i would like to simulate arrows lodging themselves into player and enemy characters when hit but cannot find any rules on it


Homebrew and House Rules


anyone know of any such rules? if not i am more than happy to listen to suggestions.


No need for rules, if you're the GM, just describe it! Eg.

Your arrow flies straight and true. It sinks deep into the ogre's shoulder, right up to the fletching. A spurt of blood erupts from the far side of its shoulder as the tip pierces its skin from the inside. The mighty creature roars in pain and glares menacingly with its red-rimmed eyes at the ranger who fired the shot.

Or see this example from a game I was running.

Lodged arrows, deep gashes in the flesh, burn wounds and other things like that are all taken into account with the damage done. Generally, I only describe arrows lodging into PCs and NPCs for particularly high-damage shots (like crits), or when the creature in question hasn't got that many HP remaining. On the other hand, when fighting against giants, I love to describe all the shots as lodging in. There's nothing quite like an enormous, humanoid pin-cushion. In all cases, the only mechanic you need to worry about is damage taken, which is already sorted for you.

As a side note, you can recover 50% of your ammo that misses the target, but 0% of ammunition that hits. Keep that in mind when pulling the lodged ammunition back out. Have it snap, bend, lose its head or make sure it broke when it entered in the first place.

Dark Archive

aldlv13 wrote:
anyone know of any such rules? if not i am more than happy to listen to suggestions.

Are you looking for a damage effect? Not sure what you want here?

For PF - I can't think of any.

You could use (and I used this in other systems) something along the lines of a progressive damage system on critical hits. Considering low to mid level hp values in this game I would keep this only to supplement the crit system.

Arrows or grievous wounds do 1 point of damager per round unless the target makes a Reflex save against a DC=5+damage the arrow caused.

If you want to reduce the number of rolls have them do 1 point of damage under other conditions - if they move or even just every round till the wound is taken care off via skill or spell or they die. The latter would minimize rolling every round but make things considerably more lethal.

If you consider a save/check every round you can also make the save generic: Reflex save for Rogues, Will for casters and Fort for martials. Hp are already an abstraction in the game so it would play to the best strength of each class to avoid getting further injured if they got to use their primary save values.

Works better in a system with more hp to play with so I would allow a target a check to avoid progressive damage and keep it for critical hits.

Not sure if that is what you were looking for.


i am planning to make wounds with arrows sticking in them from being allowed to be healed until the arrow is removed so just every arrow staying lodged in would be kind of ridiculous i want to make it fair but still an actual ailment


Pathfinder doesn't model progressive penalties from damage and certainly not for things like penalties from having arrows stuck in a victim. The damage system, as inherited from (A)D&D, is perhaps the least realistic aspect of the game(!!).

As for bringing in your own rules, just how realistic do you want to get?

1. Treat it just as cosmetic.
2. Apply Dex-penalties for someone with arrows sticking out if them.
3. Impose 1-point 'bleeding' penalties for anyone having suffered more than 10hp damage from arrows, but still fighting.
4. As above but apply the penalty for each arrow that causes over 4hp damage (the lesser damage considered to have been grazes and slashes).

etc, etc.

The problem with imposing such penalties is that you might need to extend it to other wounds. In that case you're making a major overhaul of the damage system which, while great in some systems, perhaps doesn't suit Pathfinder.

Dark Archive

aldlv13 wrote:

i am planning to make wounds with arrows sticking in them from being allowed to be healed until the arrow is removed so just every arrow staying lodged in would be kind of ridiculous i want to make it fair but still an actual ailment

You could impose a no healing rule till arrows are removed via a skill check. Failed check still removes arrow, but subject takes extra damage.

Also, you may re-write some aspects of the various cure spells to signify this (removing arrows, etc). So the low level versions do not remove arrows while the higher level versions when cast remove any damaging objects from the subjects body (disappear and reappear at their feet or side).


Sadurian wrote:

Pathfinder doesn't model progressive penalties from damage and certainly not for things like penalties from having arrows stuck in a victim. The damage system, as inherited from (A)D&D, is perhaps the least realistic aspect of the game(!!).

...

The problem with imposing such penalties is that you might need to extend it to other wounds. In that case you're making a major overhaul of the damage system which, while great in some systems, perhaps doesn't suit Pathfinder.

One way to look at it is that losing HP *is* a defensive penalty.

You get hit with an arrow, and that removes HP which can reflect the arrow interfering with your ability to defend yourself.

It makes it that much easier for an opponent to deal a final blow.

The OP could simply require that the HP damage cannot be healed until the arrow is removed, and then set the DC based on the damage.

