Rules: Weapons

The aim is that every weapon has its day. If we have a broad sword that does d6 damage and a long sword that does d8, why would anyone pick the broad sword? And therefore, why is it even a choice? For each weapon, there is a situation where it will be your best choice, and the notes should suggest what that is.

Note: Weapons that use multiple dice will be stopped by armour more than weapons using a single dice. A weapon doing 3d6 damage is good again unarmed foes, but a weapon doing d12 will be better against a foe with an armour of 3.

Weapon	Damage	Flags	Notes
Unarmed
Unarmed	d4	mX	Useful when you have lost your weapons! Skill in unarmed will increase damage.
Blades
Dagger	d6	mF	Can be concealed
Short sword	2d6	mF	Use if you want to go first; bonus to initiative
Broad sword	3d6	m	Also scimitar, long sword, etc. Good for unarmed foes
2H sword	3d8	m2X	Requires skill, but does good damage, especially to unarmed foes
Axes
Wood axe	d8	mS	Cheap and readily available!
Battle axe	d10	mS	Good against armoured foes, but slow
Great axe	2d10	m2SX	Requires skill, but does good damage, especially to unarmed foes
Bashing weapons
Club	2d4	m	Includes improvised weapons
Mace	d10	m	Good against armed foes
Morning star	2d8	m	All round weapon
Flail	d12	m2XY	Requires skill, especially good against armoured foes with shields
Quarterstaff	2d4	mD	Good for defense
Warhammer	2d10	mS	Slow but good damage
2H hammer	2d12	m2SX	Lots of damage, but slow and requires skill
Polearms
Spear	2d8	mRXS	Extra reach, can be used as a thorn weapon too (also javelin or trident)
Polearm	3d8	mRXS	Extra reach
Halberd	3d6	mRXSH	Extra reach, and can be used to hook a foe
Whips
Whip	4d4	mRXS	Requires skill, but good against unarmed and extra reach
Bull whip	4d4	mRRXS]	As whip, but even more reach
Thrown
Thrown rock	d4	r	Or anything of a decent size and weight to throw
Thrown dagger	d6	rF	Can be thrown fast
Thrown spear	3d6	r	Good damage, but limited to one or two a combat
Bows
Short bow	2d6	rFX	Fast reload
Long bow	3d6	rFMX	Takes a minor action to reload, but decent damage against unarmoured
Light crossbow	d12	rMX	Takes a minor action to reload, but decent against armoured foes
Heavy crossbow	d20	rLX	Takes a full standard action to reload, but good against armoured foes
Slings
Sling	2d4	rM	Cheap ammo
Firearms
Arquebus	2d20	fLL	Very noisy. Takes two full standard actions to reload, and expensive to use, but look at all the damage!

Notes

• D - Defensive: A character using a defensive weapon can choose to take a penalty, up to 4, to the attack roll, and add that amount to her reflex until the start of her next turn.
• S - Slow: A character wielding this weapon is at -4 to initiative. If a character did not take the penalty when initiative was determined, she cannot attack with this weapon this round.
• F - Fast: A character wielding this weapon at the start of combat (and no other weapon without an F) is at +4 to initiative.
• X - This weapon is difficult to wield, and attacks are made with a -4 penalty. This can be reduced by buying levels in the "Warrior" package with the right specialisation.
• R - Reach 2; can attack a foe up to two squares away. 'RR' indicates a reach of three.
• L - Takes a standard action to load (so generally will take a round to load, a round to fire). 'LL' indicates it takes two standard actions to reload. Godd luck using that more than once an encounter.
• M - Takes a minor action to load
• 2 - Two-handed weapon
• Y - Shield bonuses are halved (round down) against this weapon
• H - On a successful hit, can optionally attempt to hook a foe, drawing him one square closer if more than a square away, or off his mount if mounted (foe gets a save vs reflex)
• m/r/f - All weapons are classified as melee (m), ranged (r) or firearms (f)

If you have no skill in a weapon you can use half the skill of another weapon in that class. In the table above, the class is indicated by the heading in italics, so Unarmed, Blades, Axes, etc. A skill of 8 in long bow allows you to use any other bow with a skill of 4.

Weapon specialisations:

• 2H weapon
• Whip
• Unarmed (giving extra damage)
• Sword and shield (giving shield skill)
• Polearms
• Bow (inc crossbow)
• Dual wield

Example

This example illustrates how bonuses apply as a character uses different weapons.

Therid has the warrior package up to level 4, specialising in 2H blade. He uses a 2H sword, with a +4 bonus, to cut through his enemies. Unfortunately, he has lost his sword. What are his options?

He can fight unarmed! He has no skill, but can use half his melee skill, giving a +2 bonus. However, he is only doing d4 damage.

He finds a whip. He has no skill, but again can use can use half his melee skill. A whip is a skilled weapon, however, so he suffers a -4 penalty. Although it does decent damage, with an overall penalty of -2, he fails to hit more often than not.

He finds a long bow. Again no skill, and this time he cannot use half his melee skill, as this is not a melee weapon. And he suffers a -4 penalty too. Attacking at -4, he is even less successful than he was with the whip.

Then he finds a rolling pin. This can be improvised as a club. There is no skill penalty, and he can use half his melee skill, so he can attack with a +2 bonus, but still only doing 2d4 damage.

Special notes for ranged weapons

When using a ranged weapon

• +5 if static target
• +2 if huge
• -2 if small
• +2 if in next square

If an enemy is adjacent, he gets an opportunity attack

Thrown weapons

• -2 if more than 10 squares away
• miss if more than 20 squares away

Slings

• -2 if more than 20 squares away
• miss if more than 30 squares away

Bows, crossbows, firearms

• -2 if more than 50 squares away
• miss if more than 100 squares away

Bows and firearms have long ranges. It is doubtful you will have have to worry about their range!

Note that while the arquebus is historically a great weapon of war, it is not as accurate as a bow. In battle, an untrained fighter can fire it at the opposing army and it will probably get one of them. A trained bowman, on the other hand, will take out a specific target with an arrow to he head. It was only with rifling that firearms became accurate; until that time, the direction of bullet was determined by which bit of the barrel it touched last as much as the direction the barrel was pointing.