Named Arrow
Our latest Patreon poll has produced a winner! Meet Arcane Archer, the latest resident (and first kitsune) to be added to Handbook-World. (Better luck next time, Psychic Warrior!)
In case you’ve never played an arcane archer, let me give you a little insight into the class: they’ve got tricks. In fact, they’ve got A LOT of tricks, so much so that the first version of this comic had AA drawing arrows out of a golf bag. For a guy like me who loves his fluff, this can be a bit of a problem. Give me a wizard and I’ll agonize over his magic missiles. What do they look like? What color are they? How do they reflect his personality? Ask me to roll up a barbarian and I’ll also roll up a table of tribe-specific superstitions and totem animals. (Fear not, my friends. I saw brother Pelican this morning. We will not die this day.) And if you give me an arcane archer, you can be damn sure that I’m going to name his attacks.
Who wants to fire a boring old flaming frost arrow? Give me a vengeful lance of the steam mephit any day. Oh I’m sorry. Was that a straight-from-the-Unearthed-Arcana beguiling arrow? When I shoot it, you better believe I’m shouting, “Amorous embrace of the lusty scorpion!” My particular influences come from anime and Exalted (seriously, look at this name generator), but giving your fanciest moves grandiose titles is the kind of opportunity I can’t pass up.
A quick word of warning though: this mess is inherently silly. I just named an attack “amorous embrace of the lusty scorpion” after all. If you’re trying for a self-serious character, then chances are you aren’t pausing to shout a string of adjectives at your foe. In other words, make sure you’re in the right kind of campaign before you adopt this strategy. If on the other hand you’re down for some lighthearted and extremely tropey fun, then I suggest you practice shouting “massacre of excitable bees” next time you fire a flight of arrows at your opponent. You may not hit, but you’ll definitely be memorable.
So how about it, guys? Have you ever bothered to give a name to your favorite attack? What was it? Let’s hear your best efforts down in the comments!
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I will say that the best part of playing a Warblade in 3.5 was the ability – nay, the imperative – to shout the names of my maneuvers in combat. “Sapphire Nightmare Blade!” thunk
Nice! What did that attack actually do?
Sapphire Nightmare Blade was the one that just straight-up doubled your damage as long as your Concentration check beat the enemy’s AC, IIRC.
Also, a lot of the maneuvers in the Tome of Battle had really goofy names. The best was “Five-Fold Creeping Ice Enervation Strike” or something like that, IIRC. I think it did cold damage and Dexterity damage.
lol. I see I’m not the only one who draws inspiration from the animu.
It’s the first of the Nightmare Blade maneuvers, level 1. If I make my Concentration check against my opponent’s AC, I do an extra 1d6 damage, and they’re flat-footed against the attack. Higher level versions are Ruby Nightmare Blade (double damage) and Diamond Nightmare Blade (quadruple damage).
I happened to be using a light mace as my primary weapon (an ancestral one, at that), but nobody minded.
Didn’t see it listed with the base class and assumed we were talking about a homebrew name. Clearly I need play more 3.5
Reminds me of that scene in Despicable Me 2 where Lucy counters Gru’s Freeze Ray because he always announces it before he fires. Then she zaps him and afterwards says “LIPSTICK TASER!”
Announcing your attacks is dramatic and awesome, but probably not the tactical choice.
Maybe there’s room for a wizard who always announces the wrong spell before he fires? “MAGIC MISSILE” shoots a fireball
TBF, verbal components mean most casters actually do announce their attack, in a sense.
I love the idea for the absent-minded professor wizard. You don’t even have to limit it to spells.
“Teleport!”
*Takes the withdraw action.*
A friend of mine played an egotistical wizard who, wherever possible, renamed his spells… with names that have already been used for more powerful spells:
Chill Touch became Finger of Death. Melf’s Minute Meteors became Meteor Swarm. Unseen Servant (or maybe Mage Hand) became Telekinesis.
It made him seem that much more impressive when we compared his deeds to what we heard about other spellcasters.
Fizban, is that you?
Not quite a “named attack” kinda thing, but in a recent game I was playing a TWF-Whip-User in 3.5. I had stacked together in my build many different options for gaining extra attacks in a full-round attack but each one added a penalty to my attack roll. So to keep track of all the macros for Roll20, I made a .doc to keep track of them. As an example, below is one of them with the name (in a meta sense they were named).
