Friendly Fire Rules?

[samwise7]

So I was curious if anyone has any Friendly Fire Rules for shooting into combat? Or is there a standard way that I am not aware of?

I was just curious what everyone does out there. I'd like there to be a chance to shoot your friends if you mess up.

Maybe something with a natural 1 on a D20, or if they miss their target?

[3llense'g]

I'd guess there's a reason shooting into melee is a big no-no. I'd divide the chance of hitting anyone evenly. So if your mate is fighting a single orc, there's a 50% chance of hitting him if you aim at the orc. The other option is to up the enemy AC (for shooting purposes) and if the archer misses, automatically hit your ally.

[Blood axe]

Here is something I found in A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords from 1981.

Notice the picture with the Archer with the "OOPS!" look on his face. An angry Orc (?) with an axe and maybe afreiend with an arrow stuck in him....

[url][/url]

[Blood axe]

Personally I let the player shoot into combat- and then if he MISSES- I roll for a chance to hit a friend. But it depends on the situation- if I decide combatants are too mixed-up- I wont allow missiles to be fired into melee.

[Aplus]

Here's how I do it:

Shots into melee suffer a -2 penalty unless a full round is spent aiming prior to the shot. On a miss, there is an equal chance of hitting anything adjacent to the original target, and I use a d8 to represent each "zone" or "square" that surrounds the target (we usually use minis). If not using minis, you could just use the directions N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, or just make something up that you can adjudicate quickly, since slowing things down too much to figure it out is bad. Depending on the result, the miss could be a straight miss, could hit an ally, or it could hit a different enemy.

This may not be for everyone, but our group has a preference for having some fiddly bits in combat, and we usually use minis on a grid.

[jasmith]

Here's how I do it:

Firing Missile Weapons into Melee: If a ranged weapon is fired into a melee in which an ally is involved, the attacker will be at a -4 penalty to hit as his ally is providing cover for his enemy. If he misses his target by 1 - 4, he will hit the ally instead. The attacker may reduce this penalty to -2, by taking the time to carefully study the situation and wait for an opportune moment. This will reduce his rate of fire by half. He will then only hit an ally if he misses by 1 - 2.

I do use a type of weapon specialization for Fighters, so:

Bow Specialist - +1 to hit and the Fighting-man may fire into melee as if he had Studied the situation, with no penalty to his rate of fire – Arrows and Heavy Bolts will do d8 in damage.

Rangers can't specialize, but I give them this:

Deadly Bowman: A Ranger’s arrows do 1d8 in damage. The Ranger may fire into melee as if he had Studied the situation, with no penalty to his rate of fire.

[3llense'g]

Bow Specialist - +1 to hit and the Fighting-man may fire into melee as if he had Studied the situation, with no penalty to his rate of fire – Arrows and Heavy Bolts will do d8 in damage.

Can he then actually study the situation to make all the to-hit penalties go away?

[Aplus]

sounds like it will be at -2 (instead of -4), and only hit an ally if missing by 1-2 (instead of 1-4). no rate-of-fire penalty.

[jcftao]

Have any of you tried an aiming rule?
If the shooter spends one round aiming carefully, he will get a bonus to hit or might be able to shoot into melee with no ill consequence?

[Blood axe]

Have any of you tried an aiming rule?
If the shooter spends one round aiming carefully, he will get a bonus to hit or might be able to shoot into melee with no ill consequence?

That sounds good. Even if they arent firing into combat- an extra round spent aiming gets a bonus "to hit".