I have always been of the "magic arrows are a bad buy" school of thought. I go through them too fast. 50 bane arrows for 8000 GP are gone in 12-13 rounds for a mid-level archer. Sure if you are creating higher level characters for one-shots then they are great, but characters you actually play level by level under the normal rules? I'd go through 8,000 to 10,000 GP worth of magic arrows in a single GOOD session, and would be really lucky that back.

Of course my archer character is a Living Greyhawk character and their XP/GP system only gives you ROUGHLY 1/3rd the XP and GP that the core rules would give you, so that would make magic arrows even a worse buy under that system. Mine has a 40 percent XP/GP penalty as well. So If I was using magic arrows I would burn 33 of them in a short adventure (3 round combats, hasted on 2nd and 3rd round, but not the first round because I usually always beat the casters on init). That would cost me 5280 GP and I would only get like 567 GP for the session.

Quote Originally Posted by Draz74 View Post
Those archers are missing out on one of the primary advantages of archers: the ability to split weapon costs on bows and arrows, allowing more flexibility at less cost than a single weapon would offer.

If you have 72000 gp to spend on ranged weapons, you could get a +1 Seeking Flaming Longbow of Speed. Or you could get a +1 Longbow of Speed, and 100 magic arrows equipped with all kinds of +2-equivalent powers. Like 50 Bane arrows, for all different types of foes, each with a elemental +1d6 damage property added for extra punch; and another 50 arrows that are Seeking/Distance (when you just really need an amazing shot), Holy, Flaming Burst and other "bursts," etc. And you still have 4000 extra gold left over too.

Yay archer ammo flexibility.