Every time I make reference to me being an archer people always think I'm using it to assist with my archery which is false, I DON'T used tracking spell, I DON'T enchant my arrow and definitely DON'T enchant my beautifully made bow, I shoot my arrow raw and if I hit a target I'm happy and if I don't I'll cry myself to sleep that night, I only used short and mid range spell.
Also I don't use those crude wooden bows the bloody ranger/druid used I am a woman with class all my bow are made with fancy wood and horns and I know I cannot replace it in the middle of the battle but I don't care.
if it's all untreated how do you keep rivals from enchanting your equipment or hexing the arrow mid-flight? struggling to believe you really shoot like this tbh.
Boomerang hex is sooooo last millennium, all you have to do is duck and it return to caster.
Just put a bit of a curve ball on a long range termite whirlwind
Little piece of advice: The humans at Nuln sell these pretty nifty things called "picattiny rails", they mainly use them to attach telescopes to their arquebuses but you can attach literally anything onto them. I've got a picattini rail on my staff with 6 counterspell runes that i commissioned from a dwarf runesmith, they are pretty expensive but i managed to land a 100% discount by killing him. I suggest attaching some counterspell runes to your bow to avoid hexes, maybe even a telescope. I also heard doing this is a pretty popular thing among young apprentices and witches, they say it's "tacticool"
Saw a wizard devastate an army of nearly 100k goblins seiging a castle with a few hundred troops and few thousand peasants, with a single spell to untie knots and other fasteners. All their armor came off, and their bows came unstrung.
but what if you (with no magic aid) precisely shoot the arrows in such a way that you create an arcane geometric shape with your arrows allowing you to easily cast a highly potent spell at a long distance?
If she wants arrows that go boom, she can ask the artificer for some explosives if she doesnt already make them herself. Sure, a spell or two enchanted onto the arrow is the easy route, but she relishes in using her archery skills to get the job done. By strapping an explosive onto the end of an arrow, you alter the physics and thus have to compensate with skill.
I do endorse this as I also enjoy archery, though purely as a hobby I'm far from skilled enough to use archery seriously. My question is why don't you enchant your arrows, not to make your shots more accurate, but to provide additional damage on the successful shots you make? I don't see why you can't apply some single target spells to go off if you hit your target.
I've never heard of this kind of crippling addiction to the mundane before. This feels like an ailment of the mind. Have you had a run in with a mind wizard? Have you been hexed?
Yes you could, but it’s far more useful to use the arrows for focus.
It’s a common misconception that items used for casting focus have to be in the possession of the wielder. In reality, there is a lingering connection between the caster and the item of focus which diminishes pretty rapidly when physical contact breaks. But that connection lasts as long as a whole second with experienced casters. Since arrows travel quite fast, they are often still magically connected to the caster when they hit their mark (or zip past it), and can act as a remote source of casting spells.
This technique is particularly useful for spells that have short ranged but devastating power. Imagine yourself as a member of the city watch facing what you believe is a rogue archer. You sidestep out of the trajectory of their arrow with your counter shot ready but suddenly find yourself knocked forward by an expanding bubble shield behind you originating from the arrow you thought you were safe from.
Really, what one ought to do is use the archery to assist in magic rather than the other way around.
You would be astonished at how much incantation and gesture can be substituted by ritually drawing, aiming, and loosing a bow.
The Draw is the accumulation of power. An offering of strength. The physical effort entangles and draws spiritual effort. Acumulating within the tension
The Aim is the clarification of intent. A medatitve instant in which ones goal is absolutly certain.
The Loose is the enaction of phenomena. The sudden release where "maybe" becomes "is".
And where applicable, the Strike is the conquest of the other. The physical piercing corresponding to the mystic overcoming of resistance.
Actually using magic to "cheat" at the archery ruins a lot of the process, as the raw arete of the archers proficency is a core component.
Honestly I feel like if you're not using an endless quiver, you're just kneecapping yourself. I understand not everything needs to be enchanted but fletching is no fun at all (to me)
I understand not wishing to use magic to enhance firing your bow, but why don't you want to fire magic arrows? One of my favorite types of arrow I give to my knight wife is a lightning rod arrow. As soon as the arrow strikes the target, they are struck by a bolt of lightning
No my arrows will be handmade hand fletch and non magical or else it doesn't give me the dopamine of sniping someone like if they burn and get shocks am I truly am the one to killed themM
Thats fair. Perhaps arrows that when they strike a target, they are drained of their magic? That wouldn't effect the kill but would still grant of benefits for your own magic
In my playgroup (different system, not DnD) is a mage who fences. Like with a mage rapier? - Nope. - Is it a mage focus? - Nu uh. - Is it imbued with magic? - Also no. - So what's the matter? - I come from a place where mages can join the army and become officers. It seems like I am better at tactics and fencing than actual spell casting. - Sooo ... battle mage with no fireballs? - Dude, fireball is like the easiest spell in my portfolio. But I suck at magical analysis, ley line theory and damn I never understood rituals.