Hasted Crack of Fate Storm of Blows TWF Full Attack (-9):
AC [[1d20+18]][[1d20+18]][[1d20+18]][[1d20+18]][[1d20+18]][[1d20+18]][[1d20+13]][[1d20+13]] [[1d20+8]]
DMG [[1d3+16]][[1d3+16]][[1d3+16]][[1d3+16]][[1d3+16]][[1d3+13]][[1d3+16]][[1d3+13]]
This is a Standard Full Attack macro (without TWF):
AC [[1d20+27]][[1d20+22]][[1d20+17]]
DMG [[1d3+16]][[1d3+16]][[1d3+16]]
This was at level 13, without Greater TWF (due to low stat rolls). The abilities that granted extra attacks were Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (pretty standard), Rain/Storm of Blows (an option for alternate fighters from Dragon #310), and Crack of Fate (an option from the Lasher Prestige Class).
In the start of combat I would let loose as many attacks as possible in the first round as a sort of AC litmus test. If I hit with at least three of the +18 attacks, I’d stay the course. If I only hit two, I subtract extra-attack options until I can reliably get damage done to the enemy. It was pretty fun while it lasted, tbh. The doc was a pain to edit every time I levelled up though, so I probably won’t do that build ever again.
Combinatory procedural litmus whip! Hyaaa!
I have a Bard who took Druid cantrips/spells as Magic Initiate. When he uses Shillelagh, I’ve flavored it with DM’s approval as a cartoonish mallet, with the head made of curled rose branches. And thanks to a blessing from a minor deity, the base weapon can swap Bludgeoning for Radiant Damage at the user’s will.
The name of this thing? The Glamour Hammer. Because it sparkles.
As all bardic spells should.
I thought you said you weren’t doing Fighter Subclasses as characters.
I actually really dislike the Arcane Archer for the simple reason that they have too few uses of their abilities, and their abilities don’t do enough.
Also; Why do people keep calling the Battlemind “Psychic Warrior”? Battlemind was one of the coolest classes in 4E, and it saddens me when people can’t get its’ name right.
You misspelled “prestige class.”
Psychic Warrior is the name of a class from Dreamscarred Press’ Psionics books for Pathfinder. Given that this comic is mostly Pathfinder, I’m gonna assume that’s what they’re talking about.
It’s got an older pedigree than that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psionics_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)#Psychic_Warrior
Naming and calling your attacks will always remind me of Hakk-Fu from Jackie Chan Adventures. He was a parody on wuxia and anime characters who did that sort of thing, and his attacks had utterly ridiculous names like “Sleeping Wolf Climbs The Mountain”.
Hah, this was my exact thought as well- I finally found a good clip from youtube to link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5XlOr9ch6k
Like Pennomi said, calling your attacks can be a bad strategic choice, one which i like to exploit silly heroes, but sometime i indule myself in the use of “Soulless life snuff”/finger of death, “Fiery Death roaring from being born in the sky”/meteor shower, “Closing of life, opening of death”/knock, or “F#ck you and your d#mmed gods crazy b#tch, i am outa here”/dimension door. Other times i choose something more dramatic, silence itself. Screaming and calling your attacks can be dramatic/awesome/other, but killing in silence like the old good dark brotherhood assassins has a really unnerving factor that i like.
Also, to contribute with even more text, i must again denounce the persecution and shunning of our beloved psykers. Well i for one welcome, and with great honors, our beloved veterans of the psychic wars. they deserve they own day 🙂
Next week a shorter post 🙁
Psychics always seem like a minority taste. If I want one to get in the comic, I should probably throw two different psychic classes against each other in future.
I for one like the psychic characters, sometimes they are like wizards, but just a little off. Thinking about psychics, wizards and names, as psykers are usually found in future settings, in place of wizards, maybe one day i made a psychic pc who hides his powers behind magic names. Instead of telekinetic push maybe he uses invisible strength of the silent wind and all that. It could be fun and in that way i can troll the wizards and they “inferior” magic.
Pulling this trick?
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/kid-up
I say go for it!
Not what i have in mind, but now i can’t take that out of my head, so… yeah.
