Artificial Limbs?

[blackshirt5]

Hey, has anybody ever had a PC with an artificial limb, a la Guts, from Berserk? How did you handle it, ruleswise?

 

[Sir Brennen]

I had an elf in second edition that had a masterwork mechanical arm made of gold alloy, based on ideas from the Complete Book of Elves. It don't think it had any real impact, rules-wise, but it played strongly into his back-story (we were starting a high level game, so it was easier to have interesting things already have happened to him.) Though the arm was a fashioned by of elven craftsmen, he was somewhat ostricized by other elves, as the arm was "unnatural." Add in the fact that he had a vampiric sword (sovenior of his Drow hunting days), and you can tell I was reading a lot of Michael Moorcock at the time

 

[blackshirt5]

I had an elf in second edition that had a masterwork mechanical arm made of gold alloy, based on ideas from the Complete Book of Elves. It don't think it had any real impact, rules-wise, but it played strongly into his back-story (we were starting a high level game, so it was easier to have interesting things already have happened to him.) Though the arm was a fashioned by of elven craftsmen, he was somewhat ostricized by other elves, as the arm was "unnatural." Add in the fact that he had a vampiric sword (sovenior of his Drow hunting days), and you can tell I was reading a lot of Michael Moorcock at the time

Did he mope around a lot, and brood?

 

[Ghostwind]

Torn Asunder: Critical Hits from Bastion Press has a fairly in-depth section devoted to prosthetics that was written by a certified prosthetic specialist. You might want to look at that for rules ideas.

 

[ltclnlbrain]

One of my player's characters lost an arm while being tortured by a horned devil. He got it replaced with an arm of Nyr, a magic item from Defenders of the Faith that works like a prosthetic. However, this was 3.0 and the arm was vastly overpowered, IMO. But it's something to look into: I suppose you can scale down its powers a bit.

 

[res]

Swashbuckling Advenutres has a section on simple prothsetics, peg legs, hooks etc. Its pretty neat and fits in with that type of game.

If you're looking for simple stuff like that, it'd be a good place to look to, if you're looking for full-out artificial limbs like you might see today, I can't help you.

 

[edbonny]

Hey, has anybody ever had a PC with an artificial limb, a la Guts, from Berserk? How did you handle it, ruleswise?

If you are looking for unusual artificial limbs, check out the half-golem template from Fiend Folio.

In Richard Lee Byers new Forgotten Realms novel, The Rage, the main character is a half-golem who got that way as a 9-year old boy who was partially eaten by a dragon. His mage master was kind enough to rebuild him.

- Ed

 

[eris404]

Hey, has anybody ever had a PC with an artificial limb, a la Guts, from Berserk? How did you handle it, ruleswise?

Just out of curiosity, I always wondered how other groups fit prostheses into their game worlds when there are spells like regenerate around. Is it more of a style thing, allowing for players to customize their characters with magical limbs, or do you alter the rules to include permanent loss?

 

[MDSnowman]

Hey, has anybody ever had a PC with an artificial limb, a la Guts, from Berserk? How did you handle it, ruleswise?

Well as a Berserk fan I can tell you where some great artifical limbs can be found. Chaositech by Malhavoc. Your character's new limb may ened up driving him/her, but you can easily imbed a Chaositech weapon (or just a gun, check out the web enhancement for Chaositech for a good example of most of Guts' fire arms) in the weapon. The Result should be VERY potent.

 

[ARandomGod]

Just out of curiosity, I always wondered how other groups fit prostheses into their game worlds when there are spells like regenerate around. Is it more of a style thing, allowing for players to customize their characters with magical limbs, or do you alter the rules to include permanent loss?

Well, we have a magic item that has a curse on it wherein you WILL lose a hand shortly after wielding the item. So you could indeed regrow the arm with an appropriate spell, and then you would lose it again if you used the item again. It also doubled as a prosthetic hand, BTW, so there is no real permanent "loss" of the hand.

And, as it was given out at a very low level, the character really didn't have access to such regenerative spells. AND was pretty happy when he discovered that the item could be used as a prosthetic hand (It's in the form of a dagger with a hilt shaped like a hand, the daggar portion can be withdrawn.)

It's one of my favorite magic items. It's artifact level, actually. I really like the effect of giving an artifact to beginning PC's, and, instead of later giving out more magic items, have the PC gradually discover, during roleplay, more abilities inherent in the item he already has.

Plus, the look on the PC's face when he looses a hand, takes "losing a hand" penalties to dex (It favors thieves, so a thief will be the one to get it.), is just priceless.
Learning that the dagger animates and becomes a replacement hand becomes quite a present.