If I was in a situation where I could take time to craft a bunch of arrows and had access to the proper materials. I am an outlander. I think I would be able to make arrows.
But, we are in the fortress of a fire giant army surrounded by hostile fire giants in a volcanic wasteland. I might be able to scrounge around for material for a couple arrows. I havent been able to collect all the used arrows because we don't have a minute between combats because we have to run and hide or we'll get overrun. But, lets say I can make a 2d4 per short rest. That is three rounds of combat give or take?
I'll still run out eventually and need to have a backup plan. I feel I'm a one trick pony and his trick is about to run out.
Why is it hard to think about this from a survival viewpoint?
I do not want my DM to magically hand me 40 arrows or a quiver of free arrows. I like the suggestions of how to slow the drain. Try crafting some. Use mending (if I take a feat). I was thinking more of how to make me less reliant on ranged attacks and be able to survive fire giant swings.
Ok, I think the making arrows thing is dead, it's not the solution you are looking for. I would also add that mending sounds like it wouldn't really help since you don't have time to grab your broken ammo, you will still eventually run out.
You wrote:
"I am a scout 7 / hunter 5 and we just leveled up 2 levels.
What 2 levels should I take since I won't be an archer for much longer? Or is there another way? If my int was higher I would take lvl in wiz to get mending. "
To get good help more info is needed. Are you playing 5e or another edition? If 5e, what do you mean by "hunter"?
What are your stats so we know if you can multi class into a 3rd class? Have you taken any feats?
If this is 5th edition and hunter is some homebrew ranger subclass... take more ranger levels for better hp and borrow a melee weapon for another pc.
Or take a couple levels of barbarian I guess. It still seems extreme, will you be in this environment for the whole campaign? Might be better to suck it up and have a difficult experience in this one place but have a more viable character long term by sticking to your original build.
If 5th edition and using feats, and if you think mending will work (But crafting wont...) take the magic initiate feat instead of an ability score improvement and just put your 2 levels into whichever class you are closest to your next ASI in.
Do you need carpentry or woodworking to turn a stick into a spear? Because any child with a knife can do that. Is it a spear you could make a living off of sell to people? Probably not.
I call that an improvised weapon. Yes, a sharpened stick is in a sense a spear, but when the game says "spear" it generally means a proper spear, presumably made of metal, bone, or stone. If you acknowledge the quality isn't up to par with the kind you'd buy in a shop, then I think it's fair not to treat it the same.
A sling should be able to do almost everything a bow can, albeit a little shittier. Do you think your DM would let you make a survival roll to convert a belt or strip of leather into a sling? You'd have pretty much infinite ammo then until you can replenish your arrows.
People always seem to forget the part of the Improved Weapons where it says "Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such. For example, a table leg is akin to a club." followed by "An object that bears no resemblance to a weapon deals 1d4 damage".
Notable Magic Items: Longbow +2, Ring of fire resistance, Studded Leather armor +1, short sword +1, Gloves of Dexterity +1 (Homebrew Item I'm guessing)
We have 2 lvls to add - I was going to go Rogue 9
btw this was a premade that started at lvl 8 or 10. The DM wanted to try out multiclassing combos and I agreed to play one. I'm also guessing we are going through the Giant Series from Yawning Portal, but I can't be sure.
Well, i just made and published an item that may be helpful to you. It is called the Gear Maintenance Kit. It acts as a woodcarvers tools, smiths tools, cobblers tools, weavers tools, leather workers tools, and tinkers tools. (All the non-artisan variety)
It has a mini forge inside, and so long as you have spent a short rest gathering/preparing the materials, you can make 2d10 arrows, 1d4 daggers, a shield, 1 simple weapon, a leather breastplate, or 2d10 feet of rope. Or, you could repair broken items (using a d20 with a 50% chance of success), or perform maintenance on any weapon or armor set with a maximum of rare rarity, giving it a +1 to relevant numbers until the next short/long rest.
You could ask the dm if he could work with you to find this discarded in a corner of the giants home, with a small amount of the appropriate materials to make any needed repairs or replenishment to everyones gear.
This will make your group have better survivability and killing power, and you can replenish your aupplies a bit. The kit is only the size of an old travel briefcase, and ways 10 pounds when all the gear is inside.