Homebrewed Gundam tabletop. Yelling “Purified Full Release Trans-am Burst.” sounded a lot cooler in my head 😛
I like to imagine you throwing a dealership’s worth of Pontiac Firebirds at other giant robots.
Actually I find shouting out silly names very useful for soellcasters and the like to disguise their spells! A lot of spells require a verbal component and typically this takes the form of your shouting out the spell’s name, but I believe anything could work so long as it’s intended to be the spells verbal incantation. My paladin-Sorcerer is especially known for using this; why simply call out Booming Blade when it can be called STORMBREAKER!
Plus in a meta sense it helps keep your enemies on their toes. You generally know what’s coming towards you if someone yells “magic missile” or “Sleep”, but someone screaming “Solar Gaze” Or “Sandman’s Grasp” has less of a clue for what’s coming towards em.
I wonder what an “esoteric technique” feat would look like?
— Penalties to identify spells as they are being cast.
— Disadvantage to counterspell or dispel attempts directed against you.
— ???
— Profit
My only instance of doing that kind of thing so far is the previously mentioned Bard chef I played. And that’s really not “naming” so much as “describing”. For example vicious mockery would be things like a spray of rapidly sliced onions.
As everyone knows, onions a the most sardonic of fruits.
That wasn’t the reason, but I feel compelled to agree with you there. =P
I have not, but I will say I like the more simplistic naming side of things…
I.e. When Judge Dread selects the Incendiary rounds in his gun…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LiQoN1-Ks6Q
Low-word-count attacks just sound heavier to me, especially if it’s ambiguous too. If someone pulls back an arrow and says in a low voice “Will-Breaker”, you don’t know if they are about to lower someone’s Will save, or hit them with so many things at once that they no longer want to put up a fight…
I so badly want to play the board game version of Dredd. I also want that to exist. I expect “incendiary” would be the most coveted of power-ups.
I do think a lot about what my characters’ abilities LOOK like, but I’ve never named them per se. I guess none of my characters would… shout out a name for their attack as they’re doing it. I have a friend who’s made macros like “Glitterlance!” and “Alakazam!” for his Warlock’s various Eldritch Blast incantations, though.
Closest I’ve got is a Knowledge domain Cleric who chants in a forgotten language to invoke her spells. I may have workshopped a few lines in Ancient Greek for her favourite spells, but haven’t had the chance to embarrass myself yet. :p
Do it! Do it do it do it. :3
Early on in my career, my Magus did have what I labeled on my sheet as the “Bellona Silverlock Does Not Like You” attack, which was a combination of a cold iron greatsword, the spell Chill Touch, bloodrage-enhanced strength, elemental bloodline-provided 1d6 acid damage, Power Attack and screaming (Enlarge Person optional). I don’t know if I ever actually called it that in an actual session, and Bellona has gotten a lot calmer now as she has matured, so there is a lot less screaming on her end.
The only specific time I can remember doing this, I set it all up, made a charge, provoked an attack of opportunity from the boss which was used to make a trip attack against me, fell on my face and then the boss decided that enough was enough and jumped off a building so she wouldn’t have to deal with us anymore. So the combo is intimidating, at least, even if the attack doesn’t connect. I guess that’s what a named attack and screaming are for.
Bloodraging is like a fine Merlot: it mellows with age. Or at least you trade out “screams a lot” for “actual abilities.”
Sucks that you didn’t get the hit though. Think you’ll find another opportunity in the near future?
Well, we’re PROBABLY about at the rematch stage, since we are hunting down that boss’s older sister, and I suspect the AP will put the two of them together. I probably won’t use the special technique then, though, because the party composition has changed from “no one with full BAB, d10 HD, or heavy armor proficiency and only one person with martial weapon proficiency” to “everyone’s a martial except the Magus and the Sorcerer who may or may not be able to play anymore but we have no spellcasters”, so I’ll probably be sticking to my current support/tank role where I cause havoc and absorb blows instead of actually doing damage. (That may sound like a complaint, but it’s actually very effective, because I’m basically immune to conventional weapons now.)
We have had a surprisingly large number of bosses escape our wrath this campaign. Three actual escapes (though one of those required a nat 20 on a coup de grace FORT save) and then a pair of CR 10 bosses who we technically fought four times, though two of those fights were short skirmishes at it was WE who were escaping, so I don’t know if that counts or not.
