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    Default Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    This is a result of the Refactoring ToB archery thread which is itself an outgrowth of the Age of Warriors thread. It is a remix of Fax's Falling Star and I_got_this_name's True Arrow with additions by DracoDei and myself. You do not need to know any of those threads to evaluate this discipline.

    Iron Rain
    You say "surrounded and outnumbered". I say "blessed with a target-rich environment".

    Iron Rain is the archery school of speed, of sending arrows to blot out the sun. It is also the school of battle against armies. A single adept can stop a massed force if given a high and isolated place to shoot from, and if he becomes caught in melee he is not entirely helpless.

    Key Skill: Spot
    Weapons: Bows, Throwing Knives, Javelins, Repeating Crossbows
    Classes: Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade, Eaglewing Striker, Spirit Archer, Thousand-Arrow Archer, Pragmatist

    level 1
    Archer's Evasion Boost - Avoid attacks of opportunity for movement
    Soft Targetting Stance - Negate DR by Spot

    level 2
    Multiple Shot Boost - gain extra attack at BAB; take -2 penalty to BAB
    Opportunist's Shot Counter - Take a ranged attack of opportunity
    Dummy Shot Counter - make feint against opponent to gain temporary AC

    level 3
    Flanking Shot strike - Cause target to be flanked
    Ride the Storm Stance - Avoid most negative effects of wind
    Caltrop Arrows Counter - Impede an enemy's advance by putting arrowheads in front of his feat

    level 4
    Trick Shot Counter - make immediate disarm attempt against attacker
    Alarming Alacrity Boost - Make an additional attack
    Full Quiver Stance - Never run out of arrows

    level 5
    Strafe Stance - gain the ability to deal more damage when you move
    Quicker than the Eye Strike - Attack ignores enemy's dexterity
    Defense of the Iron Rain Stance - Provoke no attacks of opportunity for ranged attacks

    level 6
    Always Ready Counter - make a single ranged attack as an imediate action
    Hit the crowd Strike - target a block of creatures as if they were one
    Covering Fire Strike - Fill an area with arrows; automatically hit anyone that enters.

    level 7
    Hail of Arrows Strike - make full attack; gain three extra attacks
    Intercepting Arrow Kata Stance - Block incoming arrows by shooting them with your own

    level 8
    Storm of Arrows Strike - shoot a number of arrows equal to your dexterity modifier at your full attack bonus
    Supreme Efficiency Stance - reduce the penalty for iterative attacks to 3

    level 9
    Cyclone of Arrows Strike - shoot every enemy within one range increment


    Details:
    Spoiler
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    Alarming Alacrity
    Iron Rain (Boost)
    Level: 4
    Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: End of Turn

    In a quick, practiced motion, you loose arrows with a speed far beyond a conventional archer.

    In a round in which you initiate this boost, you may make an additional attack as part of a full attack.

    Archer's Evasion
    Iron Rain (Boost)
    Level: 1
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: End of Turn

    You time your movements and nimbly dodge out of harm's way.

    You may only initiate this boost when threatened in melee by an enemy. Once you initiate it, you are not subject to attacks of opportunity caused by movement for the remainder of your turn. You may initiate this boost in the middle of a move.

    Always Ready
    Iron Rain (Counter)
    Level: 6
    Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
    Target: One Creature

    When someone displeases you in any way, you may make a single ranged attack against them at your full bonus. The most common use of this is to disrupt spellcasters (who would then need to make a concentration check against the damage) but many other uses are possible.

    Caltrop Arrows
    Iron Rain (Counter)
    Level: 3
    Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver
    Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
    Range: See below
    Target: One Creature

    As an enemy advances on you, you throw a handful of arrowheads at his feet.

    You may initiate this maneuver whenever an enemy approaches you and gets closer than twice your natural reach (10' for a medium or small character). You may drop caltrops in the area that the enemy approaches through as an immediate action. These caltrops attack at your attack bonus, and do an amount of damage equal to your initiator level; they become normal caltrops, however, after this one attack. If you do not have caltrops, you may use five arrows or bolts to the same effect.


    Covering Fire
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 6
    Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 full round action
    Range: 1 range increment
    Target: See text
    Duration: One round

    You fill a space with arrows, so that no sane attacker would enter it.

    Draw a line away from yourself in any direction for a distance less than or equal to the range increment of your weapon. Those squares the line passes through are effected. All effected squares must be empty when you begin the maneuver. Any creature entering an effected square is automatically struck by three of your arrows (roll damage normally).


