[PnP] noob questions part II

[Scott M]

1) Regarding tactical combat, do any of you folks have house rules for
combatants who wish to flee?

The way I read the rules, it sounds like if two combatants begin the
movement portion of the phase adjacent to each other, and either
wishes to fight, both must fight (and end the movement part of the
phase).

The obvious fix is to allow either combatant to flee, allowing the
other to take a free attack AND allow that attacker to move as well.
So, a slower combatant cannot flee from a faster one, but a faster
combatant can flee from a slower one, he just may have to endure one
or more free attacks in the process.

Does that sound like what any of you folks are doing?

2) Weapon damage. I really like the idea that most weapons do similar
damage (I never understood in D&D why a dagger would do 1d4 and a
great sword would do 1d12 - seems like either would kill with a well
placed hit). However I think there should be SOME varience in damage
beyond the WSB. Maybe 1d8 for light weapons vs 1d10 for heavy/two hand
weapons. Have any of you used similar house rules?

3) The Communicate spell. As written, the target of a Communicate
spell cannot attack or cast spells while he is still affected by it. I
choose to read that as the target cannot attack or cast spells while
actively communicating (rather than just affected by it), otherwise
the spells seems to be overpowered for a base MP1 spell. Am I reading
that right?

4) Switching weapons: the rules make it clear that if a melee
combatant moves adjacent to an archer, and the archer has already
fired, that the melee combatant can attack without fear of
counterattack. That's fine, but what about the archer switching
weapons even if no melee combatant moves adjacent to him? Does it cost
any movement to switch weapons? It sounds like weapon switching is
free so long as the character only makes either a missile attack or a
melee attack, but not both. I just want to make sure I'm doing that
right. Also, if this is the case, can I assume a character can only
switch weapons once per phase? Finally, what part of the phase does
the switch happen? (I assume during the movement portion).


Well that's all for now, but I'm sure I'll have more soon ;)