These changes are now in the main rules.
Changing how initiative works, which has a knock-on effect on various other things. Possibly opens up some interesting possibilities as well. Other changes involve Fumbles in Combat.
Remove the initiative stat for all weapons. Initiative is no longer based on the weapon or action, but is a straight agility x 4 roll, once at the start of combat. It is no longer re-rolled each round. We still have the concept of fast, normal and slow actions.
Some combat results may reduce a character's initiative. A character can take a round out in order to re-roll. Initiative is not affected by wound, stun or fatigue penalties (it should be, especially the latter, however the point is to have a (mostly) unchanging initiative).
One of the advantages of weapons with a long reach was that they had a high initiative. Without an initiative statistic, they become less effective. So we're going to mess around with the rules on reach as well.
There will now be far fewer reach values. These will be:
| Reach | Examples |
|---|---|
| Close | Fists, knives, daggers. |
| Short | Short sword, mace, light club. |
| Medium | Broad sword, battle axe, rapier, javelin. |
| Long | Great sword, quarterstaff, war spear, bill. |
| Very long | Long spear. |
If you have a weapon with a longer reach, and someone attacks you, then you get a free strike against them, effectively enabling you to go first. This also gives an extra attack of course.
Use of shields may counter this - an attacker with a shorter reach gains a reach bonus of +1 if they are also using a shield and the weapon and shield style.
In a charge, the person with the longest reach weapon always goes first, regardless of initiative.