Non magical arrow fired form a magical bow: are they considered magical?

[Strider1973]

Hi everybody, pretty much what the title says: my group (I'm the DM) is going to encounter in the next adventure of the campaign I'm running several monsters with resistances or immunities to non magical weapons: one of the fighters in the party has a magical longbow (+1 to hit and +1 to damage), but he hasn't got any magical arrow. He fires only normal arrows. My question is: using RAW, are those arrows considered magical, in order to overcome resistances and immunities to non magical weapons?
Many thanks, hand happy life and gaming!

 

[Yunru]

Yes.
“If a magic weapon has the ammunition property, ammunition fired from it is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.”

 

[Charlaquin]

Likewise, a magic arrow fired from a nonmagical bow is also considered magical damage.

 

[aco175]

I believe they are that is why +1 arrows are easier to get in the treasure rolls than a +1 bow. I would let it work if RAW says not as well since the older editions have worked this way and my group played like this for too long.

 

[Strider1973]

Many Thanks Indeed!

 

[Strider1973]

Yes.
“If a magic weapon has the ammunition property, ammunition fired from it is considered magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.”

Just a question: where did you find this sentence? Many thanks again!

 

[Yunru]

Just a question: where did you find this sentence? Many thanks again!

It's under Magic Weapons or something. I found it in the DMG errata.

 

[Strider1973]

It's under Magic Weapons or something. I found it in the DMG errata.

Thanks again!

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

I used to argue with one of my old DM's about this. Previous to the errata that showed my stance was the correct one, I had brought up to my DM that the intent was for a magic bow to do full damage to a creature even the ammunition was not magical because of the way damage resistance is worded and the way weapons are shown on the equipment charts. Despite arrows doing the damage when shot, the PHB doesn't have damage listed for them. It is listed by bow. The weapon being used by the character is a bow, not an arrow. And if the bow is magical then a magical weapon dealt damage when the arrow hit, not the arrow itself, at least from a rules standpoint.

I know it was nitpicking, but it seemed obvious to me that the intent was the bow was doing the damage since it had a damage entry and arrows did not.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The complication was that in earlier editions, this was not the case. An normal arrow shot from a magical bow did not count as a magical weapon. The bonuses from magical launcher and magical ammo stacked with each other. Magical bows often only gave a bonus to hit, not damage.

Thus, the 5e rule clarification was very much necessary.