Draft:Shooting and throwing

Omega 0.90.4

Shooting and throwing use Omega's Fire/Throw command to launch an accessible item toward a selected square. A longbow and arrows provide repeated archery; a crossbow and bolts exchange a loading action for a larger damage contribution. Spare melee weapons and special projectiles can also be thrown, but their effects must be considered individually.

Preparing a shot

Equip a launcher in both weapon hand and ready hand so its combat bonuses are active. These slots do not consume the separate shield slot. Keep ammunition in accessible inventory; Fire/Throw selects an object, not a dedicated ammunition slot. Choose an arrow or bolt rather than the launcher itself.

An unloaded crossbow changes the next bolt selection into a loading action, with no target selection and no bolt removed. A later bolt selection fires it. A hit clears the loaded state, while a miss leaves it loaded. A longbow has no corresponding loading step.

The projectile stops at blocking terrain or an intervening creature. Walls, closed doors, portcullises, statues, hedges and secret locations obstruct this path. A creature on the path can therefore become the actual target before the selected square is reached; a wall normally leaves the projectile on the preceding square.

Hit chance

The hit check uses current character hit - target armor class. It does not separately add the thrown item's hit rating or ammunition enchantment, and does not run the melee sequence's height and blocking checks. For an ordinary shot, the chance is:

clamp(current hit - target armor class, 1, 19) / 20

The roll ranges from 0 through 19, with zero always hitting and 19 always missing. Thus a difference of 10 gives 50%, a difference of 3 gives 15%, and even a very high score tops out at 95%. This is a hit probability, not a guarantee of HP damage through immunity.

With an active launcher and no other modifiers, current hit is character level + Dexterity modifier + 1 + launcher hit + launcher enchantment. Both longbow and crossbow have +15 base hit. Attributes use (attribute - 10) / 2, truncated toward zero. Heroism, mounting and other current bonuses still contribute through the character's combat values.

Damage ratings

Let D be current character damage, S the Strength modifier and a the projectile's enchantment. For ordinary arrows and bolts the base projectile damage is 3. On a landed shot, the following ratings enter the damage roll:

Projectile and condition	Damage rating	Special consequence
Arrow with longbow	D + 3 + a + 2S	No loading state
Arrow without longbow	3 + a + 2S	No launcher contribution
Bolt with loaded crossbow	D + 3 + a + 2S	Crossbow becomes unloaded
Bolt without loaded crossbow	3 + a	No throwing Strength bonus
Ordinary spare melee weapon	D + 2S	Spare weapon's ratings are not separately added
Whip or bola	D + 2S	50% entangling chance against physically vulnerable targets
Acid whip	D + 2S	Acid damage; same entangling restriction

For example, with Strength 14, no other damage modifiers and an active +0 longbow, D = 2 + 3 + 12 = 17. A +0 arrow gives a shot rating of 24. Swapping to an active +0 crossbow makes D = 25, so a loaded +0 bolt gives 32. These are roll limits, not guaranteed HP losses.

An ordinary positive rating R produces a base roll from 0 through R - 1. The usual critical and moon modifiers from melee damage also apply through this ordinary damage routine. Physical immunity can negate arrow, bolt and normal thrown-weapon damage. Special weapons may instead replace this roll with fixed damage, instant death or a harmful effect on the thrower.

Ammunition and recovery

Arrows and bolts have a 25% destruction chance after a landed hit. A miss does not run this roll, while a hit absorbed by immunity still does. Surviving projectiles normally land at the endpoint and one unit is removed from inventory. Ordinary thrown weapons and bolas use the same drop-and-remove path without the ammunition destruction roll.

An obstacle or empty target square can therefore cost an action and place ammunition somewhere inconvenient without destroying it. Plan recovery after danger has passed. Randomly generated arrow and bolt stacks contain 1-20 projectiles, but loading a crossbow itself consumes none.

Special throws and equipment

Zero-damage objects can be caught as gifts by creatures with a positive treasure allowance, using the ordinary gift response instead of a weapon hit roll. Having a fixed possession does not by itself meet that requirement: the LawBringer ignores a thrown Star Gem, and a horse ignores thrown grain. Use adjacent Give for those interactions.

Throwing an item currently in use first removes its equipment effect. This happens before target selection: choosing your own square afterward only produces the juggling message and does not restore the use effect. An item that is both cursed and in use is refused before this step; a merely carried cursed projectile is still throwable.

The thrown object's special attack follows its own identity. A spare ordinary blade does not independently add its large damage rating, but a whip can still entangle, a known lightsabre can deliver its fixed damage, and a disruption mace can destroy suitable spirits. An unknown lightsabre instead injures the thrower on a landed attack, just as it does in melee.

Firestar is particularly hazardous to throw: removing its use effect removes the fire immunity it supplied, then its attack may create a fireball centered on the player. The Scythe of Death has a separate thrown exception and always misses a creature; throwing it is not a way to avoid the non-Adept backswing and still obtain its lethal attack. Read the individual weapon entries before using a valuable special weapon as a projectile.

Choosing an approach

Use a longbow for sustained shooting with less burden; use a preloaded crossbow when a stronger opening shot is worth the later loading action. Their accuracy is equal at equal enchantment, so the damage difference should be weighed against time available before the opponent reaches you.

For an entangling throw while preserving a strong main weapon, a spare whip is lighter than a bola and uses the same effect. After a successful entangle, create distance: immobilized enemies can still use adjacent melee, ranged attacks or special abilities. Against physical immunity, ordinary archery cannot substitute for an appropriate damage type or another countermeasure.

Related mechanics

For incoming missiles and powers, see Monster attacks and Monster spellcasting. Monster bolts reaching the player check deflection instead of using the player projectile hit rules described here.