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View Full Version : Those Darn Kids (and their 4E rules). + Self Forge Prosthetics???



Fenrazer
2010-06-14, 03:52 PM
So I am a former DM, Story heavy-Rules medium, and I am gaming under a former player of mine, who is a Rules Heavy-(and so far) Story light DM. He gave me free reign over a "room" in this dungeon gauntlet which I turned into more or less a well patrolled set of hallways with a few walk-in "closets" and one alchemical lab.

We took out some Hobgoblins at first, found they had some serious gun powder, and so we blew up some more. During the last set of Hob-Gobbies, were all taking cover at a different corners and covering one another, after luring some Goblin Warcasters into range of our explosives, one of our players, a slightly Modded Elven Ranger Two Blade build...with the best gosh darn perception in the world, somehow missed a guy sneaking up on him, that somehow naturally meaning our prick friend, Natural 1. I just threw a lvl 1 Goblin Warrior with Hobgoblin equipment at him just to see something else get slaughtered because the Ranger is still a newbie and didn't really know what to do while we set our traps. Well somehow the attack rolls the Goblin made were a 19 on stealth, an 18 to the face with a flail, and a confirmed crit on an already called shot to the same knee the player had earlier lost a kneecap due to a Hob-Gobbie Archer. The last sent the character to -6 and took his leg off. The guy is alive and stabilized but I cannot find rules concerning lost limbs outside of regeneration. The player was a great sport about it, but I still feel terrible...I mean, whooda thunktit, right?

I know what I WANT to do. I WANT to use a Self Forged Artificer that I already had in the Laboratory to basically make a nice combat operational prosthetic, which might have a daily "kick" power at base unarmed damage +1, and the possibility of components later on.

Three questions now:

1: Is there anywhere that covers lost limbs? I'm coming to an impasse with the books so far on that.

2: If there is not rules for it, could a near epic Self Forge quasi pacifist make this work even with a Rules heavy DM?

2: Even with the most basic power, like a daily Kick, do you think this might be too much for a mid heroic tier to have?

Let me know if there are any details that you need, or that I should consider.

-Fenrazer

Tequila Sunrise
2010-06-14, 04:11 PM
There are no rules for called shots or lost limbs because 4e combat is intentionally vague in that regard. Even if a character loses a leg or something important, the game treats them as bad@ss heroes who can shove the lost limb into its stump, use their inherent magi-heroic mojo to heal it back on and then jump into the next fight.

EDIT: Also, NPCs can do whatever you want them to do because there are no specific rules about this stuff. I suggest if you want to turn the wounded PC into Darth Ranger, just find a pair of magical boots from the books, refluff them as a prosthetic leg and have the artificer strap it on.

Fenrazer
2010-06-14, 04:18 PM
Hahahaha...

I know there are no real rules for lost limbs, but when there is a called shot, and they score a critical against that, I tend to try for extra happenings. Still, good ideas about the boots. Wasn't sure if I had to go so far as abusing Paragon Tier NPCs to get this character operational, or if THAT would even be possible.

Darth Ranger hahaha...

Tiki Snakes
2010-06-14, 06:46 PM
Tequila pretty much nailed it there. If you want an artificer around capable of making a prosthetic / robot leg, then there can be. The mechanics just aren't important, though if you want to keep track of it, it might be worth considering it a quest reward and/or part of a treasure parcel, if you are using that particular system.

Ah, called shots. There are indeed reasons why there aren't any by default, but it always struck me as interesting homebrew territory.

Fenrazer
2010-06-14, 06:54 PM
Yeah, I never encountered it in the rules, but we always said a called shot was equal to maximum damage, and so I figured when we score a critical on top of a called shot that it should do something especially violent, but only when with a melee shot.