Ain’t nothing wrong with having a job and sticking to it.
No worries about Magus and Sorcerer. I think that “we need casters” is more of a utility than a combat problem, and neither class focuses on the Batman play style. Careful gear selection (especially scrolls with a decent UMD) goes a long way towards solving the problem.
my Rogue can do magic: The spell is called „Find Arterie“
Material Focus: Raper 😉
stupid Auto „Correct“ supposed to be a Rapier.
Look Agi, some of your character choices are making the rest of the table uncomfortable. I’d like to introduce the X-card…. 😛
Well, i dunno if I’d call it a favorite spell, as a matter of fact my necromancer kinda hates using it, but he has a spell that is a modified Hunger of Hadar that is paired with blood magic. instead of cold damage it does necrotic, and as it damages creatures it drains their blood into the nearest bloodstone, which is used to power blood magic spells. He calls the spell “Dread Harvest.”
Well that’s October-appropriate. I bet you could do a fun progressive curse with that bloodstone theme, causing a gem to grow out of somebody’s flesh and giving them all kinds of penalties as their essence slowly transfers into it.
I actually brought that up with the DM, so far nobody has been stupid enough to implant a bloodstone into themselves, so there’s no telling what exactly it will do, but most sanguimancers agree that death would come quickly, and painfully. Most blood magi just carry their stones, usually in pouches for quick access to use their magics, while my necromancer’s is small enough to fit on a ring, as his is basically a “blood magic for kids” stone because he’s just now being taught the basics of it.
Naw man. You put that thing on a troll or some other regenerating creature. Make a farm. Earn your evil reputation!
that’s…actually a brilliant idea, though a bit too cruel for my necromancer, not to mention the risk of keeping a pissed off troll around. He isn’t going to risk endangering his people for power, that’s just not him.
also, my necromancer isn’t evil! he may have the nickname “Red-Handed Raine”, but that’s only because something get’s lost in the translation of “he who’s hands are stained red from tending the weak” from Draconic to common, as the nickname/title was given to him by Lizardfolk for spending days on end taking care of their sick and wounded.
Blood Magic and Necromancy are schools ripe for abuse, of course, but that make them, and by extension those who practice them, inherently evil.
Unleash the Beyblade!
I’m not familiar. Did they have a lot of over-the-top attacks?
It’s because of Irlana’s AoO chains. The others joke that she just needs to start spinning and the monsters all die.
I remember Midori the Green, a vaguely anime-ey sorcadin I threw together for a short-lived stint at the local gaming store*. I wanted him to be fun and knew he wouldn’t be around long enough to be annoying, so I prepared a whole cheat sheet of attack names for the various permutations of his attacks, spells, feats, etc…up to and including a list of different superlative adjectives to use with smites consuming higher-level spell slots.
Sadly, the character didn’t end up using them much. Lengthy attack names slow down combat, and as noted below, a crowded table was part of why I joined the game in the first place.
*<size=1>I disliked the DM’s DMing style, so I’d left some time before. By then, however, the table was getting crowded…but not quite crowded enough to start a new table. So I joined to break the group into two more reasonably-sized groups, one of which had a DM I liked.
Also, I did the anime-ey thing because the guy who inspired me to make a sorcadin made a lot of Fate references. I couldn’t make Fate-specific references since I’ve never seen the series.
I take it you like Magic Trick (Prestidigitation)?
When I saw it I knew I wanted to make a magical child vigilante with it, either taking the two-world magic trait or the Magical Familiarity vigilante talent to get prestidigitation. Got some “plot armor”? (Magic armor or warding weapon, which looks and smells like an old novel) Something immature like “Cooties”? (Stinking cloud, looks like lots of hearts) The possibilities are endless!
(Now I need a game to fit them in)
“Thaumaturgic Aesthetics (Bluff 3 ranks, Disguise 3 ranks, Deceptive): While you have a prestidigitation spell active, you can thematically change the effects of other spells you cast, such as changing the color of a fireball, granting your magic missile a specific shape, or adding a floral smell to your mage armor. This increases the DC of Spellcraft and Knowledge (arcana) checks to identify your magic by an amount equal to half of your ranks in Disguise (minimum 1).”
(It seems commonly agreed upon that it requires the deceitful feat, otherwise you’ll need a deceptive weapon that can cast prestidigitation)