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This is a result of the Refactoring ToB archery thread which is itself an outgrowth of the Age of Warriors thread. It is a remix of Fax's Falling Star and I_got_this_name's True Arrow with additions by DracoDei and myself. You do not need to know any of those threads to evaluate this discipline.
Iron Rain You say "surrounded and outnumbered". I say "blessed with a target-rich environment".
Iron Rain is the archery school of speed, of sending arrows to blot out the sun. It is also the school of battle against armies. A single adept can stop a massed force if given a high and isolated place to shoot from, and if he becomes caught in melee he is not entirely helpless.
level 1
Archer's Evasion Boost - Avoid attacks of opportunity for movement
Soft Targetting Stance - Negate DR by Spot
level 2
Multiple Shot Boost - gain extra attack at BAB; take -2 penalty to BAB
Opportunist's Shot Counter - Take a ranged attack of opportunity
Dummy Shot Counter - make feint against opponent to gain temporary AC
level 3
Flanking Shot strike - Cause target to be flanked
Ride the Storm Stance - Avoid most negative effects of wind
Caltrop Arrows Counter - Impede an enemy's advance by putting arrowheads in front of his feat
level 4
Trick Shot Counter - make immediate disarm attempt against attacker
Alarming Alacrity Boost - Make an additional attack
Full Quiver Stance - Never run out of arrows
level 5
Strafe Stance - gain the ability to deal more damage when you move
Quicker than the Eye Strike - Attack ignores enemy's dexterity
Defense of the Iron Rain Stance - Provoke no attacks of opportunity for ranged attacks
level 6
Always Ready Counter - make a single ranged attack as an imediate action
Hit the crowd Strike - target a block of creatures as if they were one
Covering Fire Strike - Fill an area with arrows; automatically hit anyone that enters.
level 7
Hail of Arrows Strike - make full attack; gain three extra attacks
Intercepting Arrow Kata Stance - Block incoming arrows by shooting them with your own
level 8
Storm of Arrows Strike - shoot a number of arrows equal to your dexterity modifier at your full attack bonus
Supreme Efficiency Stance - reduce the penalty for iterative attacks to 3
level 9
Cyclone of Arrows Strike - shoot every enemy within one range increment
Details:
Spoiler
Alarming Alacrity
Iron Rain (Boost) Level: 4 Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: End of Turn
In a quick, practiced motion, you loose arrows with a speed far beyond a conventional archer.
In a round in which you initiate this boost, you may make an additional attack as part of a full attack.
Archer's Evasion
Iron Rain (Boost) Level: 1 Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: End of Turn
You time your movements and nimbly dodge out of harm's way.
You may only initiate this boost when threatened in melee by an enemy. Once you initiate it, you are not subject to attacks of opportunity caused by movement for the remainder of your turn. You may initiate this boost in the middle of a move.
Always Ready
Iron Rain (Counter) Level: 6 Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 immediate action Target: One Creature
When someone displeases you in any way, you may make a single ranged attack against them at your full bonus. The most common use of this is to disrupt spellcasters (who would then need to make a concentration check against the damage) but many other uses are possible.
Caltrop Arrows
Iron Rain (Counter) Level: 3 Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver Initiation Action: 1 immediate action Range: See below Target: One Creature
As an enemy advances on you, you throw a handful of arrowheads at his feet.
You may initiate this maneuver whenever an enemy approaches you and gets closer than twice your natural reach (10' for a medium or small character). You may drop caltrops in the area that the enemy approaches through as an immediate action. These caltrops attack at your attack bonus, and do an amount of damage equal to your initiator level; they become normal caltrops, however, after this one attack. If you do not have caltrops, you may use five arrows or bolts to the same effect.
Covering Fire
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 6 Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 full round action Range: 1 range increment Target: See text Duration: One round
You fill a space with arrows, so that no sane attacker would enter it.
Draw a line away from yourself in any direction for a distance less than or equal to the range increment of your weapon. Those squares the line passes through are effected. All effected squares must be empty when you begin the maneuver. Any creature entering an effected square is automatically struck by three of your arrows (roll damage normally).
