Lost limbs and prosthetics - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

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#1 duckndry Jul 05, 2010 17:12:44	Hey all, I posted earlier on the rules forum about this but everybody directed me here since there haven't yet (or maybe never will be) any official rules about this. Here is the blurb I wrote explaining the situation...> I was just wondering what people thought about characters with missing limbs and how to get around the trouble? Unlike 3rd edition/3.5 there aren't any rules existing as far as I can see or any spells that exist to replace limbs...I could be wrong because I've only been playing 4th edition for a short amount of time so feel free to correct me Here is why I am asking these questions. I play a lvl 16 female goliath barbarian/frenzied berserker (I know, so cliched!) and as part of her development I created a pretty indepth backstory. The campaign is set in Ebberron and as part of a previous quest (before I started writing the story) my DM decided my goliath tribe came from the Black cap mountains in Breland. Being a bit of a newb, I gave my character something of a weakness...I gave her a son, who still lives back with her tribe. Or at least he did. My character (and two others) died in the last major combat with a Devourer so whilst at the gates of heaven before I was resd by our gnome conjurer I met the dead leader of my tribe who said the camp was destroyed and my tribe, including my son, had been enslaved by frost giants (who are like my tribes mortal enemy). The DM told me this out of the room so it was up to me whether I shared it or not. Our campaign saw us taking our airship over the black cap mountains, so my goliath pleaded with the party to help me save her tribe and most importantly her son. Long story short we defeated the excess of frost giants and were escaping their lair when it started to cave in. The Auntie who'd been taking care of him was crushed and killed and my son's legs were crushed and trapped beneath a huge bolder. We had a skill challenge were in three rounds we had to heal him and get him out or he died. My DM said I would have an automatic success (since I have no healing skill and the paladin and avenger were doing this) if I took my great axe to my sons legs to free him. Since I didn't really have a choice I had to do it. Now my characters son is only 8 but I was considering that in the future (this was before I cut his legs off) I would play him. I didn't really want his legs to be magically replaced because it would be interesting to have a character with the flaw still intact. Because it is Eberron, there is the whole steampunk aspect so I was wondering about warforged legs...but I'm not really sure how that would work, what pluses and advantages there are and what disadvantages? I'm not stupid enough to think I could really play someone with no legs hence my pondering. This is all hypothetical of course since I won't be playing him for a long time and we still have alot of adventuring to do before hand. Also if he were to get robot legs (ala fullmetal alchemists automail) it would be something my current goliath could be working on/do a quest for. I know anything would have to go through my DM but I was just wondering if anyone had dealt with this whilst playing 4th edition? I know whilst playing 3rd edition I had an elven bard who lost her arm to a trap but I recall she had it magically returned to her. I've also taken a look back at some of third edition stuff on prosthetics (steel and steam has a section as does Critical Hit:Torn Asunder) but as I've never done any sort of homebrewing I haven't the foggiest where to go with it really. Anyway, lemme know what you think...sorry to ramble! I'm still reeling from havng to make my character hack her sons legs off >.>...it really was brutal.
#2 wizardmon Jul 05, 2010 18:16:24	I happen to have made a ruling about this in a homebrew setting of mine, where this sort of thing happens all the time. I said that the character was to list among their backgrounds (see Players Handbook 2 and Forgotten Realms Player's Guide) a custom entry called "Warforged Prostesis." Basicly, all that means is that the character has been granted warforged body parts , in your case legs. Up to this point, its all fluff; your DM might require your character to get an operation, but for the most part, having warforged legs is mechanicly the same as having real legs. But the interesting thing is that the background Warforged Prostesis qaulified you for a feat: Embed Components Prerequsite: Non-warforged race, Warforged Prostesis background Benefit: You may install one warforged component into your prostesis, as though you were a living construct. You may install one additional component at level 11 and 21.
#3 wizardmon Jul 05, 2010 18:17:45	On the whole though, having limbs replaced by fully-functioning prostetics and the like is mostly "fluff," meaning that it has a story impact, but generally otherwise affects the rules little to none.
#4 Damon_Tor Jul 06, 2010 20:01:05	Well, I've come up with two homebrew items that may or may not interest you. The first is a prothetic arm I made for a player of mine who was interested in such a thing. The second is a series of feats designed to simulate someone living with an injury that makes it hard to walk, such as having a mangled or missing leg. It's from a series of feats I came up with to simulate a variety of weaknesses, though they each come with potent strengths associated with overcoming a serious weakness, and other feats in the series mitigate the weakness or grant other strengths to compensate. Warforged Prosthetic - Level 8+ Metal, Steel, and Wood make up this powerful arm. It conceals a strange air-powered grappling device. Special Boon - 3,400 gp Property: This prosthetic limb replaces one of your hands. You can attach and embed warforged components into this arm as if you were a warforged. You can only use one of this item's powers per encounter. While one of this item's powers is active, you cannot use or benefit from items held in or wielded with this hand. Power (Encounter): Minor Action. Choose a solid surface within 10 squares: you fire a tether to that surface. While tethered, you can jump your speed without making an athletics check as a move action, but your elevation on these jumps cannot exceed the elevation of the tethered location. If you are more than 10 squares away from the tethered point, this effect ends. You can end this effect as a free action. Power (Encounter): Standard Action. Make a ranged basic attack with this item as if it were a Magic Hand Crossbow +2 against a creature within 10 squares of you. On a hit, the target is tethered to you (escape ends, as if grabbed) While tethered, a creature cannot willingly move further away from you. As a minor action, you can pull a tethered creature 1 square. If the tethered creature is more than 10 squares away from you, this effect ends. You can end this effect as a free action. -Level 13: As a Magic Handcrossbow+3 -Level 18: As a Magic Handcrossbow+4 -Level 23: As a Magic Handcrossbow+5 -Level 28: As a Magic Handcrossbow+6
#5 alitain Jul 07, 2010 14:42:19	Damon-Tor- Kinda neat the whole warforged prosthetic, just one thing. The Encounter power giving you the grapping hook and all. Nothing wrong with it really except the whole part about being unable to jump higher than the tether. I'm just curious what brought this about, because in my mind what if I want to grapple down to a lower entrance across a gap? I shoot the grapple, it attaches, and I jump but I'm already above the grapple which means it ends, I fall unless I'm lucky to make the jump and grab on. Just seems to me pointless, but again thats why I'm curious as to the reasoning behind it. Duckndry- Yeah, as Wizardmon said its basically fluff unless you want the limbs to do more like Damon-Tor has down. I played a paladin which through character origin events, basically lost his arm from the elbow down, leaving only the skeleton. I had it that he had someone incorporate his armor into fashioning a sort of prosthetic gauntlet/hand. Didn't do anything special, but yeah just fluff on my character. Always fun though

