The composite versions of the shortbow, longbow, greatbow and stonebow use the same ammunition as their non-composite versions, and the damage and other characteristics of the ammunition for the composite versions are unchanged from their non-composite versions.
All costs and weights listed represent a single unit of the ammunition type described.
All items used as ammunition are considered to be expended upon use, either irreparably broken and damaged, or lost. You cannot retrieve ammunition for re-use.
Only Alchemists have access to this type of ammunition, but they are highly versatile. With the use of discoveries, alchemical bombs can be modified to do a huge variety of damage types, status conditions, and other nasty surprises for the unwary.
Alchemical Creation, Ammo
Simple/Ammo
Cost
Sm Dmg
Med Dmg
Large Dmg
Crit
Range
Wt
Type
Alchemical Creation, Sling (1)
varies
1+effect
1+effect
1+effect
x2
20 ft
1/4th lb
Bludgeoning(physical, common), plus creation effect(s)
Barbed crossbow bolts are just about the nastiest things you'll ever see. They are stout, brutal devices, whose wicked barbs make the terrible wounds already inflicted by a crossbow much, much worse. Unlike normal bolts, barbed bolts are difficult to make and thus are expensive. They are typically made of the same woods as arrows, although in a thick, strong, graceless fashion, and are often fletched with thin shavings of horn or turtle shell. The massive barbed heads require considerable skill to forge and sharpen. Barbed bolts are heavier than standard bolts, and cannot be fired as far as standard bolts. Pointing a crossbow loaded with a barbed bolt at a someone is a very clear statement that you mean business.
Blunt crossbow bolts have the simple conical tip of mild steel replaced by a small round bit of glued-on iron that covers the end of the thick wooden shaft. This means blunt bolts can be made without a blacksmith, just punched out bits of iron. As a result, the cost of blunt crossbow bolts is half that of standard bolts. Blunt bolts weigh the same and do the same amount of damage as regular bolts, although the range is halved. In a hand onager, blunt bolts grant the weapon the Sunder quality at range, since the Hand Onager is also a Siege Weapon.
Crossbow bolts are thick, graceless things compared to arrows. In keeping with the simplicity of the crossbow, the bolts are not sophisticated, either. Arrows must be carefully made with just the right amount of flex, or spine, in the long, slim shafts. Bolts are far too thick and short to flex, even under the brutal firing conditions of heavy crossbows or hand onagers. Bolts have simple conical tips hammered of mild steel, massive shafts of heavy, cheap woods like greenheart, swamp oak, or sycamore, and durable fletching made of thin sections of cherry or pine. They take little to no skill to make, but they do have to be consistently made, so they are all the same size. Despite their low sophistication, nobody can argue that bolts lack in power, and they have won many, many battles.
Bolt, Poison
All weapons can be poisoned by a skilled poisoner. The poison bolt is the same as a regular crossbow bolt with poison on it.
Bolt, Fire
Crossbow bolt heads sit so close to the crossbow that a flaming bolt is a recipe for a ruined crossbow. This has been removed from the game. Flaming arrows (fired from bows) are still available.
Dural is a rare type of stone mined far underground which is valuable for its extreme density and hardness. Dural is unsuited to most uses, it is brittle in thin cross-sections and easily cracks and flakes if it is shaped into flat surfaces. Most Dural is used in the form of sand, as an extremely potent abrasive in sandpaper. Some Dural is mined in large chunks and formed into spheres, which avoids the worst of its spalling property. In this form Dural can be used for ranged weapons and ammunition. Dural increases the cost of ammo by five times, raises the damage and critical chance considerably, lowers the range, and triples the weight of the ammo. Many well-heeled adventurers consider the expense and short range of Dural ammunition well worth the tradeoffs.
These sling bullets are riddled with cunning perforations that cause them to emit an eerie moan audible within 50 feet of their flight path. They are quite light and frangible, pulverizing into nearly harmless shards when they strike a target and inflicting only a single point of damage, although magic and strength can increase that considerably. Despite their light weight they are extremely aerodynamic and fly very far indeed.
Sling bullets are dense, hard pellets with either a round or football shape to them. They can be made of metal, bone, stone, or even hard woods. They all weigh a quarter of a pound for the medium sized version of them. They are uniformly cheap, ten for a silver piece. Exotic sling bullets may be made of gemstones, teeth, or other things.
These fragile alchemical wonders are glass spheres full of a heavy clear fluid. When hurled, they require only a touch attack to strike a target and break harmlessly. They instantly form a three by three square area filled with smoke. This smoke offers concealment to anyone completely within it, or total concealment to anyone who is one square deep within it. The smoke lasts until the end of the encounter in still air(1 minute out of combat), or until the end of your next round in windy conditions. Gust of wind and stronger magics dispel it instantly.
Usable only with a blowgun, these darts are most obviously used to deliver injury poisons, but they can also be an effective way to deliver extra damage from class abilities, such as a rogue's sneak attack, or a prowler's encroachment dice.
Martial Ammunition
These ammunition types require a proficiency with at least one of the martial weapons which is capable of firing them.
Common arrows are standard bow ammunition. They have sturdy diamond points on them, they're shafted with easy to get ash, maple, or willow, and they have reliable goose-feather fletchings. They do a bit less damage in shortbows than they do in longbows, and a bit less damage in longbows than they do in greatbows. A common arrow is denoted by that classic, deadly but easy to make, diamond-shaped point. It's good against armor, it's good against beasts, and it can be made quickly. You'll see these everywhere, and rightly so, because they're great.
