Charging

Charging is great when you need to close on your opponents quickly. The straight-line rule, though, restricts its use a bit too much. Assuming a base move of 30', you can either move 30' in any combination of moves and attack without bonus or penalty, or move 60' in a straight line and attack with a bonus to hit and a penalty to AC. I hate either/or situations. I propose a variant on charging that falls somewhere in between.

If you can charge in a straight line, treat as normal.

If not, allow a course change during the charge. Doing so negates the to hit charge bonus, but you still suffer the AC penalty.

The last 10' of the charge must be in a straight line.

Requirements: You must have line of sight on your target at start of your initiative.

Notes: I removed the penality to the total distance you could travel since changing course imposes its own implicit penalty.

Alternate Rule

This one comes from Dale Roberts via email. You could consider allowing a PC to take a regular base move, then adding a partial charge at the end.