Ranged Combat Breakdown

Ranged combat can be tricky especially if you pick a bow.

Here's the reason:

While traveling it is impractical to keep your bow strung for a long period of time. If you're GM is vindictive (like any good GM) he'll slowly have your bow lose it's power and then if you'll be out 75 sp (if you picked up the longbow), which is a bummer. So that means that you'll be walking around with your bow unstrung.

So at the beginning of combat, if you are caught with your pants down (and let's face it, this will be 75-90% of the encounters you'll have), you'll have to string your bow and then wait your full weapon speed to shoot. This could leave you basically inactive for the first 20-30 seconds of combat, which at lower levels is practically the entire combat.

You can toss the bow aside but that means you'll have to settle for a thrown weapon or a sling.

Personally, I love the sling. Easy to ready, it's a great go-to for weaker characters and it does a moderate damage with a pretty good range. However, it'll never have the range or the damage that a bow will.

So really, the sling is great starter weapon and I usually grab it for my weaker fighters and thieves. It's not great for a character that plans on being a mainly ranged weapon as the more BPs you spend on it, the less you get in return.

You could always pick up a thrown weapon but you should be aware of a few things:

The strength bonus you get for thrown weapons doesn't make any sense. If you have strength penalty, your thrown becomes less powerful by getting a running start. You might argue to the GM that you should always get your strength bonus and then get a +3 to damage if you get a jogging start.

That makes them more effective overall.

Additionally, there is a knife and a throwing knife. A hand-ax and a throwing ax. While it is heavy implied in the rules that they are, in fact, the same weapon, it never actually makes the connection. If you can convince your GM to make them one in the same, they have the added bonus of switching from melee to ranged without having to wait your full weapon speed to attack it somebody engages you.

All throwing weapons have the same main benefit: they are fast as sin. Most you can draw and throw in under 10 seconds.

Javelin has the greatest range and range of damage but is a bit slower then the others and less likely to actually penetrate.

The throwing ax is a nice medium. It's biggest strength is that it does a fair amount of shield damage, meaning that if you're pretty swole and get a running start, you can put a dent in someone's shield.

The throwing knife is the quickest out of the three but does the least amount of damage.

I usually pick up the javelin or throwing ax for my stronger fighters, while I tend to favor the throwing knife for my more manly thieves as it doubles as a melee weapon in case someone closes with them.

The last are the crossbows. To be fair, I don't have a lot of experience with them. Crossbows roughly equal to bows except for their reloading time which is a pain. The best use for crossbows, I've found, is for NPC peons forming some sort of blockage. Since only one has to fire it, you have maybe 5 additional NPCs all reloading crossbows. Forming a battery of about 20-30 men, you can effectively lay down a constant fire.

Crossbows popularity came from the fact that it was easier and quicker to train men to use them.

I would only recommend crossbows to players that have a small following of NPCs to reload for them.

If you're set on bows, you'll find that the first few levels will be frustrating as you'll have to pull out and string your bow, which will delay when you can enter the fray.

There's a few things you can do to counter act that:

Ditch the armor entirely.

If you do then you automatically drop an initiative die.

If you're not an elf, you can pick up the Improved Awareness talent. The talent doesn't stack with class or race bonuses to the initiative die but it doesn't say anything about not stacking with the bonus gained from not wearing armor.

That means that you are starting combat at two lower initiative die (a d12 becomes a d6, which is pretty awesome). That means you'll be able to act quicker then almost everyone.

If you do go this route, I also recommend picking up the Dodge talent so that you get your Dex vs ranged attacks. That'll make it a little harder to hit you.

That won't completely negate the time you have to wait to string your bow but it'll certain be a huge improvement. Ditching your armor is not a bad strategy but YOU WILL BE SCREWED IF YOU GET INTO MELEE COMBAT.

So keep in mind the exit: that depends on the type of campaign but if you're in the forest a lot then go for Grel. Full speed through the underbrush paired with hiking/road marching plus long distance running and you will never have to worry about being caught.

Bows greatest strength is their range and damage. A long bow is the hardest hitting, quickest, and farthest reaching weapon in the book. Grab the Advanced Sighting and you gain roughly an additional 50 feet of range from which to tag your enemy.

Once you invest the BPs into specialization then you can get your shooting down to 6 seconds per shot. It's getting there that's tough.

