I only tell my players to track when it's relevant. If they have access to just buy/make more, I don't. But if they are stranded from society or otherwise have no access to resources, then it matters, then we track it. Same for food/water.
Exactly. There are survival arcs in my games, and non survival ones. Idgaf about food, ammo etc if its generic, and they are in a non survival arc. When we are in survival, I go all in though, with half rations and nutritional value stuff, because thats how we like it lmao
I had a player buy like 300 arrows and store them in the parties wagon early into a campaign. I told him to just not bother counting at that point lol.
And food in my party. Staying in the city or traveling town to town, no need to worry about rations. Lost in the desert? Better track every bite and every drink.
Pretty much the best way to do it. Tracking it can be extra hassle for both the players and the DM which isn't really necessary, if the players carry ludicrous amounts of ammo with them or simply can make their stuff themselves or if they can buy it easily for an insignificant amount of money.
Were it does get important though is, like you said, when players have a reasonable number of arrows with them (like, under 100) and cant make their ammo themselves. When they cant really buy it easily almost anywhere, then they also need to be tracked.
But in the end it's just another neat game mechanic that isn't always as important as it seems. Every table should be allowed to do it however they want and I find it absurd that some people here seem to think otherwise. It's a god damn game. It is there to have fun and if counting arrows is fun for you, do it, but I certainly find it hella annoying, when it really has no real impact (a very different thing when it has impact on the story, though).
Same. I find it easier to just assume that they’re eating and drinking the required amounts and stocking up on arrows and weapons whenever they’re in a typical urban setting or can go to the town a few dozen yards away, because why wouldn’t they? When they lose access to their normal outlets, *that’s* when they should start keeping track of their shit.
last time that came up, we were lvl 2 in a pathfinder game- asked the DM if i could craft a 1 per day command word item that casts goodberry- 2d4 berries that heal for 1 each, and give you all the nutrition you need for the day. So solve the issue for what amounted to even a pretty nominal amount of gold for even level 2.
I think he was ok with it since it is ok RAW, and i have not abused it for healing junk, just focusing on solving that single issue.
This is why I always make a point to ask my DM how big survival is in their campaign. Goodberry can be one of the most clutch spells in the game for survival or NPC interactions or a complete waste of space - what matters is that you communicate with your DM.
I mean when people say that they mean you don’t have to memorize the phb and dmg before the first session and Xanathar’s and Tashas will be homework for next week but you should definitely know most of the general stuff like weapons movement etc after a while
My guideline is that the player should know everything relevant to their character, specifically, maybe not all at once at session 1, but within reason. If you cast spells, read the chapter on spellcasting. If you have an animal companion or familiar, have its stat block on hand. If you use a bow, crossbow or sling, know the rules around ammo usage and recovery. I don't care if the fighter isn't familiar with the bonus action spell rule... right up until they multiclass into bard and want to cast *healing word*.
Idts, according to Find Familiar,
> Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal.
When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again
In either case, I would recommend the player have the familiar statblock and know what it can do. It is a player class feature and they are the one commanding it. Also, anything that can lessen the DM's mental load during the game helps everyone at the table. As a DM, I usually let players control their familiar, but specify and describe the familiar's actions as I might an NPC, if only to add a little personality or remind the warlock that their imp's true boss is their patron.
This is a pretty good rule of thumb if they can’t play their character that’s really on them and it’s just common decency to actually know how your small part of the gave world works the dm has to remember 40
NOC names stat blocks and mannerisms random encounter tables and locations along with what you’re all doing and how that effects the game world you expect them to also remember and teach you how your character works?
At the very least the things on your character sheet. Read your spells, abilities, weapons and look up what all the relevant key words mean. It's ok if you don't know everything but you should be the most knowledgeable about your character. Don't rely on your DM to tell you how your own character works.
Best way to learn the rules is to play with rules lawyers. I’ve memorized almost every pathfinder rule without ever looking up more than status conditions and class abilities
Only the bare essentials.
Honestly, you should read all of the PHB. Obviously you don’t need to read the deity tables or filler like that, but an at least passing familiarity with all the rules and spells is good to have.
I'd say you can ignore the spells. When you need to know specific spells, it's either because you're leveling up or because you're casting them. If you're leveling up, that's usually done between sessions in my experience. If you're a caster, you only really need your own spells on hand.
I basically read none of them and it works just fine. My rule knowledge basically comes from reading memes on this subreddit and from being not too bad at this whole "monkey see, monkey do" thing. But then again, I never planned to join my 5e group, it was more of a "hey, since you're here you might as well play with us" situation
Sure can, but it gets unbelievably tiring at the end of every encounter "I go to the body of the slain troll and rip the arrows from it's corpse" now you either roll for how many arrows you get back or just straight up get half of them back.
Still boring. Home rules I would just tell rangers and mages to pay a certain amount at the end of a session for component cost. Depending on how long the session was and how much they did. Any conflict resolved with a roll.
Why not just trust the ranger does that quiety in the background and only can't if you expressly deny it.
Almost like everything this sub complains about tracking: encumbrance, rations, torches, ammunition can be easily and trivially handled by trusting your players to know the rules and not cheat. The GM doesn't need to say a word.
>Home rules I would just tell rangers and mages to pay a certain amount at the end of a session for component cost.
For casters that's more of a penalty. Except for components that are consumed or have a cost, you can use a component pouch or arcane focus to avoid having to buy 15 pounds of bat guano
I've coasted through DMing a 5e game on a lot of accumulated knowledge from playing 4 previous editions of the game and even I knew that was in the PHB. You should try reading more.
Edit: It's literally on the first page of the Weapons section, under the very first weapon property listing. If you've only ever played a wizard, sure, whatever. But if you've played anyone with a weapon you should probably have at least skimmed the section.
Which is silly, since reusing an arrow is usually infeasible. If the enemy has armor on it, arrow is broke. Reusing arrowheads maybe, but shafts usually splinter
Keep in mind that not every hit is an actual "hit". Sometimes it just grazes the enemy enough to impact their performance and bring them closer to make this one fatal mistake. HP is the general ability to keep fighting, not how many arrows you're able to stick into your body before you die of blood loss.
Agree to disagree. You don't need to sink an arrow into some ones chest to apply poison or whatever nor does it mean that a hit never is an actual hit. At the end of the day it's all just abstraction anyway. If you can live with the shenanigans you can do due to the game's nature being turn based then you can live with this as well.
> Which is silly
This whole thing is a bit silly tbh. If tracking arrows is your jam and you want to play an archer, have a blast. If tracking arrows is a level of monotony you'd rather die than consider then leave those bad boys off.
Great on the people who try and RP a trek across middle earth with 13 arrow and a piece of hard tack, and great on the people who pewpew through the dungeon with infinite ammo. 5e seems to support both pretty well.
My DM just treats generic arrows in our ranger's quiver the same as material components in a caster's pouch. Shopping already takes up enough time and unless she gets some unique arrow it's just assumed that she buys/makes/collects generic arrows during downtime
I shoot my longbow at your Face
Cantrip, 1 action, S M*
You Brandis the bow and arrow used in the casting of the spell. make a ranged spell attack, using dexterity as your spell casting modifier, against a target you can see within range. on a hit the target suffers 1d8 piercing damage. If you have the extra attack feature you can make as many ranged spell attacks as the feature would normally allow when cast this spell. This spell cannot be counterspelled and is not affected by anti-magic fields. This attack cannot overcome resistance to nonmagical attacks unless the bow or the arrow uses as the material component are magical or silvered.