Cyclone of Arrows
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 9 Prerequisite: Four Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 full action Range: 1 Range increment Target: Many opponents
You fire an arrow at every opponent within 1 range increment. All attacks are at your full bonus. Swarms are instantly destroyed, even if they are normally immune to weapon damage.
Defense of the Swift Arrow
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 5 Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: Stance
Dodging your enemies attacks, you aim with a bow that exists only in your mind. You feel an arrow fit to the string of your real bow, and bring it to bear in a pause as your assailant recovers, matching the imagined one perfectly for a single shot, too fast to interrupt.
While in this stance, you are not subject to attacks of opportunity provoked for making a ranged attack while threatened.
As an immediate action, you may feint against a creature attacking you. Roll your Bluff against his opposed Sense Motive. For each two points you beat his check by, you gain a +1 dodge bonus to your armor class against that attack.
Flanking Shot
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 2 Initiation Action: 1 standard action Range: Weapon range Target: One opponent Duration: Instantaneous
Make a single normal ranged attack. If the attack hits, the target counts as flanked for the next round as if you were standing in the square next to him which is closest to yourself.
Full Quiver
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 4 Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: Stance
I stopped bothering to count my ammunition. Less work this way. Plus it means I never run out.
When you draw an ordinary arrow from your quiver in this stance, you may choose not to decrease the number of arrows remaining in your quiver. Arrows drawn this way must be fired immediately, or you drop them and they get lost somewhere they will never be found. You must have at least one ordinary arrow in your quiver to draw. You cannot draw magical or alchemical arrows this way, but you can draw them normally while in the stance. You can use this stance with javelins or throwing knives, so long as you keep them in a quiver or similar container.
This stance is a supernatural effect.
Hail of Arrows
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 7 Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 full-round action Range: Weapon range Target: One or more opponents Duration: Instantaneous
You make a ranged full-attack as part of this maneuver. After your attack, you also make an additional three attacks: the first at your highest attack bonus, the second a five lower than the first, and the third at ten lower than the first. All attacks you make during this round, including the extra attacks granted by this maneuver, are made with a -2 penalty.
Hit the Crowd
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 6 Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: See text Range: Weapon range Target: a contiguous block of opponents Duration: Instantaneous
Make a standard or full attack against a contiguous block of adjacent targets. Targets within 5 feet of eachother are considered adjacent. Gain +5 to the attack roll for each target in the group, but roll randomly to determine which target each arrow attacks
Intercepting Arrow Kata
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 7 Prerequisites: 3
When you are in this stance, and a ranged attack comes within 30 ft of you, you may attempt to shoot down the attack in flight. Before the attacker rolls, declare that you are attempting this. Make opposed attack rolls. If yours is higher by 5 or more, you strike the projectile and it tumbles harmlessly to the ground. If you fail, the attacker then rolls his actual attack normally.
The attacks you use here come out of your full attack on your following turn, complete with iterative penalties. For example, if you have BAB 12 and an enemy shoots at you twice, you may intercept the first attack with your full bonus and the second at a -5 penalty. Then on your turn you can complete the full attack with a single arrow at -10 (you may also take a five-foot step). If you only fired one arrow as an interceptor, you may choose to take a move action on your turn instead of completing the full attack. If you fired no interceptors the previous round, you may act normally. You may not initiate maneuvers which require a standard action or longer after firing interceptions.
You may intercept any projectile less than 10 times the weight of your own ammunition. Attempts to intercept heavier projectiles fail. You may also intercept magical effects, so long as they are visible and require or sometimes require an attack roll. For example, eldritch blast always requires a roll, and fireball sometimes does, so they can be blocked, but chain lightening does not, and cannot be. For magical effects, you must exceed the attacker's roll by at least 10 to succeed. If you do, the spell effects the arrow instead of the intended target. Usually this just destroys the arrow, but some spells have other effects (for example, fireball detonates with normal strength centered on the arrow). You choose where along the spell's path the interception occurs (within 30 ft of you).