The real difference between short bows and long bows are their proficiencies cost (which doesn't matter to you as a cleric of the Patient Arrow) and the fact that Long bow costs twice at much, which means that you won't be able to buy your long-ranged death-dealer unless you purposely stash BPs away to cash in for... while... cash. Less BPs means less talents and specializations which means you'll be less effective out of the gate.

You'll need a minimum of 15 BPs to afford a long bow without dipping into your other starting SPs. That's enough to get you +2 in everything on your bow. Pretty good if you ask me.

You can also go the route of borrowing cash from other players. I had a player do this. His reason was that his ranger was the body guard of the rogue and that the rogue wanted him to have the best equipment. This tied their backstories together and tickled my soft stop as GM, so I allowed it. This allowed him to save his precious BPs to make him a better archer.

If that doesn't suit you or your GM says no, then you can try to save some BPs by relying on your starting cash roll to mitigate the cost. It's a risk but you might be able to save enough BPs to get maybe an additional +1.

Always pick up Advanced Sighting with your bow. It's great. You can also use it to rationalize it being able to see farther and you might convince your GM to give you an extra something-something on Observation checks that require you to see you long distances. I'm a pretty hard-ass GM and even I thought it made sense.

Well, this has become a regular essay and I'm so sorry that this ballooned into the monstrosity that it's become. I hope it was helpful at the very least. We can also talk about what you can do in melee to not get curb-stomped.

Throwing Weapon Damage

I've decided to redo how thrown weapon damage is done because I can and how it's done doesn't make any sense to me.

Thrown weapons will now always benefit from your strength damage modifier, no matter what. So if you have a +2 damage modifier, and you chuck a throwing knife, it's a d6p+2. Same goes if your modifier is a penalty.

Additionally, if you find that your character is a little weak in the arm or you want some extra power behind your throw, you can get a jogging or running start. If you are going at least 10 ft/sec (that's jogging for medium sized creatures and running for small sized creatures) then you receive a +3 to damage.

You still cannot specialize in thrown weapon damage.

NPA/NPD and Unarmed Attacks

     If you successfully score a Near Perfect Attack or a Near Perfect Defense, you may instead forgo the standard bonus to gain a free unarmed combat maneuver against your opponent.

     It doesn't effect your count or switch your to fighting with two weapons (attacking with both). If you are using an Advance Combat Maneuver, you still add any bonuses of penalties from that.

     If you are swapping out a Near Perfect Attack, you'll still need to roll a separate attack roll for the unarmed maneuver.

     Obviously, you must be in melee with your attacker to gain this bonus.

Revised Shield Bash

Shield bashes suck right now. I've redone the damage:

Bucklers:            1d4+1d4p

Small:                 1d4p+1d6

Medium:             1d6p+1d4p

Large:                 1d4p + 1d4

Body:                  1d6+1d4

Shields have a maximum Reach of 0. So, an ogre and a human using a shield will have a Reach of 0, while a dwarf or halfling will have a Reach of -1.

Going into combat with only a shield means that you count as unarmed and the attacker attacks at half speed, however the attacker doesn't get the free attack if the defender shield bashes.

Medium shield are more effective then their smaller counter parts at shoving your opponent around. As such, you gain your net FoS to determine Knock Backs when bashing with them.

Large and Body shields have reduced damage dice because they are harder to swing effectively in combat. Obviously, if someone was to grab one end of a body shield and swing it, full-boar, into someone's face, it'll do a lot better damage, but that's not usually the case in pitched melee.

When shield bashing with a Large, or Body shield a lot of it is using force or momentum to try and throw your attacker around, rather then strictly do damage. Because of this, using these two types of shields to bash have their damage count as double for determining knock-backs and you may add your net FoS as well (your FoS - their FoS)

Superior Quality Shields and Bashing
A well-balanced shield made of the finest materials would, of course, be more effective at not only its defensive job but also its offensive job so any bonuses or penalties that a shield has is added to its Attack and Damage, just like a normal weapon.

Practical Unarmed Fighting

    I know that you go home every night, sit on your bed, open up your PHB, and lovingly caress the pages of the Unarmed Fighting section. A silent tear rolls down your check as you wonder if you'll ever get to use them in combat.
    Well, buck up, you whiner! This is your practical guide to unarmed fighting!