Hit Points can really describe whatever you want them to. Getting creative with the healing rules can add a lot of depth to the game. (I'm not a big fan of the RAW when it comes to healing. I think the Cure Wand dance is all the paperwork and none of the grit that it should be.)


Sound like a lot of bookkeeping and paper work to me.

but..

a few ideas you might try..

If the player stops, and treats the wounds.... nothing else happens ( classic cowboy / fantasy,,, get shot, stop, and treat ).

If they keep moving with the arrow inside them, then Fortitude saving throw. Pass, no damage this round, .. fail... half the arrows normal damage this round.

.............................

Do bleed damage... although i personally never like bleed damage, so never used it much for anything, never like keeping track of it.

.............................

Or, just say the heck with it... go old school. Arrow hits for 6 points of damage... player wants to keep fighting without treating the wound.... make the player roll 2d10.. for % dice. If he rolls 6 % or under, ha has to spend the round saying Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch, for the round... can take a standard action, but no full rounds action allowed, till the wounds is treated.

............................

anyway just a few ideas.... still sounds like a lot of paperwork, slows the game down, and needless penalties, that are not needed/

Liberty's Edge

How I would handle it would be the same way I would handle shrapnel, shards of glass, or other harmful elements that are in the body unnesasarily. Have them able to heal everything except half the damage caused by the arrow until the arrow head is removed. Until then it is an open wound, and subject to infection.

A heal check, or profession surgeon roll would be required to remove the unnesasarily element, with failures causing 1d4-2damage to the subject. If the element was lodged in a joint(like a knee,elbow or shoulder), they suffer reletive penalties to movement and combat until the wound is dealt with. If they are healed while the damaging element is still buried, then a direct surgery roll or 1d4-2 damage done to reopen the wound and allow for removal.


Simulate it with the 'bleed' condition?

Sczarni

The Archer fighter archetype can initiate a grapple with an arrow by "pinning" a creature to a nearby surface, forcing the creature to break the arrow to escape.

For what you're describing, I would implement it as a dirty trick with a ranged weapon to inflict normal damage plus the "lodged in" condition, which stops the damage from being healed, but still let the target pull out the arrow with a move action.

Since your archer is now hitting CMD instead of AC, and now wants the Dirty Trick feat tree in addition to the Point-Blank Shot tree, I'm not sure how balanced this is, but it at least gives you what you want with a minimum of house-ruling.


Just deal damage a second time when the arrow is removed. That'll teach those uppity PCs to get shot with arrows.


Yeah, archery really needs a boost. Not like it's one of the most surefire ways to deal incredible damage from relative safety or anything.

Oh wait.


Harpoon is a thing, but it doesn't do damage or have any specific rules for how one removes it. It used to deal damage and take a check in 3.5. But Sandal Fury's sarcasm is mostly correct.

In my experience the PCs don't actually get to rain down hell in a storm of arrows because all fights start within charging distance of the enemy. Whether or not this is right, this is how the games I get into go. If you are in a similar bind, archery can (not always) prove less effective.

Play style affects things heavily.

The [/url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/specific-magic-weapons/searing-arrow]Searing[/url] and Sizzling arrows deal more damage, but that's not really in the same vein.


Hmm. This is an aspect of the game I hadn't thought about.

Basically I'd go with something like the Vitality/Wounds system.
1) Characters that receive damage get a wound, the wound category depends on the damage done.
2) The size of the wound determines how much bleed damage you take from the wound a round.
3) Bleed damage (like all damage) affects your Vitality.
4) Vitality can be healed at any time, but bleed damage will continue until the wounds are treated.
5) To treat a wound (and stop the bleed damage) characters must be successfully treated by a Heal skill check, DC determined by the wound category. This means pulling out an arrow, closing a laceration, sticking someone's arm back to their torso...

The only thing is determining what damage equals what wound. Should the number be fixed (1-8 points is small, 9-17 medium, 18-26 large)? Or should it be a percentage of your total vitality (1/4 small, 1/2 medium, 3/4 large)? Either way, at higher levels you can really just ignore a lot of what hits you and worry about it later.


There are a couple of special ammunition types that replicate similar effects. You could copy some of the mechanics from these:

Barbed arrows (Mongoose Publishing

Thisle arrows (poisonous head)

Bleeding arrow


I usually say only crits actually leave a arrow in the target...so if someone has several sticking out of them...they just look hardcore..lol

If they are still alive. :)


aldlv13 wrote:

i am planning to make wounds with arrows sticking in them from being allowed to be healed until the arrow is removed so just every arrow staying lodged in would be kind of ridiculous i want to make it fair but still an actual ailment

3.5 had magical arrows that cost 167gp per arrow. If the player received any healing each arrow was pushed out but they did 1d8 on the way out.

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