Draft:Bola

Omega 0.90.4

Bola(Base damage rating3Base hit bonus+10Normal attack typeMissileHands1Weight50

A bola is a reusable throwing weapon that can entangle a target. It uses the same movement-restricting attack as a whip, rather than the arrow or bolt damage rules.

Generation

Bolas occur in random treasure, pawn-shop stock and acquirement. They have item level 2 and base value 50 Au; Julie's does not sell them. The weapon constructor makes one bola, with random blessing and enchantment, rather than an ammunition stack of 1-20.

Entangling

Use Fire/Throw and choose an accessible bola and a target. After a landed hit, a physically vulnerable opponent has a 50% chance to become immobilized, followed by ordinary physical damage. The throw uses current character hit and current character damage plus twice the Strength modifier; it does not independently add the spare bola's base hit, damage or enchantment.

The bola normally lands for recovery after either a hit or a miss. It is not subject to the one-in-four successful-hit destruction roll for arrows and bolts. The entangling effect is also available when the bola is wielded for melee attacks.

Immobilization stops ordinary movement, not adjacent attacks, ranged attacks or special abilities. Physical immunity prevents entangling as well as the normal damage, and the attack does not install a timed expiration for the immobilization.

Strategy

Throw a spare bola while a stronger main weapon supplies your combat values, then move away from an entangled melee pursuer. It is not a guaranteed escape: the throw can miss, the entangling roll can fail, and an immobilized caster can remain dangerous. Use the successful restriction to create distance, rather than treating the victim as unable to act.

A spare whip offers the same entangling throw at weight 20 instead of 50, and Julie's sells known safe copies. The bola remains useful when it is already available, but its missile classification alone does not make it the superior entangling projectile. An acid whip adds a different damage type, without removing the physical-immunity restriction on entangling.