, you are going to have a really bad time with this.

The whole, look for inspiration for fun things to shoot at people and will make the game exciting, type approach does require something more exotic.

Perfect, percussion explosives that can be stabilised and are actually used in the world are used because they are effective, not because they are fun. Also, if you need something set of by a crossbow bolt impacting into someones flesh, you may need something a bit less stable than if you were to set it off by hitting it with a hammer.


A fulminate charge is shock-sensitive enough to prime a black powder payload, really. It's the same stuff they use in Christmas crackers and bang snaps (these contain silver fulminate impregnated paper and pebbles, respectively). The bang snaps go off even if you throw them at people, so a bolt impact will definitely set them off.

And well, a BOOM is a BOOM. BOOMs from exotic explosives don't really have much difference compared to the more reliable ones, except for the whole "more liable to blow up in your face" part.

[CursedRhubarb]

Good luck extracting caesium/sodium/potassium any alkali metal without the modern tech needed to electrolyze molten salts.

I'm sure there's a crazy wizard/sorcerer/warlock somewhere that would be nuts enough to try, using mage hand so they can keep a distance. Just because the world has the "midevil" flair doesn't mean it's only limited to such time period tech. Magic makes a lot of things possible or easier and they have clockwork so at least gnomes have some advanced knowledge. Also who knows just what secrets those sneaky elves have for alchemy?

[JackPhoenix]

I'm sure there's a crazy wizard/sorcerer/warlock somewhere that would be nuts enough to try, using mage hand so they can keep a distance. Just because the world has the "midevil" flair doesn't mean it's only limited to such time period tech. Magic makes a lot of things possible or easier and they have clockwork so at least gnomes have some advanced knowledge. Also who knows just what secrets those sneaky elves have for alchemy?

Well, we're talking about setting where table of elements has 4 entries, air, earth, fire and water. Magic is cheating and has nothing to do with real world physics or chemistry: if you have access to D&D magic and want to make something explode, you can, and it doesn't matter how reactive or explosive the material is.

[Shining Wrath]

Chemistry is not allowed at my table after the Conjurer conjured 10 pounds of pure sodium into a kettle of water. :smallsmile: There's lots of hypergolic propellants out there, like hydrazine and nitrogen tetraoxide, but they are hardly fantasy world standards.

You'll need to talk to your DM. If I'm presented with this idea, I'm not going to give you a very big explosion and it's going to cost you gold. Something along the lines of lantern oil and a small magical fire source.

[CursedRhubarb]

You'll need to talk to your DM. If I'm presented with this idea, I'm not going to give you a very big explosion and it's going to cost you gold. Something along the lines of lantern oil and a small magical fire source.

Oil is fun. DM gave be fireball damage a game ago for making a barrel bomb by filling a barrel with oil and using hemp rope (oil soaked) as a fuse. Cost a pretty copper for the materials but mainly needed to unload some weight since I tend to be a packrat and 8 Str is terrible for that. figured it would be a good bang for the buck but was also like 50-80 lbs of weight I got rid of 😁

[Sir cryosin]

Ok I've done the glass arrow tip with Alchemist fire, poisons, and oils. Then I got creative and told my DM that was and weighted a arrow then got bamboo hollowed it completely out. Designed a special arrow head that's works like a pressure plate with a flint and steel. Then I would but a explosive mixture of blackpowder in to the hollowed out bamboo and make sure it was the same weight as my other arrow. And I had a small explosive arrow. Then I made ceramic grenades that I launched from a big slingshot not trebuchet size it was like a crossbow.

[Daishain]

A mixture of mercury, nitric acid, and ethyl alcohol can be heated to produce mercury fulminate, a crystalline compound that detonates on impact or significant heat. All three ingredients were available in a medieval era society (the first two were often known as quicksilver and aqua fortis).

Nitrostarch, a rather stable explosive detonated via flame source, can be made using some manner of starch, nitric acid, and oil of vitriol (sulfuric acid). Not suitable for your arrows by default, but it could be placed with a quantity of alchemist's fire in a separate glass chamber.

and then of course oil of vitriol and aqua fortis can be used to produce nitroglycerine, but if your character is mad enough to mess around with that, go do it in his own private dimension. nitroglycerine can then be mixed with sawdust to produce dynamite.

Thermite is also a possibility. Not truly an explosive, but rather a fuel source that produces incredible heat (around 2,200 C, more than hot enough to melt rock). Its a simple mixture of iron oxide(rust) and aluminum dust. Now, aluminum did NOT exist in pure form in medieval times, however it was speculated that said metal formed the base of alum, and alchemists of the time simply lacked the means of separating it out. Magic provides the the tools they lacked, so aluminum may in theory be valid.

[Foxhound438]

I'd have to agree on the alchemist's fire/acid vial plan. It's a lot simpler to put into a game than "my 10 int character mixes these exotic chemicals together for no reason"

[CursedRhubarb]

Then I made ceramic grenades that I launched from a big slingshot not trebuchet size it was like a crossbow.