    Cyclone of Arrows
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 9
    Prerequisite: Four Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 full action
    Range: 1 Range increment
    Target: Many opponents

    You fire an arrow at every opponent within 1 range increment. All attacks are at your full bonus. Swarms are instantly destroyed, even if they are normally immune to weapon damage.

    Defense of the Swift Arrow
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 5
    Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: Stance

    Dodging your enemies attacks, you aim with a bow that exists only in your mind. You feel an arrow fit to the string of your real bow, and bring it to bear in a pause as your assailant recovers, matching the imagined one perfectly for a single shot, too fast to interrupt.

    While in this stance, you are not subject to attacks of opportunity provoked for making a ranged attack while threatened.


    Dummy Shot
    Iron Rain (Counter)
    Level: 2
    Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
    Range: Melee attack
    Target: Attacking creature
    Duration: Instantaneous

    As an immediate action, you may feint against a creature attacking you. Roll your Bluff against his opposed Sense Motive. For each two points you beat his check by, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to your armor class against that attack.


    Flanking Shot
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 2
    Initiation Action: 1 standard action
    Range: Weapon range
    Target: One opponent
    Duration: Instantaneous

    Make a single normal ranged attack. If the attack hits, the target counts as flanked for the next round as if you were standing in the square next to him which is closest to yourself.

    Full Quiver
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 4
    Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: Stance

    I stopped bothering to count my ammunition. Less work this way. Plus it means I never run out.

    When you draw an ordinary arrow from your quiver in this stance, you may choose not to decrease the number of arrows remaining in your quiver. Arrows drawn this way must be fired immediately, or you drop them and they get lost somewhere they will never be found. You must have at least one ordinary arrow in your quiver to draw. You cannot draw magical or alchemical arrows this way, but you can draw them normally while in the stance. You can use this stance with javelins or throwing knives, so long as you keep them in a quiver or similar container.

    This stance is a supernatural effect.

    Hail of Arrows
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 7
    Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 full-round action
    Range: Weapon range
    Target: One or more opponents
    Duration: Instantaneous

    You make a ranged full-attack as part of this maneuver. After your attack, you also make an additional three attacks: the first at your highest attack bonus, the second a five lower than the first, and the third at ten lower than the first. All attacks you make during this round, including the extra attacks granted by this maneuver, are made with a -2 penalty.


    Hit the Crowd
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 6
    Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: See text
    Range: Weapon range
    Target: a contiguous block of opponents
    Duration: Instantaneous

    Make a standard or full attack against a contiguous block of adjacent targets. Targets within 5 feet of eachother are considered adjacent. Gain +5 to the attack roll for each target in the group, but roll randomly to determine which target each arrow attacks

    Intercepting Arrow Kata
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 7
    Prerequisites: 3

    When you are in this stance, and a ranged attack comes within 30 ft of you, you may attempt to shoot down the attack in flight. Before the attacker rolls, declare that you are attempting this. Make opposed attack rolls. If yours is higher by 5 or more, you strike the projectile and it tumbles harmlessly to the ground. If you fail, the attacker then rolls his actual attack normally.

    The attacks you use here come out of your full attack on your following turn, complete with iterative penalties. For example, if you have BAB 12 and an enemy shoots at you twice, you may intercept the first attack with your full bonus and the second at a -5 penalty. Then on your turn you can complete the full attack with a single arrow at -10 (you may also take a five-foot step). If you only fired one arrow as an interceptor, you may choose to take a move action on your turn instead of completing the full attack. If you fired no interceptors the previous round, you may act normally. You may not initiate maneuvers which require a standard action or longer after firing interceptions.

    You may intercept any projectile less than 10 times the weight of your own ammunition. Attempts to intercept heavier projectiles fail. You may also intercept magical effects, so long as they are visible and require or sometimes require an attack roll. For example, eldritch blast always requires a roll, and fireball sometimes does, so they can be blocked, but chain lightening does not, and cannot be. For magical effects, you must exceed the attacker's roll by at least 10 to succeed. If you do, the spell effects the arrow instead of the intended target. Usually this just destroys the arrow, but some spells have other effects (for example, fireball detonates with normal strength centered on the arrow). You choose where along the spell's path the interception occurs (within 30 ft of you).

