To Stack or Not to Stack

Yes, that's the question.

I'm making a map where each player controls an archer and they battle it out (*cough* original yeah I know), but with more physics, arrows stuck in trees, etc.

There are 5 different special arrows that are charged items, used instead of normal attack if in inventory (fire, frost, poison, shock, black)

I was just wondering whether I should let players launch arrows with two or more of these buffs on (of course frost and fire would cancel each other out), or just one at a time.

At the moment it is one at a time, but how about an arrow that burns, poisons, freezes, stuns and corrupts all in one go? Yay or nay?

Single buff. Makes more sense to me.

So what happens if a Fire arrow hits a tree - does it burn? Do Frost arrows freeze water? If a Black arrow misses, could it corrupt the soil where it hit?

I think you should let people have 2 of those effects. But combine them together for some cool effects. Like fire + black makes hellfire.

Ah... overcomplicating things for the win :)

Trees do burn when fire arrows hit them.

Fire arrows are unique in that whether they hit their target or not, they will ignite the area.

The idea about the black arrow corrupting the area is genious - I'll apply something similar to the other arrow types.

EDIT: Oh and something else: how many charges should they have? (20 at the moment)

I guess the charges should depend on the quiver size?

The poison area could leave a little cloud of poison/plague when it hits the ground instead of a unit.

The frost arrow could leave a patch of frost (ward) that slows enemy units that pass directly over it.

Ice arrows could spawn glaciers which could obstruct paths.

It'd be cool if there was a way to make Shock arrows "magnetic" which at a short distance they'll bend direction slightly towards a live target.

Shock Arrows could spawn an invisible ward that (via a trigger) casts a short-term Monsoon at a random point somewhere around it.

No stack, unless two and two should be the max (otherwise it gets way too complicated). This would make many thing so interesting, eg. hit a tree with both a fire and frost arrow. What does that make? Well...the tree burns down but creates ice on the spot? I don't know, it's up to you. Sounds good though so GL.

Let them stack anything they want to. Sure, they can massively power up their arrows, but it will be at the cost of lots of mana, or whatever it costs to fire arrows. If you miss a shot with all arrow types it is much worse than simply missing one.

Very nice ideas there, thanks a lot for the input.

For now, what I've done is as follows:
Shock Arrows - area stun (shorter duration than direct hit)
Black Arrows - area armour reduction (ward with aura)

I think I'll do the same for poison and frost - plague and ice patch sounds perfect.

Another problem with stacking effects is that you might be losing special charges that you might want to keep for a little later.

Or maybe the best method is to simple make a different 'fire arrow' ability for each arrow type? (A for normal arrow, F for fire arrow, R for frost arrow, C for black arrow, W for poison arrow, E for shock arrow - or something like that)