Firing bow with mage hand 2x?

[pwning doodes]

Hey all,

Somebody mentioned a silly idea with the Mage Hand cantrip and I'm curious if it would work. The claim is that Mage Hand can manipulate objects and apply 10 lbs worth of force, so two casters using Mage Hand could cooperate to fire a bow and arrow. Sounds pretty cool. My only problem is that I'm not sure how much force it takes to fire a bow. I get the feeling that a longbow or composite bow takes more than 10 lbs of tension to fire properly. The other Mage Hand would technically be applying force in the opposite direction just to keep the weapon still, so it would only be 10 and not the combined 20 lbs, I think. You might be able to get away with firing a shortbow, light crossbow, or hand crossbow (though the light crossbow might weigh enough that you'd have to spend some force just keeping it in the air.) Overall a cool idea, but would it work?

[Jerrykhor]

Hey all,

My only problem is that I'm not sure how much force it takes to fire a bow. I get the feeling that a longbow or composite bow takes more than 10 lbs of tension to fire properly.

A quick google reveals that the min draw weight on bow made for deer hunting is 40 pounds.

[Randomthom]

A quick google reveals that the min draw weight on bow made for deer hunting is 40 pounds.

Yep, competitive archery starts at around 30lb draw weights for the younger archers and goes up to around 60lbs for the longer ranges.

English Longbowmen in the middle ages were known to pull upwards of 150lbs to get the range across a battlefield, the deformity is evident on exhumed skeletons.

10lb would get you little more than a toy bow with suction-cup arrows!

[Yora]

The other Mage Hand would technically be applying force in the opposite direction just to keep the weapon still, so it would only be 10 and not the combined 20 lbs, I think.

Whether someone is holding the bow or the bow is fixed to a frame should not make any difference. So I agree with a total pull of 10 pounds as well.

[Boci]

Sounds like longbow is out, probably shortbow too, but crossbows could work. However aiming is a bit of issue. Disadvantage at minimum, and even that still implies aiming that is simply being impared (unless the disadvantage is from blind, but whatever). I'd probably rule its an unmodified attack at disadvantage, giving you a 25% chance to hit a unarmoured, dex 10 target.

[Asmotherion]

i'd be fine with the hand crossbow except mage hand specifies it cannot attack.

[DeTess]

Sounds like longbow is out, probably shortbow too, but crossbows could work. However aiming is a bit of issue. Disadvantage at minimum, and even that still implies aiming that is simply being impared (unless the disadvantage is from blind, but whatever). I'd probably rule its an unmodified attack at disadvantage, giving you a 25% chance to hit a unarmoured, dex 10 target.

That's assuming you've got a cranked crossbow (which took ages to reload, so probably aren't the crossbows in dnd), not one you have to pull by hand (or the mage hand can only fire it once before returning to the caster to have them reload).

[Boci]

That's assuming you've got a cranked crossbow (which took ages to reload, so probably aren't the crossbows in dnd), not one you have to pull by hand (or the mage hand can only fire it once before returning to the caster to have them reload).

Yeah, I was assuming one shot, which is significantly more than the 0 the longbow allows.

[DarkKnightJin]

I'd allow a player the ability for their Mage Hand to give them the next arrow/bolt for thematics and flavor. But Mage Hand cannot be used in the making of attacks.

Absolute most I would allow is for a Mage Hand to pull the trigger on a placed and primed Crossbow, and that'd likely result in a Dex save for the target to avoid it. Pretty much just treat it like the single-use Crossbow Trap they've created.

[Yora]

Mage hand can release the bolt from a crossbow, but can't aim it, I would say.

If for some reason a player wants to have the crosbow hover before his character's face and shot it without touching, I would ask for either a ranged weapon attack roll or a ranged spell attack roll, whichever has the lower modifier.

[Damon_Tor]

I get the feeling that a longbow or composite bow takes more than 10 lbs of tension to fire properly.

Let me put it this way, my 6-year-old fires a bow with a 7-pound draw weight. It can just barely pierce a styrofoam target 20 feet away.

[Boci]

Let me put it this way, my 6-year-old fires a bow with a 7-pound draw weight. It can just barely pierce a styrofoam target 20 feet away.

But that's just 7 pounds. Mage hand brings a whole 3 extra pounds of styrofoam trashing power to the table.