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Skill Fletching

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Fletching Kit

I classify the trade skills into two groups; moneymakers and RP skills. The moneymakers are the skills like smithing and tailoring which have a high potential for turning a profit. The RP skills are ones like baking and brewing which don’t seem to have a whole lot of effect on game play and, consequently, tend to be mainly practiced by RPers. I place fletching firmly in the middle of the two groups. If you really hustle, you can probably turn a profit with fletching but, in all probability, it’s really only worth working on if your character is big on archery. ref

Tips on becoming a master fletcher

The nice thing about fletching is that you’re basically making two objects, bows and arrows, over and over again. That makes it very easy to figure out the relative difficulty of making a particular item. Basically, the higher the quality of your supplies, i.e. the more expensive they are, the more difficult they are to work with. If you seem to be getting a lot of failures with a particular type of arrow or bow, try downgrading one or more of your components to something cheaper. Please note that there isn’t a direct correspondence between the cost of arrows and bows and their relative difficulty. Rough hickory bows will be trivial to make long before you’re able to manufacture arrows costing several gp apiece.

How do you make bows and arrows? The first thing you’re going to need is a fletching kit. Then for bows you’ll need a bow staff, string, and, optionally, whittling knife, planing tool, and/or cams. For arrows you’ll need arrowheads, shafts, feathers, and nocks.

When making bows, the bow staff determines base damage, range, and delay. Your string modifies this. The better quality the string, the less damage the bow does but the shorter the delay. This means that a hickory bow with a linen string will do more damage than a hickory bow with a silk string, but the bow with the silk string will be faster. Whittling knives and planing tools decrease delay even more but reduce damage as well. I’m not sure what effect cams since I’m not yet good enough to make a bow that uses one but I imagine it’s similar to strings, whittling knives, and planing tools.

As for arrows, the better the arrowhead, the more damage the arrow will do. Same for shafts, the better quality the shaft is, the more damage the arrow does. Feathers modify range and damage. Round cut feathers will give your arrow a base range of 50. Parabolic cut feathers will increase the base range to 100. Shield cut feathers will reduce base range to 0 but increase the base damage of the arrow. Nocks modify the base range of the arrow so that the smaller, i.e. better, the nock the greater the range of the arrow.

Making arrows is a tedious process and at some point you will be tempted to try putting all of your arrowheads, all of your shafts, all of your feathers, and all of your nocks into your fletching kit at one time and pressing combine. Do NOT do this! No matter what quantity you put in, you will only get one arrow out which means that all of your extra material will be wasted.

Finally, when practicing to raise your skill level, always work on arrows instead of bows. This is just common sense. Arrows are far cheaper to make than bows so your mistakes will be far less costly and you can make more attempts for the same amount of money. Try to make bows every so often just to get an idea of how good you are with them but for the most part, practice on arrows. --Siobhan, Tunare Server

Arrow Recipes

Basic Arrows

Arrows are constructed using four components:

  • Point
  • Shaft
  • Fletching
  • Nock

Creating a batch of 5 arrows is accomplished by placing 1 of each of the above component types into the same fletching kit used to make bows and pressing the "Combine" key. The base arrow type has a damage of 1 and a range of 50. The final value of damage and range in effect for a particular bow/arrow combination is determined by adding the range and damage of the bow to the range and damage of the arrow.

The selection of the component types used for the four components affects the cost, complexity, and final damage and range values of the resulting set of 5 arrows, according to the following table:

Arrow Components
  Name Damage Range Cost
Point Field     5
  Hooked +1   315
  Silver Tip +2   3990
Shaft Wood     5
  Bone +1   79
  Ceramic +2   1155
  Steel +3   2835
Fletch Round     5
  Parabolic   +50 26
  Shield +1 -50 189
  Wood Vane +1 -25 682
  Bone Vane +1 +25 1365
  Ceramic Vane +2   2782
Nock Large     5
  Medium   +25 16
  Small   +50 42

This yields a truly mind-boggling set of 216 possible combinations, many of which have the same final statistics, but wildly different fabrication costs. A little creative use of a table to sort them by damage, range, and cost allows us to disregard all but the cheapest options.

The Arrow Table
Dmg Range Trivial Cost(20) Point Shaft Fletch Nock
 
1 25   180 Basic Arrow (Merchant)
1 150   4520 Flight Arrow (Merchant)
2 50   7120 Wood Hooked Arrow (Merchant)
3 50   5660 Sheaf Arrow (Merchant)
 
1 50 16 80 Field Wood Round Large
1 75 36 124 Field Wood Round Medium
1 100 46 164 Field Wood Parabolic Large
1 125 46 208 Field Wood Parabolic Medium
1 150 56 312 Field Wood Parabolic Small
 
2 50 68 376 Field Bone Round Large
2 75 68 420 Field Bone Round Medium
2 100 68 460 Field Bone Parabolic Large
2 125 68 504 Field Bone Parabolic Medium
2 150 68 608 Field Bone Parabolic Small
 