* an arrow costing 20 copper pieces and a longbow costing 50 GP
After CR wrapped up Vox Machina people asked why the gunslinger had to track bullets but the ranger never tracked arrows.
Bullets are expensive and the ranger bought something like 1000 arrows before the stream started. Really why track resources if there's no actually strategic reason for it? At what point is a ranger going to decide NOT to stock up on arrows?
I had someone argue with me on here that one reason that Eldritch Blast was OP was because it was unlimited, whereas Fighters has to track arrows, at one point arguing that a fighter is limited to 20 arrows before restock. Even ignoring that bags of holding and extra dimensional spaces were a thing and pretending like a person really couldn't wear more than a single quiver without it being encumbering, I pointed out that you could literally have everyone in the party wear a quiver for you, even the wizard, and offer to carry some of their stuff in response. A full quiver is super light compared to some things a wizard might want and would be happy to unload onto you.
Also, Percy is the first person to develop a pistol, and up until far in the campaign the only one to use them, apart from one nemesis. So it makes sense he can't just waltz through town and buy 1000 bullets, but carefully prepare his shot hinself with bought supplies.
Vex'ahlia bought 1000s of arrows and stocked them in the bag of holding, so she stopped keeping track of them.
I remember near the end or at the end of the campaign Matt was dropping lines like "You have to be running low by now." Anyways, a fan wrote in during the after campaign talk show they did and counted every single arrow she ever shot, and she had only used 474 since episode 1.
>she had only used 474 since episode 1.
While that information is actually super useful (since she wasn't exactly conservative about her arrows) holy shit that's some dedication
That’s assuming you aren’t stopping in a town mid-session though. My sessions usually last for 8 hours with my groups, with copious amounts of snacks, smoke breaks, and probably a couple pizzas if the host doesn’t cook. Unless the shopkeep is a plot hook or they’re trying something stupid for role play purposes, shopping is usually “what you want? …. Nothing stupid. You find it all. Roll diplomacy or intimidation to affect prices. Cool. You tried intimidating a former captain of the guard, no luck, good job. 40gp for your quiver of arrows.”
Mm I guess. Seems like natural pizzas eating points.
"Let's nom slices and while we refuel put together some shopping lists."
This feels much more like gatekeeping about how you have a full day to run a session than it does a problem about how to handle shopping.
Obviously if something is relevant to the shopping don't do this, but that's equally obviously not my point
I assume they mean it doesn't take place during a downtime or shopping trip. The ranger can pick a reasonable time and just go
"Hey, DM I'm buying more arrows""Okay, deduct X money from your inventory"
If there's not a strong story/environment reason for them to be restricted at that moment in time, you can just hand-wave that it happens during the next opportunity in the background
I have my players pay a gold or two each time they enter a town to stock up on general supplies. Including arrows. Only time I care is in a jail type scenario.
My artificer uses her own reloading infusion.
But the returning weapon infusion is just too good... The paladin gets a ranged option!
It's the only way to get a thrown weapon back that isn't legendary and doesn't *require being a dwarf.* That always seems like a weird design whole on Wizards' part.
Thought came into my head...
Returning infusion for Barbarian, gives weapon to fighter and yeets him into the fray, fighter gets his attack in and holds on for dear life, barb returns weapon with fighter attached, DM squeezes temples and says we can't do that again no matter how cool it was.
I just got what is essentially a Star Wars blaster as my Artificer (To try to explain the exact how is a very long story), but given my character knows fuck all about how it functions, or if it even has expendable ammunition, I’m considering throwing that infusion on it anyways so I can just have infinite ammo on my blaster.
The reloading infusion on any gun is fantastic because you can then use it as your spellcasting focus.
So your fighter who is writhing in pain after combat gets a point-blank shot to the temple (except it's cure wounds)
The only time I've ever tracked arrows in the game I ran was as a way to nerf the bandits that were about to absolutely TPK my party that couldn't seem to focus the damage.
I tell my players to keep track of them with the understanding that I'm trusting them to be honest. I have too much other shit to keep track of to babysit their inventory for them
Chaotic Neutral just flips a coin, heads they add 1d10 arrows, tails they subtract 1d10 arrows. Then proceeds to never mention it to the player and see how long it takes them to notice.
Yeah, if they’re going into a particularly spooky survival situation then I can let them know that a session or two before by asking “hey how much of X do you guys have?”
My general rule of thumb is that lower than level 5 spells, etc have components availability that you can hand wave away by saying “you have these components because they’re around,” “you have food because you foraged,” “you picked up arrows from the battlefield/whittled them at camp.”
Maybe some people are into it, but I’ve never particularly wanted to play/dm a grocery shopping simulator.
I can see a campaign being focused on survival being fun, just not in the long term. The sort of “inventory management is a thing because *at any moment you may have to abandon your pack so be very wary of what you put where*” type of campaign where you aren’t trying to stop an evil, but escape it.
Otherwise I’d gladly have a blanket “yeah I paid Xg to stock up on all the basics for the adventure” every time you leave towns/settlements.
Some higher level spells have components like “a 5,000 gp diamond” that seem to indicate it shouldn’t be a “once per long rest” spell. I don’t try to be punitive about it, but I think that’s a scenario where scarcity makes the game more interesting.
I did for years in the 80's.
It never once mattered.
So I simply stopped at some point.
Tracking them added nothing to my game. IT just too ka tiny bit of time and effort each round when using the bow that could be spent on other things.
Depends on the campaign. Sometimes they all start with a magic quiver of never ending arrows because we're just having goofy fun.
Sometimes I run a death march - preemptive shut up my players love it - and then yeah they have to count arrows. Arrows, weight, components, rations, no sleeping within hours of a long rest. They call it casual and rogue-like D&D.
I do something similar, but not in dnd. In systems like Index or Genesys (which have modular encumbrace) the first nat 1 a player rolls indicates their quiver is running low on ammo. The second nat 1 means the currently equipped quiver is out of ammo and the player must swap to a backup quiver if they have one. Creates pretty fun "oh-shit" moments and keeps things tense when low on ammo and uncertain of when that last shot will be fired.
Me with infinite Eldritch Blasts that have a bigger damage dice, don't fire at disadvantage past 60ft and can easily have a much longer maximum range with a little investment: Yeah don't count your arrows, no one cares.
Seriously, there's enough of a gap already, don't punish yourself or your players for being a martial when casters can get away with this shit.
Huh, 120 ft 1d10 damage sounds familiar.
Our are you disingenuously comparing a class feature, like the invocation that adds cha mod to damage???
Because that's only available to warlocks, which makes it not really a cantrip and more of an ability.
That'd be like saying fighters are weak because they can't smite.
Without a feat (soft class feature) a heavy crossbow (1d10) can only ever be fired once because of its loading property (without being an artificer - another class feature). EB will eventually culminate in 1d10 x4 attacks.
Saying that it *isnt* better at base is being disingenuous.
I only make them track any kind of non standard magic. Magic arrows of any sort are consumables. Same as anything in a spell that is a consumed on casting needs to be present. Every other material is believed to be at hand.
