Hobgoblin Sniper

[hcobb]

Hobgoblin Sniper
ST 9, DX 10, IQ 9, MA 10
Javelin(1d-1), Dagger(1d-1, untalented), 5x Heavy Crossbow(3d), Cranequin, 20 bolts, Sm Shield(1)
Alertness, Crossbow, Goblinish, Missile Weapons III, Pole Weapons, Shield

Four of these guys are waiting on a roof or in a tree until the party gets to 300 yards out. They then each fire all twenty of their crossbows as aimed shots at the head and on average one bolt hits and kills one of the party.

DX 10 +3 for missile weapons +2 for braced -6 for ST -6 for aimed shot -9 for range is adjDX negative six so a 5 or less hits.

[RVA_Grandpa]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Hobgoblin Sniper
ST 9, DX 10, IQ 9, MA 10
Javelin(1d-1), Dagger(1d-1, untalented), 5x Heavy Crossbow(3d), Cranequin, 20 bolts, Sm Shield(1)
Alertness, Crossbow, Goblinish, Missile Weapons III, Pole Weapons, Shield

--snip--

DX 10 +3 for missile weapons +2 for braced -6 for ST -6 for aimed shot -9 for range is adjDX negative six so a 5 or less hits.

Using RAW they can't rewind the crossbow even using a cranequin because they require a minimum strength of 8 to use. Even if they each had a dwarf in the trees with them to reload, it takes 12 turns to reload using the cranequin.

I think some standard archers could take them out long before they got off their 20 bolts apiece.

[Skarg]

He means they each have a stack of pre-loaded crossbows.

His point (I think) is that the minimum to-hit chance is too flat, and should go down when the adjDX is low. He even posted a thread in House Rules recently suggesting replacing every -4 penalty with an extra die, which (depending on whether you also adjust the roll needed for an auto-hit to have lower chances for more dice), results in diminishing odds, as would make sense.

Some GMs might also just rule that adjDX lower than some point (2? 0?) simply has no chance.

[RVA_Grandpa]

Originally Posted by Skarg

He means they each have a stack of pre-loaded crossbows.

His point (I think) is that the minimum to-hit chance is too flat, and should go down when the adjDX is low. He even posted a thread in House Rules recently suggesting replacing every -4 penalty with an extra die, which (depending on whether you also adjust the roll needed for an auto-hit to have lower chances for more dice), results in diminishing odds, as would make sense.

Some GMs might also just rule that adjDX lower than some point (2? 0?) simply has no chance.

Hmm. I see your point. I was thinking that dodging would make things harder, but while rolling 5 or less on three dice is 4.6%, rolling an 8 or less on four dice only lowers the odds to 4.3%. Not much difference.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by RVA_Grandpa

Hmm. I see your point. I was thinking that dodging would make things harder, but while rolling 5 or less on three dice is 4.6%, rolling an 8 or less on four dice only lowers the odds to 4.3%. Not much difference.

Auto-hit is more likely on four dice, but double and triple damage becomes much less likely:

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/TFT_Saving...rcentages.html

[Skarg]

Another approach I've used is when a crit is rolled (or maybe, when a crit hit is rolled and it's wouldn't be a success on your actual adjDX), roll again to CONFIRM the lucky result, where you have to make that roll on something like your adj DX +4. So going for a shot at adjDX -6 means if you roll a crit, then you get to roll at +4 to confirm. Since that puts you at -2, you'd need another crit, confirm again at +4, so adj DX 2... oh looks like you need another crit, so roll again at adjDX 6. Ah, so if you rolled 4 crits in a row, yep you could bean someone in the head that way. Odds are more like 1 in 16,000 of doing that.

[hcobb]

The answer is zero.

adjDx for a thrown or missile weapon never drops below zero because the bonus for target size always increases to fill the gap. So when the auto hit connects roll randomly to determine which Bush or rock within the target radius was hit.

Worked example here: https://www.hcobb.com/tft/house_rules.html#Oversize

[larsdangly]

Two mitigating factors:

1) Each crossbowman has 5 (presumably prepared) bows, but once they are spent it will take 12 turns to reload, during which the target will cover 160 yards (give 1.333 yards per hex).
2) I think the most reasonable ruling is that it requires 1 turn to ready the new loaded crossbow after the last was fired.

Taken together, I don't think there is any scenario where one archer gets more than 7 shots or so, meaning only about a 1 in 4 chance of a hit.

Also, if the targets are allowed to have their own strategies, they could wear fine plate and carry tower shields; one could consider them also having toughness and/or shield mastery. So, they could readily have 9-11 points of armor, meaning the average heavy crossbow hit will do no damage.

[hcobb]

Three eyed snake bite: 30% of 3d auto hits are double damage and 10% are triple damage.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Three eyed snake bite: 30% of 3d auto hits are double damage and 10% are triple damage.

Triple damage (when it happens against PCs) is often a game killer in my experience. Double damage on a roll of '3' is dramatic enough for my table.