Magic item idea: "the bow of seasons"

[poolio]

Greetings playgrounders, I'm working on a magic bow that you can spend an action (or probably more likely a bonus action) to activate, then for the next minute it takes on a thematic appearance of one of the four seasons as well as gain augmented shots, summer and winter were easy enough, +1d6 fire or ice damage respectively, spring took me a minute but i came up with entanglement to represent "the growth" of spring time, but i just can't think of anything for autumn,

So that brings us to the question, what would you have represent autumn?

Any other impute or ideas regarding this item are fully welcomed and appreciated as well, thanks all!

[VoxRationis]

Necrotic damage? A condition such as charmed or stunned, representing nostalgia or melancholy?

[intregus]

You could do something like +1d6 necrotic since things are dieing in fall but if you do that id rethink spring to make 1d6 of something so it's consistent.

Personally though I like stuff like adding entangle vs a straight damage increase, it's more fun in my opinion.

I'd maybe make it so summer changes the damage type to fire instead of adding damage and adding rider effects like the arrow starts things on fire. Winter changes the damage to cold and reduces movement speed
Autumn changes the damage to necrotic and maybe gives temp up?
Spring the damage is unchanged but you get entangle shot?

It's not super balanced but that's what I got off the top of my head.

Great item idea though! My wife's eladrin will love it....so I'm stealing the idea!

[nickl_2000]

You could do divine damage for spring representing the new growth and then necrotic for Autumn representing the decent into winter/death.

[Kadesh]

Autumn is harvest season so the giving of food/life to people: provide half damage done as healing to all within 5ft of the creature hit 1/round.

[poolio]

You could do something like +1d6 necrotic since things are dieing in fall but if you do that id rethink spring to make 1d6 of something so it's consistent.

Personally though I like stuff like adding entangle vs a straight damage increase, it's more fun in my opinion.

I'd maybe make it so summer changes the damage type to fire instead of adding damage and adding rider effects like the arrow starts things on fire. Winter changes the damage to cold and reduces movement speed
Autumn changes the damage to necrotic and maybe gives temp up?
Spring the damage is unchanged but you get entangle shot?

It's not super balanced but that's what I got off the top of my head.

Great item idea though! My wife's eladrin will love it....so I'm stealing the idea!

Haha please do, and if you remember this thread, I'd love to hear how it went over :)

[poolio]

Some good ideas, i almost immediately came up with adding necrotic and just switching spring to radiant after posting lol i appreciate the comments guys, definitely helps get my wheels turning,

If anyone has any others I'm open to hearing them out.

[Eradis]

As a player, I prefer utility over raw damage. So as a GM I would most likely add effect instead of more damage. Makes you more versatile.

Spring:
A. Damage type unchanged and add entanglement.

Summer:
A. Add the burn effect (I don't recall the damage on this so I'd go more with B).
B. Change the damage type to fire (or radiant) and shots are now heated, meaning you can ignite stuff like oil.

Fall:
A. Damage type change to necrotic and weaken the enemy for X rounds (same enemy couldn't be affected twice by this effect in a single encounter)

Winter:
A. Change damage type to cold and add a freeze/slow effect.

[Schopy]

My two cents, tacking existing spells on to. the seasons:

Spring: Your arrow seems to be blooming with life. If you hit a creature with it, a writhing mass of poison ivy appears at the point of impact, and the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be restrained by the magical vines until the spell ends. A Large or larger creature has advantage on this saving throw. If the target succeeds on the save, the vines shrivel away.

While restrained by this spell, the target takes 1d6 poison damage at the start of each of its turns. A creature restrained by the vines or one that can touch the creature can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC. On a success, the target is freed. (Ensnaring Strike changed to poison)

Summer: Your arrow transforms to a beam of brilliant light and flashes in 60-foot-line. Each creature in the line must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 1d6 radiant damage and is Blinded until your next turn. Undead and oozes have disadvantage on this saving throw. (Mini Sunbeam)

Autumn: Necromantic energy transforms your arrow to a rotten, knotted piece of wood. If you hit your target, moisture and vitality are drained from it. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. The target takes 1d6 necrotic damage on a failed save. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

If you target a plant creature or a magical plant, it makes the saving throw with disadvantage, and the spell deals maximum damage to it. (Mini Blight)

Winter: Your arrow transorms into an icicle. A creature hit by it must pass a Constitution save or take 1d6 cold damage and have disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn. (Frostbite)

[poolio]

My two cents, tacking existing spells on to. the seasons:

Spring: Your arrow seems to be blooming with life. If you hit a creature with it, a writhing mass of poison ivy appears at the point of impact, and the target must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be restrained by the magical vines until the spell ends. A Large or larger creature has advantage on this saving throw. If the target succeeds on the save, the vines shrivel away.