3 0 82 1112 Field Bone Shield Large
3 25 82 1156 Field Bone Shield Medium
3 50 82 1260 Field Bone Shield Small
3 75 102 1660 Hooked Bone Round Medium
3 100 102 1700 Hooked Bone Parabolic Large
3 125 102 1744 Hooked Bone Parabolic Medium
3 150 102 1848 Hooked Bone Parabolic Small
 
4 0 102 2352 Hooked Bone Shield Large
4 25 102 2396 Hooked Bone Shield Medium
4 50 102 2500 Hooked Bone Shield Small
4 75 122 4472 Hooked Bone Wood Vane Small
4 100 135 6004 Hooked Ceramic Parabolic Large
4 125 135 6048 Hooked Ceramic Parabolic Medium
4 150 135 6152 Hooked Ceramic Parabolic Small
 
5 0 135 6656 Hooked Ceramic Shield Large
5 25 135 6700 Hooked Ceramic Shield Medium
5 50 135 6804 Hooked Ceramic Shield Small
5 75 135 8776 Hooked Ceramic Wood Vane Small
5 100 182 10352 Silver Tip Ceramic Parabolic Large
5 125 182 10374 Silver Tip Ceramic Parabolic Medium
5 150 182 10426 Silver Tip Ceramic Parabolic Small
 
6 0 182 10678 Silver Tip Ceramic Shield Large
6 25 182 10700 Silver Tip Ceramic Shield Medium
6 50 182 10752 Silver Tip Ceramic Shield Small
6 75 182 11738 Silver Tip Ceramic Wood Vane Small
6 100 182 13052 Silver Tip Ceramic Bone Vane Medium
6 125 182 13104 Silver Tip Ceramic Bone Vane Small
6 150 202 13786 Silver Tip Steel Parabolic Small
 
7 0 202 14038 Silver Tip Steel Shield Large
7 25 202 14060 Silver Tip Steel Shield Medium
7 50 202 14112 Silver Tip Steel Shield Small
7 75 202 15098 Silver Tip Steel Wood Vane Small
7 100 202 15938 Silver Tip Ceramic Ceramic Vane Small
7 125 202 16464 Silver Tip Steel Bone Vane Small
 
8 50 202 19224 Silver Tip Steel Ceramic Vane Large
8 75 202 19246 Silver Tip Steel Ceramic Vane Medium
8 100 202 19298 Silver Tip Steel Ceramic Vane Small

Arrow Table Analysis

  • STORE-BOUGHT ARROWS

Again, as in the bow analysis, it’s clear that making your own arrows is both cheaper and better than buying them from the store.

  • CLASSIFICATION

The game appears to describe arrows using a Class system, i.e. Class 1, Class 2, etc. The number on the classification appears to match up with the type of fletching used on the arrow, so all arrows with Round fletch are Class 1, all with Parabolic fletch are Class 2, and so on. But this system is not exactly helpful as a shorthand way to categorize the quality of the arrow, since final arrow quality for a given fletch type can vary widely depending upon the other arrow components.

  • IF MONEY'S NO OBJECT

Those big bad, high-damage, explosive-tip, laser-guided, cruise-missile, rock-your-world high damage arrows are expensive to make! This is particularly true when you consider the fact that arrows can’t be recovered.

  • MAGIC ARROWS

Any arrow made with the bladed tip, or what is now referred to as the Silver Tip, is now (as of 1-20-2000 on Live, confirm on p1999?) considered magical, and will hit magic-only creatures such as ghouls and willowisps.  An interesting feature in the construction of these arrows is that pressing Combine results in ten arrow, rather than the usual five.

Quivers

FINALLY, after such a long period of time (since the game was released, frankly) there is a reason to lug around a quiver! One of the patches in May, 2001 (this is post-Velious content, need confirmation how p1999 stands), has changed things so that if you have a quiver equipped, it will reduce the delay of your bow, make it faster. We don't know exactly how much the delay reduction is, but we do know that an indication of how much the delay reduction can be inferred from the amount of weight reduction the quiver yields. At this point I am aware of the following options for quivers:

Quiver Recipes (made with tailoring skill, in a sewing kit)

  • Tailored Quiver (trivial 115)
    • Quiver pattern
    • HQ Cat Pelt
  • Fleeting Quiver (trivial 222)
    • Fleeting Quiver pattern
    • Aviak Egg Oil (Brewed with Aviak Eggs and water)
    • HQ Lion Skin (found in North Karand from Highland Lions)
    • Vial of Distilled Mana (Enchanter 39 spell, Poison Vial, 2x Sapphires)
    • Griffon Feather

