The Surge of Gravitation and Archery

[ClearMadness]

While I was reading through the books it struck me that Gravitation would be the most useful surge for an archer to have by far, and would probably actually be quiet overpowered. Think about it. Using Gravitation a Surgebinder can change the direction in which objects fall. This means they could essentially aim a projectile in a direction and - as long as it had enough Stormlight - it wouldn't deviate from its path at all, essentially giving them perfect accuracy against stationary targets and unlimited range. Not only that, the arrows would increase in speed and power the further they flew. A Windrunner or Skybreaker in plate with a Grandbow could do a lot of damage from insanely far away, without needing any real bow skills, since they are basically dropping arrows on people.  

 

Edited January 18, 2018 by ClearMadness

[Spoolofwhool]

I mean, it could deviate from its path. It would keep the same direction, but any buffet could knock it sideways or up/down. But yeah, against stationary targets it could be very powerful, as long as they have enough stormlight.

[+robardin he/him]

You want OP, consider if a Twinborn like Wax who's got one of the most powerful combos of physical metals also held the Windrunner Honorblade in a highstorm. Yikes!

 

[King Cole he/him]

Or you could do the same with a rock

[Quickbronze he/him]

16 minutes ago, King Cole said:

Or you could do the same with a rock

Harder to aim

[King Cole he/him]

5 minutes ago, .50 Caliber Gentleman said:

Harder to aim

There is literally no difference

[Quickbronze he/him]

Mmm

You're right, I was thinking about it in terms of dropping something on somebody from above. Unlike most people, a Windrunner can control the direction exactly rather than having to judge it based on their vision

[Walin he/him]

It would be pretty OP to use Gravitation in archery. Per unit of Stormlight, it's efficient. However, I think that the best OP use is to fly in front of your own army, have them shoot towards you, and use a Reverse Lashing to pull the cloud of arrows much farther than they could have gone otherwise.

This gives the same distance advantage, but to an entire army. It would be much harder to aim, and with more arrows it would be hard to prevent collisions. A large fraction of arrows would be wasted with this technique, but it would vastly improve range.

So the real determiner of OP-ness is what enemies you're fighting and what strategy you're going for--power, or range.

[1stBondsmith he/him]

Why archery? Line up a few boulders and give them a gravity parallel to the land, and no army could stand up to you. Logs, walls, boulders, flaming logs, all slowly falling towards the enemy; or swiftly ripping through them. Arrows are small potatoes.

[GeneralHZRD he/him]

On 1/18/2018 at 10:13 AM, King Cole said:

There is literally no difference

Actually there is a difference, namely things like wind resistance, aerodynamics, weight, etc. A rock might not be harder to aim initially, but it would be much harder to predict any deviations from its path.

[Willshaping Crasher]

12 hours ago, 1stBondsmith said:

Why archery? Line up a few boulders and give them a gravity parallel to the land, and no army could stand up to you. Logs, walls, boulders, flaming logs, all slowly falling towards the enemy; or swiftly ripping through them. Arrows are small potatoes.

Exactly.  Line up the Windrunner/Skybreaker and a bunch of their squires and have them each touch and lash 2 catapult stones parallel to land at the same time.  Opposing army has a huge swath of their line taken out.

[recneps he/him]

This all is well and good, except it feels as though there are very few times when this would be within the Oaths and there wouldn't be Bindings on the other side.

[GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy)]

Keep in mind that the earth curves, with a noticeable curvature at even just 100-200 meters, and I don't think that the "auto-aiming" with lashing would adjust to that.

[Leyrann]

1 hour ago, GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy) said:

Keep in mind that the earth curves, with a noticeable curvature at even just 100-200 meters, and I don't think that the "auto-aiming" with lashing would adjust to that.

I actually think it does, because magic in the Cosmere is a lot about intention, and you intend for it to go parallel with the surface.

[T8* he/him]

17 hours ago, GiveMeASpren(I'mCrazy) said:

Keep in mind that the earth curves, with a noticeable curvature at even just 100-200 meters, and I don't think that the "auto-aiming" with lashing would adjust to that.

Also, Roshar is bigger than earth, with gravity at about 1.3 times our own (don't quote me on that), so the curve would have less of an impact. 

[NightFrost]

lets combine these ideas what if you have your army shoot arrows at you reverse lash a rock that's attached to another rock which you then lash at the opposing force and boom you are now the proud owner of an arrow cloud.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

1 hour ago, T8* said:

Also, Roshar is bigger than earth, with gravity at about 1.3 times our own (don't quote me on that), so the curve would have less of an impact. 

Roshar is smaller than Earth(0.9x), with a gravity 0.7 times our own.

1 hour ago, NightFrost said:

lets combine these ideas what if you have your army shoot arrows at you reverse lash a rock that's attached to another rock which you then lash at the opposing force and boom you are now the proud owner of an arrow cloud.

Reverse lashing requires one to maintain physical contact with the object.

Edited January 31, 2018 by The One Who Connects