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

duckndry

Jul 05, 2010 17:12:44

Hey all,

I posted earlier on the rules forum about this but everybody directed me here since there haven't yet (or maybe never will be) any official rules about this. Here is the blurb I wrote explaining the situation...>

I was just wondering what people thought about characters with missing limbs and how to get around the trouble? Unlike 3rd edition/3.5 there aren't any rules existing as far as I can see or any spells that exist to replace limbs...I could be wrong because I've only been playing 4th edition for a short amount of time so feel free to correct me

Here is why I am asking these questions. I play a lvl 16 female goliath barbarian/frenzied berserker (I know, so cliched!) and as part of her development I created a pretty indepth backstory. The campaign is set in Ebberron and as part of a previous quest (before I started writing the story) my DM decided my goliath tribe came from the Black cap mountains in Breland. Being a bit of a newb, I gave my character something of a weakness...I gave her a son, who still lives back with her tribe.

Or at least he did. My character (and two others) died in the last major combat with a Devourer so whilst at the gates of heaven before I was resd by our gnome conjurer I met the dead leader of my tribe who said the camp was destroyed and my tribe, including my son, had been enslaved by frost giants (who are like my tribes mortal enemy). The DM told me this out of the room so it was up to me whether I shared it or not. Our campaign saw us taking our airship over the black cap mountains, so my goliath pleaded with the party to help me save her tribe and most importantly her son.

Long story short we defeated the excess of frost giants and were escaping their lair when it started to cave in. The Auntie who'd been taking care of him was crushed and killed and my son's legs were crushed and trapped beneath a huge bolder. We had a skill challenge were in three rounds we had to heal him and get him out or he died. My DM said I would have an automatic success (since I have no healing skill and the paladin and avenger were doing this) if I took my great axe to my sons legs to free him. Since I didn't really have a choice I had to do it.

Now my characters son is only 8 but I was considering that in the future (this was before I cut his legs off) I would play him. I didn't really want his legs to be magically replaced because it would be interesting to have a character with the flaw still intact. Because it is Eberron, there is the whole steampunk aspect so I was wondering about warforged legs...but I'm not really sure how that would work, what pluses and advantages there are and what disadvantages? I'm not stupid enough to think I could really play someone with no legs hence my pondering.

