A puzzle regarding picking up weapons

phiwum · 11-06-2021, 02:15 PM

Consider a guy who does not have Thrown Weapons skill and suppose he has a handful of daggers he likes to throw. The usual method will result in one dagger thrown every other turn, since he must ready a dagger on one turn and throw it the next.

On the other hand, he could use the following strategy: Walk around with a handful of daggers. At the beginning of a fight, drop the daggers. Each turn, use the rule that one can pick up a dagger during movement for 3MA. Such weapons are ready immediately (ITL 104, Actions during Movement) and 3MA is less than a half move, so in the action phase, he can throw his dagger.

Now, it's pretty clear that the rule for picking up weapons during movement is theatrical partly (dash a few hexes, grabbing a weapon and striking) and partly sensible (why should I have to stop, pick it up and then continue? That's not how movement works). It's just unfortunate that, as written, it means that it's faster to pick up and throw something from the ground than it is to pull it from your belt and throw it.

Again, yes, Thrown Weapons changes that, but that's not really the point. Someone unskilled in Thrown Weapons shouldn't be able to scoop a dagger and throw it faster than he could pull it from his belt and throw it.

I've not seen this exploit in play and it is easy to knock off an ad hoc house rule to fix it, but I thought I'd mention it here.

11-06-2021, 02:15 PM	#1
phiwum Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Boston area	A puzzle regarding picking up weapons Consider a guy who does not have Thrown Weapons skill and suppose he has a handful of daggers he likes to throw. The usual method will result in one dagger thrown every other turn, since he must ready a dagger on one turn and throw it the next. On the other hand, he could use the following strategy: Walk around with a handful of daggers. At the beginning of a fight, drop the daggers. Each turn, use the rule that one can pick up a dagger during movement for 3MA. Such weapons are ready immediately (ITL 104, Actions during Movement) and 3MA is less than a half move, so in the action phase, he can throw his dagger. Now, it's pretty clear that the rule for picking up weapons during movement is theatrical partly (dash a few hexes, grabbing a weapon and striking) and partly sensible (why should I have to stop, pick it up and then continue? That's not how movement works). It's just unfortunate that, as written, it means that it's faster to pick up and throw something from the ground than it is to pull it from your belt and throw it. Again, yes, Thrown Weapons changes that, but that's not really the point. Someone unskilled in Thrown Weapons shouldn't be able to scoop a dagger and throw it faster than he could pull it from his belt and throw it. I've not seen this exploit in play and it is easy to knock off an ad hoc house rule to fix it, but I thought I'd mention it here.