    Weight of projectiles in pounds for creatures of various sizes:

    small medium large huge
    arrow 0.075 0.15 0.3 0.6
    crossbow bolt 0.05 0.1 0.2 0.4
    sling bullet (lead) 0.25 0.5 1 2
    sling pebble (stone) 0.125 0.25 0.5 1
    Dart 0.25 0.5 1 2
    Javelin 1 2 4 8
    Knife 0.5 1 2 4
    Shurukin 0.25 0.5 1 2
    Thrown Rock 1.25 5 20 80
    Balista Bolt 40 80 160 320



    Multiple Shot
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 2
    Initiation Action: 1 full-round action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: Instantaneous

    When you use this strike, you focus with supernatural ability and fire off an extra shot during this round. As part of this maneuver, you take a full attack action and make your normal ranged attacks. However, you also make one additional attack this round at your highest attack bonus. All the attacks you make this round, including the extra attack granted by this maneuver, are made with a -2 penalty.


    Opportunist's Shot
    Iron Rain (Counter)
    Level: 2
    Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
    Range: 30 feet
    Target: One creature

    You see a single momentary opening, and use it to loose an arrow.

    When a creature within 30' provokes an attack of opportunity and you are armed with a ranged weapon, you may initiate this counter. Make a ranged attack against that target; this functions exactly like a normal attack of opportunity except that it is an immediate action. You suffer attacks of opportunity as normal for using a ranged weapon; any hit negates this maneuver. You cannot use this maneuver and make a melee attack of opportunity for the same opportunity.

    Quicker than the Eye
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 5
    Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 standard action
    Range: 1 range increment
    Target: One creature

    You aim and loose an arrow quickly, timing your shot for when the enemy is turned, to hit before your enemy can react.

    As part of this maneuver, make a single ranged attack. Your enemy's dexterity, dodge, and shield bonuses do not apply to this attack.


    Ride the Storm
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 3
    Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver

    You feel the movements of air and automatically adjust your shots accordingly. You are not effected by wind except as follows. Shooting into the wind decreases your range increment by 5 ft per 10 mph. Shooting with the wind increases your range by the same amount. Shooting through a wind wall counts as travelling 50 ft of distance.

    Soft Targetting
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 1
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: Stance

    You are constantly aware of everyone's weak points, and naturally target them. Ignore one point of damage reduction for every 4 ranks you have in Spot.

    Strafe
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 5
    Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: Stance

    While in this stance, your land speed and ranged damage increase according to your ranks in Spot.


    Spot Ranks Effect
    12-14 Land speed +10'; Skirmish (+1d6/+1 AC)
    15-17 Land speed +15'; Skirmish (+2d6/+1 AC)
    18-20 Land speed +20'; Skirmish (+2d6/+2 AC)
    21+ Land speed +30'; Skirmish (+3d6/+2 AC)



    Storm of Arrows
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 8
    Prerequisite: Four Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 standard action
    Range: weapon range
    Target: One or more creatures

    Shoot a number of arrows equal to your dexterity modifier. Every shot is made at your full attack bonus.

    Supreme Efficiency
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 8
    Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
    Target: You

    The decrease between your iterative attacks becomes three. This likely grants you extra attacks. As before, all attacks are at a positive base. For example, if your BAB is 12 and you normal full attack is 12/7/2, your new full attack is 12/9/6/3. This only applies to ranged full attacks.

    Trick Shot
    Iron Rain (Counter)
    Level: 4
    Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver
    Initiation Action: 1 immediate action
    Range: Weapon range
    Target: Attacking creature
    Duration: Instantaneous

    You may activate this maneuver immediately before being attacked. You make an immediate disarm attempt against your attacker that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You do not provoke an reciprocal disarm if your attempt fails. If your attempt succeeds, your opponent may choose to continue their attack unarmed.[/QUOTE]
    Last edited by dspeyer; 2015-06-03 at 10:36 PM.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Two things. First, Archer's Evasion Boost seems to be a counter more than a boost, conceptually; remember that you can use an immediate action maneuver on your turn if desired.

