Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 02-26-07, 08:15 PM	Hey all. Any advice on how to cope with the loss of an arm. I play a 3rd level half elf rogue who is CG. He just lost his left arm in a fight with some orcs. He lost a good amount of HP but that is not the major problem. What do you all suggest to replace the arm. The DM is open to ideas. We are stuck in snowy village. Thanks all in advance.
Artector 02-26-07, 08:18 PM	For now. Bear with it. Later on you can get magical grafts.
Tuah 02-26-07, 08:29 PM	I don't have my PHB with me, but there's probably a somewhat medium-level spell that could bring it back for cheap. Perhaps it could become another adventure; do a favor for a religious leader, and in return get a new arm. ;) Oh, and about magical grafts; they have horrible effects. Just read the Monster Manual 2- Half-golems. :(
Sareld 02-26-07, 08:30 PM	In D&D, the only permanent bad thing that can happen to you is death by old age. Personally I would suggest that you got in touch with a level 13+ cleric, or any cleric with access to lvl 7 scrolls, and have that person cast 'regeneration' on you.. that would definately get you your arm back. Your DM shouldnt make it too hard on you, since you are pretty useless as an adventurer without that second arm. Alternatively, if the loss of your arm happened not too long ago, you could try to have a 'cure' spell cast upon you while you hold the severed arm to the stump, that should work fine as long as the arm is still fresh enough to be considered living tissue.
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 02-26-07, 08:40 PM	Thanks guys. The lost arm happened last session, which was saturday night, so it is very fresh. Our only problem is we lack a healer. So I am going to have to make some good friends with the local temple. As a side note the reason I lost said arm in said fight is cause out elf ranger attacked an orc whom was questioning us. We could have talked out way out of it but he just pulls out his scimitar and goes a swinging. One more thing, now my Dm is open to stuff as long as she can read up on it. I want to take my rogue to 10th level but I am open to suggestions on any class to multi too. Oh my feats are quick draw and alertness. I do not have my stats on me other then i know my con is 9. Thanks again.
SilverFoxKnows 02-26-07, 09:12 PM	How much of the arm? If it was severed at the elbow, or lower, you could craft a strap/harness that would let you mount a dagger or hand crossbow to it. If it was lost at the shoulder...climb and swim checks would be tough. And you'd be stuck using thrown weapons instead of the short bow. Maybe darts would be good for you. They're small and light weight so you could carry plenty. If you're under 30' you can add your sneak attack damage to missile weapons, that's where your real damage is coming from anyway. I'm curious to see how it pans out.
Novabomb 02-26-07, 10:50 PM	Out of curiosity, how did you mechanically lose the arm? Unless it was some sort of trap, or you allowed it to happen through RP...
Yokomohoyo 02-27-07, 01:17 AM	1) Get a Gnome Tinkerer to make you a "golem" arm and take on the template half golem. 2) Get your old arm and strip it to the bone. Afterwards have your cleric cast animate dead on it. 3) Make some sort of harness and tie a whip to it.
Potato Weasel 02-27-07, 07:14 AM	Well, you can look into the many arms provided by grafts which have minor drawbacks (the most acceptable grafts currently are the ebberron ones as they balance themselves out with penalties) but there are additional grafts out there like pirate and ineveitable grafts (both from dragon magazine) that provide arms, i know there are also demonic arms and undead arms. Maybe you could focus on being a one handed fighter and get the einhander feat from phb 2? heck, maybe your dm will give it to you for free for flavor purposes. :D
Zumarai 02-27-07, 08:35 AM	Out of curiosity, how did you mechanically lose the arm? That's what I would like to know – hit points/damage are abstract. ...House-rule?
DoctorRomulus 02-27-07, 08:50 AM	Clockwork Arm !!! Clockwork Arm !!!:D :D :D
CaoSlayer 02-27-07, 08:59 AM	attach a shield somehow. Still, you are going to get a huge penalty to manual stuff like disable device.
