[phiwum]

Originally Posted by Skarg

No, you are correct. I was mis-remembering. Sorry!

I'll never forgetting thinking I could get away with striking into HTH with a long-time comrade, and killing her. My adjDX was over 15. Only one foe in the hex, though.

If you were playing RAW, you were pretty darned unlucky. Totally not your fault.

In any case, I still like your suggested revision.

Well, you still offered an alternative that would work, with a minor amendment.

Here are the three alterations that have to do with the +4 Bonus. In every case, I randomize the order of rolls after the first to hit roll.

Adj: No +4 DX bonus when striking into a hex with HTH[*]
ModAdj: A +4 DX bonus to hit the (first) enemy, no bonus for further rolls, whether to hit or to miss.
SkargAdj: Either a +4 DX bonus to hit or a +4 DX bonus to miss.

In a one-on-one fight, I reckon that ModAdj and SkargAdj end up giving the same odds to hit an ally, so probably SkargAdj is more complicated than necessary. Adding to the to hit is always preferable. (If there are more than two combatants, perhaps it would matter, but that's a less common situation.)

I'm leaning towards Adj, which is the most dramatic change. I'll probably try ModAdj for a while and see if it's sufficient. It might have the odd effect of making HTH harder for the players, since a GM will take a chance to hit an ally (not his character, after all!) and a player not.

None of this changes anything if you're facing dragonets or nuisance critters, because in those cases there's no real facing concerns. Perhaps an over-literal reading of RAW gives you a +4 DX bonus to miss your spider covered ally if his back is to you, but that seems just silly. If swinging at a dragonet attacking an adjacent ally, both of whom are facing away, I'd give a +4 to hit the dragonet and no adjustment to miss the ally.

These considerations actually give some small support for ModAdj, since the results are the same: A plus to hit, no plus to miss. The situations are different enough that I'm not sure I'd weight that support much. A "real" rear hex gets a bonus for inability to see the swing coming. A prone figure gets a bonus for inability to react quickly.

In sum, the proposed house rule is either of the following:

• Mod Adj If a standing figure attacks a figure who is down in HTH combat with other figures, roll the attack with the normal +4 DX for prone figures. If he misses, randomly select another figure in the HTH combat. If it is an enemy, roll to hit that enemy, and if a friend, roll to miss. In either case, do not apply the +4 DX bonus for prone figures. Continue until either one figure has been hit or all figures have been missed.
• Adj As above, but omit the italicized.

[*] Throughout, I'm assuming there's a character you want to miss. If you just want to hit someone in the hex, then I might just add +4 for every to hit roll.