Topic: Thrown Weapon Charge

[assur]

I like movies where charging warriors hurl javelins, axes and spears before fighting in hand to hand combat. HARP rules can't handle this for two reasons I summarize below.

-   The Charging Combat Action in main rules and Arms Law state “a charge always end with the character adjacent to the opponent charged”. It isn’t safe to end your charge hurling your axe and remaining unharmed in front of your enemy.

-   The Action Draw Weapon (or drop / change weapon) take one round. If you hurl your axe, you are disarmed until you draw a new weapon the next round.
These rules make impractical to throw a weapon before joining hand to hand combat because or you end your charge in front of your enemy disarmed or must stop far from your enemy while you draw a new weapon.

I suggest same rules change to handle thrown weapons as it fit best my campaign.

-   delete the last sentence from the Charging Combat Action: “A charge always end with the character adjacent to the opponent charged”. It’s now possible to hurl your axe in a Charging Action without being disarmed in front of your enemy.

-   for clarity add to the Charging Combat Action: “You may make a Ranged Attack with a Thrown Weapon".

-   Add the new Talent: “Thrown Weapon Charge”. The character is extremely swift and apt when using thrown weapons. When performing a Ranged Attack with a Thrown Weapon in a Charging Combat Action you may draw a weapon after resolving the Attack. Cost 30.

-   If you think the talent is unbalancing you can add a -80 OB penalty to your next Melee Combat Action after performing a Ranged Attack with a Thrown Weapon in a Charging Combat Action and / or add a new Combat Style Skill instead of the talent.

-       “Thrown Weapon Charge”.  When performing a Ranged Attack with a Thrown Weapon in a Charging Combat Action you may draw a weapon after resolving the Attack BUT you incur a -80 OB penalty to your next Melee Combat Action. By using Thrown Weapon Charge Combat Style Skill, this modifier is reduced by the character bonus with this style. It is possible to increase your Thrown Weapon Charge skill beyond what is necessary to reduce the penalty and receive a bonus for making a Melee Combat Action after performing a Ranged Attack with a Thrown Weapon in a Charging Combat Action. If the penalty has been reduced to zero, then one-half the skill bonus (rounded down) beyond that may be used as an OB bonus.

[Thom @ ICE]

So in a 2 second round, you are proposing running 10' or more (required for a charge), throwing a projectile weapon, and then drawing a new weapon....  that seems like an awful lot. 


There are 2 things you seem to be trying to do -
1 - Use Charging for Thrown Projectiles
2 - Permit drawing a weapon in the same round during which you performed an action


For #1, I personally would not allow a charge bonus for a thrown item, but if you wanted to allow it and maintained the DB penalty it should be fine.  Just expect everyone to start running forward as they throw their weapons.


For #2, simply create a talent for Quick Draw, and have them be able to draw a weapon at the end of the round and use it at the beginning of the next round at a penalty of -20 for the round immediately after being drawn (or they can draw it and use it during the same round if no other action was performed).