Númenórean steel bows

[MattG]

At first I thought about the Piercing Blow only, it could be enough, but then, those bows were famous for their accuracy and damage. You are right, it does sound a bit unbalanced but that culture isn't too powerful in the long run during the game. Maybe keeping worst Feat die on Protection roll, similarly to Dalish Longbow, instead damage bonus.

Maybe there were Short Steelbows, but wouldn't Bow of North Downs be also steel, then? That would probably be mentioned in the Core

[Glorelendil]

I'll play Devil's Advocate.

While buffing damage, Pierce, and Injury might be thematically appropriate, you've now got a single Reward that contains three Qualities: Fell, Keen, and Grievous. Which means its a 'choice trap': it's so much better than other choices that players would be crazy to pick anything else.

The problem (for me) with the King Bladorthin suggestion is multi-fold:
- The Spear of King Bladorthin can only be thrown once, so it's vastly more powerful than that Reward
- The general mechanic ('Advantage' on ranged attacks) duplicates Hobbit 'Fair Shot'. Whether uniqueness matters is a point of personal preference, however.
- Advantage not only increases chance of hitting, it even more dramatically increases the chance of Piercing. Where Hobbits are limited to regular bows, this is a Great Bow...resulting in a perhaps too powerful weapon. With both Fell and Keen added this becomes a truly devastating weapon: basically a 45% chance of a TN: 18 Pierce every shot.

Coming up with something that is thematic, unique, and balanced is tricky.

For me 'Steel Bow' suggests something with massive penetration power. How about: "All Protection rolls made against this weapon are treated as 'Weary'"? (EDIT: I believe somebody...maybe AngelAlex...suggested this mechanic in the epic thread about Deadly Archery.)

That would make it relatively more powerful against higher armour scores.

[Majestic]

Those are really good points, Glorelendil. I think he's right on this, as sometimes we have to sacrifice a bit of verisimilitude (within a particular fictional world) for the sake of balancing things for a game.

For awhile I was a designer for the Star Wars CCG (collectible card game). In that fictional setting, a Star Destroyer is massively bigger (and more powerful) than an X-wing. But when you are making a game (especially one where the Light side is fighting against the Dark side), you have to sacrifice some of that "realism" to make things playable.

So while a Númenórean steel bow might stand out, head and shoulders, as better than any other 'generic' weapon in Middle-earth - if you're making it a Cultural Reward you can't really reflect its awesomeness in that way, as it needs to be balanced with the other Rewards. Good game design would dictate that you don't make one that's a "no-brainer", vastly superior to all the other choices.

This whole topic probably belongs in the House Rules section, being as C7 hasn't given us this weapon in official products.

[Feanor]

For my group, the woodman woman Franya in my campaign, will find a Numenorean steel bow if she succeeds in rolling 2 Tengwars on a Treasure Hoard. And yes i used the magical item rules in Rivendell when creating it.

Here comes the issue: i want to name it Many Foes, since it would be used vs Orcs and Evil Men which is appropriate since especially the Black Numenoreans are their main antagonists. So could anyone tell me what "Many Foes" means in Sindarin? Alternately i could use the Numenorean ( Adunaic ) name, but i havent been able to find that either. So pls help me anyone.

Regards

[Glorelendil]

"Glaimath" would mean "all of the foes". Or "Uiglamath" could be interpreted to mean "an everlasting host of foes"

[Morgoth]

I believe Laewgûd would mean "many foes." Alternatively Laewcoth would mean "many enemies." Other options would be Arnediadgûd or Arnediadcoth to mean innumerable foes or enemies respectively (or "countless foes" if that sounds better).

[Robin Smallburrow]

From my Magical Treasure Index (see link to it in my sig) :

ITEM: Numenorean Steel Bow
Type: Great Bow
Craftmanship: Numenorean
Banes: None
Qualities:
1. Superior Grievous

I thought that Superior Grievous made sense for such a bow.
Alternatively, you can use what was done for the fan made Dunedain of the North:

Númenorean Steel Bow (Great Bow)
These bows were made by great artisans of Númenor and were famous by its potency and accuracy. In the hands of a trained archer, its arrows are capable of finding even the smallest gaps in the enemies’ armor.
When you get a Rune of Gandalf on the Feat dice using the Bow of the Dúnedain, the target rolls one Success die less on his Protection test.

I designed it with the Elven Archer PC in mind, so guess who is absent when the PC's come across it??

There was also a fan idea on Numenorean arrows somewhere on this forum, but I havent been able to find them

Robin S.

[Feanor]

Cool cool guys. Many thanks !

[SirGalrim]

For me 'Steel Bow' suggests something with massive penetration power. How about: "All Protection rolls made against this weapon are treated as 'Weary'"? (EDIT: I believe somebody...maybe AngelAlex...suggested this mechanic in the epic thread about Deadly Archery.)

This was a great post Glorelendil! I had already written up Númenórean steel bow about a week ago before this discussion. I did not have it powerful as some others here have written it to be here. For game balance as you said. But still I will change it after reading your post. The penetration power was a really good idea. I am sure the Barding archer in my group would love to find it one day if he would just start to roll better on his treasure rolls.

[Glorelendil]

I have to admit I still wonder what Tolkien meant by "hollow steel" in describing these bows. The only thing I can envision that would make engineering sense is that maybe they are made in layers, perhaps using different types of steel or combined with other materials, and either the inner layers have cut-outs that form invisible hollows, or the inner faces of two adjacent layers are "hollowed" (the way the back of a chisel would be) so that the two concavities together form a larger cavity.

I can't figure why that would be better than solid steel, but at least it wouldn't necessarily be worse.