Sterling 02-27-07, 09:26 AM	Regeneration is probably your best bet. If your DM likes to read up on things, its right there in the PHB in the spells section. However, depending on the setting you're playing in, there might be some other interesting alternatives (like the clockwork or golem arms mentioned above). :)
FrostWolf 02-27-07, 10:00 AM	From cheepest option to most costly: 1-Stump knife. PHB. at least you can still attack... 2-Regeneration. PHB. same old arm.... Again... 3- In some book (Don't remember what one) there is an arm that gives +2 Str and a few other things. If you can find out what book has it, I'd go with that. GRR!!! What book IS that dang arm in? Anyone? Ah! Tasaleen has found it! The arm of Nyr is in Defenders of the Faith. Market price is 12800. +2 to dex, Str, and a +2 deflection bonus to AC
Zumarai 02-27-07, 10:00 AM	The Drow also make replacement limbs.
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 02-27-07, 11:01 AM	Well to answer a few questions. Lance, my char, lost his arm after an orc wielding an orc double axe nails him with it. Lance was at 17 up but the blow took off 13 hp. In a bit of flavor text the dm made the hp loss become, to paraphrase, "The orc lands a heavy blow on Lance. In a spray of blood Lance loses his arm." That is how it happened. Regen sounds good as does grafts but I dunno if our setting allows for grafts. If it did I would make some interesting stuff. A fighter is not a bad idea at all will have to see how it goes. Thanks guys for all the input! I will keep you all posted.
Zumarai 02-27-07, 11:06 AM	Well to answer a few questions. Lance, my char, lost his arm after an orc wielding an orc double axe nails him with it. Lance was at 17 up but the blow took off 13 hp. In a bit of flavor text the dm made the hp loss become, to paraphrase, "The orc lands a heavy blow on Lance. In a spray of blood Lance loses his arm." That is how it happened. So it wasn't some ridiculous Critical Fumble table or something, ala Arduin Grimoire? "Buttocks torn off, fall, SHOCK." I would be quite irritated if a DM arbitrarily decided I lose my arm, even on a critical hit, unless he warned me he was implementing some kind if limb-losing house rule.
CaoSlayer 02-27-07, 01:19 PM	Well to answer a few questions. Lance, my char, lost his arm after an orc wielding an orc double axe nails him with it. Lance was at 17 up but the blow took off 13 hp. In a bit of flavor text the dm made the hp loss become, to paraphrase, "The orc lands a heavy blow on Lance. In a spray of blood Lance loses his arm." That is how it happened. Regen sounds good as does grafts but I dunno if our setting allows for grafts. If it did I would make some interesting stuff. A fighter is not a bad idea at all will have to see how it goes. Thanks guys for all the input! I will keep you all posted. I see, unfair houseruling... You have to tell your dm that you dont recieve critical damage unles: you are into negative hp (you are bleeding in the ground dying), you suffer 50+ hit point damage (massive damage con check) or a coup de grace. hp dont suport limps, for mutilations play runequest.
Novabomb 02-27-07, 01:35 PM	Well to answer a few questions. Lance, my char, lost his arm after an orc wielding an orc double axe nails him with it. Lance was at 17 up but the blow took off 13 hp. In a bit of flavor text the dm made the hp loss become, to paraphrase, "The orc lands a heavy blow on Lance. In a spray of blood Lance loses his arm." That is how it happened. Regen sounds good as does grafts but I dunno if our setting allows for grafts. If it did I would make some interesting stuff. A fighter is not a bad idea at all will have to see how it goes. Thanks guys for all the input! I will keep you all posted. I will not deny the rule 0 capabilities of a DM, but that sounds very arbitrary. Unless your DM was doing this as a plot hook, or instated some house rule your not telling us about, the DM should not be able to do that.
