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Power of Suggestion trait
"You wouldn't deprive a young man of his dapper cane, would you?"
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"You wouldn't deprive a young man of his dapper cane, would you?"
Yeah, this. If it's a longbow (those things are technically taller than a person), bind it up tight and pass it off as a walking stick.
If it's a shortbow (which it probably is, if you're a Rogue), try disguising it as a bandolier or similar shoulder-to-waist accessory. Maybe wear the string in front and hide the stave under a cloak. The quiver could also be hidden under a thick cloak, or you could hide a more limited quantity of arrows in special pockets sewn into your clothes.
From another thread -
For a concealable weapon it's possible to make a sling work. There are ways of having otherwise non-concealable weapons available - Claxon's glove of storing, or a transformative or glamered weapon, or the umbral gear rogue talent, or spells like instant weapon, holy ice weapon, hidden blades etc.
Be an Underground Chemist Rogue VMC Alchemist. See Alchemist above, but now you have Bombs AND Sneak Attack, although unfortunately no Bomb Discoveries. Underground Chemist fills in the holes in VMC Alchemist's Bomb usage.
Sneak in as a servant carrying firewood to the kitchens. Wind the bowstring around your waist under a rope belt. Arrows will be in the bundle of kindling you're laying in. There was also long ago an item called a folding bow which if allowed you might find use for. Had a reduced range increment if I remember right. I'd have to find the 2E Complete Thieves Handbook for stats.
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Take a level of Bard, which also helps you get into places.
Take Perform (Stringed Instruments): Specifically a Tuned Shortbow
An Arrow can be hidden/quivered in a flute.
Learn Summon Musical Instrument and Abundant Ammunition.
You can probably get the spells through rogue talents, but I like the Bard dip for a lot of reasons.
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"You wouldn't deprive a young man of his dapper cane, would you?"
Yeah, this. If it's a longbow (those things are technically taller than a person), bind it up tight and pass it off as a walking stick.
If it's a shortbow (which it probably is, if you're a Rogue), try disguising it as a bandolier or similar shoulder-to-waist accessory. Maybe wear the string in front and hide the stave under a cloak. The quiver could also be hidden under a thick cloak, or you could hide a more limited quantity of arrows in special pockets sewn into your clothes
It frankly bothers me that the game rules might actually permit this without magic while in the presence of a guard who really does give a crap about doing his job (and that job is keeping bows out). None of them are small objects applicable to Sleight Of Hand.
-- If you know anything about bows (and I mean on the level of "Have you actually looked at a picture of one?"), you'd know that it is basically impossible to disguise a bow as something else without physically modifying it (i.e., into "broken" condition).
Canes? Staves? Uh, no. Bows (especially the masterwork or better ones your character probably has) do not look like those. At the very minimum, your bow will look something like this. You could take the string off and pocket it, but what's left is not going to resemble a gentleman's "dapper cane", and even the dumbest INT:7 guard is going to know the difference.
Those string-grooves and grip? Those don't come off -- if they do, your bow is broken! (In real medieval bows, they're either separate components affixed with resin and wrappings, or carved into the base stock.)
If your bow lacks these features, you're using a crude or "primitive" (att-4) weapon.
-- And not that your smuggled bow is going to be useful to you anyway unless you're also smuggling in enough arrows to solve your problems.
If you must know, it's an ogre's back-scratcher!
Just ride the bluff check...
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Disguise yourself as one of the guards; carry your weapons with you.
Sneak into the area before you actually need to be there and hide a cache of your gear.
Find a hapless guard and take his gear after you knock him out.
Send a bow and quiver of arrows as a gift for someone who will be at the place.
Be part of a hunting party that brings in food. Your bow will likely be confiscated but it will be nearby.
Sneak into the place and keep your stuff with you.
If something of the Crossbow (rather than Bow) group would be acceptable, how about a Tube Arrow Shooter? This is even designed to be somewhat easier to conceal than normal.
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It frankly bothers me that the game rules might actually permit this without magic while in the presence of a guard who really does give a crap about doing his job (and that job is keeping bows out).
Guy at the Gym fallacy spotted.
It's fantasy and a game. Why does it bother you so much that a fantasy character who's specialized in skullduggery and takes a specific trait is able to do something cool without magic?
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-- If you know anything about bows (and I mean on the level of "Have you actually looked at a picture of one?"), you'd know that it is basically impossible to disguise a bow as something else without physically modifying it (i.e., into "broken" condition).
I know what a bow looks like, thank you.
I did include the words "try disguising it" - that means effort would be put into making it look slightly different than normal. This sounds appropriate to what a Rogue could do. Is that "basically impossible?" I could think of a number of rococo gewgaws/cosmetic modifications one could put on a bow to make it look less like one without getting significantly in the way of its performance (knobs on the ends and easily-removed bindings to make it look like a staff, thin leather veneer or paint and extra-flexible stave material to make it look like a bandolier, etc).