    It is extremely unwise to try and go into combat without a weapon but just because you're using one doesn't mean you can't throw punches and try to throw your opponents.
    By switching to unarmed fighting (attacking w/ both) you trade off some defense for the opportunity to back hand your enemy.

    Here's some things to keep in mind:
    You can't make an unarmed attack for the first little bit of engaging with an opponent. You have to wait half your unmodified primary weapon speed +1 before making an unarmed attack.
    After that point you can make an additional unarmed at anytime in the combat but you take the following penalties:

    Your next primary weapon attack happens 2 seconds later. Additionally, for the next 10 seconds you defend with a d10p (instead of a d20p-4, or d20p if you have a shield), even if your primary weapon attack happens before then.
     You can decrease the time you defend with a reduced die by specializing in unarmed Speed (or buying the speed bonus talent in unarmed fighting).

     But if you're using an Advanced Combat Maneuver, you gain all the bonuses and penalties on both attacks.
     Also, usually, you'd be saddled with an additional -2 attack and damage for using your off-hand but this doesn't apply in this case, because I said so.

    Some unarmed fighting techniques will require you to drop your weapon if it's two handed.
    Things you don't need a free hand for:
Strike, Overbear, Bullrush, Shield bash (obviously requires a shield)

    Things you need at least one free hand for:
Grab, Break Hold, Scramble-For-Weapon

    Things you need both hands for:
 Tackle,Toss/Take Down, Hold

Reach and Closed Spaces

    There are no penalties on fighting in a small space with a large weapon, I've decided to remedy that.

    When engaged with an opponent, you take up roughly 5 sq ft of space on the board. This is to represent the back and forth and moving to or fro of combat.
    Even when you have a pole-arm and a sword fighter has closed in on you, you don't fight with penalties because you have space to move around, however that is not always the case. It's only when you get backed into a wall that things start to become a problem.

    For example: these two fighters are battling out in the alley behind the tavern because the sword fighter (blue) insulted the pole-arm fighter's (red) girlfriend. Blue is using a long sword (3 1/2 foot reach) while Red is Halberd (7 foot reach).
    While there is a lot of debris in the alley, they still both have enough space to maneuver their weapons so even though Blue's token is touching Red's, Red fighter without a penalty as he's choked up on his weapon and has enough enough space behind him to work with.

     However, if you are pushed up against a wall or another person fighting or really anything that keeps you from having the space you need to fight, problems start to arise for the bigger weapons. If your character is against some behind them then they get a penalty to their attack, defense, speed, and damage equal to how many feet over 5 ft their weapon is.

     Continued example: Red and Blue continue to exchange blows. Realizing that the cramped conditions could give him an advantage, Blue bull-rushes Red, succeeding in diving him back against the wall.
     Now that his back is blocked, Red is less able to move his Halberd about to attack or defend and takes a penalty of 2 to his Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage because his base reach is 7.

     Being pushing into a corner is bad for everybody, not just weapons with longer reach. When up against a wall, the situation can turn dire even for the smallest weapon.
     Should your opponent score a knock-back on you while your back is against a wall, then you automatically take 2(d4p-2) +1 for every point of damage over what was needed to knock you back originally -1 for every foot traveled to get there, as your character is slammed against the wall. You can make a Feat of Agility to half that damage by half the amount of damage you initially took is added to the opposed roll, so the harder you were knocked back, the less likely you are to avoid the damage.

     As you recover, your attacker can then press forward, further pushing you against the wall. He halves whatever remaining fighting space you have (rounded up). So, the first time he limits your fighting space to 3 feet, then to 2, then to 1.
    Not that this is without cost for him, as it limits his fighting space by the same amount as well as he has to get in close and personal to force his advantage.

    Continued Example: Red knows that he's in trouble unless he turns the tables soon so he begins to Attack Aggressively. Blue, knowing how badly a Halberd can if it strikes true, decides to give him the ground and begins to shuffle back.
    Spurned on by the move, Red closes the gap and swings, scoring a double knock back and sending him against the alley. He drops his dagger and charges Blue.

     The charge is successful. Red is a pretty swole dude and even with the dagger, he does 9 damage, which because he charged, counts at 18 damage for the purposes of knock backs, throwing Blue into the wall behind him.
      Blue then makes a FoA vs d20p+9 because even though the dagger technically only did 9 damage, it was still counted as 18 for the purposes of knocking him back.
      Blue makes it and takes half of 2(d4p-2)+3. Still, he was thrown back into the wall and Red moves up with his dagger.
   

