Archery and Arrows questions


Rules Questions

Silver Crusade

I'm building an archer (lv 7 Brawler; the plan is to use Martial Flexibility to grab feats like Ranged Trip/Disarm, or switch to melee focused build at a moment's notice) for a game, and I had a couple questions about making arrows a bit cooler.

1) I've seen a class (Elven Archer, I think) that can use scrolls with arrows - essentially wrapping the scroll around the arrow, and it being cast when it hits. Is there any way to mimic this with other classes/rules/items?

2) Concerning poisons: I know there're smoke/water/fire arrows, and I wanted to ask if there was anything in the rules that allowed modification to carry poisons. So, instead of a smoke arrow, when it hit it would release an inhaled poison. Or a water arrow that releases a contact poison.

Thank you for your help!


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Myrmidarch magus gets Ranged Spellstrike (can add a touch or ranged touch spell to a ranged weapon attack as part of the casting) at level 4; check with your GM if they will allow it with bows or strictly apply the "free hand" requirement (which pretty much restricts it to thrown weapons, simple crossbows, and one-handed firearms).

The arcane archer prestige class gains Imbue Arrow (can add an area effect spell to an arrow attack; casting and firing is a standard action) at level 2.

The alchemist discovery Explosive Missile (minimum 4th level) lets an alchemist infuse a projectile to act as one of their bombs.

Poisons can be applied to arrows (1 dose per arrow) the same as melee weapons. The poisoner rogue gains Master Poisoner at 3rd level in place of Trap Sense, which allows them to change a poison to a different type (contact, ingested, inhaled, or injury).

You could also craft a custom magic item: Arrow of Venom - This +1 arrow causes the target hit with a successful attack to be poisoned, as with the poison spell (DC 14); CL 5, Market Price 757 gp.

Silver Crusade

Ok, but as far as scrolls wrapped around arrows, or water arrows altered to be filled with poison, is there anything like that?


Elven Archer is a 3rd party class. It doesn't even allow those sorts of things. Paizo doesn't have anything fitting that description to my knowledge, or anything really close.

Scrolls wrapped around arrows just seems unrealistic. And water arrows...seems like you could have a spell that made an arrow out of ice/water but probably just better to make a higher level custom spell like acid arrow that instead also does the poison spell. Hell, just say the new poison spell is delivered via ranged touch attack and looks like an arrow. Lower the con damage to 1d2 should be more the adequate for changing from a melee touch to a ranged touch.

But no, there's nothing that can get you what you're asking for to my knowledge.

Also, contact poisons and injury poisons can both be used as injury poisons. It's really only inhaled or ingested that cause difficulty.


Agreed, poisoned arrows are just a normal use of poison. (Including the risk of poisoning yourself. Don't use bare fingers to smear contact poison on your arrowheads!)

Wrapping a scroll around an arrow to cast it? If by 'cast' you mean 'hurl far away'. Actually, this might be a neat way to get a scroll to an ally in a REAL hurry. 'Message for you, sire ... *thud*'


There is a raining arrow, which carries holy water. You might be able to convince your GM to create a similar item for poisons.

Check out the Elves of Golarion or the Alchmey Manual for some cool ideas on specialty arrows.


There's the Cavern Sniper archetype for Drow.


Also, there is a Tangleshot Arrow that has a tiny vial on the front. Can it carry enough poison? Check with GM.

/cevah

Shadow Lodge

I think the class you're thinking of is Arcane archer. it can deliver AoE spells with ranged attacks. One of them could cast a fireball from a scroll and have it go off when their arrow hits its target. 'Wrapping the scroll around the arrow' could be your thematic visual for that process.

It is a prestige class though so you would need to take a minimum 1 level in an arcane casting class to satisfy the 'Ability to cast 1st level spells' requirement.

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