Ranged combat

You can fight from a distance. Shoot with a missile weapon (a bow, a crossbow, a sling), or throw a throwing weapon (a dagger, a spear, a rock). Hitting, criticals, and Defence work as on Combat. This page covers what is different.

Out of arrows or bolts? With a knife, some wood, and your bow or crossbow ready, you can fletch more.

Getting ready

Ready what you will shoot or throw on the equipment screen (i).

• The Missile weapon slot takes a missile weapon, any other weapon, or anything made for throwing, such as a stack of rocks.
• The Missiles slot takes the ammunition.

Each missile weapon shoots its own kind: bows shoot arrows, crossbows shoot bolts, and slings shoot stones (see Ammunition).

Shooting and throwing

t uses whatever is in the Missile weapon slot and lets you aim with the cursor (see Aiming). Press Enter, or t again, to loose it.

• A missile weapon shoots one piece of ammunition from the Missiles slot.
• A throwing weapon (a dagger, a spear, a rock) is thrown, one from the stack.
• Any other weapon is thrown whole. It leaves the slot and lands like anything thrown. It was not made for throwing, so it flies only 3 cells and you take a -4 penalty to hit.
• With nothing ready: “You have nothing ready to throw or shoot.” No time passes.

T opens a list of everything you carry that is made for throwing, so you can throw any of it without readying it first. Your potions are on it too: a potion thrown shatters where it lands, and a flask works a spell there. A shot takes a turn, and so does a throw. A crossbow takes longer, because it must be reloaded after every shot. Turns and movement gives the times.

• Hitting: your Dexterity helps you hit with every shot and throw.
• Damage: a shot does the missile weapon’s own damage. A bow’s draw weight is part of its dice (1d8+2), and your Strength adds nothing. But a bow must be drawn: each point of Strength you lack below what it needs costs a point to hit and a point of damage. A crossbow and a sling need no Strength. A thrown weapon does its own damage plus your Strength, just as a blow does.
• Range: you cannot shoot or throw farther than the range, though aiming can mark a target beyond it. A shot gets less sure near the end of its range, and also up close (see Distance).
• Noise: a bowstring is heard some way off (“You hear a bowstring.”). A throw is heard only as fighting, and more quietly (see Hearing).

Distance

A shot from a missile weapon, yours or a creature’s, hits less often far from the shooter and right beside them. Each creature in the way is judged by how far it stands from the shooter when the missile reaches it, not by where the shot was aimed.

The share of a weapon’s range is measured the same way as the range itself, so each band starts in a rough circle around the shooter. A target beside the shooter takes only the penalty for being beside them, even with a weapon so short that the cell lies beyond a share of its range.

A target beside the shooter also keeps the Parry of the weapon it holds, and may parry the missile. From anywhere else a shot ignores Parry, unless the target has learned Measure (see Fighting styles). This applies to a Point-blank shot too: it is free, but the foe is beside you.

None of this applies to thrown weapons or creatures’ throws. A throw is equally sure at any distance within its range.

Where a missile goes

A missile flies in a straight line from you through the cell you aimed at, as far as its range. It stops before anything solid: walls, closed doors, trees. A ghostly creature standing inside the wall the missile reaches is attacked there (Creatures). A missile that hits it is lost in the stone. One that misses falls before the wall.

• Anyone standing in the way is attacked, nearest first. If the missile misses, it flies on and may hit someone behind. So watch who stands between you and your target.
• Aimed at an empty cell, the missile comes down on that cell.
• Where it comes down, it lies on the floor for you to pick up again: on the cell of whoever it hit, or where it stopped. An arrow or a bolt that hits may break (see Ammunition). One that comes down where there is no floor is lost.
• A training dummy stops whatever reaches it, hit or miss. One missile in four (25 %) is ruined, unless it never breaks; the rest drop on a free cell beside the dummy.

Each shot takes one piece of ammunition from your Missiles slot. When the last is gone, the slot is empty (“You have no arrows left.”). Each throw takes one of what you throw, out of your hand if you were wielding it.

Creatures shoot the same way. The kobold archer carries a bow and a quiver of arrows, and its arrows lie where they fell. Once it has shot its last arrow, it closes in and fights with its fists. You see a missile fly wherever you see the cells it crosses. A burning one you see anywhere in your line of sight, even in the dark.

Giants throw too, and never run out. A hill giant hurls boulders at you whenever you are in range with nobody between you, and fights up close once it is next to you (“The hill giant hurls a boulder.” “The boulder strikes you.”). A throw takes a giant longer than a blow, and the boulder breaks where it lands. What each giant throws, how hard, and how far is under Creature numbers.

Flaming arrows

A flaming arrow is lit as it is loosed. It flies burning, lighting its way, and comes down as a burning arrow. That lights the dark around it for a minute of game time, then burns away. A burning arrow cannot be picked up.

Its light works like any other light: you see by it, and so do creatures. Shoot one into the dark to see what waits there, or to show your friends who is watching from the dark. But anything in its light can be seen, including you if you stand in it.

Eadric’s Smithy in Cēaptūn (Shops) sells slings, bows, arrows, and bolts.

See also: Fighting styles, Combat, and Weapon skills.