      Now both fighters are fighting in a smaller space. Blue is finding it a tad bit difficult to maneuver his long sword in the cramped conditions, but he's doing alright for himself only taking a penalty of 1 to his Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage, while Red is having no trouble in the these conditions to wield his dagger.
     The battle continues with neither side gaining or losing ground until Red, spurred on by his fury at Blue's insult, does a particularly powerful blow with his dagger, knocking Blue back further and limiting him to 2 feet of fighting space.
     Because the Longsword's reach is 3 1/2 feet it gets a penalty of 2 to Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage, really putting a damper on Blue's ability to pull out a win.

     If the tables had been turned and Red was still fighting with his Halberd in 2 feet of space then he'd be fighting at a penalty of 5 to Attack, Defense, Speed, and Damage but since he's using a dagger he's breathing easy.

     Red delivers the final blow, gutting Blue and letting his body slide down the wall. He wipes his blade on Blue's tunic, retrieves his Halberd and disappears into the night mist. To be fair to Blue, Red's girlfriend is pretty ugly.

Clerical Sects: An Example

     In reality, no god in our world has ever been a cut and dry figure. Even the most peaceful ways of thought have lead to blood conflicts in that god's name. In this way, clerics and priest of the same god have been able to take different sides of multiple issues, allowing for a deep conflict within the faith on some very fundamental levels.

     In order to reflect this I've stripped the alignments from the deities in my campaign and given them rough spheres of power. Usually, each gawd will have two: one that represents the good things about the gawd, and one that represents its wrath, allowing the gawd to use a carrot-and-stick method with its followers and heretics.
     For example: the healing badger, Mortitagus, primarily the gawd of healing and nature. His spheres include anything to do with those two things, including plagues, which he sends when he feels his Houses of Healing are not being frequented enough. This has lead to a more radical faction within his faith that jumps people in the streets, beats them to an inch of their life, and then takes them to get healed by their priest. Their thought is that beating up a few people in the street is worth not having a terrible plague ripe through the land so therefore it's an act of mercy.

    This conflicts somewhat with the Hackmaster system, which uses the Kingdoms of Kalamar pantheon on its basis for clerics. There is an easy fix to this.
    Each different cleric represents a way to worship your gawd of choice. The best way to show this is an example I feel.

    The Andalish gawdess the Morrigan has three major spheres: Sovereignty, Death, and Honorable Warfare.

    A player wanting to focus on the Morrigan's power over Sovereigns may choose the Courts of Justice, changing (with the permission of myself) his ornate god armor in constantly buying new crow-feather cloaks or ceremonial swords.
   Additionally, a different player may also want to focus on sovereignty, but not having a cleric of noble birth, he decides that instead, he'll focus on being a councilor to a ruler. He needs to be as wise as possible and to have a variety of skills that will benefit his king, so he picks the Order of Thought.

   Both players worship the same gawdess and are part of the same faith, both even revere the same power, but both approach their faith differently. One is LG and the other is LN.

   While some churches may make more sense and are easier to fit to a particular gawd and gawdess but it's only limited by your imagination on the matter and what you can make sense of theologically.
   You can also, with permission make minor changes to the church to make it fit better fluff-wise. Like having a cleric of Mortitagus using the Church of Everlasting Hope use a mace instead of staff as his preferred weapon, but only allowing him to casting his heal spells by bludgeoning his victims patients.

   Continuing on with the example:
   Another player wants to focus on the Morrigan's death aspect. She picks a cleric from the Congregation of the Dead, which is NE in alignment. She see's the gawdess role as a necessary one and that dead should be a glorify part of life. She could do that but she could also pick the Cathedral of Light, which is LG, and still focus on the Death aspect.

   Now remember that alignment is a meta-game concept. Even if she were to go NE, that would mean that she couldn't travel with a paladin of the Morrigan, or be shunned from society. Remember, at the end of the day, she still is a representative of her gawdess and deserves respect. Of course, she may have some theological disagreements with a Crow that uses the Cathedral of Light but that wouldn't always mean that they'd come to blows over it.
   That also wouldn't mean that they wouldn't come to blows (after all, the Catholics and Protestants burned each other at the stake). It would simply be on a case by case basis.

