Nope you aren't missing anything rules wise. It's magic. ;p Read rules fudge.
While you could get detailed physics a waste of time.
If you want sudo-physics think about a kid sized bow and adult sized bow. Kid bow fires an adult arrow, same enegy as shooting th kid arrow but larger striking area. Adult bow fires kid arrow, smaller striking area and less mass.
The magic comes in and takes care of the issue of changing masses in an object with an already set amount of imparted engery. For a "magical" reason the increased mass of the "Adult" arrow doesn't increase the damage. Like wise the "Kid" arrow somehow magically looses some of that energy, which if applied to the finer strike area should penetrate more.
From a game perspective, I can see the reasoning, since Enlarge Person is generally considered a Buff, and therefore helps those that fire projectiles by giving them better damage; Reduce Person is generally a Debuff, therefore penalizing the enemy by reducing their projectile damage. Of course, there are times you want to cast Enlarge on the enemy, and Reduce on your party (cramped tunnels, squeezing rules-very debilitating).
Is this just a fudge rule to keep the reduce/enlarge balanced, or am I missing something.You're not missing anything.
And as a side note, simply get large arrows/bolts etc.. then drop the quiver (so it returns to 'normal' large size) then use it and it will BE normal size and thus do large size damage...
-James
Pre-dropping the ammo to make it bigger again doesn't work. Reduce Person spesficially deals damaged based on the weapon size. You could fire a tree trunk sized arrow from a Reduced Person Longbow and it would still only do 1d6 damage.
The invers happens with enlarge person. It's based on the Ammos size when it leaves the bow.
I guess what you could do is keep a quiver of Large Arrows, drop those so they return to Large from Huge, and thus have Large Ammo leaving the bow.
Pre-dropping ammo works great for Enlarge person (provided you thought ahead and brought large ammo)
It doesn't work for Reduce Person, but, why would you want it to. Reduce Person still does normal (not reduced) projectile damage. Bonus for reduced archers. Better to hit, AC, and hide, and same base damage.
Predropping ammo does not work, because in order to fire it, you have to pick it back up again, which makes it larger.
All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly enlarged by the spell.
It doesn't say that all equipment worn or carried is enlarged at the time of casting, but rather that is enlarged by the spell. Since the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the magic is constantly acting on the target, and any equipment they wear or carry. If you pick something up, you are now carrying it, and the magic affects it, enlarging it.
So:
(1) Medium creature drops a quiver of large arrows
(2) Medium creature is targeting by enlarge person making he and his bow large.
(3) Medium creature picks up a large arrow and attempts to fire it from his now large bow.
(4) Large arrow turns into huge arrow as soon as it is carried, and cannot be fired from large bow (or possibly is fired at -4 for being inappropriately sized).
Again, since the spell has a non-instantaneous duration, it is constantly acting for the entirety of its duration.
Predropping ammo does not work, because in order to fire it, you have to pick it back up again, which makes it larger.
All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly enlarged by the spell.It doesn't say that all equipment worn or carried is enlarged at the time of casting, but rather that is enlarged by the spell. Since the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, the magic is constantly acting on the target, and any equipment they wear or carry. If you pick something up, you are now carrying it, and the magic affects it, enlarging it.
So:
(1) Medium creature drops a quiver of large arrows
(2) Medium creature is targeting by enlarge person making he and his bow large.
(3) Medium creature picks up a large arrow and attempts to fire it from his now large bow.
(4) Large arrow turns into huge arrow as soon as it is carried, and cannot be fired from large bow (or possibly is fired at -4 for being inappropriately sized).Again, since the spell has a non-instantaneous duration, it is constantly acting for the entirety of its duration.
So if I'm enlarged, and attempt to lift a heavy rock (due to my increased strength and carrying capacity) the rock would immediately enlarge and crush me? Good to know. What would the damage on that be?
Also, does this apply to anything I manipulate? EX, fitting a giant key into a lock, replacing a wagon wheel, etc.
I know the section you are talking about James, and I totally agree. If an enlarged person has a quiver of large (now huge) arrows and drops them, they turn back into large arrows.
However, the spell is silent on what happens when he picks those arrows back up, so all we have to go on is what the spell says indirectly.
As I already pointed out, the spell says that: "All equipment worn or carried by a creature is similarly enlarged by the spell." That's all it says. It doesn't say that it is only enlarged by the spell at the moment of the casting, but that the spell enlarges all equipment worn or carried.
Looking under the spell description area of the magic chapter, we see that:
If the spell affects creatures directly, the result travels with the subjects for the spell's duration.
Since enlarge person is targeted on a person, it affects that creature directly. It travels with the subject for the spell's duration. Any effect it has at the start continues until the end. If equipment is held or worn by an enlarged person, it is similarly enlarged.
That also provides the answer to what happens if they pick up a rock (nothing, the rock isn't equipment). That is open to some interpretation, but I would say equipment is weapons, armor, tools, and magic items that are wielded or worn. Keys aren't enlarged, wagon wheels aren't enlarged, lockpicking tools would be, however. That much is kinda wiggly, but I don't see the rest as being so.
Or it could read as: The effect "All gear worn at casting" is what is carried out for the duration. now this can be interpreted 2 ways...
1. All gear worn at casting retains a "trace" of the spell, if the item is dropped then picked up, the "trace" is noticed & regrows in size as it is being held once more.
2. ONLY items worn at casting are affected which means that once grown, picking up an item you did not have before the casting(such as a boulder off to the side of the road) would not grow in size.
If it is the latter, then you could drop the arrows BEFORE the spell takes effect(since they are meant to be the same size regardless), then have the Spell cast then pick the arrows up. Same effect, slightly different method of going about it.
But it doesn't say all gear worn at casting. It says "All gear worn or carried by the creature is similarly enlarged by the spell." If it said at casting, then I would be agreeing with everyone else that a dropped and re-picked up item would not be enlarged.
But that isn't what the spell says. The full effect of the spell applies at all moments of the duration from casting to end. One effect is that all gear worn or carried is enlarged. That is as true with only 1 round left in the duration as it is the moment the spell is cast.
I know the section you are talking about James, and I totally agree. If an enlarged person has a quiver of large (now huge) arrows and drops them, they turn back into large arrows.
However, the spell is silent on what happens when he picks those arrows back up, so all we have to go on is what the spell says indirectly.
Well I have to say that's a new read on it, and I never saw any ambiguity before.
I guess I take the instantaneous growth more seriously.
-James
It's funny, I never saw any ambiguity the other way before either.
The instant growth for me always was just more a fluff description rather than a rules duration effect. i.e., it's a "and pop, you're bigger" rather than a sort of hulk/Alice growing over the span of a few seconds thing.
That also provides the answer to what happens if they pick up a rock (nothing, the rock isn't equipment). That is open to some interpretation, but I would say equipment is weapons, armor, tools, and magic items that are wielded or worn. Keys aren't enlarged, wagon wheels aren't enlarged, lockpicking tools would be, however. That much is kinda wiggly, but I don't see the rest as being so.
So you could pre-drop sling stones, but not arrows?
What if the key is a sword?