You familiar with the Malazan Empire book series by Steven Erikson? (Great read but very long) fantasy setting much like D&D world. There's a race that wears armor made from bugs that use clay grenades that are alchemical mixtures that detonate on contact with air. Several sizes of them with the small ones doing decent but light damage (firebolt) bigger ones giving huge booms (like a fireball) but the big ones are so heavy and about cantaloupe sized so the farthest they can be thrown is well within the blast radius. The bug guys fly around on giant insects and drop them on people but the main characters had made an oversized crossbow to specifically launch them.

Thank you for reminding me of it, I really need to read that series again.

[Oramac]

Y'all are thinking WAAAAAY too hard about this.

OP: you can buy Tannerite at Bass Pro Shops (http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10151&searchTerm=exploding+target&langId=-1&catalogId=10051). If you've ever watched FPS Russia's youtube channel, this is what he uses to get all those big explosions when he shoots stuff.

It's basically just aluminum powder and ammonium nitrate. Stick that in the arrowhead and you've got your exploding arrow.

CYA DISCLAIMER: do not try to make it yourself!

[Socratov]

I'd try essence of gnome and essence of goblin. both should be volatile enough.

[EvilAnagram]

Hello, NSA! Don't mind us!

[Oramac]

Hello, NSA! Don't mind us!

Nothing we're talking about is illegal. Or, at least, it's not illegal where I live.

DISCLAIMER: Check your local laws! :P

[Shining Wrath]

Oooo! Oooo! Oooo!

Greek Fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire).

Forget your pitiful crossbow bolts. Strap a barrel to your back with a siphon, and you have invented the flamethrower.

May I suggest the extra weight of an iron barrel is probably worth it?

[Socratov]

Also, quicklime (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_oxide), should do, especially when you have a create water/shape water caster nearby. no boom, but definitely nasty as it reacts violently, suddenly and all over the place.

[famousringo]

Does it have to be a boom?

A capsule of hydrochloric acid or white phosphorus would be an awfully nasty thing to shoot somebody with.

Then again, adventuring with a bag of fragile ampules of caustic or spontaneously combustive material would be more dangerous than handling poison, IMO. At least the poison needs to get into your body somehow before it does its nasty business.

[Socratov]

Does it have to be a boom?

A capsule of hydrochloric acid or white phosphorus would be an awfully nasty thing to shoot somebody with.

Then again, adventuring with a bag of fragile ampules of caustic or spontaneously combustive material would be more dangerous than handling poison, IMO. At least the poison needs to get into your body somehow before it does its nasty business.

this might be why the DM is allowing it.

[EvilAnagram]

Nothing we're talking about is illegal. Or, at least, it's not illegal where I live.

DISCLAIMER: Check your local laws! :P

PRISM scoops it up anyways.

[Oramac]

Does it have to be a boom?

A capsule of hydrochloric acid or white phosphorus would be an awfully nasty thing to shoot somebody with.

Then again, adventuring with a bag of fragile ampules of caustic or spontaneously combustive material would be more dangerous than handling poison, IMO. At least the poison needs to get into your body somehow before it does its nasty business.

Thus why I suggested Tannerite. It doesn't go boom unless hit with something traveling very fast (in modern times, a bullet).

Fluffing it to work with an arrow traveling around 225 fps wouldn't be too hard.

[Maxilian]

Sensible soul.

The answer is "Whatever the DM says can". With access to (presumably) medieval levels of science you would have trouble classifying many materials and less of refining a useful contact explosive.

Your best bet is maybe the poop of a firebat or a gland of a fire breathing creature so that there's an in-game reason for it to work. This way the DM can make it a quest and you have an instant hook.

"I'm out of ammo! Quick! Onward to the cave of firebat poop!"

Actually... we have somthing on the PHB, Alchemist Fire, it says that as soon as the fluid inside gets in contact with air, it explodes

[Bohandas]

Aqua fortis and oil of vitriol mixed together

[Bohandas]

PRISM scoops it up anyways.

"Concealed within his fortress, the lord of Mordor sees all. His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. You know of what I speak, a great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame."

[NNescio]

Aqua fortis and oil of vitriol mixed together

That's just the standard nitration mix, and it won't form explosives unless you add a third ingredient (e.g. glycerin, toluene, acetone, cellulose, etc.)

[Daishain]

Actually... we have somthing on the PHB, Alchemist Fire, it says that as soon as the fluid inside gets in contact with air, it explodes
Yeah... and on a hit it causes a 1d4 single target DOT, endable by a DC10 save. That effect might be worthy as a cantrip if it doesn't stack with itself, or a L1 spell if it does, if only because it might prompt a particularly stupid enemy to spend an action extinguishing.

But its not a cantrip or spell you can cast for free on at least a daily basis, its an alchemical item that you pay 50 GP a pop. I kind of want more bang for my buck, and I suspect the OP is of the same opinion. Especially since I can largely duplicate the effect with oil flasks (1 sp apiece), if I really need ongoing fire damage.

Now, as the ignition component for a more potent explosive, it might actually become worth that price.

[Bohandas]

That's just the standard nitration mix, and it won't form explosives unless you add a third ingredient (e.g. glycerin, toluene, acetone, cellulose, etc.)

Dang, you're right, I forgot the glycerine.

Bloody poorly worded wikipedia articles grumble grumble....