Hello little devils.
I seek once more your wise suggestions.
I am building an archer who is not very... bow/arrow kind of guy. What I am asking is for alternatives to it. Mechanically I will still use a bow and arrows to fight, but because my PC is kind of... unique and old and very magical, I want to change the bow+arrow image. My DM agreed on this so he will let me change it if I come up with a nice idea that fits to my beloved elf.
Here is where you masterminds step in. What else could someone imagine or suggest to do? I was thinking some sort of magical ring that rises above me and has precious stones or whatever inside it, and everytime I have to full round attack those 4 arrows, I instead throw these stones.
As you can see, I have the imagination capacity of a 3 year-old. What other cool ideas do you guys have? My guy is one of the oldest and most ancient magic users on our homebrew campaign, and because he is a mixture of wizard/eldritch knight archer, and will have access to high lvl spells eventually, I wanted him to look more sorcery rather than a ranger kind of person who also uses magic. So much sorcery, that even his bow and arrows look different.
That's it. I hope someone will throw some nice ideas out there.
some stuff I dont want:
- funny or goofy stuff. (stones, knifes, kitten-shaped ninja stars)
- scienc-y or goofy stuff. (guns, lasers, testing tubes, nanobots filled arrows)
- goofy stuff.
PS: where on earth can I download or even read about the new classes and their features of the Advanced Class Guide? I can't find a freaking link.
Zen Archer build with Ki Arrow. Talk to DM about allowing your normal Ki points to be used for Ki Arrow (or doing an additional monk archetype of Quinggong Monk to subsitute your Ki powers to get Ki Arrow).
While Ki Arrow is a standard action to throw one arrow, if I was your DM, I would allow you to throw up to your number of intinerate attacks of arrows for the same Ki point cost since you are giving the range brackets of an actual bow for a fixed range of 100 feet or less.
For the visual impact, imagine your character throwing arrows instead of shooting them. Limited to 100 feet but you get your strength bonus on each arrow. Particularly flashy when you 'flurry of blows' your arrows as allowed by the Zen Archer archetype.
With the other perks of the Zen Archer... effective and deadly.
If you're just refluffing to seem more magical then there are lots of possibilities. Note that when I say "bolt of force" you can reflavour that to whatever theme you want too, whether kittens, rocks, arrows, sparkles, banananananas, etc. Note, that in most of these cases I'm trying to keep the two handedness of bows intact.
- Hover an amulet between two hands that bolts of force shoot from.
- Spread the fingers of both hands and have bolts of force (a la magic missle) fire from them.
- Raise a hand in the air to form some bolts of force and hurl them at your opponent.
- Clap your hands together and separate them forming an arc of bolts of force that launch towards your opponent.
- Pick up a bow that can be used as a quarterstaff or club, call it a staff, and wave it in the air forming arcane sigils that launch bolts of force at your opponent.
- Toss arrows into the air while saying arcane gibberish and have them aim and fire themselves from mid air.
- Hold a wand in each hand, mumble arcane gibberish as arcane sigils appear around each wand and each targeted opponent. As the wands are brought closer together the sigils grow brighter but smaller. When both wands are brought to touch bolts of force launch at each targeted opponent.
Is this the kind of stuff you were looking for?
Harrow Deck Card Throwing
Daggers
Throwing Axes
Killing Words
Call Lightning
Filament Wires
Sharpened Arcane Runes
A Ranged Version of Inflict Wounds
A magic bracer that creates a bow shaped energy form above it and fires eldritch bolts of magic from it. Only your character has the ancient arcane schooling to wield it.
For a good look at this concept Google: Ezreal League of Legends images.
And even though you don't necessarily want the "bow and arrow" feel, I've always been a fan of the "Invisible Bow".
The old elf spots his enemy, brings his hands up and takes aim, as he draws his hand back, a crimson line forms pointing at his enemy. At the opening of his hands the line of crimson streaks to his target in nearly an instant leaving multiple wounds in his torso.
Obviously your DM can allow whatever he wants, but really to maintain balance and just change 'fluff' your alternate ranged attacks should require both hands to use (just like a bow) and a move action (or as part of a move) to ready (like other weapons.) You probably also want it to be a physical item so it can be enchanted, and use actual physical ammunition to bypass DR etc (and this would also cost money, just like an arrow).
Given these requirements, if I wanted to be different, I would use some sort of wizard staff (perhaps crooked and bent, unlike a quarterstaff) and have it, when properly manipulated, use telekinesis hurl arrowheads/pebbles/darts/tiny leaf shaped cutting blades or whatever you fancied.
There was a low-level sorcerer IMC who used to use a crossbow. The string broke. In desperation, he threw the bolts at the enemy. Lo and behold, they all hit! for 1d4+1 damage each! In time, he learned to do away with the bolts themselves and just threw some sort of "magic missiles" instead.