Arrow Component Vendors

  • Ak'Anon
    • Clockwork Bowyer inside (1245, -900)
  • East Commonlands
    • Joryd Longarms, in Inn 3, near (980, 3760)
  • East Karana
    • Bryan, in the shops near the wooden bridge, near (-840, -15)
  • Felwithe
    • Longarrow, in Faydark's Bane in North Felwithe
  • Grobb
    • Zazhar, outside Krungs Clubs & Junk
  • Halas
    • Rain, in McPherson's Bloody Blades
  • Kaladim
    • Alanury Stormhammer, in Staff & Spear, in South Kaladim
  • Kelethin
    • Lanin, one platform north of the Priest of Discord lift
    • Neaien, inside the Fletcher building, same platform as Lanin
    • Tiladnya, inside Trueshot Bows
  • Kithicor Forest
    • Krile Arrowsmith, near (-325, 3900)
  • Neriak
    • Dianax C'Luzz, in The Bleek Fletcher, Neriak Commons<
  • Oggok
    • Praak, inside Bouncer Keep, on the second floor
  • Qeynos
    • Danon Fletcher, standing outside near the large clock in South Qeynos.
  • Surefall Glade
    • Jarse Kedison, standing outside near the arrow range
    • Livam T'Lant, inside the Druid guild.
  • West Karana
    • Brenzl McMannus, in the hut near the the ogre shrine, near (-2000, -9000)
    • Barbarian merchant, in the barbarian fishing village on the south shore, near (-3700,-2000)
  • Firiona Vie
    • Fleceal Summer, inside the Ranger guild, near (-3430, 3315)
  • West Cabilis
    • Zotalz, near (340, 535)
  • The Overthere
    • Tin Merchant X, near (2705, 2610)
  • Thurgadin
    • Tavir, inside Argash House of Carpentry, near (-200, -290)
  • North Freeport
    • Valla Strongbranch, near (-100, -50)

Bow Recipes

Bows consist of a staff and string, are sometimes constructed using optional tools, and optionally may contain 1 or 2 cams. The final statistics of the bow are all dependent upon the choice of each component.

To create a bow, you simply place the staff, string, and any optional components you wish into the fletching kit, cross your fingers, have all your pals /shout Good Luck!, and press the Combine button. With luck, if your fletching skill is high enough and all goes well, you’ll be left with a nice new bow on your cursor. If the attempt fails, the staff, string and cams are lost, and the tool (if one was used) ends up on your cursor. If the failed attempt involved some expensive components, you then /cry.

Staff material

Choices are Hickory, Elm, Ashwood, Oak, and Darkwood (Shadewood introduced ~Dec 2001 on Live) arranged in order of degree of difficulty and final potency. The staff material determines the base range, damage, and delay of the final bow.

Bow Staff Materials
Name Range Damage Delay Min Cost Trivial
Hickory 50 10 50 211 <16
Elm 75 13 51 2110 68
Ash 100 16 58 15750 129
Oak 125 21 65 69300 168
Darkwood 150 25 68 226800 215

These values form the basic statistics of the final bow. The choice of string, tool, and cams all provide modifications to these base values.

Note that the Bowyers Guide mentions Steel and Ceramic staves as other possibilities, however to my knowledge these component types have never been put into the game.

String Material, Tools, and Cams

String is required for all bows. Choices include Hemp, Linen, and Silk. Hemp is the simplest to work with, and yields highest damage but greatest delay. Linen and Silk are progressively more complex to work with, and provide progressively lower damages and delays.

Tools and cams are optional, and indeed only allowed on certain staff materials. The simpler tool choice is the Whittling Knife, which yields a Carved bow. The more advanced tool is the Plane, which yields a Shaped bow. The use of Cams yields a cammed or compound bow, and are usable on Oak (1 cam) and Darkwood (1 or 2 cams) and Shadewood (1 or 2 cams).

The effects on the final bow statistics are shown below. All effects are cumulative.

Bowstrings, Tools, and Cams
Item Material Dmg Delay Usable On Min Price Final Name Trivial
String Hemp 0 0 All 10 Rough 16
Linen -1 -4 All 21 Rough 32
Silk -2 -8 All 52 Rough 46
Tool Knife -1 -4 Elm and up 2110 Carved 102
Plane -2 -9 Ash and up 10710 Shaped 148
Cam Cam -1 -5 Oak and up 37800 1-Cam 192
2nd Cam -1 -5 Darkwood and up 37800 Compound 235

Special Note about Cams and Shadewood: When Cams are used on Shadewood, they not only provide the modifications to Damage and Delay as stated in the above table, but they ALSO provide a range bonus. Adding 1 cam to a shadewood staff yields a 175 range bow, and adding 2 cams yields a 200 range bow.

The Bow Table

At this point we’ve got everything we need to prepare a table or spreadsheet of data. This table shows every combination of bows possible in the game. For comparison purposes, it also includes the bows available via purchase or quest within the game. Note that all cost values are shown in coppers.

... (having trouble getting this table over cleanly)

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