A Bowman of the Guild can spend a point of hope to increase the quality of a success. So, for example, they can make an ordinary success into a great success by spending one Hope.

Called shot says "A called shot hits only when the roll matches or beats the
Target Number set for the attack AND the player obtains
at least one [tengwar] icon on his rolled Success dice."

So my question is: if the character rolls an ordinary success on a Called Shot (normally a miss) but uses Bowman of the Guild to spend a point of Hope to upgrade it to a great success, does the Called Shot then succeed?

As written it would seem not but a point of Hope is pretty expensive if it only raises the level of success.

Can't say whether or not this breaks the game, no one in my game uses a bow, but RAW I don't see why you couldn't; the dice might not display the tengwar rune but the player 'scored' a great success anyways, it just cost them dearly. Called shots are nice, but throwing away hope points on them could be wasteful so your players have to learn to be economical with their hope.

A rules-lawyer approach would say "technically a Tengwar rune was not displayed (when you used the Hope Point to increase the success level), thus your Called Shot is not successful."

Then again - many of us use standard (non-TOR specific) dice to resolve our tests, and technically those d6s don't display a Tengwar rune either.


So my heart tells me that the rule as intended - so long as it's a "Greater Success" (or better), the Called Shot works fine; with or without a success level upgrade by another fashion.

I doubt that there is a hard-fast rule one way or the other. My best advice is to go with what feels right to the individual LM. Me personally - the expenditure of Hope is enough to warrant the success. But I'd still weigh that against what the result of a successful Called Shot is. At this time - I don't have access to my book - and I'm not sure I remember exactly what it does - but I'm thinking it Causes a Wound on the target. For most creatures this instantly kills them??? This may or may not waiver my opinion.

In the end, I like that many of TORs rules are not hard and fast black and white to ad nauseum as they did in D&D's later editions; which IMO over complicated everything. Having the freedom to use personal preferences for playstyle variance is part of TORs magic.

Feel the same.

And the bows got only an average injury rolls (14 or 16), so I think it's not overpowered.

Yeah for a bow it's a piercing blow which means the creature has to make a protection roll or get a wound.

I think I'll allow it.

-A bow is harder to hit with in the first place
-A point of hope is expensive
-For the creature that one wound takes out, by definition they are weaker creatures and it's not a huge impact if you kill them (and probably a waste of Hope)
-For tougher creatures one wound does not take them out and anyway they usually have crazy protection rolls and you still have to get them weary
-Other than a little more end damage you are guaranteed, really you are just exchanging the round Prepare Shot requires for a point of Hope (which seems fair). Well that and you are taking this virtue instead of another.

Quite right. I think that balances things out well enough indeed. Especially the final quip that it IS a Virtue you must earn to be able to do it.