Skill | Archery

Archery measures your proficiency with bows, crossbows, and similar tension-based weapons. It reflects your ability to nock, draw, aim, and fire with accuracy and speed. More than brute force, it relies on timing, hand-eye coordination, and familiarity with your weapon’s rhythm—whether you’re sniping from cover, loosing volleys into a warband, or shooting on the run.

This skill applies to bow-type weapons that require deliberate aiming and a draw phase. Other ranged attacks—such as thrown weapons, slings, hand-launched explosives, or improvised objects—are resolved using Ranged Combat instead.

Typical Uses:

• Attacking with shortbows, longbows, or crossbows

• Performing trick shots (e.g., rope cuts, disarming arrows)

• Engaging moving targets at range

• Tracking arrow flight for trajectory correction

• Rapid reloading or multiple shots under pressure

• Hunting, target shooting, or sending signals via fire arrows

Situational Modifiers:
Use the standard difficulty ladder to reflect wind, lighting, movement, and target characteristics:

• Trivial (+50%): Shooting a stationary object at close range, no stress.

• Effortless (+40%): Target practice in calm conditions.

• Easy (+30%): Firing at an unaware enemy within short range.

• Routine (+20%): Stationary target at medium range, good footing.

• Favorable (+10%): Partial cover, moving target at short range.

• Everyday (0%): Moving target at medium range, normal light.

• Challenging (–10%): Target partially obscured or moving fast.

• Hard (–20%): Long-range shot, wind or dim light in play.

• Very Hard (–30%): Firing into melee, poor footing, or dynamic cover.

• Extreme (–40%): Shooting while dodging, target at full sprint.

• Near-Impossible (–50%): Called shot on a tiny weak point at range, in combat.

Working Without Training:

• Base chance is half Dexterity, rounded down

• One difficulty step harder than normal

• Bows and crossbows may require GM permission to attempt untrained use, especially for reload speed or compound complexity

Companion Skills:

• Perception (to locate and track targets)

• Athletics (for mobility, vaulting into position, or reloading under duress)

• Stealth (for sniping or ambush)

• Survival (to make or recover arrows, hunt game, read terrain)

Narrative Examples:

• A ranger crouches behind a crumbled wall, loosing an arrow into the charging boar’s eye just before it hits.

• A druid takes out a hanging lantern to plunge the alley into darkness before retreating.

• A rogue, high on a balcony, silently draws and drops a sentry before the alarm can sound.

• A warrior on horseback fires into the melee, aiming carefully to avoid his allies.

Special Resolution Note:
Archery is typically resolved as a single skill check against the Difficulty Ladder. The target does not normally get to contest the attack with a Dodge roll. This reflects the nature of archery as a sudden, calculated strike where the defender often has no opportunity to react.

However, if the target is clearly aware of the incoming attack and has time to respond—such as during a standoff, duel, or other alert situation—the GM may allow a contested roll (usually against Dodge). This exception should only be used when justified by the narrative.

For ranged attacks that are thrown, improvised, or reactive, use Ranged Combat instead. Those attacks are always treated as contested rolls and represent very different tactical dynamics.

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File Created: 04/30/2025
Last Modified: 04/30/2025