Was I soft?

[Willtell]

I reciently ran the hollowed hills adventure from the Wotc web site. Two of the characters were lowered into a cavern and then ambushed. The other two pc's - both clerics - started shoting lt. crossbows into the melee.

It's a small thing, but I decided that since the clerics where shoting almost straight down the -2 penalty for the +100ft shots did not apply.

 

[Warrior Poet]

I think a case can be made for a -2 range penalty applying to shots that are straight down. Gravity is still a factor in the shot, just not in the way to which some artillerists might be accustomed. When shooting "horizontally," the shooter must account for the pull of the earth on the bolt, and aims higher than the target appears to compensate for the drop. When shooting straight down, gravity will "assist" the bolt's momentum to a point (I think - I am a poor student of physics), but perhaps the bolts are more prone to "overshooting" the target, and might thus still incur the -2 penalty.

Warrior Poet

 

[Agnostic Paladin]

The penalties to hit for range increments aren't really meant to represent the difficulty in getting a projectile to travel that far. (The maximum number of increments is how the effect of gravity is modelled - you might want to remove that restriction for shooting down I suppose.) Mainly, its just to illustrate that you have to be more precise with your aim as the target gets farther away. Not to mention variables like imperfect projectiles and air currents distorting the flight path in unpredictable ways. There's even the question of the target moving in unpredictable ways as the projectile is in the air.

 

[Darkness]

Heh. It's ironic that someone who goes by the name "Willtell" has to ask questions about crossbows.

Moved to Rules.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Heh. It's ironic that someone who goes by the name "Willtell" has to ask questions about crossbows.

Maybe he's just testing us.

Time Willtell, I suppose.

-Hyp.

 

[Black Omega]

I would have kept the -2 penalty. Even though they were firing straight down the people they were firing at would practically be considered prone to them. Instead of a n big target, there would just be head and shoulders.