Weapons and Armour:

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Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Weapons and Armour:

#1 Post by Spearmint »

Here are a few in game adjustments that I will use for the campaign: :)

Thrown missile weapons:

All hand hurled missile weapons of the following types may add any strength modifiers to the weapon damage:
Spears, javelins, hand axes, throwing hammers.

A note on javelin distance. For each 10ft the thrower of a javelin runs prior to releasing the javelin in attack, he may throw the javelin 30ft, upto a maximum of 90ft in total.

Flails: flails are essential a melee 'reach' weapon and used to reach over the top of shields to bash opponents around the skull. Therefore anyone using a flail may negate the opponents 'normal shield' bonus and all flail attacks are taken as being aimed at the head of the opponent.

Dwarven hammers: hammers do 1d6 damage and Warhammers, essentially a two handed dwarven speciality hammer may do 1d8 damage.

Gnomes and Halflings are too short to use longbows effectively or large two-handed weapons such as pikes, halberds, morningstars. They may use a longsword but only as a two handed weapon and my use muskets at a penalty to hit of -1 due to its' encumbrance and recoil whilst aiming and firing.



Pistols:

Pistols are deadly but slow to reload, inaccurate, unreliable to maintain and expensive. They have four ranges of fire as follows:
Point Blank: 0'-5'ft no to hit penalty. All successful hits are treated as critical hits. damage 2d4x2
Short Range: 6'-30'ft -1 to hit penalty damage 2d4
Medium Range: 31'-60'ft -2 to hit penalty damage 2d4
Long Range: 61'-90'ft. -3 to hit penalty. damage 2d4

Pistols load as heavy crossbows and therefore may be fired only once every other round. All pistols, their ammunition and powder may be upgraded or enhanced to decrease load time, increase range and damage power.

Pistols may be fired by the following classes: Fighters and Rangers but not Paladins. Thieves, Assassins, and Magesmay also use pistols but not native shaman type mages. Pistols are not used by Clerics or Monks



Muskets:

Similar to pistols, muskets rely on the weapon being loaded with shot and powder before the trigger is pressed. They have increased range and damage capabilities and may also be upgraded and enhanced. In proficient hands, a musket takes one round to reload a musket after it is fired so it fires once every two rounds, similar to a heavy crossbow or pistol. Otherwise non-proficient shooters are penalised by taking an extra around to load.

Point Blank: There is NO point blank range for Muskets.
Short Range: 0'-60'ft -1 to hit penalty damage 2d6
Medium range: 61'-120'ft -3 to hit penalty damage 2d6
Long range: 121'-180'ft -5 to hit penalty damage 2d4 due to lessening of shot power over distance.

Muskets may only be fired by the following class: Fighters including Rangers but not Paladins. Thieves and Assassins.

Cannon fire ....

Cannons are the most explosive and deadly weapon in the game, on a par with the most high level spells and attacks by the most gigantic of dragons. As with any weapon, cannons may be upgraded or enchanted to increase its efficiency. As above they operate firing in four ranges. The following statistics are for a standard ships cannon.

Point Blank Range: 0 '- 25'ft. no thaco penalty
Short Range: 26'- 150'ft -1 to hit
Medium Range: 151'- 300'ft -2 to hit
Long Range: 300'- 450'ft -3 to hit

Cannon fire damage is done through the ammunition used. There are three main types of ammunition and each will do damage in a certain blast radius. Any character caught within that blast radius must make a saving throw to negate taking the full force of this damage. The character caught in the blast cannot do anything other than dive for cover, no attacks, no spells, no potion drinking, just duck and pray. Players making a successful saving throw may take half damage from the blast or none at all depending on circumstances. Their saving throw may be modified by certain conditions such as cover or armour type worn.

Round shot or the traditional cannonball: Explosive ball filled with shrapnel and small bearings. Blast radius is 10'ft, damage is 3d6 players making a successful hard saving throw [4d6] vs Dex, may receive only half damage. Effective cover such a being behind a stone wall of may give bonus to their roll or adjust the roll from a hard to a normal saving throw.

Grape shot: a stack of mini fist sized cannon balls held together by cloth, rope, wood or metal bracing. When fired from a cannon, the grapeshot balls would spread. This means that the area of destruction would be larger, though the inertia carried by each ball would be less. Grape shot was large enough to cut through the side of a ship and the multiple projectiles would do more damage to the crew than a single ball. On land, grape shot could cut a line of solders even at range. damage is 3d6 the blast radius is 15'ft from point of impact. The blast however does not cover a full circle in the same way that the 'roundshot' cannonballs do. It only covers a region of 180' degrees from the point of impact so this is a semi-circle shaped blast. Characters caught in the blast zone need to make a Hard Saving Throw [4d6] vs Dex. Successful saves indicate half damage.

Chain shot: Effectively several smaller cannonballs connected together by barbed chains. Its' aim was usually to shred and rip through sails rather than target blasting a hole through a ships hull. From point of impact the chain shot spreads out ripping and rending until it stops. However the chain shot because of its' aerodynamics is not capable of being shot over long range. From impact the chain shot spreads in a 5'ft -'15ft cone. For each 5ft away from the point of impact the damage lessens as the chain shot gets tangled in the rigging. 0'-5'ft damage is 3d6, 6'-10'ft damage is 2d6, 11'-15'ft damage is 1d6. In theory this could shred sails upto 6d6 worth of damage. Characters caught in the blast zone need to make a normal saving throw [3d6] vs dex, successful saves indicate half damage only.


