Born with no arms?

[Three_Haligonians]

Do expect the character to be treated as an invalid. Seriously. Sure, he knows he can do things, maybe even his party members know he can do things. But when he walks by the group of children and they start laughing at him, just learn to live and let live. Even if they start throwing stones at him.

I play an illusionist/enchantress sorceror with pink hair (fey blood). Another player in our group plays a barbarian, and sometimes he doesn't take my abilities seriously. That doesn't mean that other people don't. And, for the record, I've never seen a group of children throw stones at a physically handicapped person for that reason alone. In fact, the only time I have seen children throw stones was when I wouldn't buy them a pack of smokes


R from Three Haligonians

 

[ThirdWizard]

Kids can be mean.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Hey, bring it on baby. Laugh away. That's what fuels the rage within him that has slowly turned him into a psychopath.

Maybe this is just my newbishness to these forums, but if your only real point in asking this question was so that you could wow us with your NPC's uberness, then what's the point of asking the question?

I still agree with ... everyone but you ... and wonder, without DM fiat, how such a character could ever possibly make it to the rarefied heights of power he someone managed to attain.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I don't know how you missed my point. Maybe you should go back and read what I posted.

I wanted to know what the game effects would be. A few people chipped in, while others sidetracked and said the character wasn't viable. So I informed them it was.

Go back and read the entire thread, not just the last half.

Thanks for your, uh, contribution... :\

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Maybe this is just my newbishness to these forums, but if your only real point in asking this question was so that you could wow us with your NPC's uberness, then what's the point of asking the question?

So he could have someone to "pity" for not being as "openminded" as he?

I wanted to know what the game effects would be. A few people chipped in, while others sidetracked and said the character wasn't viable. So I informed them it was.

It's not sidetracking. You asked what the game effects would be. They told you that the game effects would be that the character would lack viability.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I wanted to know what the game effects would be.

I think people answered that pretty well. Basically, the game effects are that such a character wouldn't make it out of the first dungeon or through the first serious combat without DM fiat - in other words, without being an auto-leveled and designed NPC.

So I informed them it was.

Again, only because he was created at 10th-level.

You can do this, of course - you're the DM, you can do what you want - but then to accuse people who are making largely relavent points of being close-minded cripple-haters because they don't think a man with no arms will do very well in a tavern brawl is a bit, well, something.

Anyway, you got your answers, and I guess that's what's important.

 

[daTim]

Interesting idea, but it does seem unplayable to me. Have fun with it.

The closest I ever came to this was with an extreemly high level, very old monk who after being a grand champion for too long, cut off one of his arms to level the playing field.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The closest I ever came to this was with an extreemly high level, very old monk who after being a grand champion for too long, cut off one of his arms to level the playing field.

Ouch. Couldn't he have just tied it behind his back?

 

[rkanodia]

I don't exactly see what is up with all this stuff about how a character with no arms has to automatically die every time combat starts, and also be helpless outside of combat. I've seen a guy with no legs climb tall mountains. I've seen a guy with no arms drive an unmodified car. Using the rules as written, in fact, a monk or a psion would only be suffering a minor setback in power by having no arms. In the Average Combat(tm), it wouldn't really make any difference.

That being said, Ogorok, I think you're going a little overboard on this guy. If he's powerful, he's powerful despite having no arms, not because of having no arms. If he's a wizard, and spent time and money and feats upgrading mage hand to compensate for the missing arms, well, he could have been spending all of that on shiny new wands or a headband of intellect or something. Or maybe I should put this a different way: if having no arms is so advantageous, why haven't all the wizards in your game world cut their arms off?

Now I'm all for an 'underdog' who turns out to be pretty much equal to everyone else (after all, he's only down a bit of money and feats - and maybe he takes advantage of the way that others continually underestimate him), and I think it would be kick-ass if you could somehow come up with an environment or scenario that puts people with arms at a disadvantage (well, other than 'there's a magical field giving you -2 for every limb you have! take that, carrion crawlers!'), turning this character into an especially deadly foe. But I would like to add in my two cents saying that if you've just arbitrarily cranked this guy up to 11 because "He has no arms! He crushes your skull like a bug!", then I would despise meeting him in-game the same way I always despise meeting the DM's pet uberwizard.

 

[Sejs]

Ouch. Couldn't he have just tied it behind his back?

Nah, because then his opponents would be spared the humiliation they'd suffer when he beat them severely with his own severed arm.

And it's not even a special monk weapon!

(well, other than 'there's a magical field giving you -2 for every limb you have! take that, carrion crawlers!')

Aha! And again the Gelatinous Cube wins the day!


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


Anyway, as for the main topic of the thread: yeah, the no-armed character could be viable if done right, and yeah he would be at a noted disadvantage at certain tasks compared to a fully able character who's had the same ammount of training. Those are just the breaks. But honestly Ogorok, your reaction has just been over the top. You asked for people's oppinion on the matter, they gave it, and when it wasn't one you wanted to hear you came out swinging. Started rough (closed minds in this thread) and steamrollered toward ridiculous (300lb rock lobbing, head crushing, unstopable armless juggernaut).

Really, man. Step back, take a few breaths, maybe watch a couple episodes of MST3K, and chill.