D&D Arms and Equipment Guide sample pages up

[Aloïsius]

Does anyone else find it odd that a "highly toxic" material has a save DC of ... 12!

Does anyone else find it odd that belladona (wolfsbane), a lethal poison on Earth (a dozen berries and you're dead), can actually never kill anyone (it makes temporary Str damage, and only Con damage are lethal, beside, although highly toxic according to every autority on the subject, it only has DC 13).

It's D&D. Some aspects of life are less gritty than in real life (poisons are less dangerous). Some others are more (grotesque creatures show up every other day to burn your house and eat or worse you and your family). In the end, it probably balances out.

The designers felt it was more interesting dramatically to die from an orc's axe than from a rusted needle in door trap. They're probably right...

 

[Knight Otu]

Point taken.

Not that I would buy a Morguth weapon as described in the sample... seems too expensive for the benefit of a weak poison and reduced Hardness/Hit Points compared to normal weapons.

 

[jester47]

how many firefighters do you know that wear all their gear for a few hours each day, including lugging around a 15lb item in their hands? None that I know of.

They only wear pants till they get the call and if it's a large fire, i.e. gonna take a while to put out, they have multiple companies there to give people breaks.

Along with that, firefighters aren't having someone trying to decapitate them as they move around. I still believe that if you get knocked down with 80lbs on ya and you're trying to hold 15 in your hands that you're not going to be jumping up right away from prone or do anything real fancy.

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but our dwarf probably does wear his stone armor more than a few hours everyday. My chosen example of firefighters actually only suit up when they climb in the truck (even the pants, here in seattle) but they could be in that stuff for a while. Granted no one is trying to kill them but they are in a very dangerous situation. (backdrafts flashovers, firestorms, building collapse, angry bystanders...) I mean they arn't going to be pulling any jackie chan moves thats for sure, but they can use a full round action (6 secs) to stand up and reready thier weapon. (both dwarves and firefighters)

But I agree with you that the armor is OK. I think it is balanced in that someone wearing is not getting thier dex bonus and almost always is encumbered. What you loose in dex bonus you gain in AC bonus, and unless you are not carying anything but your weapon, you probably will be slowed down.

As for the poisons, yeah, some of the ability stuff is all wrong, there are poisons in there that should wipe out elephants that most heros can easily buck. I am thinking I might houserule that if an ability score drops to zero because of poison (and poison only) it causes death.

Aaron.

 

[Darmyth]

I wonder if the problem with poisons and lack of ability damage is that 3E is, at it's core, a Hero game? It's about the lives and trials of extra-ordinary (yes, it's 1 word, I hyphenated it for emphasis) people in extraordinary situations.

There is a mindset that many people have that if you are a "hero" then you should only be killed in a situation that has overwhelmed you, a situation that the audience can see you fighting a visible enemy. Dying to a poison doesn't quite fit into this mold and, as such, has been toned down so that a "Hero" can survive against a non-visible opponent.

 

[Pielorinho]

I am thinking I might houserule that if an ability score drops to zero because of poison (and poison only) it causes death.

I might change this houserule: declare that after an ability score reaches 0, any further damage to that ability score instead applies to Constitution.

For example, a fighter unknowingly eats a mushroom stroganoff cooked from amanita muscaria (fly agaric) mushrooms. These bad boys do 2d6/3d6 wisdom damage. He fails his saving throw versus initial and secondary damage, and the shrooms do 8 points of initial damage and 12 points of secondary damage.

Our fighter has a 10 wisdom and a 14 constitution. The initial damage drops him to a 2 wisdom; the first 2 points of secondary damage drop him to a 0 wisdom, and the remaining 10 points of secondary damage drop him to a 4 constitution. Poor little fighter is puking his guts out and hallucinating fiendish dancing trenchers cackling in his ears.

This gives all poisons the potential to be lethal, but it makes their primary effect remain as paralytic or hallucinatory or whatever.

Daniel

 

[Gez]

I might change this houserule: declare that after an ability score reaches 0, any further damage to that ability score instead applies to Constitution.

Stolen !

 

[Darmyth]

I'd still keep the idea that if your CON drops to 0 then you're dead. If you wis (int?) drops to 0 then you're in a coma.


Nice idea though... might bring it up to my GM.


A House rule that we did recently to make games a bit more lethal was that if you took as much damage as your CON in 1 hit (not round cumaltive, but 1 actual hit) then you need to make a fortitude check DC12 (15?) or be stunned the next round (system shock). As you may realize, as people go up in levels the chance that they need to make Fort. Saves increases (mobs doing more dmg) but so does their save bonus.

 

[kenjib]

But I agree with you that the armor is OK. I think it is balanced in that someone wearing is not getting thier dex bonus and almost always is encumbered. What you loose in dex bonus you gain in AC bonus, and unless you are not carying anything but your weapon, you probably will be slowed down.

Check out the encumberance rules again. The penalties for encumberance and wearing armor do not stack. Only the largest penalty applies. The penalties for wearing either full plate or stone armor are worse than the penalty for heavy encumberance. As I said before, encumberance is completely and entirely irrelevant to someone wearing one of these types of armor. Weight in these cases only comes into play if you reach your carrying limit while dragging sacks of loot out of the dungeon.

I'm not saying that the rules aren't balanced. However, I would also point out that trading max dex bonus for raw armor class bonus is not a zero sum equation. Otherwise, padded armor would be just as good as full plate (both have max potential of +9).

 

[D-rock]

Well,...... I guess stone armor is good for thouse acidy things that always eat through your metel equipment.