What happens when a wizard loses a hand?

[ùìéè äîáåê]

In my last gaming session I had an Orc Chief cut off the hand (well, palm) of a wizard PC as punishment. (Yes, I am a cruel DM - but he is lucky he isn't dead!)
Of course the rules (as far as I know) don't say what are the affects of anything like that. So I decided to ask the boards what you all think are the appropriate rule-wise results.
I was thinking that I will lower his Dex by -2, permanently, and require a Dex roll of 20+ for casting spells that require both S and M components. Anything requiring two hands would obviously fail automatically.
Comments? Suggestions?

 

[gamecat]

He says "ouch".

The DMG says on pages 66-67

"When a specific body part takes damage, you can apply a -2 penalty to any action that the character undertakes using that portion of his body..."

A table follows, saying the -2 applies to: Climb, Craft, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Forgery, Alchemy, Open Lock, Pick Pocket, Use Ropem and Attack rolls.

 

[Christian]

The rules say that casting a spell with a somatic component requires the caster to have at least one hand free. So I wouldn't apply any spellcasting penalties to this character, other than that he can't be holding anything when casting such a spell.

 

[Antikinesis]

In my last gaming session I had an Orc Chief cut off the hand (well, palm) of a wizard PC as punishment. (Yes, I am a cruel DM - but he is lucky he isn't dead!)
Of course the rules (as far as I know) don't say what are the affects of anything like that. So I decided to ask the boards what you all think are the appropriate rule-wise results.
I was thinking that I will lower his Dex by -2, permanently, and require a Dex roll of 20+ for casting spells that require both S and M components. Anything requiring two hands would obviously fail automatically.
Comments? Suggestions?

I'd say he no longer has an off hand, so no two-weapon fighting, no large weapons (assuming he's medium-sized), no wielding a weapon two-handed, no magic gloves that require the pair for the magic to function, [edit] can only wear one ring [/edit], etc. I'd let him wear a pair of bracers, though. If his hands are empty, I wouldn't impose any kind of dex penalty for somatic casting.

I'd let him strap a dagger to the stump, if he wants. Ranged weapons would be problematic, though.

Lots of ways to get that hand back, though. Even a lowly level 3 wizard can cast: "Alter self" -- "... including adding or subtracting one or two limbs ..." (for a temporary solution).

-AK

 

[Aaron2]

Alter Self

Couldn't Alter Self be used to temporarily regrow a missing hand/arm?

 

[ùìéè äîáåê]

Good comments, thanks.

I think I'll go with -4 for all those checks te DMG says (thanks gamecat), but still require the dex (DC 20) check for casting a spell that requires both somatic and material components. I just can't imagine a character doing somatic movement while crushinh some material component in the same time (or something like that).

And I'll allow him to use Alter Self, when he gets it, or similar spells to circumvent his problem, of course.

Thanks again.

 

[Hadraniel]

wow I thought my DM was rough

 

[bret]

I just can't imagine a character doing somatic movement while crushinh some material component in the same time (or something like that).

If you have to crush the material component, I would consider that part of the somantic component.

I could see giving a concentration check the first couple of times the mage has to cast a spell. You could even substitute DEX instead of Con for the concentration check in this case.

After the mage has had some time to experiment with his spells, maybe prepackage all the material components and rearrange the location of things, I wouldn't require anything beyond the one good hand free. He might have to hang little prepackaged packets of components someplace, so that he can open them up one handed. He should not be required to use two hands to cast the spell.



If he was a warrior, would you have said he couldn't use a small shield?

 

[Artoomis]

I agree with bret.

 

[ùìéè äîáåê]

Verywelll

I yield before the collective wisdom of the ENBoards... not Dex penalties for casting spells, once he gets acclimated to his new condition...

He'll thank you for this....