Um, if it is flexible enough to disguise as a bandolier then it is useless as a bow.
A short bow that can be broken down into a grip and two half-staves is a possibility. These smaller bits can reasonably be hidden/disguised. It is going to require masterwork quality and special materials to work without having penalties and the fragile condition.
In any case, a sympathetic GM is a requirement. Guy in a gym aside, you really do have to assume some competence to avoid a toonish game, unless that is what you want. I have played at tables where only the vaguest of pretense and a die roll are all you need.
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Codpiece.
Epic codpiece.
Called weapon property. Apport object spell.
Then my assumption was right...actual ranged weapons can't be smuggled in a realistic way...one of the few but substantial advantages things like darts have.
Remember that darts aren't the ones we use these days; they're more like baby javelins.
Also, if you were looking for a realistic way to smuggle your weapons in...disguise yourself as a guard, who might carry said weapons. Other than that, see previous comments about realism in a fantasy game.
Oh...and if you want realistic, here's another answer: use magic. It's part of the reality of the fantasy world, right?
See, this is why my teachers always wanted me to be an attorney....
If you can smuggle a quiver in, make sure there's a wand of Bow Spirit inside. Who needs a bow when you can conjure a spirit to do your shooting for you? A wand of abundant ammunition helps as well.
Perhaps something akin to a handy haversack with a secret pocket that appears only with a command word? Even better if you could build such a hidden pocket into your trousers.
If 3pp is an option, multiclass with Soulbolt.
Hollow out a log or large game animal and bring it in as firewood or dinner.
If you can smuggle a quiver in, make it an efficient quiver with a full complement of arrows and your bow inside.
Waltzing in the front door armed and armored both seem likely to go over about as well as the proverbial lead balloon.
Reconnoiter the place with your best Stealth character, pick out hiding spots, places to stash caches and the like.
Without magic it's an uphill 'battle'.
With magic, not so bad. Stop-and-frisk by the guards will reveal the lie via a hat of disguise, triggering a fight you're not ready for.
In general terms, the best 'mundane' approach is Disguise and Bluff to weasel your way in as mundane staff, sneak around, get a healthy grasp of the floor plan including basements/dungeons and especially the upper floors, if safely doable.
Once you've got a decent map of the joint during your casing - you are doing this during festival/dance preparations, when the place is busy busy busy? - you can return to the group and work out a plan of attack.
Scroll of Shrink Item. Your longbow and quiver now fit in a single pocket.
If you're looking for a more mundane way, a simple bribe and Diplomacy check can go a long way (Ultimate Intrigue actually has a chart for an "appropriate bribe by CR, based on how reasonable the request is", but if you happen to get the one single honest guard in town, you're screwed. Alternatively, you could fasten it underneath your cart of stuff, even add a false undercarriage so if the guard does give the underneath a look, they wouldn't see it. Another option is to plant the bow onto something else going into town, like a supply cart, or make sure a patrolling guard finds it, then pick it off the guard after he returns to town. You could also stick with the old Rogue fall-back - sneak into town.
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Um, if it is flexible enough to disguise as a bandolier then it is useless as a bow.
Not necessarily. Depends on how closely they look, what else one is wearing, and perhaps what materials the bow is constructed of. It wouldn't actually be as flexible as a bandolier, you could just make it look like one so long as you weren't too closely inspected.
Given all the wacky and impractical clothes and styles one finds in fantasy worlds (and the historical world, for that matter), it wouldn't be that implausible to pass it off as weird kind of sash/brace/cummerbund - OH, or part of a splint!
OK, I guess it could give you WoWish shoulders :)
Then my assumption was right...actual ranged weapons can't be smuggled in a realistic way...one of the few but substantial advantages things like darts have.
Even assuming realistic means 'non-magical', a sling is an actual ranged weapon, and easy to conceal.
Then my assumption was right...actual ranged weapons can't be smuggled in a realistic way...one of the few but substantial advantages things like darts have.Even assuming realistic means 'non-magical', a sling is an actual ranged weapon, and easy to conceal.
Wear one as an armband or something. Pick up rocks here and there, giving you 2 or 3 shots. If you're ambitious and have Catch Off-Guard, just leave the rock in the sling and whirl that bad boy around as an improvised flail.
Depending on your level, a couple levels of shadow dancer gets you hide in plain sight in a lot of places, letting you use stealth to enter unnoticed. The Favored Terrain and Hide in Plain Sight talents, both keyed to whatever terrains the campaign will likely make you sneak past (urban or dungeon most likely) also work for this.
Depending on your wealth and the defenses set up, Ring of Invisibility, Glove of Storing, Glamoured Longbow, A Bag of Holding inside another Bag of Holding (assuming guards do rummage through your bag in the first place), a bunch of Glibness Potions and a quick lie on hand, a bunch of Oils of Invisibility, A Smuggler's Collapsible Robe and a friend, or even a successful bribe could work.