The barbed arrow is a specialty product, since making that extravagant head takes a lot of time and skill. Barbed arrows are based off broadhead arrows, with all their characteristics, but they do the same damage as flight arrows. So why bother with them? Because to remove a barbed arrowhead is a deadly and dangerous process. To remove a barbed arrow after you've been struck by one and taken damage past any DR requires greater than animal intelligence and a heal check against an Easy DC. Either the victim or an adjacent creature can attempt to remove barb heads. Failing the heal check means removing the barbed arrow inflicts 1d6 of additional damage which cannot be reduced by DR. Ouch.
Take a broadhead arrow and remove that big, deadly steel point. Replace it with a shaped boiled-leather cup into which a tightly rolled mass of cotton cloth is firmly wedged, presenting the firm, flat side of the roll toward the front of the arrow. What you get is the blunt arrow, which does bludgeoning damage rather than piercing damage. Why would you do this? Well, hunting of some delicate game species is easier with blunt arrows. Blunt arrows have the same construction as broadhead arrows, but to keep that heavy, flat tip pointed right, they suffer a reduced range increment.
The obvious difference to a broadhead arrow is the head, which is a heavy delta-shaped thing with sharp wings and modest barbs. They have more steel in them than common heads, and the blacksmith has to spend some time on them compared to diamond points. The shaft of the broadhead arrow is made of a dense, heavy wood like buckeye, hickory, or dogwood to maintain the proper spine with that heavy head on it. And instead of three fletchings a broadhead arrow has four, to keep that big-winged head pointed the right direction. As a result, broadheads are expensive, short-ranged, and weigh over twice as much as a standard arrow, but they hit really hard.
Flaming arrows are an age-old terror weapon. Flaming arrows are based off broadheads, as the dense, hardwood shafts are required to allow them to do their fiery work. The massive broadhead is removed and replaced with a small needle-like head with a hole in it. Through the hole is threaded a soft rag of cotton, wool, or linen and the whole thing is soaked in tar and wrapped around the head and top of the shaft. This is allowed to cool into a solid, flammable mass. Lighting a flaming arrow requires a move action and access to a considerable source of flame (larger than a torch, such as a good fire or a brazier). Any amount of magical flame will touch one off, as well. Once lit, a flaming arrow burns for 5 rounds, regardless of wind or rain, although being underwater or doused by a bucket will extinguish it. Flaming arrows do piercing damage as above, as well as 1d4 of fire damage to creatures struck. When fired at flammable structures like cloth wagon covers, thatch roofs, haystacks, etc, they ignite such things automatically the next round unless doused. On light wooden structures they ignite on a 1-2 on a d6 roll. On heavy wooden structures they ignite after three rounds on a roll of 1 on a d10. See the Environmental Effects rules for how to put things out again. Fire Arrows get really scary when you fire a few hundred of them at once....
Flight arrows are designed for the maximum possible range. As a result, they use common diamond-tip arrowheads in good quality steel but in very small sizes. The shafts are made of kiln-dried lightweight woods, like alder, fir, spruce, or cedar. And the fletching is small, often made of chicken feathers rather than goose. The result is an arrow that is the same size as a regular arrow but weighs about half as much and is ridiculously streamlined. Flight arrows shoot like lightning, and are what are used in target shooting competitions.
Take a common arrow, replace that simple but elegant diamond point with a whistling cage made of bent rod, and you create a whistling arrow. These are audible in flight to a distance of 50 feet from the path of their flight, so they're pretty darn loud. They make a distinctive falling shriek as they fly that sounds eerie, especially if you get a few hundred going all at once. Great fun, but expensive. Whistling arrows even do reasonable damage, since they have a functional chisel point atop the whistling cage.
Exotic Ammunition
Skiprocks require an exotic weapon proficiency in order to use their "Ricochet" ability. This is in addition to any other proficiency needed to wield one of the weapons capable of firing them. To fire skiprocks (with ricochet) from a stonebow requires two separate exotic weapon proficiency feats.
If used without this exotic weapon proficiency, they perform exactly like very expensive sling bullets.
Shuriken are small discs or spikes of heavy, sharp steel or dweomermetal which are thrown at targets. An exotic weapon, Shuriken are usable by Monks, and any warrior who can master their odd behaviors. Despite their small size, the odd shape and extreme profile of the shuriken allows it to inflict amazing damage, and it is possible to hide them almost anywhere. A shuriken can't be used as a melee weapon. For purposes of Weapon Properties, Feats, and all other game play aspects, the Shuriken is treated as it it inflicts Piercing damage. The Shuriken belongs to the "Thrown" weapon group.
Skiprocks are like small puck-shaped rocks which can be thrown, used in a sling or fired from a stonebow. If used by someone with the Exotic Weapon Proficiency for skiprocks, they gain use of the ricochet ability, which can be used with any delivery method. Although skiprocks can be used as ammunition, they are thrown weapons for purposes of enchantment, drawing them for use, or for what happens to them after they are fired. Because of this, if a skiprock is enchanted to at least +1, it gains the Returning weapon property and retains that property even if fired from a projectile weapon with greater than a +1 enhancement. This means that a single skiprock can be used as ammunition multiple times per round if desired, as long as the returning property is able to function. When used as a thrown weapon, a skiprock is not usable in melee combat and so does not threaten and cannot be used for attacks of opportunity.
Skiprock Ricochet
Requires Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Skiprocks. Up to once per round, if you successfully strike your target, select a different foe within 10 feet of your first target and make a second attack. Resolve this second attack using the same attack bonuses and penalties as the first attack. On larger creatures you may choose the square you struck before determining the path to the second creature, though you must have line of effect to all squares in the path. Only roll damage once, but each target that was struck takes the full damage. Any precision damage included in the attack is only applied to the first target, but damage bonuses from Strength, feats, and magical bonuses are applied to both targets. Skiprocks belong to the "Thrown" weapon group. Ricochet may never be used more than once per round, regardless of how many attacks the throwing character has, how many different skiprocks they throw or how many different creatures they are targeting.
