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larsdangly · 10-01-2020, 08:49 AM

I did a bit of internet noodling last night re. the efficacies and effective ranges of the boomerang, bola, lasso and net, and came away convinced that RAW is not as crazy as it might seem if you are just using your intuition. A few images of mongol cavalry strangling enemies with lassos and videos of people nailing targets with heavy boomerangs at 80 meter ranges might convince you as well! In any case, given the 'gamist' reasons for more interesting, effective weapons and the historical precedence of these things as effective weapons, I'm happy to just chug along with RAW.

What I don't like is the fact that things intended as lethal throwing weapons (javelin, throwing axe) are functionally useless at ranges greater than 12' or so. This is just silly; they should be able to deliver a meaningful threat out to ranges of about 10 hexes, So, the one house rule that seems like a real shift toward balance is to use about a -1 per MH range penalty for these fit-to-purpose throwing weapons.

Obviously thrown spells should have whatever range penalty suits you as there are no real principles involved. Given the shift in power balance that would come with extending them, sticking with RAW is the conservative choice.

So, bottom line, I think a rational approach is RAW for everything but the javelin and throwing axe, which get a -1/MH penalty; weapons that really are not intended for throwing, like most spears, axes, maces and hammers, can probably stick with -1/hex without offending anyone.

10-01-2020, 08:49 AM	#9
larsdangly Join Date: Dec 2017	Re: My tweaks to the Bola I did a bit of internet noodling last night re. the efficacies and effective ranges of the boomerang, bola, lasso and net, and came away convinced that RAW is not as crazy as it might seem if you are just using your intuition. A few images of mongol cavalry strangling enemies with lassos and videos of people nailing targets with heavy boomerangs at 80 meter ranges might convince you as well! In any case, given the 'gamist' reasons for more interesting, effective weapons and the historical precedence of these things as effective weapons, I'm happy to just chug along with RAW. What I don't like is the fact that things intended as lethal throwing weapons (javelin, throwing axe) are functionally useless at ranges greater than 12' or so. This is just silly; they should be able to deliver a meaningful threat out to ranges of about 10 hexes, So, the one house rule that seems like a real shift toward balance is to use about a -1 per MH range penalty for these fit-to-purpose throwing weapons. Obviously thrown spells should have whatever range penalty suits you as there are no real principles involved. Given the shift in power balance that would come with extending them, sticking with RAW is the conservative choice. So, bottom line, I think a rational approach is RAW for everything but the javelin and throwing axe, which get a -1/MH penalty; weapons that really are not intended for throwing, like most spears, axes, maces and hammers, can probably stick with -1/hex without offending anyone.