Helpful Flecthers

Helpful Fletchers

Helpful Fletchers is a Minecraft Fabric mod that gives fletcher villagers a new defensive role: they can protect villages with bows.

When a fletcher finds a hostile mob nearby, it equips a bow, keeps distance, aims at the threat, and fires arrows like a skeleton. At night, fletchers can also stay awake as village guards, watching over key village points instead of sleeping.

Preview

Features

| Feature | Description |
| — | — |
| Fletcher Combat | Fletcher villagers can attack hostile mobs with bows. |
| Skeleton-Like Bow Use | Fletchers use a bow animation and arrow behavior inspired by skeletons. |
| Smart Distance Control | Fletchers try to keep safe distance from dangerous mobs while shooting. |
| Night Guard | Fletchers can stay awake at night and guard the village. |
| Guard Priorities | At night, fletchers guard near a bell first, then an iron golem, then a fletching table. |
| Configurable Targets | ModMenu or the config file lets you choose extra mobs the fletcher is allowed to attack. |
| Damage Multiplier | The fletcher arrow damage can be adjusted from 1.0x to 3.0x. |
| Vanilla-Friendly | The behavior is designed to feel useful without turning villagers into overpowered soldiers. |

How It Works

If a fletcher detects a valid hostile mob nearby, it equips a bow and starts attacking.

The fletcher tries to avoid standing too close to enemies. If a threat gets close, it backs away while continuing to shoot when possible.

At night, if Night Guard is enabled, the fletcher avoids sleeping and moves toward the best available guard point:

1. Bell
2. Iron golem
3. Fletching table

If a hostile target appears, combat takes priority over guarding.

Configuration

Helpful Fletchers supports ModMenu and also creates a config file at config/helpfulfletchers.json.

Available options:

| Option | Default | Description |
| — | — | — |
| Night Guard | On | Makes fletchers stay awake and guard villages at night. |
| Damage Multiplier | 1.0x | Multiplies arrow damage. Cycles from 1.0x to 3.0x in 0.5x steps. |
| Attack Creeper | Off | Allows fletchers to attack creepers. |
| Attack Skeleton | Off | Allows fletchers to attack skeletons. |
| Attack Ghast | Off | Allows fletchers to attack ghasts. |
| Attack Phantom | Off | Allows fletchers to attack phantoms. |
| Attack Slime | Off | Allows fletchers to attack slimes. |
| Attack Magma Cube | Off | Allows fletchers to attack magma cubes. |
| Attack Endermite | Off | Allows fletchers to attack endermites. |
| Attack Silverfish | Off | Allows fletchers to attack silverfish. |
| Attack Warden | Off | Allows fletchers to attack wardens. |
| Attack Wither | Off | Allows fletchers to attack the Wither. |
| Attack Vex | Off | Allows fletchers to attack vexes. |

Endermen are always ignored.

Compatibility

• Minecraft: 1.21.1 through 1.21.11 and 26.1 through 26.2
• Mod loader: Fabric
• Environment: Client and Server
• Optional: ModMenu

Support

Need help, found a bug, or want to suggest something?

Join the Discord support forum:

https://discord.gg/pcKQSDgTzh

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.