What's a thief to do if he losses his "on hand"?

[nezeray@yahoo.com]

My group has been trying to find somewhere in the 3.5 D&D rules where it tells you how to handle when a character losses their primary hand.

My gnomish thief got into a bit of trouble with a rival thieves guild and is now without his right (dominant) hand. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the penaulty for using my left hand.

I seem to remember Ambidexterity being a feat at one time, but can't find it in 3.5. The closest that I find is two weapon fighting, which makes the penalty WORSE.

Any quoting of page numbers or official erreta would be appreciated. For now we've house ruled that I can buy a feat Ambidexterity.

Nezeray

 

[MarkB]

There aren't really rules for limb loss, though there's a section early in the DMG about targeted damage. If I really wanted to enforce off-handedness, I'd probably rule that the rogue takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until he next levels up, after which he's considered to have trained his remaining arm to be primary.

If your rogue's got 910 gp to spare, have him visit a 13th-level cleric and buy a casting of regenerate.

 

[nezeray@yahoo.com]

Normally it would be that easy, but it was a magic item that they put on him that basically removes the fact that it was ever there. Therefore Regeneration type magic won't help.

Nezeray

 

[MarkB]

Normally it would be that easy, but it was a magic item that they put on him that basically removes the fact that it was ever there. Therefore Regeneration type magic won't help.

Nezeray

Well, if it was literally 'never there', then it never became his dominant hand, so he would never have relied less on his other hand, which should therefore have 'always' been his on-hand.

 

[Tiberius]

That's an interesting magic item. Looks like you need something like a Wish to get your hand back. Fortunately, those aren't the most difficult things in the world to come by. Find a friendly wizard/sorcerer capable of casting Planar Binding. Loan him a Cloak of Charisma and/or a Circlet of Persuasion. Summon up an efreeti and force it to grant you three wishes. Properly buffed, the charisma check shouldn't be that difficult, even if it should take a few days of trying.

 

[The Forsaken One]

That's an interesting magic item. Looks like you need something like a Wish to get your hand back. Fortunately, those aren't the most difficult things in the world to come by. Find a friendly wizard/sorcerer capable of casting Planar Binding. Loan him a Cloak of Charisma and/or a Circlet of Persuasion. Summon up an efreeti and force it to grant you three wishes. Properly buffed, the charisma check shouldn't be that difficult, even if it should take a few days of trying.

Use that err, 8th level spell. Forgot its name. It grants you something like +20 on a single check. This can be an ability check so its viable to use it to 100% surely make that opposed Cha check.

(Moment of prescience or something? Im confused and no PHB around me :/)

 

[Artoomis]

There aren't really rules for limb loss, though there's a section early in the DMG about targeted damage. If I really wanted to enforce off-handedness, I'd probably rule that the rogue takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls until he next levels up, after which he's considered to have trained his remaining arm to be primary...

That tracks well with the rules for blindess, which are a bit vague, but do talk about evnetually losing some of the penalties associated with blindness.

However, I tend to agree that if the hand was "never there" then the left hand must have always been the primary and you should have no penalties. The drawbacks of not having a free hand to do things with should be plenty by itself.

 

[billd91]

If you're looking for some kind of specific rule, check p 311 of the Player's Handbook. The glossary entry for "off hand" gives a -4 penalty on attack rolls and only one-half the character's strength bonus can be applied.

Though I would have to say that if the DM is going to slap you with a magic item that makes it like your primary hand was never there (kind of rude if you ask me), then you have good reason to argue that there should be no penalty at all.

 

[Sejs]

Chalk up another tick in the "Due to the way the magic item works, your other hand is and always was your dominant hand" category.

 

[lukelightning]

Time to get an upgrade! Get a magical prosthetic with special powers!

This sounds uncomfortably close to a DM-fiat gone overboard. There has to be some way to counter the "never there" part. Remove curse perhaps? If you need a wish to get it back, then there should be an explanation as to why this guild has some epic-level limb removal power, particularly when regeneration itself is out of the grasp of most people.