D&D 5E Go Go Gadget Arm! Eberron Preview

WotC just shared this Arcane Propulsion Arm! It functions as a 1d8-dmaage magic melee weapon which you can throw (don't worry, it flies back and reattaches).

 

[Leatherhead]

I think it raises interesting questions about what magical healing - like cure light wounds - actually DOES. Mechanically, a character cannot lose a limb in D&D (except maybe to a vorpal weapon or similar). But if we allow that dismemeberment can happen, would we allow a cure wounds spell - perhaps of high enough level - to restore a lost limb? Do we need regeneration for that?

Under what circumstances would a character actually end up with a use for this item?

Using lingering injuries from the DMG. Or alternatively, plot and or character concept reasons.

 

[Aaron L]

Rocketo Puncha!

Rocket Punch!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The real question though:

Would you let it count as an Unarmed Strike?

No. It specially states it is a magic melee weapon (so you could cast GFB etc. with it), something is either a weapon or unarmed, not both.

It could be designated as a Kensei weapon though.

 

[Aaron L]

This reminds me of the only Eberron character I ever really played; our DM had us make characters at 8th level, but I really wasn't into Eberron until I started thinking about it like a comic book and decided to just go crazy with magitech comic book ideas. So I made an Artificer with a golem arm and a wand gun the character built. It was pretty fun.

 

[NaturalZero]

I had an artificer in 3.5 that had 2 warforged arms and I think they were out of Magic of Eberron. In that version, you could use them with warforged components, so i had 2 wand sheathes built in. Throw on the Dual Wand Wielder feat, Energy Admixture MM, Twinning MM, Quickened MM, and you could get those Orb spells to over 300d6 in a round if you burned enough charges from the wands.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Using lingering injuries from the DMG. Or alternatively, plot and or character concept reasons.

I suppose. I'd actually forgotten about the lingering injuries option, to be honest.

Plot and character makes sense, of course, but given the abstract nature of D&D's entire system, I don't see many one-armed characters currently sitting around waiting for a prosthetic.

And even within Eberron, it would be an interesting choice to deny magical healing for the chance at a prosthetic. I mean, characters do what characters do, but it seems an odd thing to desire given the other options generally available.

 

[Leatherhead]

And even within Eberron, it would be an interesting choice to deny magical healing for the chance at a prosthetic. I mean, characters do what characters do, but it seems an odd thing to desire given the other options generally available.

I had this same problem when I made my pirate themed campaign setting. I asked "why not just Regenerate your leg instead of using a peg?" Then I realized that Regenerate is a level 7 spell, and you would absolutely need something else to cover the first 12 levels of the game.

This problem is further exasperated in Eberron, where NPCs aren't meant to be high level and use NPC stat blocks instead of PC rules. Even the House Jorasco healers, who are the defacto doctors instead of the local clergy, never learn the Regenerate spell via their Dragonmarks.

On the other hand, an Artificer can make a Prosthetic arm at level 2, before the party even has access to level 2 spells.

 

[Bitbrain]

Reply to OP.

I can totally see one of my players asking to replace his arm with this, and then use it in combat while saying “go to sleep! go to sleep!”

Like Iron Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

 

[Weiley31]

Rocket Punch!

Prepare for Trouble!
Rolls initiative.

 

[Coroc]

Cannot be removed against the will of the wielder .... What if wielder is unconscious?

So after misty step and summonable warlock blade this is another item where a dm can never disarm / bind / lock up PCs using mundane means.