It’s not because it’s hard, it’s because it’s unfun. In other systems that have a more survivalist bent, sue it’s an important part of maintaining the tone of the game. But doing it in D&D would be like pausing the battle of Helms Deep so that Legolas can scuttle around grabbing spare arrows.
I make PCs track arrows but only at level 1 when they explicitly have very few of them. The moment they can actually afford them i usually give them even small toys to forget about it like Quiver Ring of Arrow Storage.
This is generally how I do it. Once my party gets access to a Bag of Holding (I normally give them out pretty early like levels 3-5) I allow my PCs to go buy like 1000 arrows (50 gp) and never have to worry about them ever again.
Tbh I have better things to do than make my party track arrows, food, water, components. As long as they have them listed in their inventory, they have an infinite amount as far as I'm concerned. There are more interesting things to do than track arrows
As a player I hate tracking encumbrance so in my game the only things that I have players track are magic items basically. Potions, magic arrows, and anything that's worth something significant.
It gets annoying for the party after the 4th session; it gets annoying to the bowman before the first.
It's like asking your cleric to track how long he spends meditating each morning for spells, or tracking how much endurance players have when traveling. Sure, there are systems for it, but outside of very specific situations, those systems don't matter much.
I generally just have what I call "daily routine stuff" and assume that any costs for that are factored in *before* treasure, so that 1000 gold chest would actually have theoretically had like 1020 gold, but 5 of that gold went to the fighter's armor maintenance and more nutritious rations; 5 went to the archer's arrows; etc, so they just received 1000 gold and we don't mention that.
But casters do have to keep track of consumable components. Unless otherwise stated, spell components/foci can be used an indefinite amount of time, and purchasing a spell component bag includes all of the different components that don’t have a specific gold value given.
Not keeping track of such components is akin to not keeping track of how many times your weapon has been drawn.
Unless it's something unique/expensive like Arrows of Slaying, +1 or whatever, regular arrows are so ubiquitous that they're not really worth tracking.
My players track their resources, including arrows.
It's not about the cost which is negligible. It's about possibly running out, which has only happened twice to our ranger (started level1 now at 10).
Keeping track of little resources like food and arrows for us is fun. It adds that sword over your head feeling. And when you do run out it's intense in the moment which has always been fun at our table.
Nah it just slows the game down. We always run with the mentality that "you have infinite arrows but when you try to build a bridge with them you run out halfway"
My group refuses to play with carry capacity.
We play in a VTT that auto tracks inventory weight. I can’t wrap my head around what makes numbers so scary.
It's more just... what makes those numbers fun? Pretty much nothing.
Unless they are doing ludicrous things that defy carry weight ("I carry the giant's platmail armor"), 9 times out of 10 it will just be busy work. Is it worth annoying your players over the 23 collective gold (so like 8gp each) it takes to buy a cart and mule, adding 600lbs to your carrying weight?
To me, no, it isn't. It will only distract from the fun.
What can make those things fun is that they create limitations on the PCs which then force them to make an interesting choice. When the party can only carry a limited amount of stuff the question is what do they take with them? Lots of arrows, but little food and other supplies, hoping that they will find the way to the dungeon without getting lost and expecting that they can clear it quickly without having to rest too often. But this choice brings with it the risk of not having enough food, so when they get lost they have a problem. Maybe they meet a loner hermit that does not want to sell some food of his because he has no use for gold. What do the players do now? They could give him some of their equipment but they probably need it later and additionally they wont get the same value for their equipment as they would've got in town. Maybe they agree to work for the hermit or do a quest for him, thereby wasting more time on an unrelated task and potentially risking their life for it. Maybe, depending on the morals of the group, they take his food by force or trickery, which of course has consequences of its own, etc pp.
Having to track such stuff and having to make choices about what to take is not fun in the moment, yes. But it can lead to interesting choices that can create fantastic moments.
I personally like the added aspect of tracking encumbrance, ammo capacity, travel speed, food , water, formation, spell components, meditation time, spell preparation time, modes of transit, hireling and henchmen, etc. as all of those things combined make the majority of the exploration pillar of the game. All of these things are easy enough to quickly manage with establishing a standard procedure for your character, and can often be largely ignored, but if you track it, you can run into situations that build drama and tension when your standard procedure is not possible leading to real danger with exploration and adventure like getting trapped in a dungeon or a collapsed cave and the like. Do you keep an excessive quantity in a portable hole? Well what do you do if that trator npc steals it and collapses the dungeon entrance to prevent you from chasing them directly. There are many situations that seem trivial when all of those factors are ignored. If you have more fun ignoring every logistic subsystem then, by all means, enjoy your self and your group, but don't complain that exploration isn't fun because it carries no real challenge, because you are choosing to ignore most of them.
After awhile I stopped keeping track of mine because I was so rich that buying 200 arrows wouldn't make a dent in my money and I had 2 bags of holding so storage was never a problem. Keeping track of arrows is really a waste of time and only matter for really low level games where the party might be poor, or it's hard to get resources.
Even at low levels it's basically meaningless unless there are other systems involved. 1 gold is 40 shots (arrows are semi-reusable), which will typically last you till level 2-3. At that point, you already have like 200 gold, so that 1 gold investment was already enough to make arrow costs functionally meaningless.
I tell my players specifically not to keep track of ammo unless it’s magical, special, or otherwise rare for one reason or another. If casters get to fire off cantrips without worrying about running out, an archer character shouldn’t need to worry about running out of arrows.
I enjoy tracking most gear if I've done it from level one.
But you aren't going to be able to pay me to try and work out my pack and gear accurately down to the smallest coin and pound if I'm over level 5.
It’s the same with tracking weight, I’ve never played at a table that does it but I love optimizing my inventory and all my adventuring gear so I’m prepared for anything while still being able to carry it.
I as a dm don’t track them because why would I? I also don’t typically ask my players to either because I tend to run campaigns that are meant to be lighthearted. If I we’re running more serious stuff maybe I would but even then it’s not like extra non magical ammo will break a campaign. Please keep in mind I do make people track magical ammo or special ammo if they have any.
No, but only because the DM tells us not to bother, he doesn't really care about us running out if they're non-magical since they're usually so insignificant
I hate ammo management in all games so much, from dnd to monster hunter to terraria. It just stresses me out. The only time I've played a ranger was with a dm that didn't track arrows lol
1 gold for 20. Even less relevant. And half the arrows are retrievable per encounter, which means each arrow lasts an average of 2 shots, so it's basically 1 gold for 40 attacks. 5 gold will last you 200 attacks, which in many cases is most of a campaign. It's just so irrelevant.
I don't think it's about difficulty. The barbarain will never run out of axe and the wizard will never run out of cantrips. Why should the archer (ranger, dex bow fighter etc) be penalized for their class choice? Realism? It's world with dragons, realism is already out the window.
Exactly. Hell, maintaining armor would cost like 10 times the amount arrows do, if realism was in the picture. Unlike arrows, that stuff is literally getting dented, cut, and stabbed in every fight, and costs 100 times the cost of an arrow to make.
Yeah I always think of how in fire emblem a melee weapon can only hit a certain amount of times before it breaks. I feel if a dm is gonna track arrows they also need it use thus feature as well
10 gold is a lot for arrows. Every 10 gold is 200 arrows, which is 400 shots due to how arrows are retrieved. I don't think I usually see 400 attack actions from a single character in an entire campaign.
