When a fight occurs, as soon as there are 7 or more opponents, RAW says that nobody can choose the Rearward stance. But certain fights, for whatever reason, call for more opponents than that, and I don’t want to completely deprive the archer of the chance to use his bow.
In keeping with the spirit of the rules, I thought about creating Combat tasks that would alleviate this problem.
I actually have two ideas:
1) “Bodyguard”: A Hero in the Defensive stance, at the beginning of his round, can make an Athletics or Battle roll to try and prevent enemies from reaching an ally who’s in Rearward stance too easily (TN 14). If the roll is successful, one enemy cannot reach the Rearward ally, meaning that said enemy doesn’t count for the 2-for-1 rule (so a Fellowship of 3 could face up vs. 7 enemies and still allow 1 Hero to be in a Rearward stance. If the roll is unsuccessful, the ally is considered to be in a Defensive stance instead of Rearward, meaning (amongst other things) that he can’t make a range attack. Whatever the result, the Hero who chooses to perform this Task is considered to be Moderately hindered for the remainder of the round and can still perform an attack.
2) “Elusive”: A Hero, at the beginning of the round, can choose this Task to try and choose a Rearward stance even in a situation that doesn’t normally allow it because of the number of enemies (i.e. more than 2-for-1 enemies vs. heroes). The Hero makes an Athletics or Battle roll (TN 14, +2 to TN for each enemy in excess of the 2-for-1 ratio). If successful, the Hero can choose the Rearward stance; otherwise he must choose the Forward stance and is considered Moderately hindered for the remainder of the round. Performing this Task still allows to attack.
What do you think about the idea itself? If you think it’s fine, what about the Tasks (are they balanced, too lenient, too harsh…)? Thanks!
p.s. Haven't thought too long about the tasks's names; if you have better suggestions, go ahead and suggest