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 02-27-07, 01:36 PM	Well it was not even a crit. Just a good roll on her, the DM's, part. I like the flavor of losing the arm so it is no biggie. Still I will ask her about it. I am happily suprised at the response I have gotten. Thank you all so much! :)
holylink718 02-27-07, 06:11 PM	Well to answer a few questions. Lance, my char, lost his arm after an orc wielding an orc double axe nails him with it. Lance was at 17 up but the blow took off 13 hp. In a bit of flavor text the dm made the hp loss become, to paraphrase, "The orc lands a heavy blow on Lance. In a spray of blood Lance loses his arm." That is how it happened. Regen sounds good as does grafts but I dunno if our setting allows for grafts. If it did I would make some interesting stuff. A fighter is not a bad idea at all will have to see how it goes. Thanks guys for all the input! I will keep you all posted. A little off the topic, but I'm confused as to how your 3rd level rogue with a 9con has 17 hp. The way I see it, the max you could have is 15. :confused: Sorry, I'm just curious. Does he have, like, Toughness or something?
UAMDB 02-27-07, 07:05 PM	I had a Bard in 2nd lose his arm. Bad acid accident. I was given a golden arm as part of the reward for rescueing the daugther of a very powerful person. It was taken from the Dragonlance series. Dont remember the stats off hand, but increased the strenght. The drawback was I could not let people see the arm. Since it was gold people would have tried to kill me just for the gold. caused alot to RP chances.
kyeudo 02-27-07, 08:02 PM	Just dig out some ebberon stuff and get a new arm. You can have it elemental, plant, deathless, or warforged. You also get a few nice bonuses from the new graft arm.
StarFyre 02-28-07, 07:12 AM	Feel for ya...it's always brutal when my players lose limbs, or break bones, etc. But I've dm'ed with those expanded rules for a long time now, so I ensure they have ways toget around it or they can think of ways to deal with it until they can find magic. We use the 2E Combat & Tactics, and Spells & magic detailed 'real' critical hit tables. So, if I rolled a critical threat, then roll again as per d20 rules. However, then not only do we take the 2x, 3x, or 4x damage but then we use the 2E C&T chart, of weapon size vs target size (ie. great axe = Large, human = medium). Therefore the weapon is 1 category larger than the target, so it's a d10 I believe...can't remember. Then roll location (or choose location it's a called shot) on the right table (ie. slashing vs humanoid, or crushing vs monster, etc). Finally, the roll you got on the initial weapon vs target size chart is the severity. The severity on the location chart shows the effect (example: if your weapon is 2 sizes than the target size, that's a severity of 2d8....on the charts, 10 =head for a humanoid. 12+ for severity on the head = skull crushed, int, wis, cha reduced by 2 pts permanently, HP dropped to 0, major bleeding, 13 = head destroyed, etc). it really adds flavour to combat :D Spells also have a severity due to effect, and can cause critial hits based on effect size. So far, no one has melted or been frozen or anything. Sanjay
bob_the_great 02-28-07, 10:53 AM	wow, you're being a really good sport to handle such crappy Dm'ing. I hate effects like losing limbs on criticals because they only penalize players and not monsters (monsters are likely to die anyway, and even if they don't there's no player forced to deal with the consequences). Effects like that because the DM feels like it would tempt me to walk out of a game. At least with a crit table I can chalk it up to bad luck. If you were higher level it'd be simply an inconvenience until you could get a regeneration cast on you. i imagine at level 3 this is going to be a chore. the 2e complete book of elves included elven grafts. even if you want to use 3.5 mechanics that could be a great place to find some good fluff. 2e loved fluff. oh, and there should be repurcussions for the ranger. if no one gets hurt you simply give him a stern talking to. when someone loses an arm he should be held responsible. at the least it should be known (and agreed to by the party) that any future action against the best interests of the party gets him booted.
