Some shooting weapons, such as stone throwers, have an area template that the firer can place anywhere he wants. This allows the player to deliberately aim his shot at a character. Cannons also allow you to choose exactly where to aim shots, and so can be aimed directly against characters, as do the breath weapons of Dragons, for example.

In the case of missile weapons that can be aimed in this way, there is a special rule which allows characters to either lump out of the way, throw themselves to the ground, or somehow avoid destruction by their amazing luck or uncanny reactions. This is intended to prevent characters becoming targets for these weapons in a manner which is unrealistic, unfair and definitely unheroic!

This rule applies to all missile weapons which work in a different way to ordinary shooting, and which are not therefore restricted by the rules regarding shooting at characters described above.

A character model who is part of a unit of five or more rank and file models may be lucky enough to avoid death from cannon shot, a boulder from a stone thrower, or any other attack using a template (such as spells which use templates), thanks to a warning shouted by a comrade. Possibly one of his companions shoves him out of the way, or pushes him to the ground. A warrior spots the fateful missile heading towards his leader, and shouts "Look out, Sir!" or some such warning, and hopefully alerts the character in time for him to duck or adroitly avoid the hurtling missile. The missile slips past the character and hits the man standing beside or behind him.

If a character is part of a unit of models of similar size (cavalry models cannot benefit from this rule in a unit of infantry, for example) and is hit by cannon fire, a stone thrower, or other missiles not governed by the normal target restriction, then roll a D6.

On the roll of a 1, the character fails to hear the warning and is hit. Work out damage as normal.

On a roll of 2 to 6, the character is alerted to the danger and avoids the missile. The character is not hit and the missile strikes another model instead, so transfer the hit onto the closest rank-and-file model in the unit.

Note that some magic spells work like conventional shooting, in which case the normal rules for shooting at characters with arrows, etc, will apply. In other cases, magic works in different ways, either like cannons or stone throwers or differently altogether. This is covered further in the Magic section.