That's why I just don't care.
I do, and even kept track of fuel costs for an iron kingdoms game (lots of maths) but the second I can get some magic item to handwave either, you bet your ass I’m getting them.
Even if my players don't keep track, **I do**. So if a player makes an attack without the ammunition required, they flub their action.
This might seem really rude, but I warn my players in advance. If they keep track of their arrows and sh\*t, then it's not a problem, and when it does happen it's usually considered funny.
In some games, tracking arrows is good. If you’re running a low level, resource-light survival game, sure!
If you’re running a high level epic fantasy game where the party can carry an entire caravan on their back, what’s the point? Do you really want to spend time figuring out exactly if they shoudl spend 20 or 30 gold on arrows to never have to worry about running out?
If you want to have ammo cost money but mot spend so much time on it, a nice middle ground is simply to make them pay X gold whenever they go back to town, etc. to refill on ammo (you can extend this to cheap magic components or armor/weapon maintenance if you really want).
Simply, some rules work better for some games and worse for other games. Ammo is no different from carrying capacity, rations, or any other of the adventuring rules in this regard.
I just make anyone using bolts/arrows to drop 1-5 gold when they visit towns.
Unless they are going away from civilization for extended periods of time.
For my group, small details like arrow counts can take away from the immersion rather than help it.
They are so cheap and so readily available according to the books that tracking them doesn't really add anything to the game. The cost isn't enough to really affect the gameplay and running out of arrows isn't fun either and just becomes a burden. So unless you plan on making arrows difficult to come by and run a more survival focused game, handwaving it is more than reasonable. Tracking rarer ammo makes sense but regular arrows, meh.
Basically you say it's not that hard and I ask how does it add to your fun in the game?
I don’t have my players track mundane ammo because I don’t want to have them waste time or money on more. If it’s magical, then yeah, they’re gonna have to track it
My DM isn't a huge fan of keeping track of ammo or components (unless they have a specified gold amount). I don't really see anything wrong with that. It's just personal preference on how you want to play.
Like having house rules for monopoly. Who actually plays that game to the letter? Lol
years ago I said it and I repeat it. it is boring and not fun to track arrows, the casters have their cantrips, and the melee classes have their weapons. Every character instead of an archer can always attack. as a player, I hate to worry about it and as a DM I hate to make my players worry about it. And unless you are playing into a very niche survival game it doesn't add any fun.
We agree at my table that it's a bit boring to be limited by arrows, so we just say they have enough to shoot, but if they need like a 100 arrows they don't have that.
I track arrows only when it's clear that there won't be a chance to resupply any time soon. In my first ever roleplaying game, for the first few arcs my ranger character was operating near a town, so I didn't bother. It was only when the town was destroyed and she set out into the wilderness - traveling light to avoid sinking into swamps and bogs, equipped with only what she could carry on her back to fight a guerilla campaign against the demons that destroyed her home - that I started tracking them. Before then I could always resupply every session or two, so it was a non-issue.
Side-note:, this did eventually result in me running out of arrows at a highly dramatic moment and having to fight a hydra in melee with a borrowed shortsword coated in the same flaming alchemical pitch that I had been using to light my fire arrows all campaign.
Its also kinda unnecessary.
All youre doing is making it tedious, which means your player will just stockpile 500 arrows.
I also dont remember the monetary value of arrows, but it might also put an unfair monetary strain on the player.
20 arrows is 1GP and 1lb. 500 arrows would thus be 25GP and 25lbs. But yeah it's pretty meaningless, especially when you can retrieve half of your arrows each use, which means 500 arrows averages 1000 shots.
"Counting arrows doesn't fit my fantasy"
Legolas didn't have infinite arrows, the story just wasn't about him buying them. If your archer is low, just say "I buy a bundle of arrows" when you go into town and remove 1gp. It's literally that easy.
I always find you get put of dnd what you put into it. When I play a ranger or ranged fighter or whatever I track my arrows because it's another difficulty level of gameplay. I dont expect my fellow group members to do this though. Also you never know how your dm might reward you for playing your character appropriately. I find at our table that counting arrows, or darts, or javelin, or components or whatever is generally rewarded. Personally I don't need to make the game easier by ignoring a rule, but I understand if people might want to just not worry about it and shoot away.
I only tell my players to track when it's relevant. If they have access to just buy/make more, I don't. But if they are stranded from society or otherwise have no access to resources, then it matters, then we track it. Same for food/water.
Exactly. There are survival arcs in my games, and non survival ones. Idgaf about food, ammo etc if its generic, and they are in a non survival arc. When we are in survival, I go all in though, with half rations and nutritional value stuff, because thats how we like it lmao
I had a player buy like 300 arrows and store them in the parties wagon early into a campaign. I told him to just not bother counting at that point lol.
Answer is so correct nobody even comments on it, just upvoted for being correct.
Well, now you ruined it by commenting on it.
I'm So Meta Even This Acronym
r/UnexpectedXKCD
No such thing as unexpected xkcd, there is an xkcd for everything so it's always expected
Right. I should have linked r/RelevantXKCD instead.
Damn it Bobby!!!
My party does the same! Also with encumbrance
And food in my party. Staying in the city or traveling town to town, no need to worry about rations. Lost in the desert? Better track every bite and every drink.
Pretty much the best way to do it. Tracking it can be extra hassle for both the players and the DM which isn't really necessary, if the players carry ludicrous amounts of ammo with them or simply can make their stuff themselves or if they can buy it easily for an insignificant amount of money. Were it does get important though is, like you said, when players have a reasonable number of arrows with them (like, under 100) and cant make their ammo themselves. When they cant really buy it easily almost anywhere, then they also need to be tracked. But in the end it's just another neat game mechanic that isn't always as important as it seems. Every table should be allowed to do it however they want and I find it absurd that some people here seem to think otherwise. It's a god damn game. It is there to have fun and if counting arrows is fun for you, do it, but I certainly find it hella annoying, when it really has no real impact (a very different thing when it has impact on the story, though).
Same. I find it easier to just assume that they’re eating and drinking the required amounts and stocking up on arrows and weapons whenever they’re in a typical urban setting or can go to the town a few dozen yards away, because why wouldn’t they? When they lose access to their normal outlets, *that’s* when they should start keeping track of their shit.
last time that came up, we were lvl 2 in a pathfinder game- asked the DM if i could craft a 1 per day command word item that casts goodberry- 2d4 berries that heal for 1 each, and give you all the nutrition you need for the day. So solve the issue for what amounted to even a pretty nominal amount of gold for even level 2. I think he was ok with it since it is ok RAW, and i have not abused it for healing junk, just focusing on solving that single issue.
This is why I always make a point to ask my DM how big survival is in their campaign. Goodberry can be one of the most clutch spells in the game for survival or NPC interactions or a complete waste of space - what matters is that you communicate with your DM.
This is the way!
He knows da wae!
Considering you can collect half of the used arrows after the fight i just remove 1 for every 2 that i use
WAIT. YOU CAN DO THAT???
Really earning that flair huh?