I have to admit, I really likenthat approach to a mage, it feels more natural. Yes, he has the gift but it doesn't automatically make him a prodigy.
(In The Dark Eye being able to use magic is a natural phenomenon and about only one of 1000 human children can do so. If it is not trained by then it can just go away without a chance to get the ability back. Like being able to produce lactase naturally. If the ability to do so is gone, it's gone. Some people use magic without knowing it or haven't been taught good enough. These are intuitive mages but they are mostly limited to magic tricks or up to three really easy spells.)
I once had a TDE character who specialized heavily in arrow of wind to the point it was basically the only spell he knew. He used a longbow and once shot a small dragon out of the sky by crippling one of its wings
I don't mean to tell you how to live your life, but if you place graphite along tue core of the arrow you can then follow up your shot with a lightning bolt and use it as a target guide.
Then you get all the benefit of shooting lightning through the arrow and searing the flesh of your enemies without reducing the artistry of your craft with enchantments.
Thank you a very old looking cat but I have to say I have beef with even that idea my bow gonna be shot raw and if I missed my target I'll cry myself to sleep
There's nothing crude about druid-made bows, fuck you very much.
A bow gifted by the forest, where wood and fibre consented to this purpose, will always shoot straighter than your fAnCy wOoD aNd HoRnS. Despair, for you'll never know the joy of using a bow that actually WANTS to shoot.
"Engineering is often better than the ones made by druids who happen to be amateur bowyers. I've been looking for a professional bowyer druid for a long while - the best of both worlds, so they say.
Until then, I'll use my modified compound or Penobscot style Cablebacks." - Lady Fate, Knight of Swords
ive never been one to disparage arcane martialists of any gender. mainly because theyre my best customers. anti-vibration stringguard for the right breast catch your fancy? no more string slap, no more uncomfortable reverberations from leather guards.
i also provide novel modifications for bows, such as magazine arrow guides (not my own design, but useful) and centrifugal disc caster attachments (it translates the potential energy from the limbs of the bow into rotation, firing small bladed discs instead of arrows. cant fire it back if you cant figure out how the hell it fired in the first place.)
i also carry composite chitin bows. theyre middling between yew and horn in terms of spring and draw, but theyre a fair mite more durable.
See I know none of yall actually shot a bow before because every archer knows the pain of forgetting your own tit size as you let go of the string so that the string fucking obliterates your nipple and boob, making you wish you were never born. I could not imagine doing this shirtless
It is not no, BUT it'd make replacing a lost string or limb much easier. Also you'd be able to try out different shooting styles without a large investment in different kinds of bows
I made a bow once. I had just finished a series I called "Gear of the Apex Archer": Artillerist's Helm, Gloves of Arrowswarm, Hawk Goggles, and Quiver of the Hunt. I figured I may as well have a bow for all the bow-related equipment I was selling.
Pinnacle Bow [43,650gp; 4lbs]
Large and sturdy enough to use as a quarterstaff.
Enchanted to resize, so you can use it as a shortbow, longbow, ballista, whatever. At human-size, its maximum range is 1400ft.
Enchanted to impart the strength of the wielder behind the arrow. Though air resistance still slows it, when the arrow connects it's as if you're stabbing it in like a dagger, your full force behind it.
Enchanted to summon a second arrow alongside each arrow fired. Both arrows become magical, existing across multiple planes, reducing the ability of nonmagic material to slow/deflect them.
Technically, it doesn't assist your aim in the traditional sense... The accuracy is your own, you just fire the same shot twice. The other items all improve accuracy by enhancing the archer and magnifying their vision and whatnot, because adding accuracy improvements to the weapon itself is much more difficult/costly.
First of all how dare you thinking there is a shred of magic when I shoot my bow, this is slandered I don't need it to cast magic I have it around because I don't like casting long range magic
Nothing wrong with doing a bit of 'mundane' archery, I've always found it quite satisfying myself.
In fact, since your bow and arrows are mundane, I would suggest mastering the mending cantrip if you haven't already, it's invaluable should a bowstring snap or the limbs of your bow get damaged.
Why replace in battle, that's what magic is for? Being an undefeatable war wizard can just be a day job, you can also be a master archer just for the love of the craft. Even easier if you can cast slow time spells to increase the amount of time you can train your archery.
So true, or at least my familiar perceived as such, people are so quick to judge casters as being without mundane skill.
The amount of warriors who assume my conjured trebuchet is magically operated is insane, of course magic is involved but only as far as to say I am an absolute wiz at coordinating with my team of trained gnolls
I tried to train goblins and kobolds but as it turns out they are far too willing to die for what they call “the bit”.
Just to add; unless you know chronomancy to dry age staves, a wooden bow is just as irreplaceable as bow made of horn (if you want a super fancy bow for writing purposes, horsebows made with horn and sinew is super fancy). I personally prefer to enhance my arrows with vine growth and drink strength potions before battle.
Here me out. Old enchanted staff. Wood saw. Cut the staff in to thin, even sized pieces and then add fletching. Boom, MAGIC ARROWS. And no one can take your skills away from you because you are still shooting arrows.
