Item: Wintershot (Heroic)
Perception +35; precise low-light vision and hearing within 30 feet
Communication telepathy (partner only)
Skills Diplomacy +33, Intimidation +35, Survival +35
Int +6, Wis +7, Cha +5
Will +35
The echo of the snowcaster Jelarial causes Wintershot to become chill to the touch, yet despite feeling as cold as ice, she never causes harm or discomfort to her partner. Wintershot's string issues a soft hissing sound, as of snow softly falling, and snowflakes drift down from the string and swiftly melt each time the bow is fired. Wintershot's voice is eager and excitable, often waxing poetic on a nearby object or creature of beauty or offering compliments to her partner.
Wintershot is a +3 major striking greater frost holy composite shortbow. When making a Strike with Wintershot, targets don't gain concealment from the effects of mist or precipitation, and circumstance penalties to attacks imparted from strong winds are negated.
Activate—Auroral Shine 1 (cold, concentrate, light)
Frequency once per minute
Effect Wintershot can't use this activation. When you activate Auroral Shine, fire an arrow at a target. If you hit, instead of dealing damage with the arrow, the creature struck must attempt a DC 43 Fortitude save.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature is surrounded by shimmering lights akin to the aurora, causing it to become Dazzled for 2 rounds. If the creature was Invisible, it becomes Concealed instead. If the creature was already concealed for any other reason, it's no longer concealed.
Failure As success, but the creature also takes 6d6 persistent,cold damage, and the lights affect the creature for 1 minute.
Critical Failure As success, but the creature also takes 6d6 persistent,cold damage, and the lights affect the creature for 10 minutes.
Activate—Signal Flare 1 (light, manipulate)
Frequency once per hour
Effect Wintershot fires an arrow-shaped construct of ice straight upward. The arrow soars to a height of 500 feet, or until it strikes a solid surface like a ceiling. When it reaches its apex, it explodes in a brilliant burst, creating a 100-foot radius area of bright light and dim light in the next 100 feet. In the night sky, this beacon can be seen clearly for miles. The beacon remains lit for up to 1 minute in a color of Wintershot's choice. Alternatively, Wintershot can fire this Signal Flare like a normal arrow to attempt to Strike a target her partner can see—if it hits, the arrow inflicts normal damage and attempts to counteract one darkness effect of Wintershot's choice that affects the creature struck, with a counteract rank of 9th and a [[/gmr 1d20+25 #Counteract]]{+25} modifier to the roll ([[/gmr 1d20+30 #Counteract]]{+30} modifier if the source of the darkness effect was created by a fiend).
Activate—Rimecrust 2 (cold, concentrate, incapacitation)
Effect Wintershot causes the deep chill of winter to settle upon a single creature she can see or hear within 30 feet. That creature must attempt a DC 43 Fortitude save, after which point they're temporarily immune to Rimecrust for 24 hours.
Critical Success The creature is unaffected
Success The creature's discomfort and shivering from the sudden drop in temperature causes it to become Off Guard until the start of its next turn. Creatures that are immune to cold are immune to this effect.
Failure The creature becomes encrusted with ice. It becomes Slowed 1 and off-guard for 1 minute, or until it Escapes from the crusting ice (DC 43).
Trait Effects
Apex: When you Invest an Item that has the apex trait, it improves one of your attributes, either increasing the attribute’s modifier by 1 or to a total of +4, whichever would give you a higher score. This gives you all the benefits of the new attribute modifier until the investiture runs out: increasing Intelligence lets you become trained in an additional skill and learn a new language, increasing Constitution gives you more Hit Points, and so on. An apex item grants this benefit only the first time it’s invested within a 24-hour period, and you can benefit from only one apex item at a time. If you attempt to invest an apex item when you already have one invested, you don’t gain the attribute modifier increase, though you do gain any other effects of Investing the Item.
Artifact: Items with this trait are artifacts. These magic items can't be crafted by normal means, and they can't be damaged by normal means. Artifacts are always rare or unique.
