Lirion bow

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Lirion bows (also known as Wavedancer-style elemental bows) are a type of self-ammo weapon originally designed by GameMaster Khaladon for the Wavedancer. Varieties include longbows, composite bows, and crossbows.

All Lirion bows spontaneously generate their own ammunition. (For crossbows, this happens during COCK with normal roundtime for the action. However, Lirion crossbows do not require cocking prior to firing, and they can simply be FIREd as with all crossbows.) Depending on the specific item, the generated arrows/bolts may have random damage weighting, elemental flares, or no special properties. They are also all permablessed except for the bows with poison flares.

While originally Lirion bows were not capable of supporting player services, they are now able to take all player services to further enhance them. They can also be transmuted.

Analyze

This is a Poison Lirion Bow.  It will create poison witchwood ammunition.
Verb Traps: GLANCE, LACE, POINT, POKE, PULL, PUSH, RUB, TOSS, REMOVE, and WEAR
Alteration Restrictions: No aesthetic restrictions.  No functional alterations permitted, including lightening.

Usage

Verb Style First Third
GLANCE You alternate readying your hand crossbow and relaxing your grip as you glance around the area. Vanah alternates readying her hand crossbow and relaxing her grip as she glances around the area.
Targeted You alternate readying your hand crossbow and relaxing your grip as you glance warily at a creature. Vanah alternates readying her hand crossbow and relaxing her grip as she glances warily at a creature.
LACE You make some minute adjustments to the left loop of your prod, shortening the loop and easing the pressure on the bowstring slightly. Vanah makes some minute adjustments to the left loop of her prod, shortening the loop and easing the pressure on the bowstring slightly.
PULL Bow You raise your bow and draw back on the bowstring, pulling until your fingers are even with your ear, to test the strength of the draw. After satisfying yourself that the draw is correct you slowly release the tension on the bowstring, lowering your bow. Vanah raises her bow and draws back on the bowstring, pulling until her fingers are even with her ear, to test the strength of the draw. After holding the pose for a moment she slowly releases the tension on the bowstring, lowering the bow.
Crossbow You raise your crossbow and sight down its length. After satisfying yourself that the sightings are correct you slowly lower your crossbow. Vanah raises her crossbow and sights down its length. After satisfying herself that the sightings are correct she slowly lowers her crossbow.
PUSH Carefully planting your foot firmly on the ground, you brace the prod of your crossbow against it securely. With the ease of long practice you slip the bowstring from one nock, twist it several times to tighten, and slide the knot's loop back into position. Vanah carefully plants her foot firmly on the ground, bracing the prod of her crossbow against it securely. With the ease of long practice she slips the bowstring from one nock, twists it several times to tighten, and slides the knot's loop back into position.
POKE You scrutinize the tiller of your crossbow, occasionally running your thumb along the crossbow's surface, looking for flaws. Vanah scrutinizes the limbs of her crossbow, occasionally running her thumb along the crossbow's surface.
POINT You carefully sight down your hand crossbow and along the shaft. Vanah carefully sights down her hand crossbow.
Targeted You carefully sight down your hand crossbow and along the shaft at a creature Vanah carefully sights down her hand crossbow and points it directly at at a creature.
RUB You polish your hand crossbow with your hand, trying to remove all the imperfections. Vanah polishes her hand crossbow with her hand, trying to remove all the imperfections.
TOSS Bow You toss your bow a few inches in the air, catching it adroitly and settling your hand comfortably around the grip. Vanah tosses her bow a few inches in the air, catching it adroitly and settling her hand comfortably around the grip.
Crossbow You toss your crossbow a few inches in the air, catching it adroitly as you swing it around and sight down its length. Vanah tosses her crossbow a few inches in the air, catching it adroitly then swings it around and sights down its length.

Additional Information

Fluff verb traps are identical to Ingrained Quality Bows.

Original Release Notes

18 bows were released aboard the Wavedancer. There were 3 of each type.

The Lirion bows came in 3 types:

  1. Flaring (all the flare types at the time of release, and the chance of flaring is much greater than 10 percent)
  2. Randomly damage weighted
  3. Plain arrows

Arrow enchantment ranges from +1 to +30. With the bows being +20 on release, they are a +21 to +50 weapon prior to any enhancements made.

Not all of the bows released on the Wavedancer had the Lirion bow script. Released alongside the Lirion bows were chaos bows (varies in enchant, highly sighted, morphs), racial bows (nicely sighted for most, awesome for halflings and sylvans), and the speed crossbows (cock in 3 seconds).

Ammunition

The exact enchantment of the arrows/bolts can vary randomly per shot between +1 and +30. Lirion bows have at least +20 base enchantment, so the final (bow + arrow) bonus can vary between +21 and +50. Enchanting a Lirion bow beyond the base will lead to less variation: for example, a +30 bow will have a final bonus between +31 and +50.

Unlike other ranged weapons, the maximum is not capped at +50. Since the ranged review in December 2021, the cap for a Lirion bow still keeps the weapon enchant at +50, but the arrows are still further enchanted. Any enchant from the arrows that leads to an enchant over +50 is halved. So a 10x Lirion bow would result in a range of +50-65 AS bonus.

Script Updates

Elemental bows underwent significant changes in December 2021. These are documented in the following update notes:

Combat Example

Droit draws back on his ruic long bow and a straight ruic arrow appears.
Droit fires a straight ruic arrow at a Grimswarm giant soldier!
AS: +544 vs DS: +217 with AvD: +20 + d100 roll: +79 = +426
... and hits for 72 points of damage!
Loud *crack* as the giant soldier's sternum breaks!

Poison Bow

Among self-ammo bows, Lirion bows are currently the only type that include poison as one of the possible flare types.

Poison flares occur invisibly on approximately 50% of shots, dealing damage ranging from 30 to 80, which is refreshable upon subsequent hits. It was confirmed during player testing that it refreshes, does not stack, on subsequent hits.

Status effect flares - including bind, blind, stun, and prone - also act as poison flares.

Potential Bugs

Holy flares associated with a tier 6 Sanctification are intended but currently non-functional; GM consultations ongoing. There have been referrals made to GMs regarding the non-functional S6 Holy fire flares, which is a known issue affecting many self-ammo bows.

See Also

Lirion bow Information
Type Mechanical
Item Classification Weapon
Item(s) Applied to Bow
Crossbow
Alterable Yes
Light/Deep
Original Release Venue Wavedancer
Original Release Year 2005
Item Verbs
COCK FIRE GLANCE LACE
PULL PUSH POKE POINT
RUB TOSS