Goblin Picador

[VBMEW-01]

Goblin Picador Level 2 Controller
Small Natural Humanoid
Initiative +9 Senses: Perception +1
HP 26; Bloodied 13
AC 16; Fortitude 14, Reflex 16, Will 10
Speed 6
Harpoon (standard; at-will) • Weapon
+9 vs. AC, 1d4+3 damage plus Harpooned (see text)
Thrown Harpoon (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Range 5; +9 vs. AC; 1d4+3 plus Harpooned (see text)
Tug of War (standard; at-will) • Weapon
Medium or smaller Harpooned enemy; +4 vs. Fortitude; pull 3
squares (pull 1 square on miss).
Goblin Tactics (immediate reaction, when an attack misses the
goblin picador; at-will)
Immediately shift away from the attacker.
Harpooned
Can’t move more than 5 from this creature. Remove standard;
Str vs. Fort.
Abilities: Str 16 (+4) Dex 18 (+5) Wis 10 (+1)
Con 13 (+2) Int 8 (+0) Cha 8 (+0)

Oh my god do I love this critter. I never thought I could be excited about a harpoon!

If this is new weapons at work then I can't wait to see the rest. The harpooned ability is quite cool, and kinda useful in a pseudo-marking sort of way (though of course not the same). It also ties up the enemy's action, which is always great.

I just deeply hope that other weapons have cool utilitarian concepts, as I see tons of uses for this ability, which is subtle and really minor at best.

 

[Lizard]

Oh my god do I love this critter. I never thought I could be excited about a harpoon!

If this is new weapons at work then I can't wait to see the rest. The harpooned ability is quite cool, and kinda useful in a pseudo-marking sort of way (though of course not the same). It also ties up the enemy's action, which is always great.

I just deeply hope that other weapons have cool utilitarian concepts, as I see tons of uses for this ability, which is subtle and really minor at best.

The great thing is, it's a magic harpoon, so that even after you've been impaled and dragged around, the wound closes if you have a good nap. (Or get yelled at by the Warlord)

(If you want hit points to be explicitly non-wounding, then, don't include game effects which are explicitly wounding...)

I like the concept and the mechanics; it just doesn't mesh well with the other mechanics. (Adding non-magic healing so you didn't "have to have a cleric" -- good. Not thinking through the disconnect where people can accept magically healing all wounds but not non-magically healing them all -- not so good.)

Wait, don't tell me -- the harpoon actually just pins your clothes/armor/etc. Even if you're naked.

EDIT: Str 16 goblin? Wow! He's a brute! (Despite being a Controller. You know what I mean!)

EDIT 2: This would work great if it used a mancatcher like the kuo-toa...

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Harpooned seems awfully powerful. On every hit the goblin now controls the movement of an opponent that requires a standard action and a successful STR vs. Fort to undo.

I like the idea, but I think maybe it should allow a save to end instead of requiring a STR vs. Fort standard action to remove.

 

[DeusExMachina]

It would be kind of cool if a harpooned character could pull the goblin towards him too, though... A tug of war can go both ways, right???

 

[Wystan]

The great thing is, it's a magic harpoon, so that even after you've been impaled and dragged around, the wound closes if you have a good nap. (Or get yelled at by the Warlord)

(If you want hit points to be explicitly non-wounding, then, don't include game effects which are explicitly wounding...)

I like the concept and the mechanics; it just doesn't mesh well with the other mechanics. (Adding non-magic healing so you didn't "have to have a cleric" -- good. Not thinking through the disconnect where people can accept magically healing all wounds but not non-magically healing them all -- not so good.)

Wait, don't tell me -- the harpoon actually just pins your clothes/armor/etc. Even if you're naked.

EDIT: Str 16 goblin? Wow! He's a brute! (Despite being a Controller. You know what I mean!)

The way I see it is that the wounds have been sutured and healed in the down time. You may not be at 100% but the 'GAME' allows you to play as if you are so that the 'PLAYERS' are not discouraged by a system that basically 'REQUIRES' that a cleric should do 'NOTHING' but play healing battery.

So to re-iterate, in 3.0/3.5 to heal to full overnight 'REQUIRED' a healer who has saved 'ALMOST ALL' his/her spells to heal you (or long drawn out, non-overnight, downtime in which the players/characters really do nothing), and in 4 you are allowed to not 'MAKE' a 'PLAYER' play a healing battery and this is a 'BAD THING'?

