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Phoenix042
2017-03-26, 12:54 PM
So this is a homebrew bow I've made for a ranger in one of my games.

Bow of the Falling Star
Weapon (longbow), very rare

This celestial longbow is made of a single shaped piece of flexible glass, but weighs only one pound. The bow is almost completely an opaque blue-black color except for the bowstring, which is made of silver wire.
Fine points of light occasionally streak across the surface of the bow, like falling stars across the sky. On a clear night, it is possible to notice that these lights mirror actual falling stars in the sky above.
The handle guard is spiked, and the spikes glow faintly when fiends, undead, or aberrations are within 120ft.
While wielding this Bow, you can speak the following words in celestial to activate the corresponding power:

Beacon
Whenever you fire an arrow from this bow, you can whisper this command word and cause the arrow to shine with pale blue light. The arrow emits bright light out to 10ft and dim light 10ft beyond that. The light fades one minute later or when you use this power again.

Starfire
As an action, you can whisper this command word and fire a single silvered arrow at a point within range. When it reaches that point, the arrow bursts into harmless silver flame in a 20ft radius, burning away all illusions and magical darkness in the area and clinging to anything it touches for one round, emitting dim light in a 10ft radius. Until the end of your next turn, attack rolls against affected creatures have advantage, and those creatures cannot be hidden by magic.
Once you have used this power, you cannot do so again until the next dawn.

Lodestar
Under a clear night sky, you can perform a ritual to guide you to any place that could be seen from the heavens above. The ritual takes 10 minutes, during which you must carefully etch a description of your desired destination into the shaft of a silvered arrow. Afterwards, you fire the arrow skyward and whisper this command word. The arrow shines like a star and hangs high in the sky above your target place, remaining there until you reach it. If you lose track of the arrows light, you can instinctively find it again by studying the clear night sky for a few minutes.
You cannot use this power again until you have reached the place marked by this ritual.



Hopefully the theme comes across without me needing to clarify.

What do you think? What do you like? What could use some work, or even a rethink?

pwykersotz
2017-03-26, 01:23 PM
I'm gonna be honest, I read the title and thought you were talking about an awesomely named boat. :smalltongue:

Great bow. It's pretty powerful, but it's beautifully described and I don't think it will be breaking anything. I would include it in my own game without hesitation.

Couple questions:
Can the lodestar be seen during the day?
I have mixed feelings about this question. On the one hand, a star shining during the day is pretty neat, on the other hand, this bow has a stealth/night vibe that would be a shame to interrupt.

Is there a way to cancel the lodestar partway through?
I would allow the wielder to either cancel the lodestar by spending a minute focusing and then have this usable again at the next dawn, or else if another lodestar is fired, to cancel the first automatically.

Can lodestar be seen by other people?
I would guess yes, but it wasn't overtly clear to me in the description.

Is there a limit to the illusions that Starfire burns away?
Is there a certain power or scope that are beyond it? For example, would it interrupt the Weird spell?

Phoenix042
2017-03-26, 06:15 PM
I'm gonna be honest, I read the title and thought you were talking about an awesomely named boat. :smalltongue:

Sorry to disappoint! The "Falling Star" would actually be a pretty cool name for a boat.



Great bow. It's pretty powerful, but it's beautifully described and I don't think it will be breaking anything. I would include it in my own game without hesitation.

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback, I put a lot of effort into my descriptions mostly for my own benefit, since my players are unlikely to pay much attention until I get to the part about what it does.



Couple questions:
Can the lodestar be seen during the day?
I have mixed feelings about this question. On the one hand, a star shining during the day is pretty neat, on the other hand, this bow has a stealth/night vibe that would be a shame to interrupt.

I'm thinking it can't be seen during the day, or on a cloudy night. When designing Lodestar, I was aiming for a power that felt like the stars were guiding you in your travels somehow. I'm not sure I hit exactly what I want with this... Any suggestions for rethinking it?



Is there a way to cancel the lodestar partway through?
I would allow the wielder to either cancel the lodestar by spending a minute focusing and then have this usable again at the next dawn, or else if another lodestar is fired, to cancel the first automatically.

I liked the idea of NOT having a way out, as that sort of limits it somewhat and potentially creates side-quests just for "getting the power back." It prevents using it as a sort of info-gathering technique; you can't just check where some place is unless you intend to go there, or you lose the power until you do. I also like the idea that it sort of gives you an easy out if your destination is really close by. If it turns out to be just over a nearby hill, you could potentially use it again and start towards a new destination without waiting a day for it to recharge.

Its sort of like you're declaring your intention to go to said place, and the heavens guide you in your quest.
But then again, I'm unsure about the whole thing, so...



Can lodestar be seen by other people?
I would guess yes, but it wasn't overtly clear to me in the description.

Yes, but the bows magic draws your attention intuitively to the lodestar. In fact, if you had one up and someone else picked up the bow, they'd start noticing the star and feeling drawn towards it while they held the bow.



Is there a limit to the illusions that Starfire burns away?
Is there a certain power or scope that are beyond it? For example, would it interrupt the Weird spell?

I'm thinking no limit, but Weird and similar illusions are a strange case because they happen inside the creatures head, not out in the world (as is the case with images and the like).

I'm thinking it still dispels even those illusions, but I'm not sure weird in particular will ever come up. The various image spells probably all will.

What do you think?