How many arrows can one man carry?

[ThomasBJJ]

Just curious, how many quivers full of arrows should a fighter be able to carry?

Going by weight limit, that could be quite a few. But how many quivers should I allow him to carry on his back? I'm thinking about 2, which would be about 40 arrows. I think one of my players was claiming he was "DOWN to 75 arrows after a long battle" ?!?!

What do you guys do? And where can I find more info in the Core books?

 

[Crothian]

We do 2 quivers a person. Getting a magical item that allows for the holding of more is not that difficult unless the DM makes it more difficult.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

I always keep 3 or 4 extra quivers on the pack animal, just in case. My characters usually only carry one at a time, but 2 or three might be reasonable.

 

[baradtgnome]

Try the show me method. Ask a motivated group of players to simulate carrying more than 2 quivers. It's not the weight I would guess that would be the problem but the shear size and ability to keep them out of the way when moving/fighting.

Have them strap three somethings on their back that are about the size and weight of a quiver and ask them to move like they are fighting. Often reality can slow the complaints.

 

[Saeviomagy]

And then you can get them to show how the fire them, and how the fighter is swinging his sword to attack 8 opponents at once with whirlwind attack, and the mage to show how he makes stuff explode and...

Does it really matter how many arrows your archer has on his back? Encumberance is enough of a pain without having to work out this sort of thing.

 

[the Jester]

One on each side where you'd have your sword or whatever, one atop the backpack, one strapped to the bottom of the backpack, umm...

The real question to me is how many quivers can you have easy access to at once? I'd say three, one at each side and one on the back. After that it's a full round action or more to change quivers.

YMMV.

 

[Crothian]

Does it really matter how many arrows your archer has on his back? Encumberance is enough of a pain without having to work out this sort of thing.

Actually, it does because ammo is a limited thing. Running out of ammo can be a blow to an andventureing party.

 

[Spindel]

2. If they're going through more than 40 arrows in any encounter then they need to learn to economise.

I'd also say one at the shoulder (same side as your on hand) and the opposite hip, I guess both shoulder and hips if the chatacter has ambidexterity and can fire the bow from either hand, but if they've got quivers where they keep their swords then drawing a melee weapon could prove embaressing. Besdies, it's fun to have a character ducking for cover in an archery fight so they can spend a re-loading a quiver (one quiver per round).

 

[Saeviomagy]

Crothian - I don't mind keeping track of encumberance, which keeps track of the ammo available to the party just fine. Saying "we'll ignore the encumberance rules for now - describe exactly how you are carrying that stuff" is going a bit over the top, don't you think? I thought this was Dungeons and Dragons, not Cubicles and Accountants.

If the character is carrying them, they're quivered. I fail to see how that's any more or less a problem than if they're stuffed in his backpack.

 

[LrdApoc]

ammo depletion

Crothian speaks from experience.. once you have a party of archer types, all with rapid fire, and other archery related feats you can burn through ammo quickly.

In one of our games I'm suprised we havn't bought out all the arrows in the region yet. We've taken to carting a barrel of arrows on our traveling cart for resupply purposes!

So yes encumbrance is a big issue, but for an archer ammo is a bigger one.

I disagree with your Cubicals and Accountants assessment, but that's how you do things and that's fine. I am more flexible at times as well, but reasonability is always a consideration. The 5'6" fighter who has 4 weapons and two bows along with the standard adventuring gear will not fly with me.

A character with a light load of 90lbs can't carry a whole lot, as reflected by the negative in their Str. Score.. the system is built to help illustrate that. Throwing it out reduces the stats to mere combat mechanics.