@matthias yes i was confused by people not knowing what the subclasses are. I thought that was common knowledge. My group says hexblade ... not warlock. If I just said ranger, would you know what type? I could be a gloomstalker, but if I said I'm a gloomstalker than you know I am a ranger.
@master_of_wolves Not sure magic items that are homebrew is something that I want to go down. I don't want to put this on the DM to solve.
I like all the suggestions on stretching out the inevitable ... means I can get a few more combats in at full power and maybe I will run into some arrows along the way.
Try to find time to craft a couple from materials I scrounge (DM approval but I dont see why he wouldnt let me try) This doesn't change anything about my build.
Take a Magic Initiate Feat to get Mending to get full benefit out of collecting arrows at the end of combat (1m) when I am able to do that. This takes a way a Feat I was going to use on a different feat (elven accuracy, skulker or luck) but as a side benefit it lets us Identify once per long rest. We have no way of doing that currently.
use a sling as a last resort
Go 2 levels in rogue and take a feat that helps me out in melee ... fight with the +1 short sword + shield or go two weapon. We might have an extra magic shield.
I also thought of taking Defensive Duelist as a feat to make me more survivable, but I think this might not be a good choice since it takes my reaction that conflicts with two Rogue (Scout) abilities (Uncanny Dodge & Skirmisher)
I could take 2 levels in Fighter to get more HP, Action Surge, Second Wind and another fighting style (duelist or two weapon)... but I miss out on higher level rogue abilities, but I could go arcane archer or battlemaster next level. There is a battlemaster fighter in the group if for roleplaying reasons are needed to multiclass. I can say I trained with him.
Only other multiclass options are Monk or Cleric. There is a monk in the group so if roleplaying reasons are needed. These don't seem to be a great fit.
My DM is allowing Blood Hunter Class but I don't know enough about.
My solution as a DM would be to allow you to create a new 2nd level Ranger spell which would give you unlimited supply of non-magical arrows for say an hour.
There is already the spell Swift Quiver on the ranger list. Use that as a guide post.
You transmute your quiver so it produces an endless supply of non-magical ammunition. This ammunition is the same type as the ammunition used as the material component and functions normally in every way. Any pieces of ammunition created by this spell disintegrate the round after being removed from the quiver. If the quiver leaves your possession, the spell ends.
At Higher levels: When you cast this spell using a 4th level spell slot the duration changes to 8 hours.
* - a quiver containing at least one piece of ammunition. The piece of ammunition is consumed upon casting this spell.
Also, there is no reason why this character couldn't whip out a short sword and still be pretty effective. 2 levels of fighter would provide a 2nd fighting style which you could then take two weapon fighting and rock out two short swords.
Also, there is no reason why this character couldn't whip out a short sword and still be pretty effective. 2 levels of fighter would provide a 2nd fighting style which you could then take two weapon fighting and rock out two short swords.
Also, there is no reason why this character couldn't whip out a short sword and still be pretty effective. 2 levels of fighter would provide a 2nd fighting style which you could then take two weapon fighting and rock out two short swords.
that was my thought
This, I would just check and see if someone has a shield (if you can use it) or a second melee weapon. A lot of people get stuck in the melee/ranged mindset and don't realize they are almost as good at the other one as well. Take Percy from Critical Role if you watched it. He was a gunslinger, but the rounds he ended up doing the most damage were the ones he went in melee vs a dragon with a longsword... Seems a little counter-intuitive, but most characters have a way to go to the other.
For me, I'd look at it like this- what will you lose when you lose the bow? Consistent ranged DPS. How can you still get that? A Reach weapon. Are there any reach weapons which use Dex and qualify for sneak attack? Yep, a whip. What's the dropoff in damage? 2.5+Dex+Sneak Attack+Hunter's Mark vs 4.5+2+Dex+Sneak Attack+Hunter's Mark, a loss of 4 damage per attack, likely 12 damage per round x your accuracy percentage. It hurts, to be sure, but it's not the worst thing ever, maybe a 20-25% drop. And a whip should be *very* easy to rassle up or improvise.
Otherwise I'd go short sword and shield, since you do zero damage when you're dead, and giants hit hard. It means you have to go to the *very* front, but in the environment you're in, that's not such a big issue as there's likely plenty of room up there and the enemies all have reach anyway. Good luck!