Majick 02-28-07, 11:01 AM	I purposely had my lvl 1st character start with a missing arm and eye to get two flaws ^^
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 02-28-07, 11:50 AM	It is not crappy DMing. Just some nice flavor to add into a hit. I think it is better then simply saying "You lose 14 hp" ya know. Even the wizards got smacked by a mace and, in character, made a remark about that it may have hit his spleen. Anywho the cut was right at the shoulder and is a clean cut. The town is grim, so sayeth the DM, but we may have a temple to check out. She is more then willing to let me get healed or regen, just have to work for it. As for the one whom started the fight. I am going to tell him off in character. The player said that she is playing the character as someone who hates orcs and makes it a point to shoot first then ask questions. Still it is going to be very interesting. Seeing how we have to save people from a wizard who is trying to put together a dracolich or dragon zombie. We have a wyrmling copper dragon on our side that we saved. Plus we may be getting a monk character in who uses drunking style. Again thanks all for the input.
trapspringer 02-28-07, 12:09 PM	Clockwork Arm !!! Clockwork Arm !!!:D :D :D Agree. Talk to your DM. This is something that can't actually happen mechanically, so there is nothing wrong with a neat, artistic soltion which also has no mechanical (or very minor mechanical impact). I also agree this was a neat description of combat. People need to chill out with the whole "that can't happen" thing. See if you cant get some sort of relatively mundane prosthetic. It would add some style to your character and would be a relatively small adjustment for all invovled because it would basically just be an arm. If you want to actually buy one with mechanical effects and such, the d20 modern SRD has all the rules for prosthetics. I'd estimate the cost for an enhanced prosthetic limb at about 4,000 gp, but you should work with your DM to price it. The general SRD page is linked in my sig. (click the smiley)
CaoSlayer 02-28-07, 05:30 PM	ummm, what about an arm with a crossbow or a wand attached? "This is my boomstick!"
danielinthewolvesden 02-28-07, 08:34 PM	Well to answer a few questions. Lance, my char, lost his arm after an orc wielding an orc double axe nails him with it. Lance was at 17 up but the blow took off 13 hp. In a bit of flavor text the dm made the hp loss become, to paraphrase, "The orc lands a heavy blow on Lance. In a spray of blood Lance loses his arm." That is how it happened. Regen sounds good as does grafts but I dunno if our setting allows for grafts. If it did I would make some interesting stuff. A fighter is not a bad idea at all will have to see how it goes. Thanks guys for all the input! I will keep you all posted. So, we can not answer your question. The loss of the arm was not by the RAW, thus there is no RAW solution. In fact, it was a huge crock. So, when the DM makes up :censored: like that, then *HE* has to come up with a solution, and a solution that is available to a 3rd level party. Maybe going to a temple and praying real hard. :rolleyes: It's terribley bogus to have you lose a limb to "a real good hit".:rolleyes: But if that is how the DM wants to run and how you want to play - so be it. But then regaining your limb should be just as easy.
calronmoonflower 02-28-07, 09:59 PM	"This is my boomstick!" Nice Army of Darkness referance. There are two solution in the rules of the game. 1. Purchase or make a "Arm of Nyr" from Defenders of the Faith. 2. Take the Half-Golem template, that is if you think you can make the Will save. Your Dm should not have 86ed your arm without talking to you first or allowed an timely way to fix it.
RuckusFox 02-28-07, 10:35 PM	I hope you're playing an Eberron campaign...you could totally find an artificer to craft you a sweet construct arm with all kinds of goodies 'concealed' inside. Mechanical lockpicks, daggers maybe (like the war-forged armblades), it'd be snazzy. Just ask and prod with your DM. Probe around long enough and you'll find someway. Too bad it wasn't something less dire...like a leg. ;3 Peg leg! ARR!
Elemental_Elf 02-28-07, 10:37 PM	Get a Stump Dagger ASAP! :D
bob_the_great 03-01-07, 08:44 AM	eh, as long as you don't mind the DM's adjudication I guess that's what matters. I'm glad you have enough trust in him to make such decisions. I'm all for colorful descriptions, I just see no need to lose an arm for it. A DM can easily color it up without disabling your character. even if your DM wants some effect outside of hitpoints you can fall to one knee clutching the wound or something, causing you to drop your weapon or you could fall backwards (prone) from the force of such a devastating blow. both would be colorful and have an effect on combat without you being forced to work to fix a problem he created on a whim. fluff should be temporary. long-term consequences should be decided by actions and (bad) luck. come to think of it, since the ranger's actions caused the whole thing i'd prefer the DM punish him, not you. I guess you'd answer that the DM didn't randomly pick on you, but he rolled really well. there's really no such thing though as rolling "really well," you can auto-miss (1), miss, hit, or auto-hit (20). if you hit on a 2 and hit on a 19 there's really no difference between the two. introducing a concept of hitting "really well" is a slippery slope and seems like something which would only benefit the enemies unless you make a habit of telling the DM your unmodified roll.
