• Needed Materials
• Basic Verbage of Fletching
• Fletching FAQ

Needed Materials

1. Shafts
Shafts can be obtained by cutting up certain woods or polearms. They are the essential for fletching.

• Known items: Halberds, lances, logs from kobold mines, quarter staves, etc.
• Estimated cost: 0 - 200 silvers (dependent on item)

• Known items: Handaxe, waraxe, balta, broad axe, crescent axe, francisca, hatchet, meat cleaver, miner's axe, moon axe, sparte, taper, toporok
• Estimated cost: 135 silvers for a handaxe located at Tykel's Arms in the Landing

• Platinum - Glue can be obtained in the marquee located at front of Ta'Illistim's gate. Also at Ta'Vaalor's fletching shop.
• Prime - Glue can be obtained at the wagon located east of the dinghy outside North Gate at the Landing. Also at Ta'Vaalor's fletching shop.
• Estimated cost: 50 silvers

• Known items: bodkin, dagger, butcher knife, cinquedea, dirk, misericord, parazonium, pavade, poignard, pavade, pugio, scramasax, stiletto
• Estimated cost: 6 silvers for a dagger located at Tykel's Arms in the Landing

• Check your local archery shop.
• Estimated cost: 60 - 1250 silvers

• Fletchings can be purchased in the same locations mentioned in the "Fletching glue" section.
• Fletchings can also be obtained from the wilds! This will be explained further into the guide at the FLETCHING FAQ section.
• Estimated cost: 0 - 25 silvers

• Paintsticks - They can be used to make crests or bands on your arrows and are obtained in same place the other stuff are.
• Paint - You can dye your arrow into one color with this stuff. Same location as the glue, and others too.
• Razor - These are used to cut feathers you find in the wilds into fletchings. Located same as the other stuff. Check the Fletching FAQ section for more info.
• Estimated cost: 200 silvers for each

Finishing your first crooked, negatively bonused arrow after gluing your fingers to the shaft, using up every swear word you can think of, and looking like a feathered chicken from the fletchings.. priceless. There are some things money can buy and.. erm, cough.

So now you've got all your stuff, and you're ready to start eh..?
 

Basic Verbage of Fletching

You can make arrows, heavy bolts, or light bolts. SKIP step #4 if you're making bolts.

WARNING: You may only get *one* rank per shaft now.

Start over at step #1 again if you should fail at any of the steps and discard your shaft.

1. Cutting shafts.
 Have some wood and your handaxe based OHE out. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to use log here as an example.
    For arrows
        CUT ARROWS FROM MY LOG
    For heavy bolts
        CUT HEAVY BOLTS FROM MY LOG
    For light bolts
        CUT LIGHT BOLTS FROM MY LOG

2. Paring your shaft.
    Put away your handaxe and shafts in your container.
        GET 1 SHAFT FROM MY <CONTAINER>
        GET MY DAGGER
    Your shaft should be in your right hand and dagger in your left.
        CUT SHAFT WITH MY DAGGER

3. Painting and cresting your shaft. This step is OPTIONAL. You can skip this step and go straight to #4. You can also use the combination of 2 paintsticks on one shaft.
    Put your dagger away.
    For painting - this dyes your whole arrow
        GET MY PAINT FROM MY <CONTAINER>
        PAINT MY SHAFT
    For cresting - this adds bands or crests to your arrow
        GET MY PAINTSTICK FROM MY <CONTAINER>
        PAINT MY SHAFT
    You must wait until the paint dries before proceeding to the next step.

4. Nocking shafts. This step is ONLY for arrows. Bolts go straight to step #5.
    Get out your dagger again.
        CUT NOCKS IN MY SHAFT WITH MY DAGGER

5. Measuring shafts.
    Put away your dagger.
    Get out your crossbow or bow depending on what you're making.
    Crossbows only
        COCK MY CROSSBOW
    then..
        MEASURE MY SHAFT WITH MY CROSSBOW/BOW

6. Marking your shaft.
    Put away your crossbow or bow.
    Get out your dagger again.
        CUT SHAFT WITH MY DAGGER

7. Glue!
    Put away your dagger.
    Get out your fletching glue.
        PUT MY GLUE ON MY SHAFT
    You MUST complete this step and the next within 25 seconds or else the glue will dry.

8. Fletchings.
    Put away your glue.
    Get out your fletchings. You must have at least 3 fletchings in your
bundle.
        PUT MY FLETCHING ON MY SHAFT
    You MUST wait until the glue dries before proceeding to step #9.

