In relation to my post about Verditius magic, i wonder if anyone has some fun ideas for magic arrows.
I've previously posted about a many arrows effect [url]https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/new-item-for-moderation/1883/1]
I've also had ideas for fiery explosion arrows, human and beast slaying arrows (insta-death effect) and ward piercing arrows (to get round those pesky herbam/terram wards and counterspells).
Can anyone think of any good effects that one could stick into an arrow?
Apart from the typical killer effects, other possibilities that seem cool are:
arrow of free passage. Creates a bridge from the caster to the point where the arrow lands (R: voice)
Curse of the archer
Creates rain. Diameter duration. Voice range
Zeu's Fury
Creates lightning that falls randomly in the area where it is raini9ng. 1 lightning per round. +20 damage or so. Nice if you want to get rid of something with few maggic resistance (or high, if you determined that the item has high built-in penetration
Multiple shot
Arrow transforms into a hailstorm of arrows. Rego requisite (discussed somewhere in those boards prevciously)
Wind in the sail
Shot the arrow at a sail. Wind is generated for sun duration into the sail from that direction. usually shot at your own sail (the arrow disappearts on contact) but sometimes can be used against the sail of a pursuer, shooting it at a wrong angle to make sure they cannot pursue you (or scape).
Eros' touch
Person falls in love with the first person he/she sees. Might backfire somewhat if the first person is an enemy, or the affected person is not kind to his/her loved ones.
Fly like an arrow
You shot the arrow. You auto-teleport to the arrow's spot once it hits the ground. Some mages might want to make this a charged item with multiple charges.
Some random ideas 
Cheers,
Xavi
A cage of some sort, to trap/enclose, rather than kill. Could also be used defensively, fired at your feet in a pinch.
Tracking of some sort, establishing the object struck as the target of an Intellego spell?
Huge cloud of fog - expanding from the course of the arrow.
Delivering messages, with an unlimited range - Rego with an AC.
Firing around corners/down a maze, with a big Intell/Rego effect
Another good one is to cause a person struck to attack his buddies. Two with one stone sort of thing.
Slaying arrows should have a name on them, so they are not slaying anything the hit but only the person/animal/object the were crafted for.
"Seeking" arrows that will find the target in whose blood they were tipped, not matter what the distance. (useful if the deer of your choice ran away...)
Arrows that fly until they hit something, no matter what or who. (Gift form a fay of the dark court...)
Treacherous boomerang arrows to hide between your treasured magical arrows.
Arrows that will always hit, but never hurt. Useful to nail someone to a door for later questionning.
The Messengers Arrow, that will deliver a piece of paper attached to it to whaterver place you have an arcane connection too. Oops, CH was faster...
Arrows that turn into serpents shortly before they arrive at their destination.
An arrow that causes people to jump out of its path. Useful in large scale battles to open a passage.
Just some random thoughts...
Arrow of Finding - enchanted InVi effect that locates vis. You fire it up in the air and it lands within a foot of the vis source. Could anger magic creatures, but then it will usually be at a distance.
Or the above affect could be used when arrow is held from a cord and it points like a weather vane or lodestone toward the vis.
Nice strong image, that. Me likee!
(Of course, none of these "thoughts" (mine at least) are backed up with by-the-book effects. Don't have mine at hand. Just thoughts, things that might well work, but unclear if they're practical, or technically possible. It can be hard to have an object target another object all by itself, so some consideration there is needed.)
Arrows that emit ReTe or PeTe effects to level structures? Useful to level castles and defensive walls.
Spectacular effect arrows such as one which could darken the sun when fired at the celestial sphere or make the night bright as day when fired at the moon (symbolically fired that is, of course)...
An arrow that serves as an arcane compass for navigation on land or sea? With an AC to your destination. Not fired but can hover in place or merely tingle when physically pointed by hand.
I just built a weather mage who uses arrows to reduce the range of those big weather spells to touch. It's far from the most effective character build, but I love the image of him shooting a cloud, piercing it and making it rain.
Of course, he also had to build a magic bow to get the arrows to shoot that high, but hey...
This may also be of some help:
Arrows get a nifty +5 shape bonus on destroying stuff at a distance. So all those destroying items get a bonus to lab totals.
Combined with the +4 on affect dead wood I just wanted to make an arrow that will crumble catapults and trebuchets.
First I need a 9+ on magic theory and somebody to drag a trebuchet through our surrounding swamps, but hey: the idea is good.
And how nice are arrows to rip through regio boundaries, so you can shoot into thing air and create a passage way.
Some fantasticideas here.
Love the weather arrows, very mythic feel to them.
Auto-teleporting to an arrows location also seems like a good idea, fire them up over battlements and through windows, etc.
The arrow of free passage, creatin a land bridge in the arrows wake seems fun, all kinds of fun uses for that.
I like the idea of an entrapping arrow, even if its just a bunch of rope or vines that enmesh a target. Maybe burying the victim under a small hillock of earth would work too.
Tracking arrows i had thought of, and personalised slaying arrows too (building in arcane connections to boost the penetration).
Fog arrows, i like. fire it into the ground, ala batmans ninja smoke bombs.
Messenger arrows would be fun, but given that most of the people i'd want to contact are magi, i'd have to put some serious penetration in. Out i could shoot their shield grog i suppose.
Arrows that turn into serpents, ala Thulsa Doom (that movie rocks). Arrows that turn into elephants might be more damaging but perhaps a bit less mythic and a bit more Tom and Jerry. Still, serpents work, nasty poisonous ones.
Arrows that demolish structures, good for castle doors, houses of people that offend me and such like. And with the meaty bonuses that Paris Sophia mentioned it should be quite easy to enchant them too.
Niallchristie, thanks for the link, i had actually read that ages ago but it had escaped my mind. Very much liking the idea of a new range "shot". My magus will be working on that one once he gets his magic theory up a bit.
Glad to be of service! 
Everyone missed the obvious! The Gauntlet (aka Boxing Glove) Arrow!
Oliver Queen of Jerbiton at your service 8)
For me perfect effects for an arrow would be of range voice and target group:
ReMe Confusion: causing a person to attack the next person it sees, because he thinks it is his worst enemy. Your enemies just would fight themself.
CrMe Fear: causing the group to flee
PeMe oblivision: the target forgetts what is going on and maybe just leaving the place out of confusion
...
Shot in the middle of your opponents these effects would be very cool.
Salvete
Widewitt
Yes, indeed! 8)
However, this effect reaches only as far as the soud of the arrow is heard. IIRC items do have to emmit sound in order to use voice-range. (Otherwise it would be merely touch.) So either attach something to make a sound to the arrow or choose sight range.
Well, good point but
range sight is dangerous as it could affect you own people! So I would stick with a second effect to generate a not to loud sound.
Salvete
Widewitt
Arrows by themselves create very little sound, according to my partner who used to do archery as a hobby. But why not give the arrow a mundane source of sound?
Archaeological research (yeah I know) has suggested that the Romans had Chinese Whistles. Why not mount something similar as the arrow head? It would produce noise while in flight, extending the spell effect away from the archer in a line as it flies.
Such "singing arrows" could be very useful.... hmmm.
Since we're talking about enchantment here and not a spell, one could always add a ReIm(Me) effect into any such arrow so that the caster could mentally designate those for whom the arrow would be visible and those for whom it would not (i.e. his own companions/grogs/sodales). This would make Sight Range effects safer.
Having more than one effect would need the items to be enchanted. It's a lot cheaper to use charged items with a single effect.
I think this would work better on the bow, which you trigger to make the arrows invisible or not.
