Parry vs Archery

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Ragnarok

Rogue
Alliance Rules
Chicago Staff
Marshal
My current understanding of parrying for friends is that if my buddy is hit by a parry-able attack within the reach of my weapon I can indicate it is within range of my weapon and then parry the blow. Conveniently two handed weapons have a rather large range in this way.

From the ARC: "You may only Parry a blow you could logically parry at the point where the strike is given."

However if an archer is throwing arrows above my head - and within my weapon range - but hits an ally outside of my range, can I still parry the arrow since it passed through the zone in which I could have parried it? The RAW here seem to indicate no but here...

From the ARC: "Your weapon must be able to reach the attacker’s weapon, otherwise the strike is too far away to parry"

The weapon in this case being the arrow which I can certainly reach. There have been times I've knocked arrows out of the air that certainly would have hit someone 10+ ft behind me which is definitely out of my parry range. So can I call parry on the arrow?

Maybe this is a dumb question that doesn't really matter but its been bugging me for a while so I thought I'd ask.
 
You cannot. Since your friend is outside of your reach, you cannot parry a blow he takes.

Sidebar - you *can* swing at the arrow packets and try to knock them out of the air. It doesn't end any PTD effects for the archer, but it's a valid way of blocking projectile shots.
 
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I'm actually going to disageee with my fellow Marshal here, purely because I agree with the requestor's point that

1) the weapon is the arrow, and the ARB specifies that the weapon must be within reach, and not specifically the victim. For example, if I'm using a dagger and engaging a polearm fighter, who reaches an ally behind me and stabs them in the chest, why can't I Parry? I should certainly be able to deflect that weapon as it passes me, I would think, and I believe the ARB supports that.

2) You may only Parry a blow you could logically parry at the point where the strike is given. For me, where the strike "is given" would indicate that it's everywhere that the strike begins, ends, and in-between. For a melee attack, that's pretty easy to determine, but for an arrow, I'd argue that the area is the line that the arrow takes from shooter to victim.

We'll take this discussion to the private Marshal forums to discuss. :)
 
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Based on the conversations between the Marshals, it appears the most consistent interpretation of this rule is that you must be within weapon-length of the recipient of the attack.

While the language itself may not be the most clear, that's the generally believed intention.

While it's thematically believable that someone could Parry something that comes into their space, so to speak, it's generally agreed that Marshaling that would be more difficult, cause more holds, and thus result in a slower combat.

Hope that helps! :)
 
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