Weight of projectiles in pounds for creatures of various sizes:
small
medium
large
huge
arrow
0.075
0.15
0.3
0.6
crossbow bolt
0.05
0.1
0.2
0.4
sling bullet (lead)
0.25
0.5
1
2
sling pebble (stone)
0.125
0.25
0.5
1
Dart
0.25
0.5
1
2
Javelin
1
2
4
8
Knife
0.5
1
2
4
Shurukin
0.25
0.5
1
2
Thrown Rock
1.25
5
20
80
Balista Bolt
40
80
160
320
Multiple Shot
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 2 Initiation Action: 1 full-round action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: Instantaneous
When you use this strike, you focus with supernatural ability and fire off an extra shot during this round. As part of this maneuver, you take a full attack action and make your normal ranged attacks. However, you also make one additional attack this round at your highest attack bonus. All the attacks you make this round, including the extra attack granted by this maneuver, are made with a -2 penalty.
Opportunist's Shot
Iron Rain (Counter) Level: 2 Initiation Action: 1 immediate action Range: 30 feet Target: One creature
You see a single momentary opening, and use it to loose an arrow.
When a creature within 30' provokes an attack of opportunity and you are armed with a ranged weapon, you may initiate this counter. Make a ranged attack against that target; this functions exactly like a normal attack of opportunity except that it is an immediate action. You suffer attacks of opportunity as normal for using a ranged weapon; any hit negates this maneuver. You cannot use this maneuver and make a melee attack of opportunity for the same opportunity.
Quicker than the Eye
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 5 Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 standard action Range: 1 range increment Target: One creature
You aim and loose an arrow quickly, timing your shot for when the enemy is turned, to hit before your enemy can react.
As part of this maneuver, make a single ranged attack. Your enemy's dexterity, dodge, and shield bonuses do not apply to this attack.
Ride the Storm
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 3 Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver
You feel the movements of air and automatically adjust your shots accordingly. You are not effected by wind except as follows. Shooting into the wind decreases your range increment by 5 ft per 10 mph. Shooting with the wind increases your range by the same amount. Shooting through a wind wall counts as travelling 50 ft of distance.
Soft Targetting
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 1 Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: Stance
You are constantly aware of everyone's weak points, and naturally target them. Ignore one point of damage reduction for every 4 ranks you have in Spot.
Strafe
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 5 Prerequisite: Two Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: Stance
While in this stance, your land speed and ranged damage increase according to your ranks in Spot.
Spot Ranks
Effect
12-14
Land speed +10'; Skirmish (+1d6/+1 AC)
15-17
Land speed +15'; Skirmish (+2d6/+1 AC)
18-20
Land speed +20'; Skirmish (+2d6/+2 AC)
21+
Land speed +30'; Skirmish (+3d6/+2 AC)
Storm of Arrows
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 8 Prerequisite: Four Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 standard action Range: weapon range Target: One or more creatures
Shoot a number of arrows equal to your dexterity modifier. Every shot is made at your full attack bonus.
Supreme Efficiency
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 8 Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 immediate action Target: You
The decrease between your iterative attacks becomes three. This likely grants you extra attacks. As before, all attacks are at a positive base. For example, if your BAB is 12 and you normal full attack is 12/7/2, your new full attack is 12/9/6/3. This only applies to ranged full attacks.
Trick Shot
Iron Rain (Counter) Level: 4 Prerequisite: One Iron Rain maneuver Initiation Action: 1 immediate action Range: Weapon range Target: Attacking creature Duration: Instantaneous
You may activate this maneuver immediately before being attacked. You make an immediate disarm attempt against your attacker that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You do not provoke an reciprocal disarm if your attempt fails. If your attempt succeeds, your opponent may choose to continue their attack unarmed.[/quote]
Two things. First, Archer's Evasion Boost seems to be a counter more than a boost, conceptually; remember that you can use an immediate action maneuver on your turn if desired.
Second, and more importantly, several of these maneuvers seems like they would fit better in your precision archery discipline better than this one--Intercepting Arrow Kata Stance is the textbook example of a very precise shot, and the various hit-someone-with-a-counter maneuvers seem more like precise shots than crowd control.
__________________
Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.
Sig of Holding
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by abadguy
Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
Intercepting Arrow Kata is also supposed to involve shooting down a lot of things... if it didn't have the -5 penalty on the to-hit, and only worked against one attack that would be the more precise thing.