"Goofy" is highly subjective, but here's a kind of off-the-wall suggestion: with a word, he conjures an intricate glass sculpture that floats before him, the epitome of elven grace and artistry. These can glow with magic (+1 or higher enchantment), eldritch energy (flaming, shocking, etc), or incorporate delicate filigree (silver, cold iron, adamantine). With a a flick of his wrist at the target, the sculpture shatters into dozens of shards, all of which speed towards the target and pierce flesh. As he grows more skilled, he can do this multiple times per attack.
Fascinating idea OP. My best suggestions is javelins of arcane force (similar to the 'lightning' above).
Also agree, Arcane Archer would give you mechanics to very nicely integrate with your theme.
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It might help if you told us more about the background/personality of your character. Still, in a vacuum, here are some ideas in keeping with Dave Justus' limitations.
1. The Hula Hole-Maker - a hula hoop, rimmed with spikes. As you hula, it loads a spike in one motion from a quiver on your belt, picks up speed as it swings around you, and lets go to hit an enemy. This also means that your firing routine is literally hip thrusting.
2. The Organ Grinder - a music box with attached crank. Each full rotation brings back and then releases an internal mechanism, loading and firing your choice of projectile. (Perhaps vinyl records, or little jingle bells.)
Of course, simply reskinning it as a crossbow, slingshot, sling, shotgun, etc. is possible as well, but as long as you're in a fantasy setting you might as well have a totally ridiculous weapon.
Magic orbs that constantly float around you, say 6 of them or something. When you "shoot" them, they fly at the target, strike, and return right away.
Oh you guys, how much I love you.
Some beautiful ideas here.
To clarify, I am going for a a mixture of eldritch knight and arcane archer also.
The reason I didn't want to go with the typical arrow/bow combo is because I tend to get bored really fast if I do the same thing over and over.
Because of the nature of my character, I think its a good idea if I can use several ideas together instead of going with one specifically. My character is supposedly one of the oldest creatures of the ancient world, a scientist and pioneer about the uses of the Ether, the life-force of the planet. Because of his deep involvement with the Magic flow and his eventually high lvl spells, I wanted to highlight that everything about him is simply supernatural. A bow was killing my image of him. Hence I am asking for some advice.
And because some ideas here were incredible, I am gonna try to use more of them instead of one. Another cool Idea I thought was that he is so potent and swift with the flowing magic that he can even manipulate remains of my companions spells. For example, our sorcerer cast his fire spells (something he does quite often), In the big explosion my PC manipulates parts of the exploding fire, to blades or other cool stuff made of fire and use them as piercing arrows. Stuff like that.
@Zefig: Love your idea. It reminds me of Final Fantasy X, the ultimate attack from Shiva. It will also be cool to create a small replica of my target, like a small ethereal/shadowy puppet in front of me, and in my round I use psy-blades or other nice stuff people mentioned, to pierce the puppet/statue/figure whatever, like a puppeteer (a malicious one)
A magic bracer that creates a bow shaped energy form above it and fires eldritch bolts of magic from it. Only your character has the ancient arcane schooling to wield it.
For a good look at this concept Google: Ezreal League of Legends images.
Wait, this is a thing? I did exactly this for my first D&D character WAY back. Except the bracer was cursed and he couldn't take it off.
How about these:
-Summoning tiny black holes: Every time you "fire an arrow" and it hits, a small dimensional hole appears on the target, taking away some of its life
-hands summoned from the ground grab at the target, damaging them and taking away bits of their soul to the netherworld.
-arrow = meteor falling from the sky. The more arrows fired, the bigger the rock
-Each successive hit makes the enemy literally further fade from existence. So, when you kill an enemy, the effectively disappear. This wouldn't have any of the mechanical effects like Vanish, or anything, but, it might be cool.
-Each hit turns part of the enemy into stone, eventually turning them into a statue that then crumbles into dust - Narnia style
-Lazar beams shot from your eyes
-Each arrow summons Bigby's Hand, effectively punching the target from a distance.
@Zefig: Love your idea. It reminds me of Final Fantasy X, the ultimate attack from Shiva. It will also be cool to create a small replica of my target, like a small ethereal/shadowy puppet in front of me, and in my round I use psy-blades or other nice stuff people mentioned, to pierce the puppet/statue/figure whatever, like a puppeteer (a malicious one)
Glad you liked it! The replica thing would be a cool way of doing it too, definitely.
Awesome that the DM is allowing you to ‘re-skin’ the bow and arrow visuals!
You could go the Voodoo route. Have a little voodoo doll (bow) that you wield, and a pouch (quiver) of needles (arrows) that you stab the doll with to attack your target (shoot at).
Ideally, you want physical objects still, for…mechanical reasons. Enchanting, costs, balance. But… if you and the DM wanna walk off the deep end, you can do away with those limitations too… it just gets weird.
You need something to represent;
the bow
the arrows
the act of shooting
Beyond that, you are essentially only limited by imagination.
Solidified breath. The elf forms a circle with his hands, brings it in front of his face, and blows through it. Slivers of air solidify and act as projectiles.