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Cognar primes his concussion grenade against the group of Smilers sniping the party from the upper battlement of the fort. He knows that this will tip the balance in the party’s favor, and they can then focus on the Smiler’s leader.
The wizard didn’t even know he had that much strength in him. His toss was forceful, without the arc needed to reach over the height of the wall. It hits the wall squarely and bounces back towards the party behind the wizard into the smoke cloud that they had set for cover a few rounds earlier.
Cringing, Cognar braces for the explosion of the grenade, just before going unconscious…
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So the mechanics of most thrown weapons are relatively simple. You’re aiming for a square and rolling to hit an armor class of 10. What if you miss?
Many iterations of D&D have used a simple grenade chart, rolling a d8 for direction of what direction the grenade goes. I added a d20 roll for distance. For every 5 points on the d20 (modified by the strength bonus [or penalty] of the thrower), the grenade goes 5 feet in that direction (I round up).
I.E. Cognar attacked a square and fails to hit an armor class of 10. Rolling the d8 for direction, he rolls a 5 (exact opposite), and rolls a 17 for distance (20 feet). So the grenade (from the point he was trying to attack) hits the wall and rolls uncharacteristically towards the wizard and just behind him, creating one of the most memorable moments in Iron Gods so far…
Thoughts/Suggestions?
As written in the Technology Guide, grenades are treated as 'thrown splash weapons', not 'thrown weapons.'
Under the PRD entry for thrown splash weapons,
If you miss the target (whether aiming at a creature or a grid intersection), roll 1d8. This determines the misdirection of the throw, with 1 falling short (off-target in a straight line toward the thrower), and 2 through 8 rotating around the target creature or grid intersection in a clockwise direction. Then, count a number of squares in the indicated direction equal to the range increment of the throw. After you determine where the weapon landed, it deals splash damage to all creatures in that square and in all adjacent squares.
Additionally, splash weapons are ranged touch attacks against a target, or a ranged attack against a grid intersection with AC 5, so missing isn't terrible likely. But! If you do miss, you roll a d8 to determine direction, but the distance isn't random -- it's based on how far you were aiming. Grenades don't have a listed range increment (right?), so I've gone with 10ft, since that's the same as most alchemical splash weapons.
If I'm reading your scenario correctly, the grenade was thrown about twenty feet away -- already dangerous, since the grenade's splash radius is itself twenty feet! That's two range increments, so having missed it would scatter two squares backwards, ten feet towards the thrower -- still enough to be dangerous in this case.
But! Grenades "[detonate] at the beginning of the wielder's next turn," not immediately -- so if it does scatter backwards, you've hopefully got time to move before it goes off. Never take your move action and then throw a grenade, basically.
At least, that's my understanding -- I'd love some additional confirmation, since grenades are a bit weird, especially in how they intersect with grenade launchers.