This happened. I took the feat because we needed identify. We then got some magic paint. I identified the paint. I found out it was the Marvelous Pigments. I painted myself 25 gp worth of arrows. When our druid levels up we are going to use the rest to Paint a Big Tree and Transport Via Plants out of there. :)
If I was in a situation where I could take time to craft a bunch of arrows and had access to the proper materials. I am an outlander. I think I would be able to make arrows.
But, we are in the fortress of a fire giant army surrounded by hostile fire giants in a volcanic wasteland. I might be able to scrounge around for material for a couple arrows. I havent been able to collect all the used arrows because we don't have a minute between combats because we have to run and hide or we'll get overrun. But, lets say I can make a 2d4 per short rest. That is three rounds of combat give or take?
I'll still run out eventually and need to have a backup plan. I feel I'm a one trick pony and his trick is about to run out.
Why is it hard to think about this from a survival viewpoint?
I do not want my DM to magically hand me 40 arrows or a quiver of free arrows. I like the suggestions of how to slow the drain. Try crafting some. Use mending (if I take a feat). I was thinking more of how to make me less reliant on ranged attacks and be able to survive fire giant swings.
thanks for all the great input!
Ok, I think the making arrows thing is dead, it's not the solution you are looking for. I would also add that mending sounds like it wouldn't really help since you don't have time to grab your broken ammo, you will still eventually run out.
You wrote:
"I am a scout 7 / hunter 5 and we just leveled up 2 levels.
What 2 levels should I take since I won't be an archer for much longer? Or is there another way? If my int was higher I would take lvl in wiz to get mending. "
To get good help more info is needed. Are you playing 5e or another edition? If 5e, what do you mean by "hunter"?
What are your stats so we know if you can multi class into a 3rd class? Have you taken any feats?
If this is 5th edition and hunter is some homebrew ranger subclass... take more ranger levels for better hp and borrow a melee weapon for another pc.
Or take a couple levels of barbarian I guess. It still seems extreme, will you be in this environment for the whole campaign? Might be better to suck it up and have a difficult experience in this one place but have a more viable character long term by sticking to your original build.
If 5th edition and using feats, and if you think mending will work (But crafting wont...) take the magic initiate feat instead of an ability score improvement and just put your 2 levels into whichever class you are closest to your next ASI in.
I call that an improvised weapon. Yes, a sharpened stick is in a sense a spear, but when the game says "spear" it generally means a proper spear, presumably made of metal, bone, or stone. If you acknowledge the quality isn't up to par with the kind you'd buy in a shop, then I think it's fair not to treat it the same.
The Forum Infestation (TM)
A sling should be able to do almost everything a bow can, albeit a little shittier. Do you think your DM would let you make a survival roll to convert a belt or strip of leather into a sling? You'd have pretty much infinite ammo then until you can replenish your arrows.
People always seem to forget the part of the Improved Weapons where it says "Often, an improvised weapon is similar to an actual weapon and can be treated as such. For example, a table leg is akin to a club." followed by "An object that bears no resemblance to a weapon deals 1d4 damage".
So a "improvised spear" would still be a spear.
Wood Elf
Str: 10 Dex: 20 Con: 14 Int: 12 Wis: 14 Cha: 8
Classes: Rogue (Scout) 7 / Ranger (Hunter) 5
Fighting Style: Archery
Feat: Sharpshooter
Notable Magic Items: Longbow +2, Ring of fire resistance, Studded Leather armor +1, short sword +1, Gloves of Dexterity +1 (Homebrew Item I'm guessing)
We have 2 lvls to add - I was going to go Rogue 9
btw this was a premade that started at lvl 8 or 10. The DM wanted to try out multiclassing combos and I agreed to play one. I'm also guessing we are going through the Giant Series from Yawning Portal, but I can't be sure.
that's interesting idea. There are a lot of stones around. I think the druid /barbarian has a sling but it isn't magical.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Well, i just made and published an item that may be helpful to you. It is called the Gear Maintenance Kit. It acts as a woodcarvers tools, smiths tools, cobblers tools, weavers tools, leather workers tools, and tinkers tools. (All the non-artisan variety)
It has a mini forge inside, and so long as you have spent a short rest gathering/preparing the materials, you can make 2d10 arrows, 1d4 daggers, a shield, 1 simple weapon, a leather breastplate, or 2d10 feet of rope. Or, you could repair broken items (using a d20 with a 50% chance of success), or perform maintenance on any weapon or armor set with a maximum of rare rarity, giving it a +1 to relevant numbers until the next short/long rest.
