Arrow Merciless

These vicious, cruel weapons are specially designed to cause endless hurt to the target, making it very difficult to remove one from the body of a creature hit by them.

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

They are based on the design of arrows such as watakusi or barbed arrows. However, merciless arrows have two lines of double-edged curved blades all along their shafts, not only at their point. Such blades have no problem penetrating the body of a victim, but hook on the flesh when pulled out, causing indescribable pain, potentially killing the victim as it becomes impossible to dislodge the arrow from his body.

A creature hit by merciless arrows cannot be healed by either normal or magical means until the arrow is removed from his body. Natural healing is impossible unless the wounded creature succeeds at a Constitution check (DC 10 plus the damage dealt by the merciless arrow); otherwise, the wounded creature cannot rest due to the unbearable pain. Removing a merciless arrow from a wound deals additional damage to the creature as if the arrow had scored a critical hit (usually thrice the arrow’s base damage). If the arrow did score a critical hit in the first place, removing it causes the same effect as if the arrow had been used for a coup the grace: additional damage equals a critical hit dealt by the arrow, plus the creature must succeed at a Fortitude save (DC 10 plus damage dealt) or die from trauma.

The increased weight of merciless arrows halves the range increment of the weapon that they are fired from but they increases its damage as if it was made for a creature one size category larger. Thus for example a Medium shortbow has a range increment of 30 feet and a base damage of 1d8 when firing merciless arrows, while a Medium composite longbow has a range increment of 55 feet and a base damage of 2d6 when firing merciless arrows.

Due to their unusual configuration, merciless arrows cannot be used in conjunction with the Manyshot feat. A character that rolls a natural 1 when attacking with merciless arrows suffers 1d3 points of damage from the arrow’s curved blades.

Merciless Arrows (10): 50 gp; 4 lb.