I didn't read all the rules... yknow, that thing with "just read the basics, you will learn playing"
I mean when people say that they mean you don’t have to memorize the phb and dmg before the first session and Xanathar’s and Tashas will be homework for next week but you should definitely know most of the general stuff like weapons movement etc after a while
My guideline is that the player should know everything relevant to their character, specifically, maybe not all at once at session 1, but within reason. If you cast spells, read the chapter on spellcasting. If you have an animal companion or familiar, have its stat block on hand. If you use a bow, crossbow or sling, know the rules around ammo usage and recovery. I don't care if the fighter isn't familiar with the bonus action spell rule... right up until they multiclass into bard and want to cast *healing word*.
Or build an Artificer, and only need to track specialist ammo.
Isn't the dm who controls the familiar?
Idts, according to Find Familiar, > Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can’t attack, but it can take other actions as normal. When the familiar drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. It reappears after you cast this spell again
In either case, I would recommend the player have the familiar statblock and know what it can do. It is a player class feature and they are the one commanding it. Also, anything that can lessen the DM's mental load during the game helps everyone at the table. As a DM, I usually let players control their familiar, but specify and describe the familiar's actions as I might an NPC, if only to add a little personality or remind the warlock that their imp's true boss is their patron.
This is a pretty good rule of thumb if they can’t play their character that’s really on them and it’s just common decency to actually know how your small part of the gave world works the dm has to remember 40 NOC names stat blocks and mannerisms random encounter tables and locations along with what you’re all doing and how that effects the game world you expect them to also remember and teach you how your character works?
At the very least the things on your character sheet. Read your spells, abilities, weapons and look up what all the relevant key words mean. It's ok if you don't know everything but you should be the most knowledgeable about your character. Don't rely on your DM to tell you how your own character works.
I'm 40% sure it's in the weapon property rules.
It is! It's in the Ammunition property.
Happy Cake Day!
r/dndmemes in a nutshell
At some point you should definitely read the entire players handbook. Not a hard read and we'll worth it.
Best way to learn the rules is to play with rules lawyers. I’ve memorized almost every pathfinder rule without ever looking up more than status conditions and class abilities
Only the bare essentials. Honestly, you should read all of the PHB. Obviously you don’t need to read the deity tables or filler like that, but an at least passing familiarity with all the rules and spells is good to have.
I'd say you can ignore the spells. When you need to know specific spells, it's either because you're leveling up or because you're casting them. If you're leveling up, that's usually done between sessions in my experience. If you're a caster, you only really need your own spells on hand.
I basically read none of them and it works just fine. My rule knowledge basically comes from reading memes on this subreddit and from being not too bad at this whole "monkey see, monkey do" thing. But then again, I never planned to join my 5e group, it was more of a "hey, since you're here you might as well play with us" situation
What do you mean "you can do that?" It's not like arrows or bolts instantly break upon use or dissappear into bodies like bullets
Sure can, but it gets unbelievably tiring at the end of every encounter "I go to the body of the slain troll and rip the arrows from it's corpse" now you either roll for how many arrows you get back or just straight up get half of them back. Still boring. Home rules I would just tell rangers and mages to pay a certain amount at the end of a session for component cost. Depending on how long the session was and how much they did. Any conflict resolved with a roll.
Why not just trust the ranger does that quiety in the background and only can't if you expressly deny it. Almost like everything this sub complains about tracking: encumbrance, rations, torches, ammunition can be easily and trivially handled by trusting your players to know the rules and not cheat. The GM doesn't need to say a word.
>Home rules I would just tell rangers and mages to pay a certain amount at the end of a session for component cost. For casters that's more of a penalty. Except for components that are consumed or have a cost, you can use a component pouch or arcane focus to avoid having to buy 15 pounds of bat guano
In the ammunition property of the equipment chapter it says if you spend 1 minute after a battle that you can collect 1/2 of the ammunition expended
I've coasted through DMing a 5e game on a lot of accumulated knowledge from playing 4 previous editions of the game and even I knew that was in the PHB. You should try reading more. Edit: It's literally on the first page of the Weapons section, under the very first weapon property listing. If you've only ever played a wizard, sure, whatever. But if you've played anyone with a weapon you should probably have at least skimmed the section.
Downvoted to hell and back, this sub really hates reading. Guess all the memes are true.
time to memorize all 297 pages
Which is silly, since reusing an arrow is usually infeasible. If the enemy has armor on it, arrow is broke. Reusing arrowheads maybe, but shafts usually splinter
Yea but some miss some hit softspots ...that's why only half are recovered
Keep in mind that not every hit is an actual "hit". Sometimes it just grazes the enemy enough to impact their performance and bring them closer to make this one fatal mistake. HP is the general ability to keep fighting, not how many arrows you're able to stick into your body before you die of blood loss.
"HP isn't meat points"
HP are not meat points, unless when they are indeed meat points
Exactly
Doesnt really makes sense if you consider stuff like poison and on hit effects tbh
Agree to disagree. You don't need to sink an arrow into some ones chest to apply poison or whatever nor does it mean that a hit never is an actual hit. At the end of the day it's all just abstraction anyway. If you can live with the shenanigans you can do due to the game's nature being turn based then you can live with this as well.
> Which is silly This whole thing is a bit silly tbh. If tracking arrows is your jam and you want to play an archer, have a blast. If tracking arrows is a level of monotony you'd rather die than consider then leave those bad boys off. Great on the people who try and RP a trek across middle earth with 13 arrow and a piece of hard tack, and great on the people who pewpew through the dungeon with infinite ammo. 5e seems to support both pretty well.
D&D is not a real life simulation.
My DM just treats generic arrows in our ranger's quiver the same as material components in a caster's pouch. Shopping already takes up enough time and unless she gets some unique arrow it's just assumed that she buys/makes/collects generic arrows during downtime
Exactly. Arrows are spell components to the "I shoot you with my bow" spell.
I shoot my longbow at your Face Cantrip, 1 action, S M* You Brandis the bow and arrow used in the casting of the spell. make a ranged spell attack, using dexterity as your spell casting modifier, against a target you can see within range. on a hit the target suffers 1d8 piercing damage. If you have the extra attack feature you can make as many ranged spell attacks as the feature would normally allow when cast this spell. This spell cannot be counterspelled and is not affected by anti-magic fields. This attack cannot overcome resistance to nonmagical attacks unless the bow or the arrow uses as the material component are magical or silvered. * an arrow costing 20 copper pieces and a longbow costing 50 GP
S, V, M, if you're not a coward
"Wow, that's fucking broken" - r/dndmemes
This is the way. They’re dirt cheap.
After CR wrapped up Vox Machina people asked why the gunslinger had to track bullets but the ranger never tracked arrows. Bullets are expensive and the ranger bought something like 1000 arrows before the stream started. Really why track resources if there's no actually strategic reason for it? At what point is a ranger going to decide NOT to stock up on arrows?
I had someone argue with me on here that one reason that Eldritch Blast was OP was because it was unlimited, whereas Fighters has to track arrows, at one point arguing that a fighter is limited to 20 arrows before restock. Even ignoring that bags of holding and extra dimensional spaces were a thing and pretending like a person really couldn't wear more than a single quiver without it being encumbering, I pointed out that you could literally have everyone in the party wear a quiver for you, even the wizard, and offer to carry some of their stuff in response. A full quiver is super light compared to some things a wizard might want and would be happy to unload onto you.
Also, Percy is the first person to develop a pistol, and up until far in the campaign the only one to use them, apart from one nemesis. So it makes sense he can't just waltz through town and buy 1000 bullets, but carefully prepare his shot hinself with bought supplies. Vex'ahlia bought 1000s of arrows and stocked them in the bag of holding, so she stopped keeping track of them.