You could ask the dm if he could work with you to find this discarded in a corner of the giants home, with a small amount of the appropriate materials to make any needed repairs or replenishment to everyones gear.
This will make your group have better survivability and killing power, and you can replenish your aupplies a bit. The kit is only the size of an old travel briefcase, and ways 10 pounds when all the gear is inside.
@matthias yes i was confused by people not knowing what the subclasses are. I thought that was common knowledge. My group says hexblade ... not warlock. If I just said ranger, would you know what type? I could be a gloomstalker, but if I said I'm a gloomstalker than you know I am a ranger.
@master_of_wolves Not sure magic items that are homebrew is something that I want to go down. I don't want to put this on the DM to solve.
I like all the suggestions on stretching out the inevitable ... means I can get a few more combats in at full power and maybe I will run into some arrows along the way.
Go 2 levels in rogue and take a feat that helps me out in melee ... fight with the +1 short sword + shield or go two weapon. We might have an extra magic shield.
I also thought of taking Defensive Duelist as a feat to make me more survivable, but I think this might not be a good choice since it takes my reaction that conflicts with two Rogue (Scout) abilities (Uncanny Dodge & Skirmisher)
I could take 2 levels in Fighter to get more HP, Action Surge, Second Wind and another fighting style (duelist or two weapon)... but I miss out on higher level rogue abilities, but I could go arcane archer or battlemaster next level. There is a battlemaster fighter in the group if for roleplaying reasons are needed to multiclass. I can say I trained with him.
Only other multiclass options are Monk or Cleric. There is a monk in the group so if roleplaying reasons are needed. These don't seem to be a great fit.
My DM is allowing Blood Hunter Class but I don't know enough about.
thank you everyone for the conversation :)
Wrathamon,
My solution as a DM would be to allow you to create a new 2nd level Ranger spell which would give you unlimited supply of non-magical arrows for say an hour.
There is already the spell Swift Quiver on the ranger list. Use that as a guide post.
Maybe use the following:
Endless Quiver
Level: 2nd Casting Time: 1 Bonus Action Range/Area: Touch Components: V,S,M*
Duration: <c> 1 hour School: Transmutation Attack/Save: None Damage/Effect: Buff
You transmute your quiver so it produces an endless supply of non-magical ammunition. This ammunition is the same type as the ammunition used as the material component and functions normally in every way. Any pieces of ammunition created by this spell disintegrate the round after being removed from the quiver. If the quiver leaves your possession, the spell ends.
At Higher levels: When you cast this spell using a 4th level spell slot the duration changes to 8 hours.
* - a quiver containing at least one piece of ammunition. The piece of ammunition is consumed upon casting this spell.
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
that was my thought
For me, I'd look at it like this- what will you lose when you lose the bow? Consistent ranged DPS. How can you still get that? A Reach weapon. Are there any reach weapons which use Dex and qualify for sneak attack? Yep, a whip. What's the dropoff in damage? 2.5+Dex+Sneak Attack+Hunter's Mark vs 4.5+2+Dex+Sneak Attack+Hunter's Mark, a loss of 4 damage per attack, likely 12 damage per round x your accuracy percentage. It hurts, to be sure, but it's not the worst thing ever, maybe a 20-25% drop. And a whip should be *very* easy to rassle up or improvise.
Otherwise I'd go short sword and shield, since you do zero damage when you're dead, and giants hit hard. It means you have to go to the *very* front, but in the environment you're in, that's not such a big issue as there's likely plenty of room up there and the enemies all have reach anyway. Good luck!
This happened. I took the feat because we needed identify. We then got some magic paint. I identified the paint. I found out it was the Marvelous Pigments. I painted myself 25 gp worth of arrows. When our druid levels up we are going to use the rest to Paint a Big Tree and Transport Via Plants out of there. :)