The Afflox is a spiked metal ball attached to a foot-long haft by a variable-length wire. It is a favorite weapon of some techno-barbarian gangs.
When stored, the wire is retracted and the weapons appears to be a mace. During combat the wire is deployed, and the operator swings the ball in a circular motion, lengthening the wire to send the ball crashing into the target. This results in a kinetic boost similar to that of aChargeMace but considerably more effective. A skilled operator can strike a traget up to ten feet away, and can also use the Afflox to trip or disarm.
Note: This weapon appears in the novel The Face by Jack Vance.
Bash
The weapon is especially suited to destroying structures, like doors, walls and such. It doues double damage against structures, but when you use this ability you cannot do anything, such as an ActiveDefense or Riposte, until your next shot comes up.
Bash supercedes, and does not combine with, any other damage-enhancing ability including Precision.
Deceptive
A Deceptive strike is hard to anticipate, and thus ignores the special bonus granted by Parry and Block for ActiveDefense.
Great Blow
A Great Blow is a powerful all-out attack. It always requires two hands, even with a weapon that is normally used one-handed. It receives a +3 bonus to your damage, but you cannot do anything, such as an ActiveDefense, until your next shot comes up.
Great Blow does not combine with Bash.
Entangle
You can make an attack that does no damage, but entangles your target, so that he loses one shot from his current shot for each point of Outcome that you score. If you score an Outcome matching the target's Agility, he must be cut loose (any attack against a Dodge equal to your MartialArts will do) before he can do anything but dodge or try to cut himself loose.
You can renew you attack on the entangled victim, an if you get to attack him before his next action, you do so with a +3 bonus to Martial Arts.
If you let go of the weapon or use it for anything besides entangling this target, the effect ends.
Reach
Your weapon has a superior reach. Against anyone who misses you in melee combat you get a free counterattack. If he makes several simultaneous attacks (c.f. ButtStrike or Lock), all must miss if you are to do this.
As soon as you are hit, you loose this advantage, against any and all opponents. To regain it, you must spend a 3-shot action readying your weapon while unengaged.
Reach does not work against another weapon with Reach, except that the Pike still has reach even against other weapons with reach. Nor does it work in any kind of confined space.
You cannot counterattack against a counterattack.