    Second, and more importantly, several of these maneuvers seems like they would fit better in your precision archery discipline better than this one--Intercepting Arrow Kata Stance is the textbook example of a very precise shot, and the various hit-someone-with-a-counter maneuvers seem more like precise shots than crowd control.
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Intercepting Arrow Kata is also supposed to involve shooting down a lot of things... if it didn't have the -5 penalty on the to-hit, and only worked against one attack that would be the more precise thing.
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by DracoDei View Post
    Intercepting Arrow Kata is also supposed to involve shooting down a lot of things... if it didn't have the -5 penalty on the to-hit, and only worked against one attack that would be the more precise thing.
    It takes more precision to shoot down more things, not less simply because there are multiple targets. Saturation attacks generally involve putting a bunch of projectiles in the air in one general direction, not multiple instances of pinpoint accuracy. I'm not saying it definitely has to go, but it does seem a bit out of place.
    Last edited by PairO'Dice Lost; 2010-03-19 at 01:25 AM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by abadguy View Post
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chambers View Post
    I'm pretty sure turning Waterdeep into a sheet of glass wasn't the best win condition for that fight. We lived though!
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    The thing is though, beyond just making MORE attacks, I'm not quite sure what else you can do with saturation range attacks.

    Protection based ideas
    Maybe instead of say, a maneuver that is using precision to stop a single projectile, you could say, use the maneuver and just shoot a TON of arrows out in front of you, giving you effectively half cover or something. (I also imagine a clause in there stipulating that half of these will expend a ton of ammunition in the process)

    Range based
    Maybe a series of maneuvers that allows you to shoot at a distance, and instead of making the normal AC attacks against individual targets, they become splash damage type attacks from just having the hail. (Probably will still need a range touch attack but still)

    Actually, I like the idea of a splash damage type idea. Maybe that's an avenue we can work with?

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by elliott20 View Post
    Protection based ideas
    Maybe instead of say, a maneuver that is using precision to stop a single projectile, you could say, use the maneuver and just shoot a TON of arrows out in front of you, giving you effectively half cover or something. (I also imagine a clause in there stipulating that half of these will expend a ton of ammunition in the process)
    That would definitely be more fitting fluff for a cover maneuver.

    In addition to splash damage, a similar idea would be maneuvers that force Reflex saves instead of making attack rolls, as there are just so damn many arrows that they have to work to avoid them.
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Need some better names for these, obviously.

    Rapid Stance: Each consecutive round in which you use a full attack action to fire arrows, you can deliver an additional attack at your full bab (+1 additional attack on the second round, +2 additional attacks on the 3rd round, and so on).

    Full Quiver Stance: While in this stance, your bow magically creates arrows for you. Each full 4 initiator levels gives these arrows a +1 enhancement bonus.

    Beehive Strike: Your arrow magically splits into several shafts in mid-flight. This can only be used with non-magical arrows; magical arrows lose their enchantment if fired using this strike. This should be resolved using the same basic mechanics as a modern shotgun.

    Covering Fire Strike: You fire a large number of arrows over an area. This should be resolved using the suppression fire rules from d20 Modern (similar rules are in the squad shooting rules from Heroes of Battle, and the automatic rifle in the DMG).

    Explosive Arrow Strike: The arrow explodes on contact, causing 1d6 points of fire damage in addition to the regular arrow damage.

    Piercing Strike: The arrow magically ignores armour. Treat this as a touch attack for resolving the attack roll.

    Guided Arrow Strike: You need not have line-of-sight to the target, but you must know exactly which square the target is in. You must be able to draw a line between yourself and the target, but this line can have any number of zig-zags and direction changes; the range is calculated based on this line. This can be used to effectively strike at an invisible target, provided you know which square it is in, or it can be used to attack an enemy behind a wall or around a corner.

    If you are also able to see the target (perhaps by seeing his reflection, perhaps through a glass barrier), you gain an insight bonus equal to one-quarter of your Spot skill ranks (round down).

    My Quiver is Full (counter): You can immediately create enough non-magical arrows to refill your quiver. If you give these created arrows to another person for him to use, hold, or carry, they immediately disappear.
    Last edited by Ashtagon; 2010-03-19 at 02:35 PM.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
    Two things. First, Archer's Evasion Boost seems to be a counter more than a boost, conceptually; remember that you can use an immediate action maneuver on your turn if desired.
    A counter wouldn't be nearly as useful. That would protect you against one AoO. If you're surrounded and trying to get out, you need to avoid many.

    Quote Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost View Post
    ...intercepting arrow kata...
    It calls for precision, but also for speed. When you're trying to hit a moving target, you don't have time to line up the shot. Being able to shoot something really fast also falls within this discipline. The word "saturation" was just my attempt to fit into a subject line, not the entirety of the school.