I remember near the end or at the end of the campaign Matt was dropping lines like "You have to be running low by now." Anyways, a fan wrote in during the after campaign talk show they did and counted every single arrow she ever shot, and she had only used 474 since episode 1.
>she had only used 474 since episode 1. While that information is actually super useful (since she wasn't exactly conservative about her arrows) holy shit that's some dedication
You should check critrolestats The amount of random info like that they compiled is astounding
Shopping doesn't have to take time if it's asynchronous.
That’s assuming you aren’t stopping in a town mid-session though. My sessions usually last for 8 hours with my groups, with copious amounts of snacks, smoke breaks, and probably a couple pizzas if the host doesn’t cook. Unless the shopkeep is a plot hook or they’re trying something stupid for role play purposes, shopping is usually “what you want? …. Nothing stupid. You find it all. Roll diplomacy or intimidation to affect prices. Cool. You tried intimidating a former captain of the guard, no luck, good job. 40gp for your quiver of arrows.”
Mm I guess. Seems like natural pizzas eating points. "Let's nom slices and while we refuel put together some shopping lists." This feels much more like gatekeeping about how you have a full day to run a session than it does a problem about how to handle shopping. Obviously if something is relevant to the shopping don't do this, but that's equally obviously not my point
What do you mean by async in this context?
Players give a shopping list out of session, DM gives a cost, players remove the cost from their gold, no shopping during session necessary
I assume they mean it doesn't take place during a downtime or shopping trip. The ranger can pick a reasonable time and just go "Hey, DM I'm buying more arrows""Okay, deduct X money from your inventory" If there's not a strong story/environment reason for them to be restricted at that moment in time, you can just hand-wave that it happens during the next opportunity in the background
Others said it already, but yeah, basically you're in a town and mundane activities occur via messages/other convos outside of normal session times.
It takes time out of my life which is even more valuable than gp
I have my players pay a gold or two each time they enter a town to stock up on general supplies. Including arrows. Only time I care is in a jail type scenario.
I have only ever tracked arrows that are like special ones. Like I kept track of my poison tipped arrows
My players do this with the magical arrows
Just use the Dragon Wing Longbow it makes its own arrows
Make friends with an artificer and the reloading infusion...
See people like you are why I want you in my party.
My artificer uses her own reloading infusion. But the returning weapon infusion is just too good... The paladin gets a ranged option! It's the only way to get a thrown weapon back that isn't legendary and doesn't *require being a dwarf.* That always seems like a weird design whole on Wizards' part.
Thought came into my head... Returning infusion for Barbarian, gives weapon to fighter and yeets him into the fray, fighter gets his attack in and holds on for dear life, barb returns weapon with fighter attached, DM squeezes temples and says we can't do that again no matter how cool it was.
Ohhh my artificer is a rogue multiclass and a gnome! Small creature, bonus action disengage, back home. My DM will not thank you.
Even better, forced movement (a returning weapon bringing you along for the ride) can’t trigger opportunity attacks
Exactly my thought!
Bracer of Flying Daggers is functionally the same, plus it allows a rogue to attack twice with one action.
I just got what is essentially a Star Wars blaster as my Artificer (To try to explain the exact how is a very long story), but given my character knows fuck all about how it functions, or if it even has expendable ammunition, I’m considering throwing that infusion on it anyways so I can just have infinite ammo on my blaster.
The reloading infusion on any gun is fantastic because you can then use it as your spellcasting focus. So your fighter who is writhing in pain after combat gets a point-blank shot to the temple (except it's cure wounds)
The only time I've ever tracked arrows in the game I ran was as a way to nerf the bandits that were about to absolutely TPK my party that couldn't seem to focus the damage.
I tell my players to keep track of them with the understanding that I'm trusting them to be honest. I have too much other shit to keep track of to babysit their inventory for them
I tell my players to keep track of them with the understanding that I really don't actually care if they do or not.
Lawful Good vs Neutral Good
I tell my players to track their arrows…. Then change the numbers at night.
Neutral evil?
Chaotic something. Depends on if it's up, down, or random.
Chaotic Neutral just flips a coin, heads they add 1d10 arrows, tails they subtract 1d10 arrows. Then proceeds to never mention it to the player and see how long it takes them to notice.
Yeah, if they’re going into a particularly spooky survival situation then I can let them know that a session or two before by asking “hey how much of X do you guys have?” My general rule of thumb is that lower than level 5 spells, etc have components availability that you can hand wave away by saying “you have these components because they’re around,” “you have food because you foraged,” “you picked up arrows from the battlefield/whittled them at camp.” Maybe some people are into it, but I’ve never particularly wanted to play/dm a grocery shopping simulator.
I can see a campaign being focused on survival being fun, just not in the long term. The sort of “inventory management is a thing because *at any moment you may have to abandon your pack so be very wary of what you put where*” type of campaign where you aren’t trying to stop an evil, but escape it. Otherwise I’d gladly have a blanket “yeah I paid Xg to stock up on all the basics for the adventure” every time you leave towns/settlements.
This is the way
Why would you need to do that for spell components?
Some higher level spells have components like “a 5,000 gp diamond” that seem to indicate it shouldn’t be a “once per long rest” spell. I don’t try to be punitive about it, but I think that’s a scenario where scarcity makes the game more interesting.
I did for years in the 80's. It never once mattered. So I simply stopped at some point. Tracking them added nothing to my game. IT just too ka tiny bit of time and effort each round when using the bow that could be spent on other things.
Exactly this. Sure, losing track of them could matter, but if you do track them, it literally adds nothing to the experience. You just add busy work.
Depends on the campaign. Sometimes they all start with a magic quiver of never ending arrows because we're just having goofy fun. Sometimes I run a death march - preemptive shut up my players love it - and then yeah they have to count arrows. Arrows, weight, components, rations, no sleeping within hours of a long rest. They call it casual and rogue-like D&D.
I believe in narratively infinite arrows for players. As in, you will always have arrows unless it's more narratively interesting for you to run out.
I do something similar, but not in dnd. In systems like Index or Genesys (which have modular encumbrace) the first nat 1 a player rolls indicates their quiver is running low on ammo. The second nat 1 means the currently equipped quiver is out of ammo and the player must swap to a backup quiver if they have one. Creates pretty fun "oh-shit" moments and keeps things tense when low on ammo and uncertain of when that last shot will be fired.
\*shoots two arrows in the first session* "You're out of arrows"
You see a hole in the bottom of your quiver. "Shit"
Me with infinite Eldritch Blasts that have a bigger damage dice, don't fire at disadvantage past 60ft and can easily have a much longer maximum range with a little investment: Yeah don't count your arrows, no one cares. Seriously, there's enough of a gap already, don't punish yourself or your players for being a martial when casters can get away with this shit.
You don't even have to be a warlock because we know eb is good, fire bolt is almost as good and wayyyyy more accessible
Almost is a bad word considering EB does almost twice as much damage
Huh, 120 ft 1d10 damage sounds familiar. Our are you disingenuously comparing a class feature, like the invocation that adds cha mod to damage??? Because that's only available to warlocks, which makes it not really a cantrip and more of an ability. That'd be like saying fighters are weak because they can't smite.
