mmbutter wrote:Sorry, my ruling would still be that the words "can hit anything in it's path" would include any potential target both before and after the actual target. The path contains the section both before and after the original target.
Fine with me
mmbutter wrote:
It's got nothing to do with modeling ballistics. The initial roll indicates whether or not the shooter placed his shot properly; if he did not place the shot properly, then the mistake can manifest anywhere along the potential path, from immediately before the shooter to somewhere past the target.
Yeah, my ballistics aside supports your ruling. I am not saying the arrow couldn't hit those guys, that would be silly. Just the wording issues I cited.
C&C seems very melee focused to me. Meaning ranged options generally aren't that great to begin with. I am fine with that but one of my players has complained a bit (but not too much). We have largely been using the Theater of the Mind approach so far and only represented less than a dozen battles on grids so far. My players generally stick with melee especially our ranger so this hasn't been a problem at all so far for our group.
C&C let's you run it however you wish, so whichever way you want to do it is great! As long as you are having fun and your solution makes sense to you and your group, then have fun with it.
For me, I give the shooter a -2 penalty for firing into melee unless they are specifically doing a 'called shot' in which case the penalty is higher.
If the shooter hits, great, no problem.
If the shooter misses, I have done this two different ways in the past...
1) I look at any and all things (not just creatures) between the bowman and the target that could have accidentally been hit as a result of the shot misfiring. That includes creatures and items in front of the melee (between the shooter and the melee). I also look at the creatures/items behind the original target. All of those in front and behind are now potential new targets (note that the initial target was already missed and so doesn't get counted as a possible new target). I give all 'new targets' a number and then roll a die of appropriate size. Then the shooter makes an attack roll, still with the original -2 penalty, against the new target (the identity of the new target is based on the number rolled on my die of appropriate size). If the new attack roll hits, then the new target was hit, friend or foe. If the new attack roll misses, we move on with the game.
or, this second system...
2) If the shooter misses, I roll a direction die (a d8 with N,W,E,W,SW,SE,NW,NE on it) and that is the direction that the arrow or bolt went. I look to see if there are any targets in that direction and if so, then an attack roll is made against the new target (with the original -2 to hit penalty). If the new attack roll misses, we move on with the game.
In practice, method 2 is much faster, while method 1 is more 'realistic' - the one I choose depends on the group. One of my groups likes 1 better because two of the players like the 'realistic' miss effect. For me, I actually like #2 better since it is faster and causes less stress.