Changes to Weapons: THE MASTER LIST

Because it's just easier to have all the changes to weapons in one place, I'm creating a master list of the modifications to the Hackmaster weapon list:

Hand Axe/Throwing Axe
      Hand axes and throwing axes are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Battle Axe
      This is a two handed weapon but doesn't suffer the penalty to speed or the bonus damage. It can be paired with a buckler but attacking Aggressively negates the shield bonus.

Knife/Throwing Knife
      Knives and throwing knives are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Flails
      You roll a d20p-4 when defending against a flail, even if you're using a shield. Regular flails now also come in an additional variety:
      Peasant flail: +2 to reach, it requires two hands giving it a +3 to damage and +2 to speed.
   
Military Pick/Warhammer
      The Military pick and the warhammer are the same weapon, it just comes down to what side of the head you are using. Any Specializations or Talents apply to both. It takes 2 seconds to switch sides.

Scourge
       The scourge is particularly effective at triggering ToP saves. Any damage done with the scourge counts as double when considering whether it triggers a ToP, however, if it only triggers one because of this fact, the defender tries to get under his full Con score, instead of the standard half.
       This ability to negated by armor.

Two-Handed Sword
       Arguably the worst weapon, the two handed sword now has one thing in it's favor.
       The two handed sword now has a jab attack with a speed 12 and damage of a d12.

Warhammer/Military Pick
      The Military pick and the warhammer are the same weapon, it just comes down to what side of the head you are using. Any Specializations or Talents apply to both. It takes 2 seconds to switch sides.

Throwing Axe/Hand Axe
      Hand axes and throwing axes are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Throwing Knife/Knife
      Knives and throwing knives are now considered the same weapons. You'll need to purchases the throwing axe proficiency but any Specializations or Talents apply to both, though you don't gain any bonus damage from them while throwing, even at a jog or run.
      You can switch between either at anytime you are in combat, but remember that if you already have them out it still takes 5 seconds to aim before throwing.

Glaive
      Glaives have 1 less damage die and get a +1 to their speed.

Near Perfect Attacks

While Near Perfect Defenses get all the glory, with their free unarmed attacks with awesome damage, the Near Perfect Attacks get a measly +1 to damage, which in my opinion, is slow low that it's almost worth just dropping it entirely.

It further pales in comparison when considering that the NPD gets 2(d4p-2), or if your a thief, full dagger damage. This shouldn't be.

When scoring a natural 19 on an attack, the attacker gets a Near Perfect Attack, and, should he hit, he adds an extra 1d4p to his damage.

This 1d4p has auxiliary effects like a penetration.

It doesn't receive its own attack roll like a NPD to speed up combat.

Example: Brian is using a longsword while fighting a goblin. During the exchange he rolls a NPA and totals 24 as his attack roll, while the goblin rolls a 13.

Because he hit he then rolls damage. He rolls his normal 2d8p + 1d4p + 2 for damage. 2d8p from base damage, 1d4p from NPA, and a +2 because there was a difference of 10 between attack and defense. He has no modifiers from strength, specializations, or talents.

He rolls a 7 on the d8s, a 2 on his d4, which gives him a total of 11 points of damage, 4 of which were considered penetration, giving the goblin a -2 to Str and forcing it to make a Str check or drop its weapon.

Attacks and Damage

In real life, the more precises your strikes, the more damage you do. In the base game how well you attack has no reflection on your damage. So to increase the verisimilitude I'm adding a new rule:

For every 5 full points on your attack roll over your opponent's defense, you get a +1 to damage.

So if you roll a 15, while your opponent rolls a 3, you get a +2 to damage. This is in addition to any other effects from fumbles, crits, or so on.

On top of this, if there is a penetration, this bonus damage is added that when considering auxiliary effects.

I feel like it shouldn't need to be said but to cover my bases: enemies also gain this bonus.

Weapons: Knife

     You're probably wondering what's the point of having a knife and a dagger, especially when the dagger is superior to the knife in every way.
     That's because they're different. Where your common dagger was built and refined specifically to shiv people in dark alleys for war, the knife is your common kitchen utensils used to cut meat. It's not made to puncture armor or parry other weapons.

     Why then would they include an otherwise useless weapon when there are clear choices? Because when the cook is sick of your crap, he's going to grab the nearest object and attack you with it and in all likelihood, it wouldn't be a sword or dagger, it'll be his kitchen knife.

     Knifes are pretty much universal.