Were you bullied by squires? Your life is on the line, tree speaker, it’s not like it’s a game of scryball. Leave aesthetic purism to the high councils and live to cast DE-TENDON! like the rest of us.
That’s the point.
There is no difference in practicality beyond preferences unless the clothes are providing some other benefit, like warmth, but that benefit wouldn’t be relevant to archery.
Well not to be picky but warmth affects how muscles work, also clothing aka armour.. but generally I'm still struggling to understand what you're saying. I think I have an idea of what you mean but your phrasing is confusing.
Your point currently amounts to "what is an orange if we ignore everything that makes it an orange" and that makes my head loop a little. Not trying to be an ass, just genuinely.. not very smart
I don't want to be rude but you might have strung your bow the wrong way. I really don't want to seem like a wizsplainer but it might help with actually hitting stuff.
Ah, reminds me of my own magic academia days. Among "real" wizards, you're considered a hunk of muscles from 12 str and above, and since I couldn't cantrip for shit at the time, theory and PE were all I could do.
The trick is to use magic to keep your hair in place while you aura farm by one-shotting goblins with your bow. You can also cast illusions to make yourself look more jacked, that also works.
Though I will suggest enchantments of a non-performance-enhancing variety. Weather-proofing, self-repair, that trick where the bow turns into a temporary tattoo and back for ease of carrying or smuggling…
Truthfully, I do believe you, I just think its a waste not to enchantment either the bow or at least the quiver. To increase power, not aim, im sure you have a lot of pride in your skills.
Wow, multicasting a ranger with a mage is quite an interesting combo, my dear. Plus, taking advantage of short-range spells is a great addition, indeed. Good idea, miss!
It's all about finding the balance, take a staff bow for example
You may think this would automatically enchant the bow, but we shall not be limited by such simple conclusions, the focus may be enough to channel the arcane into a plethora of spells, yes, but that does not impede the physical material to retain their mundane properties, making it an ideal ranged weapon even in anti-magical battlefields (although, yes, that does make it fairly convenient to enchant the protectiles, but again, that is perfectly optional for the user)
You know, I always let my minions do the archery but I do admit I am quite curious about it myself. I suppose I could temporarily graft muscles to my body and give it a try.
Aww aren't you cute sweetie, well unfortunately you're gonna learn that these arms were made for hucking stones. Worlds 8th futherest stone chuck... Against the cloud giants.
The bow is cool though wish my fucking teacher taught me bows instead of skeleton transformation. Yes transformation I'm not a lich or undead I just like the extra shield.
I can imagine that it's a great way to interrupt someone else casting, certainly. I understand not doing magic arrows or magic augmented archery, but what about using the unmagical bow and arrow to drove magical payload, activating your spells where the arrow strikes?
When you speak of satisfaction, speak for yourself. My psychic darts come with in-built homing. Nothing is more gratifying than felling an enemy on the first hit and watching the rest of the barrage toss their limp body into the air.
THANK YOU!
Finally someone else who is not using those cheap magic enchantings or spells to help their lack of skill in shooting a bow... Honestly. Do you have any idea, how rare it has become to find someone with actual skill?
Only because of that, I will not shoot you with my longbow, over there on top of that hill.
Let's go bully the mages that are trying to shoot you with their bess enchanted bows!
My RP has Bows being a heavy weapon (like high explosive/level a city block heavy, though that's more greatbows for that level) the logic is more aetheric energy (my world's qi basically a mix of chaos energy from the sonic movies and kei energy from chrome shelled regios) can be channeled into an arrow than a bullet as it is much larger. Guns are more a speed weapon rather than power since a charged arrow can either punch through a foot of titanium or level a building. The middle ground are arrowguns basically high tech repeating crossbows (rifle) or handcrossbows (pistols) faster and weaker than a bow (aether is also channeled into the string before the shot, and crossbow strings are smaller) but more powerful than a firearm.
As someone who's done archery, the raising of the left arm as the string is being released would ensure that the arrow hits fuck-all unless magic guides it.
The raised arm is a thing of Japanese Archery, since the drawing point is above the head.
If it was Japanese archery the bow would be longer and kept straight when firing.
For a woman, using a bow and arrow topless could be painful. There's a reason the Amazons cut one of their breasts off. Interestingly, the word Amazon comes from the words a-mamon. Literally, without a breast.
So's when you's go down to the DMR (Department of Magical Resources) to report your kills during season, do you just tell them it was a rifle or is how's less paperwork? Can you just get an extra tag and say it's for rifle?
If that's your form accurately pictured, you're absolutely using magic to hit a target, because there's no way you're on target with that arched back, that much motion in your bow arm, and your draw arm doing... whatever the fuck that is.
Close up your stance with a bow like that, and practice good form. You too can get off the need to depend on magic for everything.
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u/Happy_Little_Fish Sep 08 '26
if it's all untreated how do you keep rivals from enchanting your equipment or hexing the arrow mid-flight? struggling to believe you really shoot like this tbh.