Intercepting Arrow Kata is also supposed to involve shooting down a lot of things... if it didn't have the -5 penalty on the to-hit, and only worked against one attack that would be the more precise thing.
It takes more precision to shoot down more things, not less simply because there are multiple targets. Saturation attacks generally involve putting a bunch of projectiles in the air in one general direction, not multiple instances of pinpoint accuracy. I'm not saying it definitely has to go, but it does seem a bit out of place.
__________________
Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.
Sig of Holding
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by abadguy
Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
The thing is though, beyond just making MORE attacks, I'm not quite sure what else you can do with saturation range attacks.
Protection based ideas
Maybe instead of say, a maneuver that is using precision to stop a single projectile, you could say, use the maneuver and just shoot a TON of arrows out in front of you, giving you effectively half cover or something. (I also imagine a clause in there stipulating that half of these will expend a ton of ammunition in the process)
Range based
Maybe a series of maneuvers that allows you to shoot at a distance, and instead of making the normal AC attacks against individual targets, they become splash damage type attacks from just having the hail. (Probably will still need a range touch attack but still)
Actually, I like the idea of a splash damage type idea. Maybe that's an avenue we can work with?
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Protection based ideas
Maybe instead of say, a maneuver that is using precision to stop a single projectile, you could say, use the maneuver and just shoot a TON of arrows out in front of you, giving you effectively half cover or something. (I also imagine a clause in there stipulating that half of these will expend a ton of ammunition in the process)
That would definitely be more fitting fluff for a cover maneuver.
In addition to splash damage, a similar idea would be maneuvers that force Reflex saves instead of making attack rolls, as there are just so damn many arrows that they have to work to avoid them.
__________________
Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.
Sig of Holding
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by abadguy
Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
Rapid Stance: Each consecutive round in which you use a full attack action to fire arrows, you can deliver an additional attack at your full bab (+1 additional attack on the second round, +2 additional attacks on the 3rd round, and so on).
Full Quiver Stance: While in this stance, your bow magically creates arrows for you. Each full 4 initiator levels gives these arrows a +1 enhancement bonus.
Beehive Strike: Your arrow magically splits into several shafts in mid-flight. This can only be used with non-magical arrows; magical arrows lose their enchantment if fired using this strike. This should be resolved using the same basic mechanics as a modern shotgun.
Covering Fire Strike: You fire a large number of arrows over an area. This should be resolved using the suppression fire rules from d20 Modern (similar rules are in the squad shooting rules from Heroes of Battle, and the automatic rifle in the DMG).
Explosive Arrow Strike: The arrow explodes on contact, causing 1d6 points of fire damage in addition to the regular arrow damage.
Piercing Strike: The arrow magically ignores armour. Treat this as a touch attack for resolving the attack roll.
Guided Arrow Strike: You need not have line-of-sight to the target, but you must know exactly which square the target is in. You must be able to draw a line between yourself and the target, but this line can have any number of zig-zags and direction changes; the range is calculated based on this line. This can be used to effectively strike at an invisible target, provided you know which square it is in, or it can be used to attack an enemy behind a wall or around a corner.
If you are also able to see the target (perhaps by seeing his reflection, perhaps through a glass barrier), you gain an insight bonus equal to one-quarter of your Spot skill ranks (round down).
My Quiver is Full (counter): You can immediately create enough non-magical arrows to refill your quiver. If you give these created arrows to another person for him to use, hold, or carry, they immediately disappear.
Two things. First, Archer's Evasion Boost seems to be a counter more than a boost, conceptually; remember that you can use an immediate action maneuver on your turn if desired.
A counter wouldn't be nearly as useful. That would protect you against one AoO. If you're surrounded and trying to get out, you need to avoid many.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PairO'Dice Lost
...intercepting arrow kata...
It calls for precision, but also for speed. When you're trying to hit a moving target, you don't have time to line up the shot. Being able to shoot something really fast also falls within this discipline. The word "saturation" was just my attempt to fit into a subject line, not the entirety of the school.
It might be worth adding a similar maneuver to falcon's eye. Probably at a lower level, but as a strike that must be readied....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Rapid Stance: Each consecutive round in which you use a full attack action to fire arrows, you can deliver an additional attack at your full bab (+1 additional attack on the second round, +2 additional attacks on the 3rd round, and so on).