9. Whittling a point.
    Put away your fletchings.
    Get out your trusty dagger again.
        CUT SHAFT WITH MY DAGGER
 

CONGRATS! If you've just finished the last step, you should now hold an arrow or a bolt in your hand.

What? You need more information on fletching? Onto the next section then...

Fletching FAQ

1. I see people with nifty fletchings I can't find or purchase at the shops. Where can I get me some of 'em?

You can get your very own fletchings from the wilds. All you need is a fletching razor and the ability to kill everything in sight. After you kill the creature, you skin it. If the creature's skin can be fletched, you CUT <SKIN> WITH MY RAZOR.

2. Neat. So what are the creatures available for me to fletch from?

Currently, cockatrice, snowy cockatrice, plumed cockatrice, blood eagles, black-winged daggerbeaks, colossus vultures, dreadnought raptors, storm griffins, and the raven feather from the Ravenswood neighborhood. Taelrand says one hasn't been revealed yet but mentioned.

3. Um, why aren't my arrows bundling?

You can only bundle identical items and since there's a lot of variables in fletching, that's the reason. It could be one of the many factors such as using different material, breakage, description, or quality.

4. How come I can fail on some steps and some not?

There are 4 "checkpoints" for arrows (3 for bolts) where there's a chance of you either gaining a rank, failing, or progressing onto the next step. Only the latter two are mutually exclusive, BTW.

• Added Info: It was recently discovered that people were gaining more than 1 rank per shaft. That's a bug, and it'll be fixed soon probably. Also, some people were skipping the entire process by just going through the first two checkpoints (paring and nocking). So there's talk about Taelrand making it so that everyone will HAVE TO go through the entire process of fletching.

5. Rank? What's a rank?

You gain a rank everytime you see the "That was a little easier. Perhaps you are growing more skillful?" messaging.

• Added Info: Another bug was discovered that sometimes when you saw the "skillful" messaging, you didn't always gain a rank. Hopefully that'll be fixed soon.
• Added Info: Within the paring step, there was an occasion where you could see the messaging without gaining a rank. That's been fixed, but you might not master on exactly 500 ranks if you're counting from your logs.

6. How many ranks are there in total?

500 ranks to master fletching.

• Added Info: I was just informed that it IS possible to get more than 500 ranks, based on your intelligence stat. But 500 is the natural maximum and your intelligence may offset it a little.

7. Is there anyway I can find out how many ranks I have?

Yes, by keeping track. You can either count yourself silly by keeping track of the messaging OR you can do what the rest of us do and log each of your sessions. Afterwards, you can use a word processor to count for you.

8. I noticed there's different messaging on the last step. What's up with that?

This is one of the methods to help you keep track of how many ranks you have if you didn't count at the beginning or have no idea of how many you have. It shows you the quality of what your arrows are.

9. Do you have the list of the qualities?

Why, yes! I do, heh. Not necessarily in this order since it's a guess so far.. barely serviceable, crude, rough, average, decent, very serviceable, relatively sharp, extremely sharp and perfect.

10. So what's the benefit of fletching your own arrows?

Self gratification? Heh, just kidding. At nearing master, your arrows should gain a bonus of +5.

11. I SUCK! Help!

You'll get decent at about 250 ranks, don't worry about it. Everyone stinks at the beginning.

12. Why don't my fletchings and crests/painting both show up?

The cresting overwrites the fletching or else you'd have an arrow two lines long. What an eyesore.

13. Are cutting the shaft and whittling the point considered two different skills like forging with crafting and forging?

No, you master at the total of 500.. regardless of which step you got a rank on.

14. I heard of another type of material I can for shafts. Is that correct?

Yes, it's been recently discovered that the bones skeletal giants drop can be cut into bone shafts.

15. Can the +5 bonus from the arrows I made from fletching add up to be more than the +50 limit when I shoot it with an enchanted bow?

Nope. The limit is still set at +50 when you shoot it.

16. How do we know if we mastered?

To quote Taelrand, "You'll know when ya do."

17. Is it possible to make average arrows at a higher skill level?

Yep. There's a chance to make an average one, no matter your skill level, until you pass a certain number of ranks. You'll either make an average one, or one that represents your skill level. And that stops after you reach a certain point too.

....more questions? E-mail me at Nephrenia@play.net and I'll put up your question along with the answer. Chances are if you asked it, everyone else is wondering too.

Hope this guide was informative!

Acknowledgements and Thanks

To Taelrand for creating the skill.
To posters on the boards who shared their discovered info.
To Pudgee for supplying a log with more detailed info!
To Cattriona for proofreading and formatting in HTML.

Return to the Mentor Website
Posted by Cattriona 5/17/02