One-legged halfling

[Matafuego]

Last time we played one of our PC's died (swallowed by a nasty worm) and he decided to make another one. He started with ideas about a fighter or a ranger but after a long discussion with all the players (each one had a different idea and we always tend to cooperate with each other when a new character is created, of course the player who is actually going to play it always has the last word on everything) he decided to play with one of the NPC's that had been following them (they were freed prisioners).
The thing is this prisioner is a halfling who recently lost his leg (at the beggining of the adventure he got his leg trapped under some rocks and they had to cut it off).
I don't want to punish the player for trying something different but neither can I let him make jump checks (for example) as if he had both legs...
What I'm looking here is some kind of penalty for not having the leg and some kind of reward to compensate. He's going to play a bard, although his magic won't be coming from music but from the reciting of ancient poetry of his people.
Any ideas?

 

[Crothian]

Lower speed to about 10ft. That will cut all jump checks in a third. Is he going to usea cane or a crutch? Dex may be effected, or at least some aspects of it, that's hard to say.

 

[dazm]

heheheh this brings back memories of one of my fave pc's. A vampire orc from runequest. Anyway back to the halfling, I wouldn't say he can't jump, just apply penalties. (Picking on disabled people is not allowed )
Simalarly with other skills such as move silently and balance. It would be too cruel to reduce his movement to any lower than 20 but perhaps limut his run to X3 instead of 4.
Now in compensation (borrowing ideas from runequest) if the pc takes damge from melee or missle, assign a chance that the blow actually strikes the leg instead. This may possibly break the false leg (see how long it takes him to get a metal one) however the pc doesnt lose any hit points. I think in the region of 10-20% chance to hit the leg, similar to a minor displacement cloak.

Thats my suggestion, what do you think?

dazm

 

[I'm A Banana]

One-legged penalties

YARH!

Give him the opportunity to get a properly dwarf-crafted metal leg in it's place? At the hefty cost of some gold and some time, he could be good as new, could even get it enchanted. That'd be ultimate cool for a PC I was playing... That way, he suffers no real penalties and gets no real benefit from it. Heck, to balance out the cost of the leg, you could even say it adds a +2 armor bonus to his AC or something, if you were feeling generous.

Or he could get it gnome-crafted. It could do weird things like play "Ironman" whenever he begins a battle, or have a spring in it that aided jumping or something. ^_^

As for while he has one leg, I'd half his speed (hey, his propulsion method is cut in half. ^_^). I'd impose probably a -4 circumstance penalty to all checks that would use the leg, such as Jump, Climb, Swim, Tumble, Balance, etc. (probably mostly Str.- and Dex.-related skills). I'd probably also make him make Balance checks to walk upright...

Otherwise, he could consider using crutches until he could cough up the dough for a Regeneration spell. This would make his speed maybe 5 ft. slower than normal, keep the circumstance penalties, allow him to stay upright...maybe even install blades on them that deal 1d6 damage and maybe a sheild on the other one that grants a +2 shield bonus to AC, or something to compensate for not being able to use a weapon or shield.

Heh...enchanted crutches...only in the homes of adventurers.

But, yeah. Basically a -4 to most Str and Dex-based skills (though not all of them...no reason why Pick Pocket should be lowered by not havin' a leg). Maybe force Balance checks to stay upright. Don't allow him to add his Dex modifier to his AC (maybe half it if he gets crutches), and half his speed.

That's a purely semi-realistic stance on it. There's no reason that super-high Dexterity or enchanted boots or special crutches or dwarven crafts couldn't fix the problem itself, and maybe make it better than it was before.

Of course, the guy would probably be in store for some good roleplay XP awards.

 

[bloodymage]

One-legged cripple?

I had an uncle who lost his leg at age 18 in a motorcycle accident. By his 30's, when I was aware enough to compare his condition to "normal" people, he could run, jump and swim better than some two-legged people! Uncle Bob was not a cripple. I was hard pressed to even see him as handicapped.

Since this is a recent injury, i would severly penalize the character in movement (1/4?) and anything else we would think of as requiring two legs (-10?). I would gradually decrease the penalties as he became more practiced until he was fully proficient (0 or maybe sometimes, -1). I would allow the character to do anything a two-legged person could unless it was flatly impossible (and I can't think of a thing that would be). At some point I would increase his charisma (+2?). He can get a lot of mileage out of being "interesting, mysterious, courageous, lovable, etc.". Finally, once proficient, I would increase his movement rate by maybe 1/2 and only allow 3x max. I know Bob would hop faster than people walked and he could do it all day long!

Just some ideas based on personal observation. Hope they help.

 

[Wolfspirit]

[OT] A halfling that good you don't eat all at once. [/OT]

Thank you, and resume talking about one legged halflings

 

[Ace32]

Originally posted by bloodymage
I had an uncle who lost his leg at age 18 in a motorcycle accident. By his 30's, when I was aware enough to compare his condition to "normal" people, he could run, jump and swim better than some two-legged people! Uncle Bob was not a cripple. I was hard pressed to even see him as handicapped.

Do I smell a new feat coming on? Some kind of 'one leg proficiency'?

 

[thundershot]

I don't have my HackMaster Player's Handbook nearby, but that's one of the disadvantages in it... I can't remember what the penalty is...



Chris

 

[Chaldfont]

Give him a small limited flying carpet that works like Rygel's chair in Farscape (or, if you're not a Farscape fan--like the speeders in Starwars only much slower. If you are not a Star Wars fan, go find another hobby!). Make it so it only floats 3 feet above the ground and only has a speed of 30 feet.

This will give him free limited levitation and feather fall, but think of the fun you can have making monsters try to knock him off of it!

 

[Hejdun]

You could make up some sort of Leg of Nyr thing. Maybe giving +2 dex, and +5 to speed?