Deadly: On a critical hit, the weapon adds a weapon damage die of the listed size. Roll this after doubling the weapon’s damage. This increases to two dice if the weapon has a _greater striking rune_ and three dice if the weapon has a _major striking rune_. For instance, a rapier with a _greater striking rune_ deals 2d8 extra piercing damage on a critical hit. An ability that changes the size of the weapon’s normal damage dice doesn’t change the size of its deadly die.
Illusion: Effects and magic items with this trait involve false sensory stimuli. Magic with the illusion trait creates false sensory stimuli. Sometimes illusions allow creatures a chance to disbelieve the spell, which lets the creature ignore the spell if it succeeds at doing so. This usually happens when a creature Seeks, Interacts, or otherwise spends actions to engage with the illusion, comparing the result of its Perception check (or another check or save the GM chooses) to the caster's spell DC. Mental illusions typically provide rules in the spell's description for disbelieving the effect (usually via a Will save). If a creature engages with an illusion in a way that would prove it's not what it seems, the creature might know that an illusion is present, but it still can't ignore the illusion without successfully disbelieving it. Disbelieving a visual illusion makes it and those things it blocks seem hazy and indistinct, which might block vision enough to leave the other side concealed.
Intelligent: An item with this trait is intelligent and has its own will and personality, as well as several statistics that most items don’t have. Intelligent items can’t be crafted by normal means, and they are always rare or unique.
Invested: A character can invest only 10 magical items that have the invested trait. None of the magical effects of the item apply if the character hasn’t invested it, nor can it be activated, though the character still gains any normal benefits from wearing the physical item (like a hat keeping rain off their head).
Magical: Something with the magical trait is imbued with magical energies not tied to a specific tradition of magic. Some items or effects are closely tied to a particular tradition of magic. In these cases, the item has the arcane, divine, occult, or primal trait instead of the magical trait. Any of these traits indicate that the item is magical.
Propulsive: You add half your Strength modifier (if positive) to damage rolls with a propulsive ranged weapon. If you have a negative Strength modifier, you add your full Strength modifier instead.
Critical Specialisation Effects
Certain effects can grant you benefits when you make a Strike with certain weapons and get a critical success. This is called a critical specialisation effect. The exact effect depends on which weapon group your weapon belongs to, as listed below. You can always decide not to add the critical specialisation effect of your weapon.
Bow: If the target of the critical hit is adjacent to a surface, it becomes stuck to that surface by the missile. The target is immobilized until it succeeds at an Interact action and a DC 10 Athletics check to pull the missile free. The target doesn't become stuck if it is incorporeal, liquid, or could otherwise escape without effort.
Related Items
| Name | Level | Rarity | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bow of Sun Slaying | 20 | Unique | 1d6 |
| Sky-Piercing Bow | 19 | Rare | 1d6 |
| Singing Shortbow (Greater) | 18 | Common | 1d6 |
| Wintershot | 15 | Unique | 1d6 |
| Singing Shortbow | 14 | Common | 1d6 |
| Dragonfire Halfbow | 12 | Uncommon | 1d6 |
| Godsbreath Bow | 15 | Rare | 1d6 |
| Composite Shortbow | 1 | Common | 1d6 |
| Soulcutter (Heroic) | 20 | Unique | 1d8 |
| Mammoth Bow | 12 | Unique | 1d8 |
| Oathbow | 11 | Common | 1d8 |
| Splithead Bow | 7 | Uncommon | 1d8 |
| Horselord's Longbow | 6 | Uncommon | 1d8 |
| Dazzling Shortbow | 5 | Uncommon | 1d6 |
| Hunter's Bow | 3 | Common | 1d6 |
| Composite Longbow | 1 | Common | 1d8 |
| Ovinrbaane | 20 | Unique | 1d6 |
| Sorshen's Sinuous Guisarme | 23 | Unique | 1d10 |
| Hunter's Anthem | 11 | Common | 1d8 |
| Gakgung | - | Common | 1d6 |