A flexible GM might allow you to unstring a bow, wrap it in cloth, and convince people its a walking stick without the trait mentioned above, though it would be a hard sell (and there are no rules for stringing/unstringing bows to my knowledge even though there are magical bowstrings).
A black marketeer's bag might work, depending on how the GM interprets the extra-dimensional spaces*.
Otherwise, an endless bandolier under the effect of a magic aura (to register as non-magical) is an option. A bow is "a similarly sized object" as a two-handed firearm; arrows may need to be smuggled in separately, however.
*- the side pouches of a handy haversack can "hold material of as much as 2 cubic feet in volume or 20 pounds in weight;" whether that volume is a fixed shape or can adjust ("stretch" in one dimension while becoming smaller in others) to the object(s) placed within is not defined.
That's a really cool item.
Some Oracle Revelations allow you to create a weapon. Most of them specify melee weapons, but Ancestral Weapon (Ancestor Mystery) doesn't, so you could make a bow. The arrows are smaller and not curvy (or at least, not supposed to be), so you could sneak them (and maybe even a quiver) in using some kind of pack or case having a false bottom/wall. Unfortunately, the Ancestor Mystery is not currently available to VMC Oracle.
While I have not been able to find any listed in any Paizo source there are such things as folding bows. Just do a quick web search for folding bows and you will find quite a few. Most of them seem to be made out of aluminum but I believe there are some made out of wood. While there may be no published material for these your GM may allow something like this. If nothing else it should be able to be made as a magic item.
Easiest way I can think of is hiding the bow in or on a wagon. If you are hauling straw, it might be real easy to hide arrows as part of the straw. No magic needed.
For magic, the bag of holding or bag of concealing work fine.
/cevah
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0-level spell vacuous vessel comes to mind.
The spell description already covers "looks and feels empty", Pizza Lord. Trick is does the caster have a robust enough save DC for the glamer to work reliably? ;)
The weapon enchant Shrinking costs 1,000 gp and can shring the bow to the size of a dagger. Daggers are easy to hide.
/cevah
The spell description already covers "looks and feels empty", Pizza Lord. Trick is does the caster have a robust enough save DC for the glamer to work reliably? ;)I think you missed the point of the post, unless you are trying to reiterate that by casting this spell, say on a sack filled with 1 cubic foot of iron (about 490 lbs), that if a guard said, "Hand me that supposedly empty sack," the caster would probably strain and grunt and sweat lifting it over to him, at which point the guard grabs the sack, waves it about a little. It flops about emptily and says, "Seems empty, but let's just have a look." He opens the sack, looks inside (fails save), sees nothing, then says, "Here ya go, pal," flicks it towards the caster, at which point it drops solidly to the ground with a heavy *thump*? Or he says, "Lemme throw this empty sack away for ya," and starts to walk to the rubbish barrel, only he's now so over-encumbered he can only stagger about under the apparent weight of this empty sack?
I was just saying, I think there should be a bit more clarification of what 'feels' empty means. Like if I have a 1 gallon bucket of water, filled with water (about 8 pounds) does it just feel like it weighs 1 pound for an empty bucket to someone failing the save (obviously they would get one looking at the bucket, since it's open, but if they failed,) would they notice that it feels pretty heavy for an empty bucket?
We certainly don't want to imagine that playful guard smacking his partner (who probably doesn't even get a save, but let's assume he would fail too) with it, but he thinks it feels empty (just crushes him for whatever damage a 500-lb blackjack deals.) Then he turns and pops the caster with it.
Again, I don't want to derail the thread from smuggling bows, I was only making an observation.
Setting aside the detail that there are very few sacks that are robust enough to hold that kind of weight (one would load a quarter-ton of anything into a wagon), the "feels" part covers what you are concerned about. That's the beauty of a glamer, it covers your concerns. :)
You carry a large cello or comically over-sized violin and just walk the bow past security.
{. . .}
If you play the violin badly enough, you might not even need the bow and arrow . . . .
You carry a large cello or comically over-sized violin and just walk the bow past security.
{. . .}If you play the violin badly enough, you might not even need the bow and arrow . . . .
Beware the character carrying a Poetry Appreciation Chair past security. Though that might be a barbarian rather than a rogue.
Thinking about it, the bigger and bulkier your legit cargo, the easier it'd be to smuggle something like a longbow in. A cart full of firewood, a wagonload of furniture, etc.
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Get your vision checked.It frankly bothers me that the game rules might actually permit this without magic while in the presence of a guard who really does give a crap about doing his job (and that job is keeping bows out).Guy at the Gym fallacy spotted.
It's fantasy and a game. Why does it bother you so much that a fantasy character who's specialized in skullduggery and takes a specific trait is able to do something cool without magic?
There's a big difference between D&D fantasy (which has rules) and a Bugs Bunny cartoon (which don't).
"Hammerspace" in Pathfinder is granted by magic items and supernatural abilities.
^Actually, if you watch the classic cartoons long enough, you'll see that they actually do have rules, although they are somewhat flexible, and not written down.