Reloading a Cannon: Cannons in general take four rounds to reload. This may be trimmed down by the skill, effectiveness and numbers of the crew manning the gun. Reloading a cannon is a step process. After firing the cannon recoils and then needs to be prepped again before being able to fire. Firstly the muzzle of the gun is cleaned out with a wet rag, this is to extinguish remaining embers that might prematurely ignite any explosive powder entered into the firing chamber. The chamber is loaded with powder and from the muzzle end, shot is loaded into the barrel. Further ramming is required by a rod to push the ammunition secure by the firing chamber, the cannon is pulled forward into firing position and aimed, then a wick is lit near the firing chamber and the cannon fires, shooting the cannonball towards the intended target. This assumes the firing crew of a cannon to be four people. For every 2 additional persons assisting the reload process, the reload time may be shortened by one round to a maximum reload efficiency time of one shot every other round. For every person missing from the standard gunnery crew, the reload process takes a -2 rounds penalty.

Standard ships cannon:
8 crew, reload every 2 rounds
6 crew reload in 3 rounds
4 crew, reload in 4 rounds.
3 crew, reload in 6 rounds.
2 crew, reload in 8 rounds
1 crew member may load and fire a cannon in 1 turn.


Aiming and firing a cannon:

Cannons are blast weapons and when fired, the cannonball or shot will land somewhere and explode. Where it lands can be determined thus:

Fired at point blank range: the cannon requires no aiming, it will just blast the target directly in front of it, unless a fumble or misfire is determined.

At Short range: the cannon will explode 10'ft further away for every point short of the 'to hit' number required to hit on target. This will not increase the range but effectively move the blast to the right or left or have the shot land short of the target. The blast radius and damage will then be effected upon the characters caught in that blast radius or arc. If the score is more than -6 then the shot is deemed ineffective and sails harmlessly away.

At Medium range: this operates as above but the range altered is 20'ft per 1 point short.

At Long range: as above but the range missed is moved by 30'ft per 1 point short.


As mentioned previously cannons may be upgraded. Another upgrade is through the skills of the crew manning the gun. For every 6 points of Gunnery skill a load crew have, they may add a +1 to their To Hit dice. Characters learn skills as the game progresses. You character might be a master gunner and have 5 points in Gunnery so whenever he fires a cannon he adds this bonus to the combined skill total for the crew manning the gun. For example if he was part of a load crew with five gnomes who also had Gunnery skill but at a lesser level of only +2 points each. The total gunnery skill for the crew is added up and and the bonus applied accordingly in this case 15 gunnery points only make a +2 to hit bonus. ...hope that makes sense.

Fumbles and Cannon misfires: shooting at something with a potential -5 to hit penalty may end up with a negative roll result. Any kind of minus penalty to hit could mean the d20 result rolled equals 0 or less. When this happens it results in a fumble and I will arbitrate the result, which could be anything from a catastrophic explosion of the cannon to a humble wick needs replacing, reload the cannon.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: Weapons and Armour:

#2 Post by Spearmint »

Armour Types:

I wanted to build something in the game which rewards armour for the protection it gives. In normal melee and man-to-man combat your armours protection is built into your AC with additional bonuses coming from dexterity, magic or other factors.

When faced with making a saving throw vs a Blast Weapon, such as fireball, cannon fire, acid attack I am going to rule that your armour type will add an additional bonus to any saving throw you are required to make.

Light Armour types: Leather, Hide, Padded, Studded Leather anything AC 9 to AC 7 have no additional bonus.

Medium Armour types: Scale, Ring, Chain and Banded Mail anything AC 6 to AC 4 receive a+1 saving throw bonus.

Heavy Armour types: Platemail anything AC 3 or below. receive a +2 saving throw bonus.

If your character is using a shield and that takes your natural AC into those of another type, for example studded armour AC7 plus a shield +1 to AC so you are AC 6 and therefore the equivalent armour as a medium type you receive the additional save bonus. Got that?


Saving Throws Modifier. If the character is blessed enough through dexterity, armour, cover or magic enhancements that he would automatically make the saving throw, such a a thief with 18 dex making a normal 3d6 save vs dex, then the automatic pass rule is used. This means instead of taking half damage from a successful save, the character takes just minimal damage, just 1hp per HD of blast damage or half damage which ever is smaller.

Spearmint
Rider of Rohan
Rider of Rohan
Posts: 12357
Joined: Sat May 14, 2016 5:42 pm

Re: Weapons and Armour:

#3 Post by Spearmint »

as a further amendment to the weapons and armour I make the following judgement:

Pistols when fired my use dexterity bonus or penalty modifiers 'To Hit'

Muskets when fired my use either strength modifiers to help versus the recoil effect or dexterity modifiers to help with aiming, whichever is the greater bonus.

Remember pistols may be fired at point blank range which is 0 - 5ft' (melee range) and any hits are counted as Critical headshot hits and therefore do maximum damage plus a further normal damage roll.

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