    It might be worth adding a similar maneuver to falcon's eye. Probably at a lower level, but as a strike that must be readied....

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Rapid Stance: Each consecutive round in which you use a full attack action to fire arrows, you can deliver an additional attack at your full bab (+1 additional attack on the second round, +2 additional attacks on the 3rd round, and so on).
    This seems abusable. Spend five rounds before battle making full attacks on a rock?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Full Quiver Stance: While in this stance, your bow magically creates arrows for you. Each full 4 initiator levels gives these arrows a +1 enhancement bonus.

    My Quiver is Full (counter): You can immediately create enough non-magical arrows to refill your quiver. If you give these created arrows to another person for him to use, hold, or carry, they immediately disappear.
    Probably don't need both, but useful....

    This would be the only su manuever here, but would be much more useful to an iron rain practitioner than to a rising phoenix (or whatever we're calling it this week) practitioner.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Beehive Strike: Your arrow magically splits into several shafts in mid-flight. This can only be used with non-magical arrows; magical arrows lose their enchantment if fired using this strike. This should be resolved using the same basic mechanics as a modern shotgun.
    What mechanic is that?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Covering Fire Strike: You fire a large number of arrows over an area. This should be resolved using the suppression fire rules from d20 Modern (similar rules are in the squad shooting rules from Heroes of Battle, and the automatic rifle in the DMG).
    Suppressing fire sounds good. What are the rules for this? I don't have d20 modern.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Explosive Arrow Strike: The arrow explodes on contact, causing 1d6 points of fire damage in addition to the regular arrow damage.

    Piercing Strike: The arrow magically ignores armour. Treat this as a touch attack for resolving the attack roll.
    IIRC, rising phoenix already has these.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Guided Arrow Strike: You need not have line-of-sight to the target, but you must know exactly which square the target is in. You must be able to draw a line between yourself and the target, but this line can have any number of zig-zags and direction changes; the range is calculated based on this line. This can be used to effectively strike at an invisible target, provided you know which square it is in, or it can be used to attack an enemy behind a wall or around a corner.

    If you are also able to see the target (perhaps by seeing his reflection, perhaps through a glass barrier), you gain an insight bonus equal to one-quarter of your Spot skill ranks (round down).
    This sounds like a more powerful Hidden Archery Stance, and that's already 8th level.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by dspeyer View Post
    A counter wouldn't be nearly as useful. That would protect you against one AoO. If you're surrounded and trying to get out, you need to avoid many.
    A counter can last through multiple AoOs; there's no hard-and-fast rule as to what a counter has to protect against. It is fairly standard, however, that a counter is reactive and a boost is proactive, so if you're going to activate something to negate AoOs it should really be classified as a counter.
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by dspeyer View Post
    This sounds like a more powerful Hidden Archery Stance, and that's already 8th level.
    Hidden Archery allows Strikes and Full-attacks... if that is a strike, and only does one arrow, then it is actually probably weaker.
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Beehive Strike: Your arrow magically splits into several shafts in mid-flight. This can only be used with non-magical arrows; magical arrows lose their enchantment if fired using this strike. This should be resolved using the same basic mechanics as a modern shotgun.

    What mechanic is that?
    d20 Modern doesn't actually treat shotguns mechanically any different from any other firearm. The most common shotgun homebrews either treat it as a cone or line attack (don't do this; it's very unrealistic), or replace the range increment penalty to attack rolls with a range increment penalty to damage rolls.

    Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Covering Fire Strike: You fire a large number of arrows over an area. This should be resolved using the suppression fire rules from d20 Modern (similar rules are in the squad shooting rules from Heroes of Battle, and the automatic rifle in the DMG).
    Suppressing fire sounds good. What are the rules for this? I don't have d20 modern.
    d20 Modern's autofire rule is spend 10 shots and a full round action, pick a 10x10 ft area (or 5x20 if you have a specialist feat) and make an attack roll against AC 10. if you hit, everyone in the area must make a DC 15 Reflex save, or take the weapon's normal damage. I don't like this version of autofire, since is makes it easier to hit someone wearing armour.

    Here is a modified version of Traveller T20's autofire rule. Spend a variable number of shots (dependent on the weapon for real guns; up to your initiator level multiplied by two for the initiator strike) and a full round action, pick a 90-degree cone out to a single range increment of your weapon. Discard half the shots spent and make one attack against each enemy in the area, up to the number of shots left. If you have any shots left over, until the start of your next turn, each time an enemy enters the area covered you may make an attack roll against that enemy.