(The bold is my way of stressing certain points, it is not yelling, more like finger quotes in a conversation.)

(And a nod to Cadfan down below there.....That is an easy option for the 4-E Haters....Or better yet, try to see the good in things. I can understand some of the dislike and I can foresee my group being similar, but wow the vitriol around 4E...)

(Also to note, in 3.0/3.5 a character at 10th level can heal 40hp in 24 Hours with supervised Bed rest, this is 'MORE' than the harpoon does but is still fully believable to Lizard where 4th Edition is not?)

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

It would be kind of cool if a harpooned character could pull the goblin towards him too, though... A tug of war can go both ways, right???

That might be even better than my proposed save ends; instead both characters get the benefit of Tug of War and make it STR vs. STR opposed roll instead of STR vs. Fort attack roll?

Either party can initiate Tug of War against the other. The character that uses the Tug of War action gets the benefit (pull 3 squares on hit; pull 1 square on miss). The attacker holding the harpoon can drop the weapon as free action to avoid the effects of being Tugged by his target.

Man, the possibilities here . . .

 

[Cadfan]

Oh my god do I love this critter. I never thought I could be excited about a harpoon!

I think he's pretty cool too.

Notice that he's a nonmagical controller? He has ranged attacks that move characters around, and, on top of that, it says "controller" in his stat lock.

I doubt a full scale martial controller is going to be possible for player characters, simply because of the "one trick pony" problem. You know, how its ok for a goblin picador to have one good controller trick that makes him a controller, but player characters need a wide array of options. Still, I think abilities like this would be cool if they were dropped in to currently existing classes like the Fighter, just to add some diversity.

The great thing is, it's a magic harpoon, so that even after you've been impaled and dragged around, the wound closes if you have a good nap. (Or get yelled at by the Warlord)
(If you want hit points to be explicitly non-wounding, then, don't include game effects which are explicitly wounding...)

Even better, if you are impaled enough to be dragged about by the implement impaling you, you just automatically die. More realistic, saves time, no abstractions like "hit points" that mean whatever they need to mean at the moment.

 

[med stud]

The great thing is, it's a magic harpoon, so that even after you've been impaled and dragged around, the wound closes if you have a good nap. (Or get yelled at by the Warlord)

(If you want hit points to be explicitly non-wounding, then, don't include game effects which are explicitly wounding...)

I like the concept and the mechanics; it just doesn't mesh well with the other mechanics. (Adding non-magic healing so you didn't "have to have a cleric" -- good. Not thinking through the disconnect where people can accept magically healing all wounds but not non-magically healing them all -- not so good.)

Wait, don't tell me -- the harpoon actually just pins your clothes/armor/etc. Even if you're naked.

EDIT: Str 16 goblin? Wow! He's a brute! (Despite being a Controller. You know what I mean!)

EDIT 2: This would work great if it used a mancatcher like the kuo-toa...

This is nothing new. Healing times in D&D have always been unrealistically short, and as a medical professional I don't find the 4e healing times much more unrealistic than the 3e ones. I don't think anyone would like realistic healing times for being impaled by a harpoon.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

The great thing is, it's a magic harpoon, so that even after you've been impaled and dragged around, the wound closes if you have a good nap. (Or get yelled at by the Warlord)

(If you want hit points to be explicitly non-wounding, then, don't include game effects which are explicitly wounding...).

That hit points don't cause lasting damage does not mean that they are not associated with wounds. That PCs regain all their hit points does not mean that they are unwounded.

I'm not sure why you want to continue this discussion on every thread, but I wish you would stop beginning all your posts with a straw man argument regarding the rules, other posters, or both.

 

[VBMEW-01]

Yeah, I'd have to believe that you couldn't do it every round though, couldn't have more than one creature harpooned...Duh falls in place. I also wonder whay there is no note on sustaining the state (you'd have to hold on to the damn thing, or its cord!). I'd probably institute the Sustain: Minor note if munchkin use became an issue.

Weapons are the finer point for me though, and the reason for this thread. I hated them in 3E, because it was mostly about picking damage, crit, or range. True, some had little bonuses to disarm or let you trip (yawn), but most were just a big yawn (net was cool though). I like the idea that different weapons have merit and tactics now, and harpooned seemed to be the best example so far.