Items · Ranged Weapons · Combat
Chardis's Impeding Arrows
"Make sure you wing it before the Emperor draws back his arrow son, a few times if you can, but try not to be too obvious..."
Quest entry
Quest entry
Quest - Magic Items
In association with Johnn Four, and all the fine folks subscribed to his Roleplaying Tips Weekly mailing list, we bring you our second collaborative Quest! Here's the required stat block template to use for your entries:… Open the quest
Full quest brief
In association with Johnn Four, and all the fine folks subscribed to his Roleplaying Tips Weekly mailing list, we bring you our second collaborative Quest!
Here's the required stat block template to use for your entries:
* Awesome Name
* Appearance
* Benefit
* Drawback
* Lore
* Twist
For an awesome description and guide to these stat blocks, check out Johnn's post describing it.
There will be three sets of *random* prize draws: Nov 7, Nov 21 and Dec 5 -- XP awards per normal as well!)
All entries submitted before each date will be eligible for each random draw. So enter early and often.
Thanks to Gator Games for their prize sponsorship!
Appearance
Well crafted arrows with grey fletching. Nock is enscribed with a stylized snail-shell.
Benefit
Being struck by this arrow slows down the target. Affect per arrow is a -5% decrease in movement-based defences. If the target is brought to -20% net penalty*, they become immobilized. The effect of each arrow ends after 1 minute.
Drawback
The arrows inflict significantly less damage then normal arrow types, typically half of that of normal arrows.
Lore
The arrows were created by Imperial fletchers to help their half-blind emperor with his hunts. His retinue would use these arrows upon hunted creatures to allow their liege to have a chance to hit them.
Twist
The arrows also impede their own use, being difficult to extract from the quiver, even if the quiver is nearly empty. As such, rapid firing of these arrows is not possible unless careful preparation is made.
Inspired(stolen) from Team Fortress 2's Natasha. This is probably the shortest sub I've submitted.
*Any bonuses are lost first, so a target with a bonus of 20% would need to be hit by a total of 8 such arrows before being immobilized. D20 based systems would mean a -1 Dex modifier per arrow, with immobilization at -4.
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- Gideon's Mercy by dark_dragon Same quest
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Update: A warmup for now. Sub producing machinery is rusty these days...
I like the overall concept, but I'm having difficulty imagining these things. How can an arrow impede its own use? Is it sticky, slippery or otherwise crafted to be hard to handle? If you could also describe the arrowhead a bit more, it would help. I'm assuming that these things deal less damage because the arrowhead is not designed to stick into the target (thereby insulting the Emperor), but I could be wrong.
I didn't flesh this out to the degree of my normal posts in light of the quest details with its very short timelines for the various areas.
The arrow slows its target through magic and also as a side effect impedes its own use, basically preventing it from being fired rapid-fire by its user.
I would think they appear as birding arrows with small arrowheads, and minimal fletchings. This would also explain the lighter damage as the wound would be smaller (though probably deeper). I suppose you could apply a to-hit penalty due to the reduced fletching size (and therefore stability), but thats probably unnecessary.
Ahhh, so the magic of the arrow acts as a retarding effect on whomever is touching it as well. That's a really interesting idea. If the effect also applies to the speed of the arrow's flight, then that could also neatly account for the reduced damage. Either way, this is a really nifty concept.
To address the time limit on this quest: it appeared to me that the limit was only there to aid in the creation process. The general concept, appearance and all that jazz can indeed be done in 3 minutes. However, there didn't seem to be a limit on the time we could take to polish it up for submission (something that Pariah also commented on in the quest thread). Perhaps I was confused in this area?
Glad to see you posting again, btw :)
I took the limits as hard limits on the process, as if you don't, then you really have an open-ended time for the sub. How do you define 'polish'? :)
Mmmmmm, mostly by taking the bullet points I came up with during the 3 minute exercise and expanding them to full sentences. Make them sound all purty. I don't actually add anything to the core ideas after that point, just clarify or elaborate enough to get the idea across. The lore is a real challenge though! I probably cheat on the time limit a little there . . .
Either way, I don't think there's one right or wrong way to do it. You mentioned the limit as if it were something to impede you, and I only wanted to point out that it didn't have to be if you didn't want it to.
I took it as a bit of a challenge to follow the suggestions as literally as possible,for my normal efforts tend to take overlong and so things languish in in work for a long time:)
In the immortal words of Heavy Weapons Guy:
"YEAAGGHHHHH CRY SOME MORE!"
haha! slugshot!
An older 'Lore' section I forgot about:
These rather frail appearing arrows were first uncovered from the tomb of the Pharoess N'Tsh'a. The queen was legendary for her love of the hunt and was courageous and driven. However, she was also a terrible shot, unable to hit most moving targets. She tended to blame her retainers and more then one found the Queen's marksmanship at close range much better. To preserve his own life, one of her retainers commissioned these arrows.
Might get me in trouble :)
I think these arrows are fun so extra 0.5