I heard some questions about this at the event, so I wanted to highlight some rules from the offical SOLAR rulebook regarding thrown weapons, unparryable thrown attacks, and shields.
The basic rundown is this:
- Normal attacks with ranged weapons (arrow or thrown weapon) may be blocked by a shield. If the attack hits any other part of your weapon, body, or costuming besides the shield, you must take the effect of the normal ranged attack.
- Ranged Critital Slays and Fatal Blows (those delivered by arrow or thrown weapon) are considered Unparryable. That means if it hits ANY part of your weapon, body, costuming,
or shield you must take the effect of the attack.
- To prevent confusion in combat, the in-play designation of an Unparryable ranged attack is called as such: "Prepare to die--Slay Unparryable!" or "Prepare to die--Fatal Blow Unparryable!".
- The only way to negate such an attack with a shield is if you have a Shield Parry (against Crit Slay Unparryable) or Fatal Shield Parry (against Fatal Blow Unparryable).
Trying to block a ranged Unparryable attack with a shield, without having the appropriate Shield Parry skill, will do you no good.From the section on Thrown Weapons:
A variety of missile weapons are employed in SOLAR combat including: bows, crossbows, and
a wide range of thrown weapons. Should one of these attacks strike a character he will take full
damage from the attack. The only way in which a character may block an attack from a
ranged weapon is with a shield, should a missile from a ranged weapon strike a character’s
weapon he will still take damage from that attack.
Furthermore, should any Critical Slays or Fatal Blows (see skill section) be delivered through a
ranged attack they are to be considered Unparryable. These attacks may not be blocked by
any means, save through the Shield Parry and Shield Fatal Parry skills.
The deadliness of a ranged Slay or Fatal Blow is a tradeoff for the fact that the person possessing this ranged Slay or Fatal Blow attack only gets *one* shot at it. Unlike a fighter with a sword, where the fighter may keep the Slay or Fatal Blow active for 10 seconds if they fail to hit the first time, the ranged attacker only gets one attempt to hit their target with the weapon.
To announce the use of a ranged Slay, one must state “Prepare to die—Slay, Unparryable!”
Missile slays are considered Unparryable and may only be blocked with the Shield Parry and
Shield Fatal Parry skills. Missile Slays are active only for the single shot that they are used on
and not subject to the one minute rule above, if the archer or ranged attack character misses—
then the slay is spent.
Here is a quote from the rules regarding what shields do block and what additional benefits the Shield Parry and Shield Fatal Parry skills give you.
Shield
Prerequisite(s): None
This skill allows a character to use a shield for defensive purposes following the shield
guidelines outlined in the Making Your Own Shield section. A shield may be used to block any
physical attack, be it from a melee weapon, missile weapon, a monster’s claw, or a packetdelivered
physical attack such as “20 acid”, “5 magic”, or “30 flaming”.
A ranged Critical Slay or Fatal Blow will not be stopped by a shield alone but this skill
combined with Shield Parry or Shield Fatal Parry, respectively, will enable the user to parry
these otherwise Unparryable attacks.
Hopefully that clears up some of the questions that came up at the event.