This is all hypothetical of course since I won't be playing him for a long time and we still have alot of adventuring to do before hand. Also if he were to get robot legs (ala fullmetal alchemists automail) it would be something my current goliath could be working on/do a quest for. I know anything would have to go through my DM but I was just wondering if anyone had dealt with this whilst playing 4th edition?

I know whilst playing 3rd edition I had an elven bard who lost her arm to a trap but I recall she had it magically returned to her. I've also taken a look back at some of third edition stuff on prosthetics (steel and steam has a section as does Critical Hit:Torn Asunder) but as I've never done any sort of homebrewing I haven't the foggiest where to go with it really. Anyway, lemme know what you think...sorry to ramble! I'm still reeling from havng to make my character hack her sons legs off >.>...it really was brutal.

wizardmon

Jul 05, 2010 18:16:24

I happen to have made a ruling about this in a homebrew setting of mine, where this sort of thing happens all the time. I said that the character was to list among their backgrounds (see Players Handbook 2 and Forgotten Realms Player's Guide) a custom entry called "Warforged Prostesis." Basicly, all that means is that the character has been granted warforged body parts , in your case legs. Up to this point, its all fluff; your DM might require your character to get an operation, but for the most part, having warforged legs is mechanicly the same as having real legs.

But the interesting thing is that the background Warforged Prostesis qaulified you for a feat:

Embed Components
Prerequsite: Non-warforged race, Warforged Prostesis background
Benefit: You may install one warforged component into your prostesis, as though you were a living construct. You may install one additional component at level 11 and 21.

wizardmon

Jul 05, 2010 18:17:45

On the whole though, having limbs replaced by fully-functioning prostetics and the like is mostly "fluff," meaning that it has a story impact, but generally otherwise affects the rules little to none.

Damon_Tor

Jul 06, 2010 20:01:05

Well, I've come up with two homebrew items that may or may not interest you.

The first is a prothetic arm I made for a player of mine who was interested in such a thing.

The second is a series of feats designed to simulate someone living with an injury that makes it hard to walk, such as having a mangled or missing leg. It's from a series of feats I came up with to simulate a variety of weaknesses, though they each come with potent strengths associated with overcoming a serious weakness, and other feats in the series mitigate the weakness or grant other strengths to compensate.

Warforged Prosthetic - Level 8+
Metal, Steel, and Wood make up this powerful arm. It conceals a strange air-powered grappling device.
Special Boon - 3,400 gp
Property: This prosthetic limb replaces one of your hands. You can attach and embed warforged components into this arm as if you were a warforged. You can only use one of this item's powers per encounter. While one of this item's powers is active, you cannot use or benefit from items held in or wielded with this hand.
Power (Encounter): Minor Action. Choose a solid surface within 10 squares: you fire a tether to that surface. While tethered, you can jump your speed without making an athletics check as a move action, but your elevation on these jumps cannot exceed the elevation of the tethered location. If you are more than 10 squares away from the tethered point, this effect ends. You can end this effect as a free action.
Power (Encounter): Standard Action. Make a ranged basic attack with this item as if it were a Magic Hand Crossbow +2 against a creature within 10 squares of you. On a hit, the target is tethered to you (escape ends, as if grabbed) While tethered, a creature cannot willingly move further away from you. As a minor action, you can pull a tethered creature 1 square. If the tethered creature is more than 10 squares away from you, this effect ends. You can end this effect as a free action.
-Level 13: As a Magic Handcrossbow+3
-Level 18: As a Magic Handcrossbow+4
-Level 23: As a Magic Handcrossbow+5
-Level 28: As a Magic Handcrossbow+6

alitain

Jul 07, 2010 14:42:19

Damon-Tor-
Kinda neat the whole warforged prosthetic, just one thing. The Encounter power giving you the grapping hook and all. Nothing wrong with it really except the whole part about being unable to jump higher than the tether. I'm just curious what brought this about, because in my mind what if I want to grapple down to a lower entrance across a gap? I shoot the grapple, it attaches, and I jump but I'm already above the grapple which means it ends, I fall unless I'm lucky to make the jump and grab on.
Just seems to me pointless, but again thats why I'm curious as to the reasoning behind it.

Duckndry-
Yeah, as Wizardmon said its basically fluff unless you want the limbs to do more like Damon-Tor has down. I played a paladin which through character origin events, basically lost his arm from the elbow down, leaving only the skeleton. I had it that he had someone incorporate his armor into fashioning a sort of prosthetic gauntlet/hand. Didn't do anything special, but yeah just fluff on my character. Always fun though