Meteoric Iron Arrows

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

He also said that it doesn't do anything about defenses that don't specifically target the weapon. Which is basically all magical defenses as far as I can determine.

Heh. I think his intent was that spells that directly affect the weapon fail, whereas spells that indirectly affect the weapon (by, for example, making armor harder) work normally.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Heh. I think his intent was that spells that directly affect the weapon fail, whereas spells that indirectly affect the weapon (by, for example, making armor harder) work normally.

Sure, but very few (if any) defenses of the sort we are talking about directly effect the weapon. Missile Shield and Shield work by making the subject harder (or impossible) to hit, Armor gives the subject a force-field or something.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Sure, but very few (if any) defenses of the sort we are talking about directly effect the weapon. Missile Shield and Shield work by making the subject harder (or impossible to hit), Armor gives the subject a force-field or something.

Very few defenses target the arrow. However, missile shield is a magical force deflecting missiles that would strike its subject to one side, not something that alters the nature of the target of the spell.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Very few defenses target the arrow.

Well, yeah that's why it appears to be not worth making meteoric iron ammo. I'm reading that the intent was to protect weapons and armor from Heat or Shatter, not to make allow them to penetrate defensive spells.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Well, yeah that's why it appears to be not worth making meteoric iron ammo. I'm reading that the intent was to protect weapons and armor from Heat or Shatter, not to make allow them to penetrate defensive spells.

I'm pretty sure the intent is for it to penetrate spells such as missile shield and force dome, but not indirect effects such as creating a wall of earth. There isn't a good way of phrasing that in GURPS, however, and spells in many cases don't say what they are anyway (it's probably the intent that Missile Shield doesn't work but Windstorm does, but there's nothing in the mechanics of either spell to say that).

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I'm pretty sure the intent is for it to penetrate spells such as missile shield and force dome.

That's what I assumed too, but I'm at a loss to find anything that actually supports that.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Well, yeah that's why it appears to be not worth making meteoric iron ammo. I'm reading that the intent was to protect weapons and armor from Heat or Shatter, not to make allow them to penetrate defensive spells.

I pretty sure for the purpose of the Ruling, the Missile Shield (and Defect Missile) tree of spells are considered to be Ancored on the casting target, but the Missile is the Subject of the spell so a wholy Meteoric Iron would ignore it. This is opposed to spell like Fortify where the target is also the subject of the spell.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

I pretty sure for the purpose of the Ruling, the Missile Shield (and Defect Missile) tree of spells are considered to be Ancored on the casting target, but the Missile is the Subject of the spell so a wholy Meteoric Iron would ignore it.

The missile is very clearly not the Subject of Missile Shield. The person you cast it on is the Subject. That's what "Subject" means as a Term of Art in GURPS Magic.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The missile is very clearly not the Subject of Missile Shield. The person you cast it on is the Subject. That's what "Subject" means as a Term of Art in GURPS Magic.

Gah you are being overly pedantic the ruling were spells that effect the missile... is a Ruling that isn't looks at the listed Target or Listed Subject because most of the time it not there... it in the descriptor of what the spell does

and what the Missile Shield spell does is defect the missile which is clearly acting on the missile... where as Fortify does is strengthen the armor clearly acting on the armor.

Missile would be utterly useless if it listed the coming Arrow as the Target/Subject in term of art because then all it is and a blocking spell not a regular spell that affect all arrows targeted at the person the spell is cast on

[DouglasCole]

Using a yew longbow with a 120-lb. draw (ST 16), a TL5 steel arrow would need to be about 0.23" in diameter (compare to a wood arrow at about a half-inch). This makes such a war arrow on the order of 3500 grains (about a half-pound).

The weight of the arrow makes the bow about 80% efficient (compare to 45% for a 700-gr arrow), but arrow velocit is only 111 fps (37 yards/sec) . . . making it an Acc 1 longbow.Max range is only 88 yards, but it does full damage to that range (calculated as 6.5 points on the cinematic scale, or 1d+3, and 1d+1 on the realistic scale).

So, compared to a standard GURPS 0.1-lb arrow:

Range: 246 yew
Acc: 2
Damage: 1d+1 cinematic, 1d realistic

So, meteoric iron arrow, perhaps:

Max Range = 1/3 normal
Acc: -1 to the normal accuracy of whatever's shooting the arrow. Clarified.
Damage: +2 per die cinematic, +1 per die realistic. (Sorry, typo in original. Fixed)

It's about 0.25 inches thick, 30" long.