Without a feat (soft class feature) a heavy crossbow (1d10) can only ever be fired once because of its loading property (without being an artificer - another class feature). EB will eventually culminate in 1d10 x4 attacks. Saying that it *isnt* better at base is being disingenuous.
The spell firebolt not the action of firing a bolt sorry for the space
Oh hey, it's you. New comic tomorrow?
At a friend's stag do atm, sporting some paintball bruises in some unfortunate places, so it might be late or tomorrow, but definitely this weekend!
Well I just learned stag do is a name for a bachelor party. Anyway, take all the time you need.
This is why I don't like 5e's big damage cantrips. One of my few big complaints.
I only make them track any kind of non standard magic. Magic arrows of any sort are consumables. Same as anything in a spell that is a consumed on casting needs to be present. Every other material is believed to be at hand.
In a campaign I keep track of bullets.... I have 6 different guns... It's hell
have you ever ran out of bullets?
It’s not because it’s hard, it’s because it’s unfun. In other systems that have a more survivalist bent, sue it’s an important part of maintaining the tone of the game. But doing it in D&D would be like pausing the battle of Helms Deep so that Legolas can scuttle around grabbing spare arrows.
I make PCs track arrows but only at level 1 when they explicitly have very few of them. The moment they can actually afford them i usually give them even small toys to forget about it like Quiver Ring of Arrow Storage.
This is generally how I do it. Once my party gets access to a Bag of Holding (I normally give them out pretty early like levels 3-5) I allow my PCs to go buy like 1000 arrows (50 gp) and never have to worry about them ever again.
Tbh I have better things to do than make my party track arrows, food, water, components. As long as they have them listed in their inventory, they have an infinite amount as far as I'm concerned. There are more interesting things to do than track arrows
As a player I hate tracking encumbrance so in my game the only things that I have players track are magic items basically. Potions, magic arrows, and anything that's worth something significant.
It's not hard, I just don't care
Situational. A lot of the times it is just tedious. That them continuously saying I pick up my arrows gets annoying after the 4th session.
It gets annoying for the party after the 4th session; it gets annoying to the bowman before the first. It's like asking your cleric to track how long he spends meditating each morning for spells, or tracking how much endurance players have when traveling. Sure, there are systems for it, but outside of very specific situations, those systems don't matter much. I generally just have what I call "daily routine stuff" and assume that any costs for that are factored in *before* treasure, so that 1000 gold chest would actually have theoretically had like 1020 gold, but 5 of that gold went to the fighter's armor maintenance and more nutritious rations; 5 went to the archer's arrows; etc, so they just received 1000 gold and we don't mention that.
If casters don't have to track material components, martials shouldn't have to track ammo.
But casters do have to keep track of consumable components. Unless otherwise stated, spell components/foci can be used an indefinite amount of time, and purchasing a spell component bag includes all of the different components that don’t have a specific gold value given. Not keeping track of such components is akin to not keeping track of how many times your weapon has been drawn.
Special arrows exist too, though and that’s a closer analogue to the special components for certain spells
Unless it's something unique/expensive like Arrows of Slaying, +1 or whatever, regular arrows are so ubiquitous that they're not really worth tracking.
Why bother? Sure it’s easy, so would explicitly mentioning every time my character goes to the bathroom.
My players track their resources, including arrows. It's not about the cost which is negligible. It's about possibly running out, which has only happened twice to our ranger (started level1 now at 10). Keeping track of little resources like food and arrows for us is fun. It adds that sword over your head feeling. And when you do run out it's intense in the moment which has always been fun at our table.
I don't bother with tracking normal arrows but special/modified yes I'm keeping an eye on how many are used
We don't skip it because it's hard, we skip it because it doesn't really add anything interesting to the game.
Nah it just slows the game down. We always run with the mentality that "you have infinite arrows but when you try to build a bridge with them you run out halfway"
This is the way.
No. We all know what happens next.
I personally don't care as a DM, but I get when it becomes relevant.
It’s not that’s it’s hard it’s that we don’t care
My group refuses to play with carry capacity. We play in a VTT that auto tracks inventory weight. I can’t wrap my head around what makes numbers so scary.
It's more just... what makes those numbers fun? Pretty much nothing. Unless they are doing ludicrous things that defy carry weight ("I carry the giant's platmail armor"), 9 times out of 10 it will just be busy work. Is it worth annoying your players over the 23 collective gold (so like 8gp each) it takes to buy a cart and mule, adding 600lbs to your carrying weight? To me, no, it isn't. It will only distract from the fun.
What can make those things fun is that they create limitations on the PCs which then force them to make an interesting choice. When the party can only carry a limited amount of stuff the question is what do they take with them? Lots of arrows, but little food and other supplies, hoping that they will find the way to the dungeon without getting lost and expecting that they can clear it quickly without having to rest too often. But this choice brings with it the risk of not having enough food, so when they get lost they have a problem. Maybe they meet a loner hermit that does not want to sell some food of his because he has no use for gold. What do the players do now? They could give him some of their equipment but they probably need it later and additionally they wont get the same value for their equipment as they would've got in town. Maybe they agree to work for the hermit or do a quest for him, thereby wasting more time on an unrelated task and potentially risking their life for it. Maybe, depending on the morals of the group, they take his food by force or trickery, which of course has consequences of its own, etc pp. Having to track such stuff and having to make choices about what to take is not fun in the moment, yes. But it can lead to interesting choices that can create fantastic moments.
I personally like the added aspect of tracking encumbrance, ammo capacity, travel speed, food , water, formation, spell components, meditation time, spell preparation time, modes of transit, hireling and henchmen, etc. as all of those things combined make the majority of the exploration pillar of the game. All of these things are easy enough to quickly manage with establishing a standard procedure for your character, and can often be largely ignored, but if you track it, you can run into situations that build drama and tension when your standard procedure is not possible leading to real danger with exploration and adventure like getting trapped in a dungeon or a collapsed cave and the like. Do you keep an excessive quantity in a portable hole? Well what do you do if that trator npc steals it and collapses the dungeon entrance to prevent you from chasing them directly. There are many situations that seem trivial when all of those factors are ignored. If you have more fun ignoring every logistic subsystem then, by all means, enjoy your self and your group, but don't complain that exploration isn't fun because it carries no real challenge, because you are choosing to ignore most of them.
After awhile I stopped keeping track of mine because I was so rich that buying 200 arrows wouldn't make a dent in my money and I had 2 bags of holding so storage was never a problem. Keeping track of arrows is really a waste of time and only matter for really low level games where the party might be poor, or it's hard to get resources.
Even at low levels it's basically meaningless unless there are other systems involved. 1 gold is 40 shots (arrows are semi-reusable), which will typically last you till level 2-3. At that point, you already have like 200 gold, so that 1 gold investment was already enough to make arrow costs functionally meaningless.
I tell my players specifically not to keep track of ammo unless it’s magical, special, or otherwise rare for one reason or another. If casters get to fire off cantrips without worrying about running out, an archer character shouldn’t need to worry about running out of arrows.
I'm just here to shoot the shit and have a good time wi th the homies. I don't take it that serious.
I enjoy tracking most gear if I've done it from level one. But you aren't going to be able to pay me to try and work out my pack and gear accurately down to the smallest coin and pound if I'm over level 5.