This seems abusable. Spend five rounds before battle making full attacks on a rock?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Full Quiver Stance: While in this stance, your bow magically creates arrows for you. Each full 4 initiator levels gives these arrows a +1 enhancement bonus.
My Quiver is Full (counter): You can immediately create enough non-magical arrows to refill your quiver. If you give these created arrows to another person for him to use, hold, or carry, they immediately disappear.
Probably don't need both, but useful....
This would be the only su manuever here, but would be much more useful to an iron rain practitioner than to a rising phoenix (or whatever we're calling it this week) practitioner.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Beehive Strike: Your arrow magically splits into several shafts in mid-flight. This can only be used with non-magical arrows; magical arrows lose their enchantment if fired using this strike. This should be resolved using the same basic mechanics as a modern shotgun.
What mechanic is that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Covering Fire Strike: You fire a large number of arrows over an area. This should be resolved using the suppression fire rules from d20 Modern (similar rules are in the squad shooting rules from Heroes of Battle, and the automatic rifle in the DMG).
Suppressing fire sounds good. What are the rules for this? I don't have d20 modern.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Explosive Arrow Strike: The arrow explodes on contact, causing 1d6 points of fire damage in addition to the regular arrow damage.
Piercing Strike: The arrow magically ignores armour. Treat this as a touch attack for resolving the attack roll.
IIRC, rising phoenix already has these.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Guided Arrow Strike: You need not have line-of-sight to the target, but you must know exactly which square the target is in. You must be able to draw a line between yourself and the target, but this line can have any number of zig-zags and direction changes; the range is calculated based on this line. This can be used to effectively strike at an invisible target, provided you know which square it is in, or it can be used to attack an enemy behind a wall or around a corner.
If you are also able to see the target (perhaps by seeing his reflection, perhaps through a glass barrier), you gain an insight bonus equal to one-quarter of your Spot skill ranks (round down).
This sounds like a more powerful Hidden Archery Stance, and that's already 8th level.
A counter wouldn't be nearly as useful. That would protect you against one AoO. If you're surrounded and trying to get out, you need to avoid many.
A counter can last through multiple AoOs; there's no hard-and-fast rule as to what a counter has to protect against. It is fairly standard, however, that a counter is reactive and a boost is proactive, so if you're going to activate something to negate AoOs it should really be classified as a counter.
__________________
Better to DM in Baator than play in Celestia
You can just call me Dice; that's how I roll.
Sig of Holding
Spoiler
Quote:
Originally Posted by abadguy
Darn you PoDL for making me care about a bunch of NPC Commoners!
Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
Beehive Strike: Your arrow magically splits into several shafts in mid-flight. This can only be used with non-magical arrows; magical arrows lose their enchantment if fired using this strike. This should be resolved using the same basic mechanics as a modern shotgun.
What mechanic is that?
d20 Modern doesn't actually treat shotguns mechanically any different from any other firearm. The most common shotgun homebrews either treat it as a cone or line attack (don't do this; it's very unrealistic), or replace the range increment penalty to attack rolls with a range increment penalty to damage rolls.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
Covering Fire Strike: You fire a large number of arrows over an area. This should be resolved using the suppression fire rules from d20 Modern (similar rules are in the squad shooting rules from Heroes of Battle, and the automatic rifle in the DMG).
Suppressing fire sounds good. What are the rules for this? I don't have d20 modern.
d20 Modern's autofire rule is spend 10 shots and a full round action, pick a 10x10 ft area (or 5x20 if you have a specialist feat) and make an attack roll against AC 10. if you hit, everyone in the area must make a DC 15 Reflex save, or take the weapon's normal damage. I don't like this version of autofire, since is makes it easier to hit someone wearing armour.
Here is a modified version of Traveller T20's autofire rule. Spend a variable number of shots (dependent on the weapon for real guns; up to your initiator level multiplied by two for the initiator strike) and a full round action, pick a 90-degree cone out to a single range increment of your weapon. Discard half the shots spent and make one attack against each enemy in the area, up to the number of shots left. If you have any shots left over, until the start of your next turn, each time an enemy enters the area covered you may make an attack roll against that enemy.
