critmismis

1) Stress Fracture the weapon is useless caused by age, wear and tear, prior damage, or accidental damage. Magical weapons do not break, themselves instead the string has snapped or a crossbow has jammed. In both cases it takes a full round action to fix the problem. In AD&D use a roll v. crushing blow against magical weapons, giving a plus one for ever magical bonus or ability on the weapon. A broken magical weapon does not loose it’s magic, it just can’t be used. Casting mending will restore any weapon broken this way.

2) Bow string snaps or crossbow jams. This will cause the weapon to be useless until a full round is spent repairing the jam or replacing the string.

3) Cut hand on arrow or got hand caught when firing. If the arrow was poisoned this could be very bad indeed. Reaching for the next shot, the arrow sticks into the characters hand, which spoils the shot and causes 1-2 points of damage. Gauntlets do not negate this damage and if the arrow/bolt is poisoned a save is required. This happened even if the character has the handle poison skill and succeeded in the roll.

4) Fratricide: accidental shot at a friend, in the arch of fire. Roll a special attack roll 1d20 with no modifiers unless the weapon or arrow is magical, those are included. If there are no legal targets in the firing arch the attack misses.

5) Bow get caught on something, arrow clothes, a friend, doorway, ceiling, hat, quiver. The shot is spoiled, and the character is considered flat footed, with no DEX bonus to AC until the next attack or initiative.

6) Falls to the ground, didn’t see something on the ground or just leaned too much for the shot, in every case the person falls prone, however if already prone use number 3 on this chart instead. Falling prone causes 1d6 points of subdual damage.

7) Something causes the character to drop the weapon, stumbling, getting it caught, dodging to too tight a space. Be creative with the surroundings but in every case the weapon falls to the ground.

8) Over-pull on the weapon or a jam. With a bow the over-pull snaps the string and applies the STR damage bonus to the weapon. Crossbows were not set properly and jam. In both cases it take a full round action to clear the jam, no checks are needed.

9) Under-pull causes the shot to fly very shirt indeed. With bows the string slipped when pulling and in crossbow it fires while loading. Both shots are ugly and the arrow is lost.

10) Early shot, this shot flies in a random direction before the weapon was aimed properly. Roll randomly at all possible targets in the intended firing arch and roll a 1d20 for attacks adding only magical bonuses from the weapon or arrow.

11) Hurry up shot is aimed poorly. Roll a 1d20 attack against all possible targets along the line of fire to the intended target. The if any of these targets are hit or if the arrow/bolt would hit their armor the shot flies wild. If nothing is intervening or the shot hit nothing else use roll of 11 plus with only magical bonuses to see if the shot hits the intended target.

12) Bad arrow/bolt. Even if it is magical this is a bad arrow, cursed or just bent. Even if this arrow is recovered it will always fly wrong.

13) Dropped weapon (Same as 7)

14) Falls to the ground no damage

15) Confusion or bad arrow/bolt. Roll randomly at all possible targets in the arc of fire. Roll a 1d20 with no modifiers accept for magical ones.

16) Double hit. Use the current roll of 16 to see if the intended target is hit, if so then the shot rebounds off for ½ damage and then attacks another target within 45degrees of the intended target in the same direction up to 15ft away. Roll a separate hit 1d20 with no modifiers except magic. If the intended target is not hit (Check for armor deflection) the arrow travels in a straight line and may attack any target along the same line until it hit something. If the arrow/bolt is deflected use the rules as if the arrow had hit with no damage to intended target.

17) Broken string or Jam. Take a full round to replace the string or repair the jam.

18) Using the current roll without any bonuses to hit unless magical. If the shot his the intended target weapon damage is full. In AD&D roll a crushing blow against the weapon. In 3rd edition apply full arrow/bolt damage to the weapon.

19) Using the current roll if the arrow/bolt hit it causes full damage, in every case the character falls to the ground taking 1d6 subdual damage.

20) Brutality x2. A perfect shot automatically hits. The arrow/bolt causes full damage with the appropriate critical multiplier (x2 for AD&D). In AD&D the weapon must roll v. crushing blow adding the amount of damage as a negative modifier. In 3rd ed. the full damage is also applied to the weapon. As in all cases be creative in explaining what happened.