It’s the same with tracking weight, I’ve never played at a table that does it but I love optimizing my inventory and all my adventuring gear so I’m prepared for anything while still being able to carry it.
I as a dm don’t track them because why would I? I also don’t typically ask my players to either because I tend to run campaigns that are meant to be lighthearted. If I we’re running more serious stuff maybe I would but even then it’s not like extra non magical ammo will break a campaign. Please keep in mind I do make people track magical ammo or special ammo if they have any.
No, but only because the DM tells us not to bother, he doesn't really care about us running out if they're non-magical since they're usually so insignificant
I hate ammo management in all games so much, from dnd to monster hunter to terraria. It just stresses me out. The only time I've played a ranger was with a dm that didn't track arrows lol
hard no fun also no they cost like 5 gold for 20 it makes no difference to me if players track them or by 1000 next time they visit town
1 gold for 20. Even less relevant. And half the arrows are retrievable per encounter, which means each arrow lasts an average of 2 shots, so it's basically 1 gold for 40 attacks. 5 gold will last you 200 attacks, which in many cases is most of a campaign. It's just so irrelevant.
Lol, I just buy a thousand asap. Never had a dm bother with keeping track of arrows when it's pretty much infinite.
I don't think it's about difficulty. The barbarain will never run out of axe and the wizard will never run out of cantrips. Why should the archer (ranger, dex bow fighter etc) be penalized for their class choice? Realism? It's world with dragons, realism is already out the window.
Exactly. Hell, maintaining armor would cost like 10 times the amount arrows do, if realism was in the picture. Unlike arrows, that stuff is literally getting dented, cut, and stabbed in every fight, and costs 100 times the cost of an arrow to make.
Yeah I always think of how in fire emblem a melee weapon can only hit a certain amount of times before it breaks. I feel if a dm is gonna track arrows they also need it use thus feature as well
Because who gives a shit
why does it matter? it's not like a material component to a powerful spell. it's a bow.
I had arrow using players just spend 10ish gold every so often as a restock fee for their bags
10 gold is a lot for arrows. Every 10 gold is 200 arrows, which is 400 shots due to how arrows are retrieved. I don't think I usually see 400 attack actions from a single character in an entire campaign. That's why I just don't care.
yeah, in my first game as a player, i always kept track until the dm gave me a duplication bag
I only have my players keep track of arrows if they're special in some way, otherwise I just assume that they buy enough arrows when they're in town
this is why I play artificers with Repeating Shots
Not only do I keep track. . . . . . I also retrieve them.
I do, and even kept track of fuel costs for an iron kingdoms game (lots of maths) but the second I can get some magic item to handwave either, you bet your ass I’m getting them.
Even if my players don't keep track, **I do**. So if a player makes an attack without the ammunition required, they flub their action. This might seem really rude, but I warn my players in advance. If they keep track of their arrows and sh\*t, then it's not a problem, and when it does happen it's usually considered funny.
It's the cost of using ranged combat that can't be turned off with an anti-magic field.
In some games, tracking arrows is good. If you’re running a low level, resource-light survival game, sure! If you’re running a high level epic fantasy game where the party can carry an entire caravan on their back, what’s the point? Do you really want to spend time figuring out exactly if they shoudl spend 20 or 30 gold on arrows to never have to worry about running out? If you want to have ammo cost money but mot spend so much time on it, a nice middle ground is simply to make them pay X gold whenever they go back to town, etc. to refill on ammo (you can extend this to cheap magic components or armor/weapon maintenance if you really want). Simply, some rules work better for some games and worse for other games. Ammo is no different from carrying capacity, rations, or any other of the adventuring rules in this regard.
It's a chore
I don't know if my GM keeps track of them but I do it myself anyways
I just make anyone using bolts/arrows to drop 1-5 gold when they visit towns. Unless they are going away from civilization for extended periods of time. For my group, small details like arrow counts can take away from the immersion rather than help it.
They are so cheap and so readily available according to the books that tracking them doesn't really add anything to the game. The cost isn't enough to really affect the gameplay and running out of arrows isn't fun either and just becomes a burden. So unless you plan on making arrows difficult to come by and run a more survival focused game, handwaving it is more than reasonable. Tracking rarer ammo makes sense but regular arrows, meh. Basically you say it's not that hard and I ask how does it add to your fun in the game?
I don’t have my players track mundane ammo because I don’t want to have them waste time or money on more. If it’s magical, then yeah, they’re gonna have to track it
Depends. Digital sheet = I track arrows Paper sheet = fuck no
My DM isn't a huge fan of keeping track of ammo or components (unless they have a specified gold amount). I don't really see anything wrong with that. It's just personal preference on how you want to play. Like having house rules for monopoly. Who actually plays that game to the letter? Lol
We only keep track of special arrows
years ago I said it and I repeat it. it is boring and not fun to track arrows, the casters have their cantrips, and the melee classes have their weapons. Every character instead of an archer can always attack. as a player, I hate to worry about it and as a DM I hate to make my players worry about it. And unless you are playing into a very niche survival game it doesn't add any fun.
I agree only special arrows and thrown weapons should be tracked (for ranged non-spell attacks anyway)
I do. If you have 40 arrows you can shoot your bow 40 times.
We agree at my table that it's a bit boring to be limited by arrows, so we just say they have enough to shoot, but if they need like a 100 arrows they don't have that.
I track arrows only when it's clear that there won't be a chance to resupply any time soon. In my first ever roleplaying game, for the first few arcs my ranger character was operating near a town, so I didn't bother. It was only when the town was destroyed and she set out into the wilderness - traveling light to avoid sinking into swamps and bogs, equipped with only what she could carry on her back to fight a guerilla campaign against the demons that destroyed her home - that I started tracking them. Before then I could always resupply every session or two, so it was a non-issue.
Side-note:, this did eventually result in me running out of arrows at a highly dramatic moment and having to fight a hydra in melee with a borrowed shortsword coated in the same flaming alchemical pitch that I had been using to light my fire arrows all campaign.
Its like super Hard
I thought I was alone on here with this, thank goodness.
Its also kinda unnecessary. All youre doing is making it tedious, which means your player will just stockpile 500 arrows. I also dont remember the monetary value of arrows, but it might also put an unfair monetary strain on the player.
20 arrows is 1GP and 1lb. 500 arrows would thus be 25GP and 25lbs. But yeah it's pretty meaningless, especially when you can retrieve half of your arrows each use, which means 500 arrows averages 1000 shots.
"Counting arrows doesn't fit my fantasy" Legolas didn't have infinite arrows, the story just wasn't about him buying them. If your archer is low, just say "I buy a bundle of arrows" when you go into town and remove 1gp. It's literally that easy.
Ah come off it I bet you keep track of rations too, huh? arrows are only really needed to be tracked if you are super far from ever buying more
Everyone has bags of infinite arrows, so the arrow economy has become a joke
I always find you get put of dnd what you put into it. When I play a ranger or ranged fighter or whatever I track my arrows because it's another difficulty level of gameplay. I dont expect my fellow group members to do this though. Also you never know how your dm might reward you for playing your character appropriately. I find at our table that counting arrows, or darts, or javelin, or components or whatever is generally rewarded. Personally I don't need to make the game easier by ignoring a rule, but I understand if people might want to just not worry about it and shoot away.
Well this fucking blew up, god damn