ARCHERY.DOC 09/03/95 by Paul Zukosky and Danny Yanda

                          Archery is the skill of aiming and firing bow weapons. Rank in a bow weapon simply
                          trains you in the use and feel of a bow, whereas archery refines your skill making bows
                          an extension of yourself in a manner not at all unlike Zen philosophy. The archery skill
                          is actually two different skills that deal with different weapons. The two sub-skills are
                          Bowman and Crossbowmen, and they deal with draw bows, and crossbows
                          respectively. 

                          A character's archery skill can not exceeds his rank in his prepared weapon; unless,
                          the archer achieves rank with a new missile weapon after attaining rank in the archery
                          skill. If this occurs the lowest rank of the two skills (archery/weapon) is used to
                          determine archery bonuses. Otherwise, all archery bonuses are received at the rank of
                          this skill, not at the rank of the weapon. 

                          Archers can load their weapons faster than most. At ranks 4 and 8, they require one
                          less pulse to load and fire their weapon. Allowing at rank 8 a crossbowman to fire
                          every turn and a bowmen to fire three times every two turns. 

                          Archers gain a bonus of 1 hex per 2 ranks when figuring ranged modifiers. Example: At
                          rank 2 the archer receives -3 per 6 hexes (round down). Instead of being penalized -3
                          per 5 hexes. 

                          Archers ignore rank % worth of penalties due to equipment, i.e. shooting flaming
                          arrows, poorly made bolts, slightly damaged bow, arrows of foreign make, etc. Note:
                          This can never bring the penalty above zero and the archer must know about the defect
                          or peculiarity in order to compensate. 

                          Archers gain [2x rank] to their strike chance in addition to weapon ranking bonuses. 

                          Archers do not have to drop their weapon in melee combat. Additionally archers may
                          use their bow/crossbow to block incoming attacks, , raising their defense by [2x
                          rank]%. The disadvantage is that every attack that falls within the range of the
                          attacker's {strike chance - [25-(2 x archery rank)]} is deflected by the archer's bow.
                          When this occurs, the defender rolls (3 x MD) + (2 x Rank) or less, or the weapon
                          breaks. 

                          The archer skill costs the same as the assassin skill. 

                          An Archer must rank bowman and crossbowman as separate skills; however, the
                          second archery skill taken will be ranked at 1/2 the experience points.