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

!Fletcher Attacking Zombie

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.