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 03-01-07, 12:26 PM	I understand what you all are saying. HP loss is Hp loss and the loss of said limb is a bit of a hassel. But I am comfy with it. One thing for sure is I did not make this post as a crock. I was never looking for a RAW answer just some ideas which a lot of you have done. From grafts to regen to begging the clerics. I also want to clear up that when I said the DM rolled well she rolled well on the damage. I was 17 hp (which is wrong. Thank you holylink) and got dropped by 14 hp. So it makes sense that by losing that much hp I would lose a limb or something. Yes I could have fallen prone or dropped my weapon but the session ended with the combat so the arm is still fresh. So, on Saturday, i have plenty of chance to get it back on or look for alternatives. Peace. Thanks to everyone who left positive comments. Hope you all have a wonderful day. Gaara
Aegeu 03-01-07, 09:15 PM	Get a gentle repose spell on your arm to keep it fresh while you look for a regen.
Keiichi_m 03-01-07, 11:22 PM	I don't get why you guys are calling this bad DMing, it's like you guys think that heros don't lose limbs in battle these days, must be them new fangled heros I haven't heard about yet, but last I checked, battles pretty brutal, and some times you buy a farm, but sometimes you oly buy a peice of a farm (these are both phrases for dying and loosing a limb respectivly). I personally think it's not only cool that the DM did it but that the OP was so cool with it. Dear Seeking_Knight_of_Graves, please come play in my campaign, I need players who complain less when they fail a disable device check and take 4D6 points of "wall in the face" damage.
tridiak 03-02-07, 01:27 AM	Here's a Q: when was ther last time any of you had a party member memorise Regenerate? The spell is useless with the current HP system. Yes, I know it cures HP, but I think it was put in to make the spell useful.
bob_the_great 03-02-07, 06:42 AM	I don't get why you guys are calling this bad DMing, it's like you guys think that heros don't lose limbs in battle these days, must be them new fangled heros I haven't heard about yet, but last I checked, battles pretty brutal, and some times you buy a farm, but sometimes you oly buy a peice of a farm (these are both phrases for dying and loosing a limb respectivly). I personally think it's not only cool that the DM did it but that the OP was so cool with it. Dear Seeking_Knight_of_Graves, please come play in my campaign, I need players who complain less when they fail a disable device check and take 4D6 points of "wall in the face" damage. it'd be fine if the guy failed a disable device check or something (blasted crit tables, for instance). it's not ok when the DM simply rolls well for damage and there is no rule (RAW or houserule) which supports the decision. character altering events decided by the DM on a whim = bad DMing. the fact that the guy is ok with it makes it so it isn't an issue, but it's still bad DMing. I once had a character die within 5 minutes of being introduced. he was level 15 or so against a squad of level 1s with crossbows. one rolled a 20 and confirmed, and the DM came up with "instant death" on his crit chart. The DM felt worse about it than I did. I have no issue with crappy luck screwing me over. I do have an issue with crappy DMing doing so.
Seeking_Knight_of_Graves 03-02-07, 11:19 AM	That makes sense bob. Thanks for the input without sounding like a person with an inflated ego. Sucks that your char died within five minutes. Thankfully my DM is willing to look for possibilities for the issue. And Keiichi, I would love to join in but we a) probably live too far away from one another or b) if it is online the times may be different and therefore it would be difficult to schedual. Also I would more then likely play my NE female human necomancer who needs to go up in level. Poor thing has been stuck at level one for far too long. Anywho thanks again all. Peace.