I'm looking to add some options to my arsenal, but not really sure what I can do for my rogue. I was thinking of some acid-tipped bolts that reduces AC of an armored target, incendiary burst bolts with splash, straight-up blessed bolts that deal bonus holy damage, and poison-coated bolts to do weaken a target or give them a DOT debuff. I also saw someone talk about a magnetic field where the arrow emits an area of effect that disarms or stuns anyone that walks into its sphere with metal weapons or armor?

I'm an absolute newbie when it comes to this stuff, I was wondering how I could get anything like this to work. Any experienced homebrewers out there willing to give me a few pointers? I'm just looking to pick up a few options in my game, seeing as my abilities are almost exclusively stab-and-hide or shoot-and-hide.

Acid that degrades AC is tricky because it’s super powerful in that it leads to a death spiral for your target. Plus, most targets don’t actually wear armor, but either have natural armor or rely on Dexterity, so that’s something else to consider too.

DoT effects suck in D&D because an enemy is at full fighting strength right down to their last HP. Better to do all the damage all at once.

You might consider instead ammo that applies conditions like restrained, poisoned, or stunned. Those are likely to be far more beneficial.

I created these for a repeating crossbow but they could easily be recreated as sets of individual bolts.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/3506183-bolt-clips-of-energy

take a read thru the how tos on the homebrew forum for help in doing the actual homebrew. Generally the idea is K.I.S.S. - you don’t want to make things too strong unless you are trying to make legendary stuff.

Before I let this go to die, there was one last idea I thought of. Two separate types of chemical delivery shots, so to speak. The first is a direct injection dealing standard ranged damage with an extra effect of whatever poison is inside it, like a paralysis agent to put them at disadvantage or something. The other is a dispersal burst, more or less a grenade that can effect an area with poisons; basically fire into a group of enemies and it break open, dealing half ranged damage (if shot at a target) at half range and a weaker version of whatever chemical is inside, with some exceptions.

Both ammo types are gone on use and cannot be reused and need a turn to prepare, assuming you don't walk into battle with it. And given the fragile nature, without proper storage they can break before use if you're hit and fail a, I don't know, dexterity throw? Excessive acrobatics could probably do the same, so it might be a good idea not to run around too much with these things.

I appreciate the feedback I've had so far, thank you very much for helping me with this.

Paralyzed is a very powerful condition, keep that in mind.

For area effects, an attack roll isn’t used, the attacker typically just picks a point and creatures in the area of effect from that point make their saving throws. Only a few spells (like ice knife or acid arrow) use both an attack roll and a saving throw.

For both of those I would suggest a Constitution saving throw instead of Dexterity. Dex saves are made to avoid stuff, Con saves are made to resist stuff. For the paralytic it doesn’t make sense to use a Dex save since they have already been hit by the attack, kinda hard to avoid that. And for the poisoned gas, that’s also something it doesn’t make sense for them to “avoid,” it’s a gas, it’s just there. It makes more sense to resist a poison than to avoid it.

Neither of those sound any more fragile than your average potion, so I would skip that part of it to reduce unnecessary complications.

OK, thank you for that. I'll run it past my DM before our next game, see what he thinks.

When I suggested the dex throw, that was for the holder to avoid breaking it if they take damage while holding it (rather than keeping the ammo in their pack). But if it seems unnecessary, then it's a moot point.

Happy to help.

Quote from ZaganShieldbreak >>

Before I let this go to die, there was one last idea I thought of. Two separate types of chemical delivery shots, so to speak.

There are a few conditions you can consider. Poisoned, Blinded, Deafened, Exhaustion, Frightened, Restrained, Stunned, are things that can conceivably be done with trick arrows.