While restrained by this spell, the target takes 1d6 poison damage at the start of each of its turns. A creature restrained by the vines or one that can touch the creature can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC. On a success, the target is freed. (Ensnaring Strike changed to poison)

Summer: Your arrow transforms to a beam of brilliant light and flashes in 60-foot-line. Each creature in the line must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a creature takes 1d6 radiant damage and is Blinded until your next turn. Undead and oozes have disadvantage on this saving throw. (Mini Sunbeam)

Autumn: Necromantic energy transforms your arrow to a rotten, knotted piece of wood. If you hit your target, moisture and vitality are drained from it. The target must make a Constitution saving throw. The target takes 1d6 necrotic damage on a failed save. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

If you target a plant creature or a magical plant, it makes the saving throw with disadvantage, and the spell deals maximum damage to it. (Mini Blight)

Winter: Your arrow transorms into an icicle. A creature hit by it must pass a Constitution save or take 1d6 cold damage and have disadvantage on the next weapon attack roll it makes before the end of its next turn. (Frostbite)

These are pretty good, I'm really going to have to rethink this lol would you have it have charges or maybe last a minute or something?

[Schopy]

These are pretty good, I'm really going to have to rethink this lol would you have it have charges or maybe last a minute or something?

Thanks, charges would work better than timekeeping i think. If you want to reduce the bookkeeping even more you might try: Whenever you have Advantage, your bow resonates with a random season. Roll a d4 to determine which.

If you use charges the user has more control and you can balance the more powerful aspects a bit better. Winter uses one charge, Autumn two, Spring uses two or three (can't decide) and summer maybe three.

[nickl_2000]

Thanks, charges would work better than timekeeping i think. If you want to reduce the bookkeeping even more you might try: Whenever you have Advantage, your bow resonates with a random season. Roll a d4 to determine which.

If you use charges the user has more control and you can balance the more powerful aspects a bit better. Winter uses one charge, Autumn two, Spring uses two or three (can't decide) and summer maybe three.

I wouldn't do the random season. I would have someone choose a season after a long rest and they get that for the rest of the day like the Elderin does. Adding in a d4 roll during combat will just bog it down for no real gain.

[poolio]

I wouldn't do the random season. I would have someone choose a season after a long rest and they get that for the rest of the day like the Elderin does. Adding in a d4 roll during combat will just bog it down for no real gain.

Ahh, yeah random every turn would slow things down, but random for the day would be a fun way to start, I'm now thinking about having it "level" with the user, and starting out it is a random season after a long rest for the day, that just does 1d6 of the appropriate damage summer/fire, spring/radiant, autumn/necrotic, winter/cold, then first "level up" (not sure how long it'll take to power up, might make it a possible side quest) give it a recharging 1d6 to add the damage type to a regular arrow shot and the ability to choose what season it is after the long rest, then for the final form, drop the charges and recharge die to 1d4, and and all the different types of effects to the shots like what was mentioned before,

If i give it sentience It could end up being a major part of the campaign now that i think about it, it wants to return to it's former glory, but needs the wielders help to preform rituals to do so, man this went from a simple "what effect represents fall?" Question to possibly a major part of my game lol just goes to show you never know when or how inspiration might strike, thanks a lot everyone :)

[vicente408]

These ideas are making me imagine a seasonal-themed version of the Arcane Archer as a Ranger subclass.

[Metamorph]

These ideas are making me imagine a seasonal-themed version of the Arcane Archer as a Ranger subclass.

How about Eladrin as a race?

[Wardog]

Necrotic sounds too sinistar for autumn, IMO. Autumn is the season when crops mature, and some plants start to die back. Not the season when everything dies and rots.

What autumn is a season of is increasingly stormy weather. Maybe add some sort of wind effect?

[Crgaston]

Necrotic sounds too sinistar for autumn, IMO. Autumn is the season when crops mature, and some plants start to die back. Not the season when everything dies and rots.

What autumn is a season of is increasingly stormy weather. Maybe add some sort of wind effect?


First, let me say that OP, I love this idea. We definitely need more magic bows in this edition, AND I'm a huge fan of Fey stuff. So, yeah, awesome.

After a Long rest you can chose which aspect the bow manifests. Once per round when you hit a target with an arrow from the bow, one of the following occurs depending on which Aspect you chose.

Spring: normal weapon damage + Ensnaring Strike
Summer: normal weapon damage + Word of Radiance centered on target
Fall: normal weapon damage + Thunderclap centered on target
Winter: normal weapon damage + Frostbite on target.

You could change it to once per combat if that seems too potent by having it recharge when initiative is rolled. The extra damage is paltry and avoidable with a save, so I think 1/round would be ok. The DC could be based on 8+Dex (or casting stat if you prefer) +Prof. Having the effects mostly cantrip based gives you an easy metric for scaling. I don't think Ensnaring Strike needs to scale... at most going to 2d6 at L11 or something similar.

(I just looked up the Oathbow. Once per round is not overpowered)