----
And I thought of one more...
Blot out the Sun (Strike): Your arrow acts as a dispel magic effect against any spell or magical effect with the light descriptor that is centred on the target that is hit. Your initiator level is treated as a caster level for the purposes of this effect.
Here is a modified version of Traveller T20's autofire rule. Spend a variable number of shots (dependent on the weapon for real guns; up to your initiator level multiplied by two for the initiator strike) and a full round action, pick a 90-degree cone out to a single range increment of your weapon. Discard half the shots spent and make one attack against each enemy in the area, up to the number of shots left. If you have any shots left over, until the start of your next turn, each time an enemy enters the area covered you may make an attack roll against that enemy.
This doesn't sound very effective here. A high-level enemy isn't likely to fear a single mundane arrow-shot, even with an enhancing stance.
It's a shame because this sounds like a good real-world description. In the real world, however, one shot can kill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon
Blot out the Sun (Strike): Your arrow acts as a dispel magic effect against any spell or magical effect with the light descriptor that is centred on the target that is hit. Your initiator level is treated as a caster level for the purposes of this effect.
Good name, but the actual behavior isn't iron rainish.
So make that one Nightengale Feather? Or MAYBE make it a no-discipline maneuver that has pre-requisites of a certain number of maneuvers from each, but I don't know if we want to get that crazy with stuff that is intended to end up in AoW.
I'm not a fan of that last one. The reasoning itself is already a little questionable, and the mechanic portions of it just feels really clunky. This sounds almost like a highly circumstantial situation that a GM might be faced in a game rather than an actual established maneuver itself.
Plus, things that have active magical effects sound like would fit better in the domain of the spirit arrow (or whatever it's called) discipline.
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Full Quiver
Iron Rain (Stance) Level: 4 Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 swift action Range: Personal Target: You Duration: Stance
I stopped bothering to count my ammunition. Less work this way. Plus it means I never run out.
When you draw an ordinary arrow from your quiver in this stance, you may choose not to decrease the number of arrows remaining in your quiver. Arrows drawn this way must be fired immediately, or you drop them and they get lost somewhere they will never be found. You must have at least one ordinary arrow in your quiver to draw. You cannot draw magical or alchemical arrows this way, but you can draw them normally while in the stance. You can use this stance with javelins or throwing knives, so long as you keep them in a quiver or similar container.
This stance is a supernatural effect.
Covering Fire
Iron Rain (Strike) Level: 6 Prerequisite: Three Iron Rain maneuvers Initiation Action: 1 full round action Range: 1 range increment Target: See text Duration: One round
You fill a space with arrows, so that no sane attacker would enter it.
Draw a line away from yourself in any direction for a distance less than or equal to the range increment of your weapon. Those squares the line passes through are effected. All effected squares must be empty when you begin the maneuver. Any creature entering an effected square is automatically struck by three of your arrows (roll damage normally).
This doesn't sound very effective here. A high-level enemy isn't likely to fear a single mundane arrow-shot, even with an enhancing stance.
It's a shame because this sounds like a good real-world description. In the real world, however, one shot can kill.
One other effect I didn't mention was that T20's autofire rules allow for doing huge amounts of extra damage with very high rate-of-fire weapons. Unfortunately, I don't think having 600+ shots per round would be all that believable, even for Iron Rain, so I left that bit out of the basic description.
Plus of course, basic bow damage sucks by RL standards. My attempt at houseruling bows increases their base damage substantially for 'modern' bows, in order to maintain a semblance of realism.
The primary purpose of the suppressive autofire rule is to suppress the low-level drones anyway, not get the BBEG. Against the BBEG, burst fire is the attack method of choice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
Rapid Stance: Each consecutive round in which you use a full attack action to fire arrows, you can deliver an additional attack at your full bab (+1 additional attack on the second round, +2 additional attacks on the 3rd round, and so on).
This seems abusable. Spend five rounds before battle making full attacks on a rock?
Fix: Any round in which you fail to hit a creature that is intent on harming you or your allies, the counter gets reset, back to zero.
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