Grenade Missiles

A grenade is an explosive object, typically thrown, the descriptive originating with the word 'pomegranate' and influenced by Spanish granada - the many-seeded fruit suggested the fragmenting of a broken vessel, filled with liquid or powder. Grenades can cause area effect damage due to shrapnel or due to the splash caused by flammable or acidic liquids. Unlike the spread caused by siege and ship's weapons, however, most grenade-like missiles affect an area of only 4 hexes:

As the grenade shatters in the targeted hex occupied by Albert [A], in darker green, it causes full damage. At the same time, the three hexes behind Albert, one of which is occupied by Bertram [B], suffer from splash damage only. Depending on the particular kind of grenade missile being used, full damage and splash damage will vary.

Certain magical grenade weapons, such as chromatic orb, will affect a radial circle around the targeted hex - this is because the effect does not obey the laws of momentum as would objects such as flasks of oil or thrown acid would.

Roll to Hit

Grenade weapons are not hurled at opponents but at the opponent's hex, either with the intention of breaking a vessel to scatter its contents or the shards of the vessel itself. Some grenade attacks involve scattering liquid into a hex. In all cases, if there is more than one creature in a given target hex or splash hex, both will be equally affected by the grenade missile.

Because of its form of attack, the thrower need only hit AC 10 when attacking. A failure to roll AC 10 will result in a miss, noting that even misses have the potential to hit and scatter the effects of the grenade missile.

When a miss occurs, the attacker must make a dexterity check; a successful check will indicate that the thrower has achieved a near miss; a fail to succeed at the dexterity check will indicate a bad miss.

Near misses indicate that the the grenade has deviated one hex from the target. A d6 is rolled, with a given surrounding hex designated as '1' and moving in a clockwise circle around the desired target. This becomes the target hex and the full damage and splash damage is then calculated.

Bad misses indicate that the grenade has deviated two hexes from the target. A d12 is rolled, with a given surrounding hex designated as '1' and moving in a clockwise circle around the desired target.

Note that with a miss, it is entirely possible for the target hex to be designated as a hex containing an ally; the targeted hex may even be determined to be in back of the thrower, or in the thrower's hex. This may be due to the user's hand being knocked during melee or otherwise losing balance; in any case, such circumstances should be treated as a fumble. Actual fumbles, where the thrower rolls a natural 1, will indicate that the grenade has definitely fallen into the combatant's own hex. Splash damage will then affect the three hexes in front of the thrower.

Forms

The most common forms of non-magical grenade weapon:

• lamp oil, contained in a flask of clay or glass, with a sufficient wick that can be lit before the grenade is tossed. The vessel is meant to shatter and cause fire damage. The flask must be full. Attacks with this weapon require a hard surface for the flask to be thrown against, so that it will break and shatter, typically a stone flooring, wall or ceiling. The flask must fail save against the surface it is thrown against. If the flask makes save, the flask will roll and the wick will be considered to have gone out; thereafter, half the oil in the flask will drain out harmlessly. Full damage for a lamp oil grenade will be 2-8, with 1-4 points of splash damage.
• holy water, which may be contained in a thrown glass vessel or held and flung at undead or other worldly opponents (evil in nature), in order to cause damage. Like lamp oil, the vessel must break against a surface. A 4 ounce vial is assumed. If holy water is thrown, it will cause splash damage to both the targeted hex and splash hexes. Full damage can only be achieved if the holy water is opened, the vessel held by the attacker and the liquid within is hurled against an opponent within a 1 hex distance, causing splash damage to others in the area of effect. Full damage for holy water is 3-8, with 2 points of splash damage.
• acid, which can be employed as a weapon similar to the manner of holy water, conforming to the rules described above. Acid will affect most creatures. Full damage for an acid grenade is 2-8, with 1-3 points of splash damage.
• glass objects, describing any highly breakable object that will release shards when breaking. These objects will cause full damage of 1-3 points to the targeted hex, with 1 point of splash damage.

See Attacking in Combat