Hey, so there seems to be a major emphasis on swords, wands and staffs in the DMG and other sources but very little to do with other weapons, especially bows, which you would assume is quite a popular weapon. I was just wondering if anyone had any homebrew bows or other neglected weapons and what their rarity would be? 

Step One: Pick sword-only rare item type: Defender, Flametongue, Vorpal, Dancing...

Step Two: Apply it to non-sword weapon. Use the same rarity as sword magic weapon.

Since bow was specifically mentioned:

Bow of Shattering Arrows: 3 Times/long rest - Deals 1/2 damage dealt to target to targets within 5ft if they fail a dex save.

Bow of Piercing: Ignores cover (Even total cover, but you still have disadvantage against unseen targets and must guess their location if you don't have a way to know it)

Bow of Lightning Arrows: Requires no ammunition, deals lightning damage.

Stalker's Bow: Once per day, you may know the location of any creature which has been hit by an arrow fired from this bow in the last week. You know the direction and distance to the creature for the next 24 hours. And automatically succeed on any attempts to track it.

Gnomish Miniaturized Ballista: bolts fired from this crossbow become ballista bolts in mid air, dealing 3d10 piercing damage on a hit, and dealing double damage to structures.

Rainbow : This magical Longbow allows its wielder to cast Faerie Fire (DC 13) as a bonus action 3 times a day.

Composite Longbow : The exceptional draw strength of this bow allows you to use your strength ability modifier for attack and damage rolls instead of Dexterity.

Sunbow:  This item appears as a bow handle. You can use your action to make two arms of pure radiance to appear or disappear. If you are proficient with shortbows or longbows, you are proficient with the sun bow. You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this weapon, which deals radiant damage instead of piercing damage, and does not have the heavy property.

The Longshot: 3 times per day, if you make an attack with disadvantage, it is at advantage instead. You can choose this effect to occur after you have made the attack roll but before the DM has said whether it would hit.

Fencing Bow: This bow is equipped with guard blades that run away from the handle and provide you instinctive reactions to parry incoming attacks. While holding this bow, you gain +1 bonus to AC, and to not suffer disadvantage to ranged attacks due to a hostile creature being within 5 ft. 

Multi bow -when an arrow is fired roll a d4 and the bow duplicates the arrow adding the roll to the amount of arrows shot each arrow added does half the dmg of the real one. And the foe must try to dodge them separately.

Thanks for that folks! It's some food for thought! :D

Probably don’t need anymore feedback but I thought I’d throw in my 2¢. I have a player who wants to build a lance that can “clockwork” down into a different weapon while not mounted. So we sat down and looked at the other weapon he wanted and then figured out how much tine it takes to stow a weapon and draw a new one or “drop and draw.”

We settled on 1 action to activate and allow it enough time to reconfigure. They are only level 4 and I’m trying to make the game a bit more difficult for the group so magic items aren’t very plentiful...yet. This however still felt like a magic item but didnt really improve damage output.

Variety is the Spice of Life. I’d like to hear what you went with and Good Luck!

This isn't quite a weapon but I have a relatively high leveled rouge half-elf who has a set of stolen Elven hearing aides which allow her to eavesdrop on anyone within 60ft and understand any spoken language, meaning she can't read or write them. Just a pretty interesting and uncommon relic.

Just brewed up this bow idea for an attack on titan style giant slaying campaign, I have yet to use it but I’m pretty excited. 

Heavy supine longbow

D20+dex to hit

Damage: 2d8+dex Piercing

Range:50/250/800

Minimum strength of 15 to fire

Minimum hight of PC 5’8”

Half movement to drop to or stand from firing position (prone)

Disadvantage:

-Indoors

-Attacking anything smaller than medium

-<50ft &>250ft up to 800ft

A 6.5’ long bow with a draw weight of 165lbs. Fired from a supine position where the body of the bow is hooked onto the arches of the feet and the string is drawn back with both hands.

"The Hawks Talon"

Requires attunement. 

Bearer is +1 to hit and damage rolls, all range categories for this bow are doubled. 

The bearer while holding this weapon has advantage on all perception checks that involve sight.

I have also noticed the lack of bows in official Dungeons and Dragons content. I play archers a lot, and I can never find good magic items for my characters. I recently came up with this one, although I've never used it, and it is actually a quiver, not a bow. You could have a quiver similar to a magic bow, that enchants any arrow pulled from it to become a +1, +2, or +3 arrow.

Quiver of the Elements, Wondrous item, very rare, requires attunement

When you pull an arrow from this quiver, you can use your bonus action to enchant the arrow to gain properties from one of the elements. Choose either acid, lightning, fire, cold, or thunder damage. The arrow deals an additional 2d6 plus your Dex modifier damage on a hit. You can use this property 5 times, regaining spent properties when you take a long rest.

Alternatively, you can expend three charges at once and shoot an arrow at a creature within range. On a hit, the creature is teleported to one of the Elemental planes based on the element you choose. Fire for the Plane of fire, Thunder and Lightning, to the Plane of air, Acid to the Plane of Earth, or Cold to the Plane of Water. The target stays there for one minute, or until you choose to bring them back. They land in a random spot within that plane, and are able to interact with the environment there. Anything they are wearing, carrying, or touching is teleported back with them when they return. This effect can be combined with the previous effect if you have enough charges left. The damage/portal type must be the same if you do so. 

Any arrow picked from this quiver is a +1 arrow until the end of your next turn. 

Here’s a Bow:

https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/1243170-heavy-longbow

Here’s a Sling:

https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/1214170-sling-of-magic-bullets

I'm not able to look at it now, but I made a rare or very rare quiver that allowed for unlimited arrows. It gained other effects, like extra damage, if attuned. If I remember right, only one arrow appeared in the quiver and another would not appear until the drawn one was fired. The arrow disappeared if not used or after striking something and activating their effect.

Edit: I should say that although I made it rare or very rare, it was not meant to be something they could just buy. Only one was made.. Rarity was just so I could track relative worth.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/515187-bow-of-silver-light

https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/727345-quiver-of-eun

I homebrewed a bow on request from a player character based off of a real world weapon, the Middle Eastern Turkish flight bow. To do this, I took a shortbow and gave it a longbow's range and damage properties. This fit my player's needs perfectly! 

Quote from Legion_excel >>

I homebrewed a bow on request from a player character based off of a real world weapon, the Middle Eastern Turkish flight bow. To do this, I took a shortbow and gave it a longbow's range and damage properties. This fit my player's needs perfectly! 

 Did you public post it? How did you modify the shortbow with the tools?

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from Legion_excel >>

I homebrewed a bow on request from a player character based off of a real world weapon, the Middle Eastern Turkish flight bow. To do this, I took a shortbow and gave it a longbow's range and damage properties. This fit my player's needs perfectly! 

 Did you public post it? How did you modify the shortbow with the tools?

 You start with a longbow and change the name.

Quote from IamSposta >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from Legion_excel >>

I homebrewed a bow on request from a player character based off of a real world weapon, the Middle Eastern Turkish flight bow. To do this, I took a shortbow and gave it a longbow's range and damage properties. This fit my player's needs perfectly! 

 Did you public post it? How did you modify the shortbow with the tools?

 You start with a longbow and change the name.

 Oh I get it. You just remove the Heavy property.

Yup

Riley Fuzzle's Trick Longbow is is popular with the bard in my main campaign.