    ----

    And I thought of one more...

    Blot out the Sun (Strike): Your arrow acts as a dispel magic effect against any spell or magical effect with the light descriptor that is centred on the target that is hit. Your initiator level is treated as a caster level for the purposes of this effect.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Here is a modified version of Traveller T20's autofire rule. Spend a variable number of shots (dependent on the weapon for real guns; up to your initiator level multiplied by two for the initiator strike) and a full round action, pick a 90-degree cone out to a single range increment of your weapon. Discard half the shots spent and make one attack against each enemy in the area, up to the number of shots left. If you have any shots left over, until the start of your next turn, each time an enemy enters the area covered you may make an attack roll against that enemy.
    This doesn't sound very effective here. A high-level enemy isn't likely to fear a single mundane arrow-shot, even with an enhancing stance.

    It's a shame because this sounds like a good real-world description. In the real world, however, one shot can kill.

    Quote Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Blot out the Sun (Strike): Your arrow acts as a dispel magic effect against any spell or magical effect with the light descriptor that is centred on the target that is hit. Your initiator level is treated as a caster level for the purposes of this effect.
    Good name, but the actual behavior isn't iron rainish.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    So make that one Nightengale Feather? Or MAYBE make it a no-discipline maneuver that has pre-requisites of a certain number of maneuvers from each, but I don't know if we want to get that crazy with stuff that is intended to end up in AoW.
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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    I'm not a fan of that last one. The reasoning itself is already a little questionable, and the mechanic portions of it just feels really clunky. This sounds almost like a highly circumstantial situation that a GM might be faced in a game rather than an actual established maneuver itself.

    Plus, things that have active magical effects sound like would fit better in the domain of the spirit arrow (or whatever it's called) discipline.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Full Quiver
    Iron Rain (Stance)
    Level: 4
    Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 swift action
    Range: Personal
    Target: You
    Duration: Stance

    I stopped bothering to count my ammunition. Less work this way. Plus it means I never run out.

    When you draw an ordinary arrow from your quiver in this stance, you may choose not to decrease the number of arrows remaining in your quiver. Arrows drawn this way must be fired immediately, or you drop them and they get lost somewhere they will never be found. You must have at least one ordinary arrow in your quiver to draw. You cannot draw magical or alchemical arrows this way, but you can draw them normally while in the stance. You can use this stance with javelins or throwing knives, so long as you keep them in a quiver or similar container.

    This stance is a supernatural effect.

    Covering Fire
    Iron Rain (Strike)
    Level: 6
    Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers
    Initiation Action: 1 full round action
    Range: 1 range increment
    Target: See text
    Duration: One round

    You fill a space with arrows, so that no sane attacker would enter it.

    Draw a line away from yourself in any direction for a distance less than or equal to the range increment of your weapon. Those squares the line passes through are effected. All effected squares must be empty when you begin the maneuver. Any creature entering an effected square is automatically struck by three of your arrows (roll damage normally).

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote Originally Posted by dspeyer View Post
    This doesn't sound very effective here. A high-level enemy isn't likely to fear a single mundane arrow-shot, even with an enhancing stance.

    It's a shame because this sounds like a good real-world description. In the real world, however, one shot can kill.
    One other effect I didn't mention was that T20's autofire rules allow for doing huge amounts of extra damage with very high rate-of-fire weapons. Unfortunately, I don't think having 600+ shots per round would be all that believable, even for Iron Rain, so I left that bit out of the basic description.

    Plus of course, basic bow damage sucks by RL standards. My attempt at houseruling bows increases their base damage substantially for 'modern' bows, in order to maintain a semblance of realism.

    The primary purpose of the suppressive autofire rule is to suppress the low-level drones anyway, not get the BBEG. Against the BBEG, burst fire is the attack method of choice.
    Last edited by Ashtagon; 2010-03-23 at 03:34 AM.

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    Default Re: Iron Rain: ToB saturation archery

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
    Rapid Stance: Each consecutive round in which you use a full attack action to fire arrows, you can deliver an additional attack at your full bab (+1 additional attack on the second round, +2 additional attacks on the 3rd round, and so on).

    This seems abusable. Spend five rounds before battle making full attacks on a rock?
    Fix: Any round in which you fail to hit a creature that is intent on harming you or your allies, the counter gets reset, back to zero.

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